Badgersett Short Courses: Mar 23-24 AND April 13-14. Two Locations; Details:

Email just sent out to our mailing lists:

According to demand, we are expanding the annual Short Course to TWO dates this year for the first time; at two different venues.


March 23-24 (with some events 22 and 25) at the traditional location near Badgersett in SE Minnesota, at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center.

April 13-14 (with some events 12) at The Dept. of Sustainable Living, Maharishi Univ., Fairfield Iowa.

The two events will be somewhat different, again in response to demand; the March Short Course will focus on theory and Hybrid Hazelnut crop specifics; the April, Iowa, Short Course will teach theory with a focus on Hybrid Chestnut crop specifics.

Both will provide a good grounding in Woody Agriculture crop basics, including pests, genetics, harvest, marketing, and establishment; but detailed examples and discussions will be specialized for the first time.  Persons who want to attend both will likely not be disappointed.

DETAILS AND UPDATES AT THE BADGERSETT GROWERS' BLOG: http://badgersettresearch.blogspot.com/
Some additional details for housing and registration pricing for the Minnesota course on March 23-25 are available at last year's short course page at http://badgersett.com/news/events/2012/shortcourse.html . Updates for both events will be posted on the blog as they become available.

Cheers,
Brandon Rutter

Dr. Brandon L. Rutter
COO and Acting Vice President,
Badgersett Research Corporation
http://www.badgersett.com
888 557 4211

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Time is short, REGISTER NOW:

Minnesota Woody Ag Short Course: March 22-25
->> Early bird registration at $279 until March 8, $309 after <<<
Woody Agriculture theory, with a concentration on HAZELNUT practices. Field class on Monday.
Register at: http://badgersett.com/news/events/2012/shortcourse.html (it's okay to use last year's forms until we get them up for 2013; just note that the dates are different)

Iowa Woody Ag Short Course: April 12-14
Hosted by the Department of Sustainable Living of the Maharishi University of Management
Presenters: Philip A. Rutter, founding president of the American Chestnut Foundation, and Dr. Susan Wiegrefe
Woody Agriculture theory, with a concentration on CHESTNUT practices.
Registration pricing and lodging options TBA, we will announce them on our blog. Registration will be through the Department of Sustainable Living.
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Held nearly every April since 2006, the two-day short course is an in-depth event covering details of both the theory behind and practice of Woody Agriculture crop production. Attendance is highly recommended for current and potential serious producers. The most up-to-date and advanced material is covered, some of which is only available here or through our consulting services.

For those of you who have attended before, there are some bigger changes this year in addition to the overall updating of information we always do:

1 -> Chestnut-focused course in Fairfield! This course will still have Woody Ag basics, but focus primarily on the practical details of growing chestnuts. The one you've been waiting for! More details to come on the blog: http://badgersettresearch.blogspot.com/

2 -> Rotating Presenters. This means most talks will be given by a different member of our science staff from usual, adding perspective and information from different viewpoints. Most likely there'll be something presented more clearly than before, from your own point of view!

For the course in Minnesota– stay for the field tour of Badgersett Farm on Monday if you can; potential field class/demonstrations include coppice, in-field cloning, gopher control and others.

We consider the Short Course to be one of the cornerstones for people building experience and expertise in Woody Agriculture. We think it's an excellent event, but you don't have to take our word for it– see what previous attendees have to say!

"I know that you probably wanted a shorter, one-paragraph testimonial, but there was so much to brag about, that I had to include everything…"
-Matt Nowak, KS Grower. Natural Resources Specialist for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, US Army.

"As for the presentations:   They were just awesome."
-Erlyn Madsen, UT Grower.

For more detailed testimonials, see
http://badgersett.com/infoproducts/shortcourse/testimonials/

If you're interested in learning more about the practice of Woody Ag field management, the theory behind our advanced NeoHybrid genetics, or long term pest management (to name a few things we'll cover), we encourage you to take advantage of this excellent value.

ALSO: As usual, there is some flexibility in this year's exact course content. If you have a particular topic you would like to have covered; please comment here with your suggestions, by March 15.

Finally, a catalog update!

If you're on our catalog email list, you should already have seen this little note from orders@badgersett.com. If you want us to add you to the list, just send an email to that address! And, so you don't have to go looking any further, here is a link to the YouTube full preview of the 2011 Short Course introductory talk.

Hello Folks,

For the first time in six years, we've updated our plant catalog! And in addition, we once again offer other products for order on the web. This includes the 2011 SHORT COURSE DVD-ROM, which I know many of you have been waiting for. This crazy weather may be too hot and dry for some of you to plant, but now is a great time to get your order in for 2013 so you can be close to the front of the shipping queue come next May. If you're in a place where it is less extreme, or you have no problem getting enough water on, we do have quite a few plants available– the availability notices on the catalog pages are now current.

Scroll down for a little more info on the updates, or go straight to a page with the newest catalog links at
http://badgersett.com/catalog/

As always, check for the latest news and plant availability at
http://badgersettresearch.blogspot.com

Good Growing,
From the Folks at Badgersett Research


NEW! Badgersett Marketplace  http://badgersett.com/catalog/
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This new order page has products grown and made here Badgersett Farm, and a selection of excellent other products we've found for Woody Ag growers and nut enthusiasts. Badgersett T-Shirts! The best hazel oil from France! Visit the link above to see more, and there'll be even more than that coming soon.

