Small Landowner Seminar on Niche Ag Markets Scheduled for Missoula

The Montana Farm Bureau Federation is holding a Small Landowner’s Seminar Sunday, Nov. 8 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula as part of their annual convention. The seminar will feature three sessions of panelists who have built successful agricultural operations on small pieces of land. The seminar will run from 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public

The first set of panelist consists of small business commodity producers who have found a niche. These include Julie Pavlock, who will address the benefits of farming garlic; Living River Farms raises poultry and grass-fed beef and are developing a poultry processing plant; Montana CiderWorks producing hard apple cider and Northwest Mobile Juicing who turned juicing into a successful traveling business.

The second session features Erin Turner, who runs Turner Farms with her family. She will talk about marketing strategies for both farmers’ markets and selling directly from the farm. She’ll cover how to set up eye-appealing vendor booths, tips on increasing your sales and social media marketing.  Amy Pavlock will cover the finer points of running a successful Community Supported Agriculture business, where subscribers pick up their bag of bounty every week during the growing season.

For those curious about financing to start or expand a small agricultural business, the third seminar experts:  Walt Anseth, Montana Department of Agriculture; Joey Hennes, Northwest Farm Credit Services and Sheila Rigby, Farm Service Agency. These three will talk about what funds are available and how to financially grow your businesses.

A question and answer session immediately following each session will allow attendees to interact with the speakers.