February ?farminar? lineup listed

Practical Farmers of Iowa will be hosting online seminars called farminars from 7-8:30 p.m. each Tuesday through March 13.

Farminars provide an opportunity for farmers to learn from other farmers without having to travel. Any computer with an Internet connection may be used to participate.

Participants log in to view the program live online and ask questions throughout the presentation in real time.

To register and participate, visit www.practicalfarmers.org/farminar. Recordings of previous farminars also can be viewed at the URL.

The February farminar lineup is:

? Feb. 7, ?Improve your Farmer?s Market Sales,? with John Wesselius and Dru Montri. Wesselius and his family operate The Cornucopia near Sioux Center. They sell their products at the Sioux Center Farmer?s Market, Sioux City Farmer?s Market and the Falls Park Farmer?s Market in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Montri is the director of Michigan Farmer?s Market Association. She and her husband own and operate Ten Hens Farm in Bath, Mich.

? Feb. 21, ?Integrate Small Grains into Large Grain Row Crops and Integrated Livestock Farms,? with Wade Dooley and Tom Frantzen.Farmers will learn how adding alternative crops can reduce costs and pest pressure while helping them raise more profitable and healthy livestock.

Dooley is a beginning farmer with a conventional background. He hails from a large grain and cow/calf farm near Albion.

Frantzen farms diverse crops on 385 tillable acres near New Hampton and raises hogs and cattle with his wife Irene and son James. Frantzen is pioneering a number of innovative farm practices, such as installing farmstead windbreaks to reduce cattle stress and reducing on-farm energy use with solar and geothermal technologies. The Frantzens were awarded the 2010 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award by Practical Farmers of Iowa.

? Feb. 28, ?Pricing Poultry: Eggs, Broilers and Turkeys? with Garrett Caryl and Kim Alexander. Participants will learn how to price ?farm fresh eggs? or ?pastured poultry? and market their niche poultry products for profit.

Caryl is a beginning farmer who farms near Marshalltown. He raises and markets pastured broiler chickens and a small rare breed of ?red wattle? hogs.

Alexander grew up on a mixed-crop and livestock farm in western Iowa. The 1980s farm crisis drove him to Texas where, inspired by Joel Salatin, he and his wife Gloria rented an abandoned farm and built Alexander Family Farm selling pastured poultry eggs through the wholesale market to local restaurants and grocers. After 25 years in Texas, he purchased 160 acres of his family?s farm in Iowa, and in 2010, returned to raise livestock for local markets, building business in Iowa while Gloria manages the Texas farm.