Great Plains Vegetable Growers to Meet in Early January

OLATHE, Kan. – The 2010 Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference will be Jan. 8-9 at the Fulkerson Center of Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo.

Three preconference sessions are also on the books for Jan. 7 -- including a new Growing Your Farm Profits Workshop. A related trade show will be exhibiting all three days.

“Growers will want to mark their calendars. Leading producers and the state land-grant universities in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have put together an especially strong, useful program,” said Ted Carey, Kansas State University Research and Extension horticulturist.

Beyond that, “the conference has long been a great place to network and to discuss problems and solutions with other people involved in the same business,” he added.

Carey said links to registration information will available within the next few weeks. Kansans, for example, can look on the Web under “Current Events” at http://www.hfrr.ksu.edu/. The site for this year’s host state is http://extension.missouri.edu/buchanan/GPVGC.shtml.

The conference will include special sessions for beginning growers, as well as an all-Saturday track on cut flowers. Other session tracks will address ideas and concerns about such topics as small fruits, farmers markets, organic production, high tunnel production, pest management and general vegetable production.

In addition to the Growing Your Farm Profits Workshop the other preconference offerings will be a High Tunnels Workshop and a Community-Supported Agriculture Mini-School.

“The trade show will offer a wide array of contacts and information, as well, on such subjects as seeds, equipment, irrigation, chemicals and the like. Growers will be able to ask questions and compare products without having to search around all kinds of places,” Carey said.

Download the Conference Program and Registration Form

See the Events Calendar and blog section for more information.