Meghan Filbert – Collaboration and Creativity in Iowa’s Corn Belt

Quivira Coalition’s executive director Sarah Wentzel-Fisher talks with Meghan Filbert, the Livestock Program Manager at Practical Farmers of Iowa. In addition to supporting beginning farmers and ranchers through her work at Practical Farmers, Meghan has advice to share that stems from her own journey starting a livestock operation in central Iowa.

Find Meghan on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 

Music attribution:

Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Show Notes:

0:55 Meghan introduces herself and Practical Farmers of Iowa
3:58 Meghan’s path into agriculture
6:27 Bringing it back to Iowa
8:02 Starting her own operation, and some of the barriers encountered
10:40 Land access through leasing, and the challenges involved
12:38 Building a custom grazing business
14:20 The Midwest Grazing Exchange (https://www.midwestgrazingexchange.com/), aka “Tinder for cows”
16:41 Savings Incentive Program (https://practicalfarmers.org/programs/beginning-farmers/savings-incentive-program/)
18:54 Find-a-Farmer (https://practicalfarmers.org/programs/beginning-farmers/find-a-farmer/) program, which connects connects landowners and land seekers
19:23 Labor4Learning paid internship program (https://practicalfarmers.org/programs/beginning-farmers/labor4learning/)
19:48 The mentorship that was most valuable to Meghan
21:43 Priorities when starting an operations: marketing, business, and then production
23:12 Shifting towards a more cooperative model of agriculture
26:54 Political advocacy for the future of food production
29:46 A new vision for the corn belt
34:34 Tips and Tidbits with Leah Potter-Weight, Quivira’s Education and Outreach Project Manager and small farm operator in Chimayo, New Mexico
35:58 Job announcements quiviracoalition.org/newagrarian/resources

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