News

This year, you can log onto our Grain Place Foundation Field Day from anywhere with internet access. Register ahead of time, and participate in conversation during our annual Farm Tour, and following the keynote presentation by Brise Tencer of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. As the sign at our driveway says, “How your food is produced does matter,” and there’s never been a better time to learn more.

We are eager to share what we’ve been learning from our decades of practice at organic farming, including through this year’s experiments in permaculture and in pasturing some of our pigs.

Join us on Saturday, July 18 from 10am-noon (Central). Register to participate in the webinar. As usual, the Grain Place Field Day Tour and Seminar are open to anyone, and free. (We’re sorry we can’t offer you the option of an organic lunch on the farm this year–you’ll have to find good food wherever you are!)

Find more details and the link to register on the Field Day page.

In cooperation with InternNE, Grain Place Foundation is offering a six week paid student internship at The Grain Place farm this summer.   Below is a brief description.   The scheduling is flexible between June 1 and August 15.  On farm housing provided.   If you know of someone who might benefit from this have them register on the InternNE website or contact Glenda Vetter at gvcp@charter.net or 308 383-1716.

The intern will learn the history of The Grain Place, Inc. and what has been done the last 40 years in regenerative and organic farming.  This includes a 9-year crop rotation and use of livestock in building soil health and carbon sequestration and how it affects the day to day decisions in farming.  Knowing the history of the farm will help them understand current and future research.  The intern will make suggests for the current data collection and documentation. The intern will help us to document ecological diversity.  They will be looking at natives in terms of plant, animal, and insect species and their density. 

The Aurora News-Register featured this year’s Grain Place Foundation’s Field Day events and the “Dreaming of a Vetter World” film screening and Q&A with a set of articles over two week’s issues. We’re so grateful for the local spotlight on our work and on our part in a much bigger conversation about our food system and our common future. You can read summaries of the July 17 and July 24 articles online. Or click the links below for a pdf of the whole article!

FARMING UPDATE (IN A WET SPRING!) We are thankful that we were able to get the corn planted by May 20th and it is up and showing down the row very well.  However, since then it has been so wet we only just now planted the soybeans and the rest of the spring planting!  The weeds are coming too in the corn so we need to get it cultivated. We are praying for two weeks of good weather to get this planting and cultivating done!-Raymond Hain, Grain Place Farmer

Welcome to our Summer Intern: Jane Coughlan! We welcome summer intern Jane Coghlan from Argyle, Texas. She has completed her freshman year at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability. Jane is particularly interested in sustainable food and agriculture systems. She does not have farm experience and is looking forward to learning all aspects of farming. She began her internship on June 4th and will be with us until June 26.

The past three years have seen us struggle to find the right person(s) to carry on the farming at the Grain Place.  Thanks to the efforts of volunteers we have managed to keep the farm going through several changes of personnel.  We think we finally have the right folks in place stabilize farming operations and enable us to enhance our legacy as a pioneering organic farm.

We have a new resident farm family living in the farm house! Raymond and Kathryn Hain moved in on October 28, and Raymond began as Farm Manager on November 1. They are both native Nebraskans, with a wealth of experience and education. Raymond farmed his parent’s family farm in east central Nebraska for several years before he and Kathryn served in Jerusalem as missionaries. Kathryn recently completed a PhD in History at the University of Utah.

We are also pleased to welcome Travis Stumpf to the Grain Place farm team! Travis attended the Farm Tour Day in July and then began coming over from his home in Doniphan, NE to help out.  He became a full-time employee this fall. We are grateful to have his passion for regenerative agriculture, his desire to learn and youthful energy.