Animal Power Field Days Survey |
North East Animal Power Field Days Finds New Home at NOFA Summer Conference, August 12-14, 2011
By David Fisher
The Northeast Animal Power Field Days is an event focused on education and networking around working horses, mules, and oxen. It is has been held in Tunbridge, VT every autumn since 2007. This winter, members of the Draft Animal Power Network, which currently organizes the event, have been reflecting on the virtues of the Animal Power Field Days and what it has meant to hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the past four years of its existence. We have also been weighing the challenges that we have faced in holding the event in its established form, time of year, and location. And we have been envisioning howways in which this event can grow into the future so that it may continue to inspire, teach, connect, and supply the working animal community in the Northeast and beyond. In our search for the next evolutionary steps for our event we have found an incredible opportunity in working with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). NOFA has invited us to hold the Field Days in conjunction with their annual Summer Conference, which has been running successfully for 36 years.
We feel that this opportunity will help us meet many of our goals. Though the Animal Power Field Days has been a thriving success on many levels, it has been financially challenging to produce, and has required an unsustainable investment of time and energy from its organizers. NOFA will help us with the biggest challenges we have faced by providing the administrative and financial support necessary for the event. NOFA will also help us extend our scope of education by connecting us to a still broader community.
This year we will hold the Animal Power Field Days as a component of the NOFA Summer Conference at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. Those wishing to attend will register for the Summer Conference and will have access to all of the benefits that that event offers (see the Summer Conference website www.nofasummerconference.org) as well as all of the features of the Animal Power Field Days, which will run simultaneously. The bulk of the Animal Power Field Days will be held at the UMass Research Farm in South Deerfield, less than 15 minutes north from the University campus. The Research Farm is in an amazing location featuring the steep slopes and red cliffs of Mt. Sugarloaf at its back and the mighty Connecticut River at its foot, while it sits on some of the most productive soils in the region. The event at the research farm will look a lot like the Field Days have looked in past years at Tunbridge. We will offer a large array of working horse, mule, and oxen workshops and equipment demonstrations in the following areas:
-Tillage and crop production
-Haymaking
-Logging
-Equipment adjustment and repair
-Animal health care and maintenance and
-Training working animals
We will also offer an array of classroom-based workshops, which will be held among other conference workshops at the UMass Amherst campus.
As a backdrop to this event, the synergy of the natural, the cultural and the agricultural richness of the surrounding Pioneer Valley is truly something to behold, especially at high summer. We are really looking forward to this exciting collaboration, and to sharing to all that the NOFA Summer Conference and the Animal Power Field Days have to offer.
To better plan for this new addition to the NOFA Summer Conference we are looking for feedback from anyone interested in the event. Please fill out this survey and provide us with your input as we move forward with organizing this event.
David Fisher is the newest member of the NOFA Summer Conference Committee, organizing the Animal Power Field Days as a component of the overall Summer Conference. He is a long-time member of the Draft Animal Power Network, and he farm in Conway at Natural Roots, a horse-powered CSA farm located in Conway, MA.
The Northeast Animal Power Field Days is an event focused on education and networking around working horses, mules, and oxen. It is has been held in Tunbridge, VT every autumn since 2007. This winter, members of the Draft Animal Power Network, which currently organizes the event, have been reflecting on the virtues of the Animal Power Field Days and what it has meant to hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the past four years of its existence. We have also been weighing the challenges that we have faced in holding the event in its established form, time of year, and location. And we have been envisioning howways in which this event can grow into the future so that it may continue to inspire, teach, connect, and supply the working animal community in the Northeast and beyond. In our search for the next evolutionary steps for our event we have found an incredible opportunity in working with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). NOFA has invited us to hold the Field Days in conjunction with their annual Summer Conference, which has been running successfully for 36 years.
We feel that this opportunity will help us meet many of our goals. Though the Animal Power Field Days has been a thriving success on many levels, it has been financially challenging to produce, and has required an unsustainable investment of time and energy from its organizers. NOFA will help us with the biggest challenges we have faced by providing the administrative and financial support necessary for the event. NOFA will also help us extend our scope of education by connecting us to a still broader community.
This year we will hold the Animal Power Field Days as a component of the NOFA Summer Conference at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. Those wishing to attend will register for the Summer Conference and will have access to all of the benefits that that event offers (see the Summer Conference website www.nofasummerconference.org) as well as all of the features of the Animal Power Field Days, which will run simultaneously. The bulk of the Animal Power Field Days will be held at the UMass Research Farm in South Deerfield, less than 15 minutes north from the University campus. The Research Farm is in an amazing location featuring the steep slopes and red cliffs of Mt. Sugarloaf at its back and the mighty Connecticut River at its foot, while it sits on some of the most productive soils in the region. The event at the research farm will look a lot like the Field Days have looked in past years at Tunbridge. We will offer a large array of working horse, mule, and oxen workshops and equipment demonstrations in the following areas:
-Tillage and crop production
-Haymaking
-Logging
-Equipment adjustment and repair
-Animal health care and maintenance and
-Training working animals
We will also offer an array of classroom-based workshops, which will be held among other conference workshops at the UMass Amherst campus.
As a backdrop to this event, the synergy of the natural, the cultural and the agricultural richness of the surrounding Pioneer Valley is truly something to behold, especially at high summer. We are really looking forward to this exciting collaboration, and to sharing to all that the NOFA Summer Conference and the Animal Power Field Days have to offer.
To better plan for this new addition to the NOFA Summer Conference we are looking for feedback from anyone interested in the event. Please fill out this survey and provide us with your input as we move forward with organizing this event.
David Fisher is the newest member of the NOFA Summer Conference Committee, organizing the Animal Power Field Days as a component of the overall Summer Conference. He is a long-time member of the Draft Animal Power Network, and he farm in Conway at Natural Roots, a horse-powered CSA farm located in Conway, MA.