Snohomish County Growers Alliance Open Meeting March 29th

Snohomish County Growers Alliance Meeting
March 29, 2017

An evening meeting for farmers and would-be-farmers, at the Longhouse located at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.

Industry leaders will share their opinions on potential profitable crops that either part time farmers can start with or for increased production for existing farms. The Snohomish County  Growers Alliance is working with the Soil Conservation District and Snohomish County on a new approach to increase Snohomish   County Agricultural production by examining the potential of certain crops and livestock and working on solutions to the barriers which exist to make that possible. The SCGA wants to take a more active role and encourage the producers of the Farm Community to take a more active role in supporting efforts to make that happen. This meeting will touch on many aspects, which are intended to give a comprehensive picture of what is possible.  Future  production meetings are planned to  go in great detail of specific crops or livestock working with the industry and hands-on learning experiences

Agenda
6:45 – Doors open, registration
7:00 – Welcome – SCGA President John Postema
7.05 Introduction

Panel discussions: Every panelist has 5 minutes to opine what could be a profitable agricultural activity and why. In addition how much money and effort has to be spend to achieve production, marketing possibilities and barriers for execution. Every panel presentation will be followed by 15 minutes of audience questions and answers

7:15 – Panel One.    Livestock Production Opportunities
Bobbi Lindemulder.  Operation Manager Soil Conservation district /20 years exp.
Linda Neunzig,   Sheep expert for a long time.
Darron Marzolf        Marketing of small livestock
Christeena Marzolf   Care of small livstock

7:45 –  Panel Two. Nursery and Perennial crops opportunities.
Andrej Suske. Owner of a successful operation in Woodinville
Bob Lovejoy.  A long time grower in the flood plains from Arlington
Joy Routh from Wetlands and Wood lands, who made a success of niche growing

8:15 – Panel three. Various topics
Greenhouse tomato production, John Postema  Flower World Inc.
Hard cider production  WSU
Marketing of Produce through brokers.  Diana Dempster from Charlie’s Produce

8:45 – 9.00  Break. Inspection of the NABC  mobile poultry processing facility

9:00 – 9:05  Blue berry production coordination. John Negrin with Aquilini.

9:00 – 9:30  How to proceed.  Audience participation