PLANT CATALOG UPDATE   http://badgersett.com/plants/
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HAZELS: http://badgersett.com/plants/orderhazels.html
Our NeoHybrid(TM) hazels were the first, and still offer the widest selection, best-tracked, best-vetted and most advanced genetics for hybrid hazels available anywhere.
Now includes MACHINE PICKED (first time available anywhere) and JUST PLAIN HAZELS (so you don't have to worry about all the different types).

CHESTNUTS: http://badgersett.com/plants/orderchestnuts.html
Our chestnuts are the most cold-and-dry adapted available. Now includes SELECT PARENT chestnuts so you can be choosier, as well as JUST PLAIN CHESTNUTS so you don't have to choose at all.

HICKORIES: Now available as regular standard tubelings. http://badgersett.com/plants/orderhickories.html

Short Course This Weekend

The short course is going ahead as planned this weekend; at the moment we've got around 20 attendees in total. We can take last-minute registrants, so if you haven't registered yet don't let that stop you!

Click this link for directions to Eagle Bluff.

Events start with supper on Friday at 5:30 PM; doors lock at 10 so let us know if you'll arrive after that!

Continental breakfast Saturday at 8, lectures start at 9 and go ALL day.

Breakfast at 8 and lectures at 9 on Sunday

Directions to Badgersett for the tour/field class on Monday (scroll down on that page).

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Short Course!

We held the Woody Ag Short Course last weekend, with 18 attendees. Philip ended up with some serious stomach trouble for the weekend, so I ended up doing all the lectures. A little more than I bargained for(!), but it seems to have worked out alright.We had two days of intense presentations, including a new introduction to the Badgersett NeoHybrid breeding program, and the hands-on nut quality workshop. Half of the attendees managed to stay to stretch their legs on the farm tour Monday, which included Philip's hands-on introduction to our proprietary in-field propagation method.

The audio and presentation timing for the course was recorded this time around, and we expect to have a "first cut" set of DVDs ready to send out at least within the next few months. We will send this to all previous attendees as well, since we've been promising to send the presentations ever since the first short course in 2006. Technology and personnel will make this a lot more straightforward this time around.

This was a really great group of people, with serious interest from a number of different angles. Thanks to everybody for showing up!

Short Course Details Posted

Initial details for the April 10-11 Short Course have been posted on badgersett.com at the 2010 Woody Ag short course event page. We recommend arriving in the evening of Friday the 9th, since the classes start at 9 AM on Saturday. We aim to have it all wrapped up by 4 PM on Sunday. For those who are interested there will also be a Monday tour of the farm.

Please do check out the event page for details, but I'll put the current rough course outline here as well:

Day 1: Classes will start with Woody Agriculture theory and progress to details of establishment and planning, primarily focussing on hazels:

• Woody Agriculture Introduction: Theory and Energetics: Why; and How
• Basic Hazel Biology—plant morphology, physiology, genetics, species ecology
• Chestnuts, Hickories, and Others
• NEW! The Badgersett Hazel Breeding Program - Specifics on Cycles 1 through 4, with the math.
• Establishment— site selection, planting, and weed control
• NEW! Life Cycle Hazel Spacing— with effects on yield and long-term management

Day 2: The detail continues, with fertilization, pest management, marketing and sales:

• Fertilizing— how to assess and optimize hazel fertility
• Harvest and Post Harvest— ripeness assessment, state of the art hand harvest techniques and machine capability
• Pest Management in Detail—mammals, birds, insects, plants and fungi
• TENTATIVE Propagation, high and low tech—involving examination of actual plants in class, and including our proprietary on-farm cloning method.
• TENTATIVE Coppice— important details of this field renovation practice
• NEW! Nut Quality– faults, sorting, grading for sales
• NEW! Marketing– Including specifics on creating markets for new products.

Note that the marketing talk is now tagged as "new" since I didn't find it as a separate talk on any of the previous short course syllabi.

March! and Short Course details soon.

Here at Badgersett we get started on spring a little early; hazels are already leafing out in the greenhouse, and if we're not careful it can get up over 90° in there quite often this time of year. Even so, the spring songs of cardinals (about three weeks ago) and chickadees (last week) are still a bit surprising to me every time. Here at the beginning of March, though, the signs of snow melt and harbingers of mud season are everywhere. The new puppies will be a little more difficult for a while, I'll bet.

The dogs, incidentally, are part of an overall plan to integrate animals on our farm, and more generally in Woody Agriculture systems– but that discussion will have to wait until later.

Today I'm working on some of the details for this year's Short Course. I'll put a note here and post it all on badgersett.com when it's done, but for now I can tell you:

• Same pricing as 2008
• Four definite presentations:

1. Life Cycle hazel spacing (new/improved)
2. Nut Quality– faults, sorting, grading for sales (NEW, with hands-on materials)
3. Badgersett Hazel Breeding Program. Specifics on Cycles 1 through 4, with the math. (NEW, given by yours truly)
4. Marketing (skipped in 2008, so now it's back)

• Remaining presentations will be taken from those given previously; always updated with the newest information. If you as an attendee want a specific talk to be presented, let us know!