News

To help ensure their operation is following best practices, a group of agritourism experts with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has put together six checklists that cover the many types of liability an owner may face.

Depending upon the severity of flooding growers could experience saturated soils, nutrient leaching, deficiencies, and above all limited oxygen for plant growth. In addition to flooding, frequent rain events have saturated the soil leaving little room for air.

Whether you operate a family farm or an agritourism destination, farm signage and labels are critical to your operation. Signage is designed to keep your family, farm workers, and visitors safe and informed. If your agritourism destination contains livestock, playground equipment, machinery or food sales, signs are a necessity.

Google’s annual Economic Impact Report features one business from 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. In their 2018 report, released today, the featured Iowa business is North Liberty's Colony Pumpkin Patch.

Would you sleep with cows? Yes?  No? Maybe, if you had a comfy bed and a private bathroom?  Sounds like New Day Dairy Bed & Breakfast located north-west of Waverly, Iowa, near Clarksville, scheduled to open this summer Iowa's First Authentic “Farm Stay” Bed & Breakfast To Open on Central Iowa Dairy Farm

Weeds compete with small fruit plants for the elements needed to grow and produce fruit, which means gardeners need to be diligent about weed control. Horticulturists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach provide weed control options for gardeners with strawberries, raspberries and vineyards.

In prior newsletter issues, we highlighted the first two steps a business must do to provide excellent service to its customers. Those steps are “Make it Your Own” and “Make it Personal”.  Step 3 is “Make it EFFICIENT”.

ISU Extension and Outreach experts will discuss best practice topics such as food, farm and consumer safety, understanding legal risks in agritourism, public play area safety, pesticide safety for agritourism destinations, protecting animals and humans from biosecurity risks, and farm emergency preparedness and planning.

When using social media to advertise your business and products, there is power in pictures. Customers cannot touch or feel what you have to offer. Words and photos are the only way to promote your agritourism destination and persuade people to visit your farm and buy your products.

Our tree leaves are coming down, but don’t throw them away - put them to work for you. We’ve talked about creating a traditional compost pile in the past, but if you only have a small amount of yard waste consider bag composting.