2014 Maine Beginning Women Farmer Program Results

We’ve just tabulated more results of our Beginning Farmers & Ranchers: Women in the Northeast & Texas program. These are from the 2013-2014 season in Maine. This program, funded by a grant from the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer/Rancher Development Program, was coordinated by Gail Chase of Women’s Agricultural Network of Maine. This group finished their Holistic Management learning sessions in June and their final farm mentor visits in July. Lead instructors were Whole Farm Planning Instructors GailChase and Diane Schivera. Diane was also the mentor for the program as a collaboration with Maine Organic Gardeners and Farmers Association. Of the participants responding to the final evaluation

• 70% are currently farming

• The average years of farming was 3 years

• The average acres under production was 7 acres under production

• The average age was 39 years old

• The types of farm operations were as follows: Cattle/Cow/Calf (2), Vegetable/Fruit/Produce (4), Poultry (1), Goat (1), Pork (2), Flowers (2), Eggs (1).

• The total customers of all participants was 72

• 100% plan to continue farming

What Participants Had to Say:

Some of the key outcomes noted were:

To read the full report, click here.