It may seem that crafting a career in regenerative agriculture as a beginning agrarian is mostly about learning the hands-on skills: fixing water lines, building fences, irrigation, etc. Many of us learn in the third or fourth year of working in this industry that when we start to think about what’s next, it’s the skills that aren’t often talked about that come to challenge us the most: self-advocacy, storytelling, decision-making, resourcefulness, putting theory to practice on our own, entrepreneurship, mental wellness, fostering strong relationships.

Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program is delighted to invite you to The New Agrarian Toolkit: A Webinar Series to Dig Deep and Level Up. Inspired by beginning agrarian input and years of conversations with folks like you, we’ve designed this webinar series for our program alumni as well as any beginning agrarians seeking community in diving deeper into these topics. Bring your stories, your hard questions, and maybe dinner if you’re catching us right after work. We’ll see you there!

See below for individual webinar descriptions and registrations.

Send any questions to Taylor at taylor@quiviracoalition.org.

Telling Your Story with Alexis Bonogofsky

April 12  |  6:00pm – 7:30pm MT

As the next generation of young agrarians, we spend a lot of time taking in content. We learn from others in-person, we read their stories, follow them on Instagram, listen to them on podcasts, watch their videos. Have you ever thought of your own story as being meaningful in this media landscape? Probably not. We tend to feel like our own stories are too small or they feel like “special cases” because they weren’t linear and perfect. Or maybe we just don’t know how to go about it.

In this webinar, Alexis Bonogofsky will empower you to share your story, no matter how big, small, weird, or normal. Using social media, creative writing, podcasts, videos, etc. you can create a platform that not only builds your professional image for future career opportunities, but you will hone important life skills and maybe even help to inspire others and change narratives.

Small Ruminants & Multi-Species Grazing

May 10  |  6:00pm – 7:30PM MT

While cattle can be an amazing tool for managing land, beginning agrarians often struggle with accessing enough land, capital, and infrastructure to start a cattle operation. However, many folks find success in beginning with small ruminants like sheep and goats. NCAT (National Centers for Appropriate Technology) staff members Linda Poole and Tracy Mumma along with Tracy’s daughter, Lina will cover small ruminants in the West: wool sheep, hair sheep, goats, small multi-species grazing, soil health and custom grazing weed control. Bring your hairiest (or woolliest) questions for this knowledgeable panel.

Putting Soil Health into Practice

June 14  |  6:00 – 7:30pm MT

Soil health can be a really abstract topic for those of us who are out working on the ranch everyday and it is not always easy to get creative and try new practices to improve the soil. In this webinar, we will learn from other ranchers and farmers and hear what they have tried and in which ways it has succeeded or not succeeded. Joining us as speakers will be Nancy & Steve Oswald (Oswald Cattle Company, Cotopaxi, CO), Mihail Kennedy (B Bar Ranch, Big Timber, MT), and MJ Picket (Calder Farm, Gunnison, CO). We will hear stories and takeaways from all three speakers, who have tried different approaches to improving soil health on their ranch/farm and see pictures of the setups and outcomes.

Launching a New Enterprise

July 12  |  6:00 – 7:30pm MT

When you’re faced with an interesting opportunity to take stewardship of a land base, to expand an enterprise or to create your own operation, how do you make the decision whether or not to pursue it? Do you just follow your gut, or trust the results of late night kitchen table conversations with your partner? Do you make a pro/con list, and then perhaps lose it? As a beginning rancher, the opportunity to build your own business will likely present itself sooner or later. Maybe your boss allows you to lease a piece of land for a poultry enterprise. Perhaps your neighbor will let you run cattle on her property in exchange for some meat. Opportunities may be great, but are they great for you, now? We need trustworthy methods when trying to find cogent answers to questions like:

• How hard will this actually be?
• What tools, resources, relationships might I need to be successful?
• How much will everything cost to get started? 
• Will this make money, and how long will that take?
• How much time will the endeavor take, and am I being realistic about whether I can take on this commitment? 
• Is this pit in my stomach healthy excitement that I should listen to, or am I jumping the gun?

In this webinar, Olivia Tincani, farm and ranch business educator and consultant, will share insights to help you evaluate opportunities and answer those large looming questions in a measured way and with a replicable practice that you can repeat throughout our entrepreneurial journey.  We will spend the first half of the webinar walking through an Opportunity Map, a “back of the napkin” business planning tool that organizes the pathways to critical thinking about how to start, scale, expand or change course in your enterprise endeavors. Then we’ll open up the dialogue for an open conversation powered by your questions. We’ll create a safe space for you to bring your ideas, fears, quandaries and excitement to Olivia and discuss together with your peers. 

This event will equip you with tools and a mindset for big picture decision-making. Our goal is to inspire you to use a careful approach and avoid expensive and risky “trial-and-error” as the only route to a business or enterprise launch. It is not a webinar on in-depth business planning. It will not answer your questions about the difference between an LLC or an S-Corp how to find a farm-friendly insurance policy, how to acquire land or capital but rather help you know when in your business idea development you’ll need to know those answers, and a process for finding them. 

Teams that Thrive

August 2  |  6:00 – 7:30pm MT

More info to come!

Life Hacks for the Long Haul: Mental Wellness for Agrarians and their Communities

September 13  |  6:00 – 7:30pm MT

More info to come!

This work is supported by a Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant, award #2020-70017-32425, from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.