Today I attended classes on specific vegetables such as tomatoes varieties, controlling disease in cucurbits, and how to 'squash' insect/pest problems. I also attended a class on Weed the Soil not the Crop, it gave a lot of food for thought. Last I went to a class about Sustainable Greenhouse Practices, this guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about and used some terms pretty loosely for some of us in the audience. I picked up a lot of catalogs and literature, look forward to reading and browsing. We had a meeting tonight called the Grower Innovation Meeting or something like that. It was great! Lots of great ideas, a good MC helped keeping going and the skit at the end by two Mennonite guys really stole the show.
More tomorrow.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference Day 1
CSA Mini-school
Well I came with Tim Reinbott to the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference in St. Joseph and I attended the CSA mini-school on today. Tim went to the High Tunnel workshop. I learned quite a bit today. I came with the attitude that if I learned at least one good thing that helped me I had made the right choice. Two pages, front a back, later I say I got my money's worth of helpful information.
I have always considered doing a CSA where the shares are preboxed. In New England they have moved away from that and now do it where people get choices at the place of pick up. This yields higher customer satisfaction and retention.
I learned a lot more but this is all I will write tonight. I am so excited and grateful to be here!
Well I came with Tim Reinbott to the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference in St. Joseph and I attended the CSA mini-school on today. Tim went to the High Tunnel workshop. I learned quite a bit today. I came with the attitude that if I learned at least one good thing that helped me I had made the right choice. Two pages, front a back, later I say I got my money's worth of helpful information.
I have always considered doing a CSA where the shares are preboxed. In New England they have moved away from that and now do it where people get choices at the place of pick up. This yields higher customer satisfaction and retention.
I learned a lot more but this is all I will write tonight. I am so excited and grateful to be here!
Monday, January 5, 2009
CAFNR website update!
Well the CAFNR website was just updated with our story. I have got to go on a diet. To all you lurkers, who don't post, do you have any questions I could answer?
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Odds & Year ends
Well first off I was invited to a Christmas party of people interested and involved in sustainable agriculture. It was great, my wife and I enjoyed ourselves. Next, I received a Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog in the mail and decided to call them. They have been very helpful so far. I hope this relationship blossoms. I think they can help out quite a bit. This week I am going to the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference in St. Joseph MO. I look forward to what I can learn and hopefully apply in this venture. I will post after I get back.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
From Class Project to Business Venture
Here is the copy of the press release that MU CAFNR has done. We are hoping to do more guerilla marketing with this. What do you think?
A.
From Class Project to Business Venture
Entrepreneurship competition win leads to real-life application
It’s one thing to do well in class and another to win a campus-wide competition. It’s something else to take your class project and turn it into a real-life entrepreneurial effort to help the community.
A three-person team in the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class co-taught by Peter Hofherr, assistant director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Ken Schneeberger, professor of agriculture economics at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, took the grand prize in the Non-Profit Category of the fourth-annual MU College of Business’s New Venture Idea Competition. The competition drew 68 teams from across campus.
Team members Abby Berndt, Whitney Middleton and Andrew Van Engelenhoven shared a cash prize. Sarah Mayo, a freshman studying horticulture, is also part of the team.
The CAFNR team presented a business plan for a subscription-based produce operation to the judges who played the part of venture capitalists looking to fund a new project. The students’ idea, named Tiger Town Community Supported Agriculture, calls for 25-30 subscribers to prepay for vegetables grown by the entrepreneurs. Any food left over would be made available to low-income people who would buy the goods with food stamps. Any produce surplus after this would be donated to a local food bank.
In their presentation, the students provided data to the judges proving the subscription plan is economically viable and that there is a real need for it in the community. The judges asked questions about how the team would market their plan, pay taxes and develop a planting schedule.
The students are not stopping with accolades from the judges, but plan to take their cash award and make their ideas a reality. The team members are working with Dave Trinklein, associate professor of horticulture, and Tim Reinbott, superintendent of the Bradford Research Farms, to use eight hoop-greenhouses to plant produce this spring and see if their business plan can survive in the real world. The first planting will take place in February.
“The significance of this project to me isn't just the idealism, but that eight judges from the business world agreed that we have something of value and that it should be done,” said Van Engelenhoven. “That’s a lot of validation, even for skeptics. It lends credibility to this project, and shows that students can have real world solutions to real world problems.”
The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class is co-taught by Peter Hofherr, left, assistant director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Ken Schneeberger, right, professor of agriculture economics at the University of Missouri. Students in the class are, left to right, Whitney Middleton, Andrew Van Engelenhoven and Abby Berndt.
Members of the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class are Abby Berndt, Andrew Van Engelenhoven and Whitney Middleton.
A.
From Class Project to Business Venture
Entrepreneurship competition win leads to real-life application
It’s one thing to do well in class and another to win a campus-wide competition. It’s something else to take your class project and turn it into a real-life entrepreneurial effort to help the community.
A three-person team in the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class co-taught by Peter Hofherr, assistant director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Ken Schneeberger, professor of agriculture economics at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, took the grand prize in the Non-Profit Category of the fourth-annual MU College of Business’s New Venture Idea Competition. The competition drew 68 teams from across campus.
Team members Abby Berndt, Whitney Middleton and Andrew Van Engelenhoven shared a cash prize. Sarah Mayo, a freshman studying horticulture, is also part of the team.
