WILMINGTON, Ohio — Two conferences with the small farm operation in mind are scheduled in Ohio next month. The Ohio State University extension is offering Opening Doors to Success (March 9-10 in Wilmington) and Living your Small Farm Dream (March 31 in Massillon).

The fourth annual Opening Doors to Success small farm conference will be at Wilmington College. This conference will feature 30 breakout sessions and a trade show for small farmers.

“This conference is ideal for people who have small farm acreage, looking for opportunity. It’s not created just to entice only those with small acreage,” said Clinton County extension educator Tony Nye. “It’s also for people who are looking for other opportunities on the farm.”

The conference kicks off March 9 with a session entitled “Meat Marketing – Front and Center.” This gathering will address obstacles to marketing meat, the label and what it means to you and your customer, the meanings of grass-fed, antibiotic-free, free range, organic and grain-fed, finding the right processor and pricing the product. Ruminant nutritionist Dr. Francis Fluharty will preside over this panel.

On March 10 a full day of breakout sessions is available. Morning session topics include pasture pork, livestock law, agriculture resourcing, cut flower production, animal health for livestock owners and vegetable disease. 

Additional topics include insect management, farm pond management, tomato production, pasture poultry, herb production, equipment for the small farm, mortality animal composting and raised bed production.

Afternoon sessions include aquaculture, managing high quality pastures, organic gardening, beekeeping, beef production, goat and sheep management, food safety, greenhouse production, tunnel production and invasive species.

“It’s a great opportunity to find a lot about a lot of different topics,” Nye said. “We have people attend from 45 different counties and five different states. It’s a way of getting a lot of information on a lot of different topics.”

The Opening Doors to Success small farm conference will be at the R.G. Drage Career Center in Massillon. Extension educator Eric Barrett will kick off proceedings with a keynote address that will outline the top 10 trends in local foods and how one may capitalize on them. Twenty-three breakout sessions are offered at this one-day event. Morning sessions address managing woodlots for profit, leasing farmland for oil and gas production, raising and marketing meat goats and profiting from social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Afternoon sessions highlighted include wine-making for the amateur, rules for direct marketing food products, cut flower production, maple production, liability issues for small farms and how to start a fruit orchard.

“We at Ohio State want to help farm families improve economic growth and development on their farms,” Nye said. “We want to help small farm landowners and families diversity their opportunities into successful new enterprises and new markets.

“These intense conferences will give participants the opportunity to choose from a diverse variety of seminars that can help them be successful in their farming operations.”

Registration fee for the conference in Wilmington is $20 for Friday events, $50 for Saturday’s proceedings and $60 for both days. For more information about this gathering contact Nye at nye.1@osu.edu or 937-382-0901. Registration deadline is March 9.

The cost to register for the conference in Massillon is $50, with a deadline of March 22. For details, contact Mike Hogan at hogan.1@osu.edu