Developing Successful Farmers Podcasts

The New and Beginning Farmer Team began offering a podcast series titled Developing Successful Farmers. and the first season launched October 5, 2021. We want to provide the information to our readers and listeners whenever you have the time to listen. Several Penn State Extension Teams now offer a podcast series and ours will add to that mix. Our episodes will be under thirty minutes in length so you can listen on your way to work or while in the field.

Our schedule is four episodes on four consecutive weeks covering various aspects of the topic for the season. We will then skip four weeks before the next season. Many times, listening to a podcast raises more questions than answers provided. We are encouraging listeners to email any questions  to lfk4@psu.edu to provide some interaction since the episodes are recorded and not live. Not offering the episodes live eliminates the possibility of any interaction between the speaker(s) and you, the audience. By offering this option, we hope to provide some interaction and offer you the opportunity to ask questions that arise while listening.

The schedule will follow the progression from deciding to begin farming to your production considerations. Season one will cover acquiring land, and seasons two and three will cover business planning and acquiring funding to begin production. We plan to move from planning and borrowing money into the production of various crops and livestock options.

We understand that many new and beginning farmers begin by raising one or two animals or planting a backyard garden and expanding these endeavors into a potential business. These seasons will assist in your research and development of your new business. You may begin listening to the seasons at any time and listen to previous episodes.

For those seeking technical information covering production at this time, you should contact your local extension office and inquire who has the expertise in the area you are considering. We realize our schedule may not fit everyone’s path to becoming a farmer however, if you keep listening, we will probably cover the information you seek. If we do not cover your information, you have the opportunity on our fourth episode.

We plan to continue providing information throughout the winter and spring months before evaluating and planning our next topics. After the first few seasons, we will provide a survey to gauge our effectiveness and to inquire about potential topics for upcoming episodes.