Vegetable Growers News’ Post

Keeping CSA members engaged and loyal - Vegetable Growers NewsImplementing effective retention strategies is crucial for CSA programs to thrive. Here are some proven strategies for keeping members engaged and committed. #FarmMarket #Agritourism

Keeping CSA members engaged and loyal - Vegetable Growers NewsImplementing effective retention strategies is crucial for CSA programs to thrive. Here are some proven strategies for keeping members engaged and committed. #FarmMarket #Agritourism

Keeping CSA members engaged and loyal - Vegetable Growers NewsImplementing effective retention strategies is crucial for CSA programs to thrive. Here are some proven strategies for keeping members engaged and committed. #FarmMarket #Agritourism

Keeping CSA members engaged and loyal - Vegetable Growers NewsImplementing effective retention strategies is crucial for CSA programs to thrive. Here are some proven strategies for keeping members engaged and committed. #FarmMarket #Agritourism

Are you interested in the Finnish soft fruit business? Read more about FreshPlaza, in this interview of one of Finland's biggest polytunnel growers: https://lnkd.in/dEQTdRUw #polytunnels #softfruits #finnishsoftfruits #local #horticulture #finnishhorticulture

A new The Minnesota Star Tribune article highlights a vital truth: small family farms are the backbone of rural communities, and organic dairy farming is crucial to their survival. At Organic Valley, we’re proud to be part of the solution. Farms like the Hass family's in Westby, Wisconsin, have found stability through organic practices, offering a lifeline where conventional dairies struggle. By choosing small family farms, they thrive and sustain the schools, businesses, and people that keep rural America vibrant. As our CEO Jeff Frank says, “When family farms succeed, so do our communities.” We’re excited to welcome 100 new farmers to the Organic Valley family this year, each helping ensure a bright future for rural America. Together, we’re not just saving farms but revitalizing our heartland. Read the full article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune to learn more about how organic milk saves farms and revitalizes rural communities: https://lnkd.in/dYxKkibY #smallfamilyfarms #ruralrevitalization

#Cranberries have long endured as the #1 food crop in #Massachusetts, despite increasing competition and industry challenges impacting today's #fruit marketplace. Massachusetts Cranberries are doubly challenged, since their farms are situated in the United States' highest cost growing region. #Cranberry #growers are revamping their bogs with new vines, enabling them to produce larger, cranberries and more of them, in the same #bogs. The #MA #Bog #Renovation program supports this evolution, helping #farmers stay competitive. More than half of the Commonwealth's bogs have been transferred to higher yielding varieties, but more state support is vital to continue the critical conversion. Watch the complete WCVB Channel 5 #Boston feature segment by #Emmy award-winning Investigative Reporter Mike Beaudet, coordinated by #McGrathPR:

California #avocado growers aren’t counting their 2025 harvest before its time, but the current fruit set on avocado trees across multiple growing regions in the state is considerably higher this year than in previous years. That leads many #California growers to project the 2025 crop harvest may yield an increase in crop size compared to recent seasons. Learn more: loom.ly/ZCm3-QY

California #avocado growers aren’t counting their 2025 harvest before its time, but the current fruit set on avocado trees across multiple growing regions in the state is considerably higher this year than in previous years. That leads many #California growers to project the 2025 crop harvest may yield an increase in crop size compared to recent seasons. Learn more: loom.ly/hmB3sEI

🌾🌾 GROWER STORY Each year, GRDC's GroundCover follows a group of growers from across Australia as they manage the cropping season. Mitch Henderson, with parents Craig and Pauline, brother Ben, cousin John and their families, grow wheat barley, lentils and oaten hay in Berriwillock, Wilkur and Brim in Victoria’s Mallee. They also rear poultry, using their wheat straw as bedding and then spreading it back onto paddocks as manure in a closed-loop system. Mitch says: Given our subsoil moisture we’re still on track for an average year but spring will have the most bearing on our potential. We have put out enough nutrition to return an average crop, applying (compound fertiliser) Granulock Z down the chute at sowing and about 80 per cent of our nitrogen upfront. We’ve done the other 20 per cent of nitrogen on the barley at Berriwillock, and have top-up program for wheat planned for down south (at Brim and Wilkur) if we deem it beneficial, given the extra potential for rainfall and yield there. Our program is about four weeks behind last year. Frosty conditions put the brakes on crop development and delayed our spray program, and we had already started behind the eight ball with dry sowing conditions delaying germination. In saying that, we knocked broadleaf weeds out of cereals, and sprayed against ryegrass through winter. In September we’ll do in-crop ‘green-on-green’ camera-assisted weed control using a Bilberry system on our Agrifac sprayer, targeting vetch in lentils. Lentils can be downgraded if foreign seed levels are too high, which incurs a penalty and cost, so it’s worth trying to eliminate it. We started to see some lucerne flea in our legumes, so were controlling them in August. Otherwise, we’re getting marsupial pressure. They’re mowing the crop-off and laying on it in big numbers, squashing it. Rodents, on the other hand, have been pretty good this year and we haven’t had to bait. It might be a flow-on effect of our Seed Terminator pulverising weed seeds and reducing their food source. It shows how dynamic our industry is. No two years are the same and you just learn to adapt. Hear more from our growers this year: https://bit.ly/3Z4m2qf 📷 Brad Collis #GroundCoverOnline #GRDC #GrowerStory #SeasonUpdate