CRAFT Field Days for Illinois Beginning Farmers

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Taylor in Beginning Farmers, Farming Resources, Training Programs, Workshops // 0 Comments

Check out these upcoming CRAFT Field Days for Illinois Beginning Farmers

Farm Uses for Google Apps/Sites
Date: Tuesday 3/29/2016
Time: 10am to 4pm with a potluck lunch
Location: Trogg’s Hollow, 11577 Poplar Grove, Poplar Grove, IL 61065

RSVP by Friday March 25th.
Text or email Chris Prchal to RSVP. 872-222-5584

We have sitting room for 20-25 people. If there are more RSVPs than 25, we will move the field day to the barn loft at Angelic Organics. So, please make sure you RSVP!

This field day will give you an overview of Google products and their uses by Trogg’s Hollow owner and head farmer Chris Prchal and AOLC employee Bill Ladd-Cawthorne. We will introduce all the Google apps that are offered. We will walk through Google drive. Google Drive and its affiliated programs would be the major emphasis. We will cover google docs, sheets, slides and forms. Google calendar, Keep, Gmail, groups, and photos would also be covered, as well as how to integrate all these apps. We can also cover setting up a Google hosted website for those that are interested.

Potluck lunch at noon. After lunch we will go into more detail of all the specific apps and cover detail on questions from before lunch. We will break for a farm tour at 2pm and then cover social media/tech (Facebook, twitter and instagram) in general, if there is interest.

Employees and Labor Management on a Vegetable Farm
Date: Tuesday 4/5/2016
Time: 1pm to 5pm with a potluck afterwards
Location: Lotfotl Community Farm, W7036 Quinney Rd Elkhorn, WI 53121Vegetable farms are expensive to run, mainly because of the high labor costs associated with manual planting, weeding, and harvesting of vegetable crops. The industry standard is anywhere between 25-55% of gross revenue that returns back to wages, taxes, and insurance that covers payroll. The issues surrounding a fair “living wage” put the farmer in a precarious position of wanting to provide their workers with fair compensation while not being able to secure fair compensation for the farmer. Many moral and economic issues to chew on.Owner and head farmer Tim Huth will cover this topic from the employer standpoint, discussing labor saving tips, tools, and techniques he has used to try and strike a balance between a personal standard of living and that of his workers, who are the lifeblood of the business. Topics will include hiring and firing, payroll services, taxes(a little), rules and policies, and how and when to make machinery purchases that reduce labor expenditures. Additional conversations will focus on how to retain workers year round or year to year; how soon in the growing season is too soon to have a beer with your crew; and how to track and project labor costs.Call, text or email Tim to RSVP. 262-951-0794