The cost of registration is $450 per person and covers program costs, continental breakfast, and lunch. You must pre-register. Space is limited. Registration materials must be received by November 15. There will be no refunds after November 15.

Course dates and times (must be present for entire course):

Wednesday, December 4 9:00-5:00 (registration opens at 8:30)
Tuesday, December 5 8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Friday, December 6 8:30 am to 12:30 pm

This December, Solid Ground is proud to offer Getting Paid for Your Climate Smart Practices, two info sessions designed specifically to connect new and beginning farmers to available funding through NRCS programs. The sessions will start with a farm walk, discussing what climate smart practices are happening on the farm as well as what practices are possible. The farm walks will be facilitated by soil health extraordinaire Kip Kolesinskas, sharing his own insight and wisdom on multiple climate smart farm practices. NRCS staff will lead the info session through what on-farm practices fit within each program, the requirements and farm eligibility. Coffee and bagels will be provided.

Sign up and choose which training works for you here: s.uconn.edu/climatesmartfunds

With instructor Jesse Wright from UNH Extension, this class teaches farmers how to create an enterprise budget from their existing financial records. The course requires farmers to already know how to create a Balance Sheet, Net Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement for their business and assumes that farmers are already using these. In this class, farmers will learn how to use an Enterprise Budget to help determine whether a particular farm enterprise/crop is profitable, and how best to increase income and profitability for the enterprise. Farmers will participate in small group exercises creating and evaluating enterprise budgets and financial statements to help with decisions about their business. For those that complete the course, they have the opportunity to apply for a free consultation with Erin Pirro from Farm Credit East.

***To review the prerequisite training on Balance Sheets, Net Income Statements and Cash Flow Statements, please watch this video series: s.uconn.edu/introtofinancialstatements

The sessions will start with a farm walk, discussing what climate smart practices are happening on the farm as well as what practices are possible. The farm walks will be facilitated by soil health extraordinaire Kip Kolesinskas, sharing his own insight and wisdom on multiple climate smart farm practices. NRCS staff will lead the info session through what on-farm practices fit within each program, the requirements and farm eligibility.Coffee and bagels will be provided.

Our immune systems protect us against infectious diseases, parasites, and cancer. For these benefits, our bodies may pay a cost in the form of auto-immune diseases, allergies, inflammation, and aging. The speaker’s research group uses a small fish, the three-spine stickleback, and its tapeworm parasite to understand how evolution fine-tunes the balance between these benefits and costs.

Daniel Bolnick, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology