Annual Conference Sessions & Features 2026
Kids Program
For children ages 5 - 12. Supervised activities during the breakout sessions: 9:20am-12:20pm and 1:40-4:30pm.
Kids will have lunch with their adults from 12:20 - 1:40pm.
Advance registration required.
Farm & Food Book Swap
Upstairs Elevator Lobby
Bring books to share and take one or two at the book swap table!
Parking Map
There are often multiple events on the St. Ben’s campus on the day of our conference, so we recommend that you allow time to find good parking. For a map of Guest parking and sidewalk routes to the Conference Center, click HERE.
Wisdom of the Community SESSIONS
101 = beginner; 201 = intermediate; 301 = advanced
Schedule At-a-Glance (descriptions below)
Room 204A, B & C
8:30am: "Opening Welcome"
Room 204A
9:40am: Personal Stories of Farm Transition
11:10am: MDA Emerging Farmers Networking & Town Hall Session
12:20pm: Emerging Farmers Lunch
1:50pm: Roundtable Discussions for Emerging Farmers
3:20pm: Basic Livestock Veterinary Techniques
Room 204B
9:40am: On-farm Cold Storage (201)
11:10am: Regenerative Farming in a Sea of Corn & Soybeans (201)
1:50pm: Harvesting Customer Value: Lessons from the Manufacturing Floor (201)
3:20pm: High Tunnels: Challenges and Triumphs
Room 204C
9:40am: Direct-to-Consumer Guide to Selling Out
11:10am: The Pricing Puzzle
1:50pm: Interview with a Homesteader (101)
3:20pm: Economics of Vegetable Farming (201)
Room 120A&B
9:40am: Agritourism On-farm Events (201)
11:10am: Grazing Management & Soil Biodiversity
1:50pm: Brush Busters in Silvopasture
3:20pm: Seeds of Resilience
4:30 p.m.
Lakewinds Food Co-op Social Hour
Upstairs Lobby
--------- Full Schedule --------
8:30 a.m.
Opening Welcome
Rooms 204 A, B & C
Staff will give a report with highlights and accomplishments from 2025 and plans in the works for 2026.
9:20 a.m. Break & Exhibits
9:40 a.m. Sessions
Room 204A
Personal Stories of Farm Transition
Melissa Driscoll, Seven Songs Organic Farm
Relyndis Tegomoh, Kisheri Farms
Katie Feterl, Moderator, SFA Communications Director
Hear the first-hand experiences of farmers on both ends of farm transition: how they navigated finances, the personal and emotional aspects of transition, and their decision-making processes.
Room 204B
Holistic Decision Making and Cold Storage Strategies (201)
Joel Barr, Abraham's Table Farm, SFA Market Garden & Farm Management Systems Consultant
In this session we will explore several possible solutions for gaining freezer storage on your farm by looking at real life financial estimates and the pros and cons for each option. Then we will walk through the holistic decision making process to evaluate each option to find the one that fits your context without compromising your values.
Room 204C
The Direct-to-Consumer Guide to Selling Out:
Storytelling, Email, and Simple Launches (201)
Leah Matzke, Great Heritage Farm, Winthrop
Caroline Hegstrom, The Boreal Farm, Taiga Farm & Seed, Duluth
Matt Hardy, Rust Hill Ranch, Franconia
Many farmers feel uncomfortable promoting their products. Simple storytelling and consistent communication can build strong customer trust and make direct-to-consumer sales feel natural instead of “salesy.” In this session, a farmer-led panel will share practical strategies for growing an email list, deciding what to write, and using authentic farm stories to stay top-of-mind with customers. The panelists will offer real-world examples, lessons learned, and tools farmers can apply immediately.
Room 120A&B
Local Food Resilience Through Agritourism:
Cultivating Community and Local Resilience through On-farm Events (201)
Matt Barthelemy, Renewing the Countryside
Maeve Mallozzi-Kelly, Renewing the Countryside
Justin Osadjan, Clover Valley Farm Fest, Two Harbors MN
Renewing the Countryside (RTC), with SFA and the MN Farmers Union, developed the Come & Get It project to train local teams to organize on-farm events. Over the three years of this project these events have opened new markets, increased knowledge of direct-from-farmer buying options, built community resilience, and cultivated new local partners. RTC has developed a “how to” manual with information and resources about hosting on-farm events. Whether you consider yourself an agritourism expert or a novice there will be plent to learn from this session.
10:50 a.m. Break & Exhibits
11:10 a.m. Sessions
Room 204A
MDA Emerging Farmers Networking & Town Hall Session
Lillian Otieno, MDA Emerging Farmers Office
Patrice Bailey, MDA Assistant Commissioner
Meg Moynihan, Ag Marketing & Development
Connect, collaborate, and grow! This is a space to share your joys, learn from challenges, and address barriers in farming. A panel of service providers, farmers and connectors will share resources to assist you on your farming journey.
Room 204B
Regenerative Farming in a Sea of Corn & Soybeans:
Finding Strength on the Lonely Island (201)
Leah & Benjamin Matzke, Great Heritage Farm
Regenerative farming can feel isolating, and this session focuses on building mental resiliency and finding community in those environments. Benjamin and Leah will share their experiences farming regeneratively alongside conventional agriculture, highlighting the mindset shifts that have helped them stay grounded and purposeful. They’ll offer practical strategies for maintaining strong relationships with conventional neighbors while modeling regenerative practices in approachable ways. Explore the role of resilience when facing setbacks and how to view challenges as opportunities for growth.
Room 204C
The Pricing Puzzle: Making Sense of Farm Pricing Challenges
Ryan Nelson, Nelson Grass Farm
Setting prices on the farm can be one of the most challenging aspects of the business. Costs shift, markets change, and it’s often difficult to know whether your prices truly reflect the time, risk, and care invested in your operation. In this session, Ryan Nelson will share practical insights and real-world lessons from more than a decade of direct-to-consumer farming. With his wife, Desiree, Ryan's diversified, pasture-based farm raises broiler chickens, eggs, pork, and a small cow herd, with past experience in turkeys and rabbits. Ryan will walk through how they approach pricing decisions, what they’ve learned through trial and error, and how to build confidence in setting prices that are fair to customers and sustainable for the farm.
Room 120A&B
Grazing Management & Soil Biodiversity
Patrick Toomey, SFA Grazing Education Lead
Ever wonder what really happens when we graze grass? This interactive session brings grazing management to life by showing the difference between well-managed and poorly managed grazing systems—and why it matters. We’ll explore how grazing decisions affect plant recovery, soil health, and pasture productivity. Participants will gain practical insight into how timing, intensity, and recovery drive long-term success. I’ll be the cow. You’ll be the soil. Let’s graze!
Emerging Farmer's Networking Lunch (204A)
Directly following the session, emerging farms can enjoy a taco bar lunch and an opportunity to continue conversation in the same room! No lunch ticket is needed.
12:20 p.m. Lunch & Exhibits
1:50 p.m. Sessions
Room 204A
Roundtable Discussions for Emerging Farmers
Erik Heimark on Farm Business Management
Meg Moynihan on Farm Stress
Julie Allen on SFA Chapters
and more topics TBA!
Keep the conversations going from the day's earlier sessions or explore something new! Dive deep into specific topics with peers and resource people. Bring your questions!
204B
Harvesting Customer Value: Lessons from the Manufacturing Floor (201)
Eric Blaha, Wholesome Harvest Farms, Verndale
This session looks at farming through the lens of a profitable manufacturing enterprise. After applying lean principles in dozens of factories—and to his own first-generation farm—Eric has seen how this perspective can rapidly improve profitability, even at a moderate scale. Farmers are excellent at hitting the bullseye, but often on the wrong target. Lean thinking helps farmers see waste and value differently, driving meaningful change at a time when rising input costs and stagnant prices demand it.
Room 204C
Interview with a Homesteader (101)
Katie Krejci, Registered Dietitian, The Homesteading RD
with Mary Fischer, SFA Southwest Community Organizer
Katie is a successful blog and content creator based in Northern MN who went from practicing as a Registered Dietician to homesteading. Join us for an interview about her journey led her to seek more independence through a self-sufficient lifestyle while connecting the dots between healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people. Plus, hear about her newest adventure - taking her homestead 'off-grid'. Katie Krejci is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and homesteader from Northern Minnesota who is passionate about eating REAL food, becoming self-sufficient and doing things the old fashioned way. Katie uses her Blog and Youtube channel (The Homesteading RD) to help others learn to grow their own food, develop healthy soil, raise animals the old-fashioned way and live a toxin-free, simpler life.
120A&B
Brush Busters: Livestock as Key Brush Control Agents in Silvopasture Systems (301)
Jennifer Grommes, Great River Greening
Bryan Simon, Lakeside Prairie Farm
Walk through a case study from Lakeside Prairie Farm where landowner Bryan Simon will discuss the techniques and challenges for brush management,clearing buckthorn and other invasives from 30 acres of woodland habitat. Hear about successes and lessons learned through vegetation and soil studies collected on 5 silvopasture sites throughout Minnesota. We will welcome questions and suggest pointers on how to begin planning and implementation for your own operation.
3:00 p.m. Break & Exhibits
3:20 p.m. Sessions
Room 204A
Basic Livestock Veterinary Techniques (201)
Kari Ripley-Boysen, Livestock Farmer & Veterinary Technician, Webster MN
The Wifery happily returns to the annual to teach a few useful livestock skills. Kari Ripley-Boysen will teach proper technique for various injections, jugular blood draw and foreleg splinting. Hands on learning with supplied materials involved with this session.
204B
High Tunnels: Challenges and Triumphs (301)
Michelle Grabowski, Extension Educator. Horticulture/Plant Pathology
Gray Schmidt, Gray's Tomatoes, Winsted
Dr. Grabowski will share information on two invasive diseases of high tunnel vegetable crops that have appeared in MN in recent years, and, along with high tunnel grower, Gray Schmidt, will lead an open discussion on the challenges and accomplishment from last season.
Room 204C
The Economics of Vegetable Farming in Minnesota
Joel Barr, Abraham’s Table Farm, Sandstone
Can a farm family make a decent living growing vegetables without burning out? Joel Barr pulls back the curtain on what it takes to make small-scale vegetable production work. He will share the financial realities, management decisions, and hard-earned lessons that have shaped their farm over more than a decade of trial and error, offering a candid look at what has—and hasn’t—worked. Joel and his family raise mixed vegetables, chickens, eggs, and beef, marketing directly to customers. Joel also serves as SFA’s Market Garden & Farm Management Systems Consultant and is available through SFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer Consulting Program.
120A&B
Seeds of Resilience:
Stories of Biodiversity and Climate Hope
Charly Frisk, filmmaker and climate communicator
This session will open with a presentation by Charly Frisk exploring the cultural and ecological dimensions of seed diversity and climate resilience. It will be followed by a screening of "Frø: Nordic Seed Heroes", a 25-minute documentary filmed across Scandinavia that highlights the farmers, gardeners, and Indigenous seed stewards protecting biodiversity and cultural heritage in the face of climate change. It will conclude with an interactive Q&A and dialogue connecting Nordic seed-saving efforts to Midwestern farming and food traditions.