The CAFNR team presented a business plan for a subscription-based produce operation to the judges who played the part of venture capitalists looking to fund a new project. The students’ idea, named Tiger Town Community Supported Agriculture, calls for 25-30 subscribers to prepay for vegetables grown by the entrepreneurs. Any food left over would be made available to low-income people who would buy the goods with food stamps. Any produce surplus after this would be donated to a local food bank.
In their presentation, the students provided data to the judges proving the subscription plan is economically viable and that there is a real need for it in the community. The judges asked questions about how the team would market their plan, pay taxes and develop a planting schedule.
The students are not stopping with accolades from the judges, but plan to take their cash award and make their ideas a reality. The team members are working with Dave Trinklein, associate professor of horticulture, and Tim Reinbott, superintendent of the Bradford Research Farms, to use eight hoop-greenhouses to plant produce this spring and see if their business plan can survive in the real world. The first planting will take place in February.
“The significance of this project to me isn't just the idealism, but that eight judges from the business world agreed that we have something of value and that it should be done,” said Van Engelenhoven. “That’s a lot of validation, even for skeptics. It lends credibility to this project, and shows that students can have real world solutions to real world problems.”
The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class is co-taught by Peter Hofherr, left, assistant director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Ken Schneeberger, right, professor of agriculture economics at the University of Missouri. Students in the class are, left to right, Whitney Middleton, Andrew Van Engelenhoven and Abby Berndt.
Members of the Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship class are Abby Berndt, Andrew Van Engelenhoven and Whitney Middleton.
Monday, November 17, 2008
MU Student Gardens & CSA -- WINNERS of the 4th Annual MU New Venture Idea Competition!
Well the big news is that we are the grand prizewinner of the fourth Annual MU New Venture Idea Competition in the Non-Profit category. The purposes of the competition are: to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Missouri by celebrating the creation by the Kauffman University-wide Entrepreneurship Education Initiative of three FIGs with an entrepreneurial theme during Fall, 2006, including Business Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Through the Arts; and to introduce the Flegel-Source Interlink Academy for Aspiring Entrepreneurs to the campus community.
We had to come up with a brochure, and our presentation needs some more work but we still won. There were 65 applicants. There were 2 prizes we won. The first prize we won was first place in our class(undergrad) category (non-profit). Then we competed with all the non-profit class winners (3) for and additional $1100. The total prize was $1500 to be split among the team of 4, payable to our student accounts. The judges seemed really interested and the first 3 minute presentation turned into 15 with their questions. The second presentation was 5 minutes and the same happened again, going about 10-12 minutes, with lots of questions. We were able to answer ALL of their questions, with none of the 'I don't know' or 'hadn't thought of that' answers. The judges were really excited about it and talked to us more afterwords. They really loved our brochure. The brochure was just a prop and not meant to be final or anything yet, but I am attaching it so you all may see our work. Please let me know what you think.
I went to the National Small Farm Show here in Columbia and attended a seminar on SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) Gardening with Tim Reinbott, we both thought it would be helpful to this venture. Then I went and met with Tim Reinbott and Leslie Shaw and walked over areas we will be responsible for in the coming growing season. It looks like a total of three tillable acres. All I can say is wow! Lots of work. Sally is working plant production and guide for when to plant, and what to plant where for the next growing season.
We had to come up with a brochure, and our presentation needs some more work but we still won. There were 65 applicants. There were 2 prizes we won. The first prize we won was first place in our class(undergrad) category (non-profit). Then we competed with all the non-profit class winners (3) for and additional $1100. The total prize was $1500 to be split among the team of 4, payable to our student accounts. The judges seemed really interested and the first 3 minute presentation turned into 15 with their questions. The second presentation was 5 minutes and the same happened again, going about 10-12 minutes, with lots of questions. We were able to answer ALL of their questions, with none of the 'I don't know' or 'hadn't thought of that' answers. The judges were really excited about it and talked to us more afterwords. They really loved our brochure. The brochure was just a prop and not meant to be final or anything yet, but I am attaching it so you all may see our work. Please let me know what you think.
I went to the National Small Farm Show here in Columbia and attended a seminar on SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) Gardening with Tim Reinbott, we both thought it would be helpful to this venture. Then I went and met with Tim Reinbott and Leslie Shaw and walked over areas we will be responsible for in the coming growing season. It looks like a total of three tillable acres. All I can say is wow! Lots of work. Sally is working plant production and guide for when to plant, and what to plant where for the next growing season.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
MU Student Gardens CSA & 4th Annual MU New Venture Idea Competition
O.K. it’s been three weeks, but what a three weeks! I have met with Dr. Spain and have a list of people that I need to see, trying to see them all before Thanksgiving break. Received the demographic data from Dr. Martz; I think it’s helping. Still looking for students to join this great project.
Completed our Competitive Analysis on Friday and received the reviews of our Industry Analysis. We’ll need to rework the Industry Analysis since we earned somewhere in the B to B- range on our first attempt.
Turned in our project to the 4th Annual MU New Venture Idea Competition. We’re finalists in the non-profit category. Yea!!! We present at 9:50 AM Cornell Hall Room 15, Friday, November 14, 2008. If we do well enough we could win $1500 total between the four of us. The team is Sally Mayo, Abby Berndt, and Whitney Middleton and myself.
Hoping to be done with as much of the business plan and feasibility study before Thanksgiving break so we can write up for a Federal SARE Grant for our project on break, the deadline is Dec 1st . If it proves too much, it will just have to wait. That’s it for now.
Completed our Competitive Analysis on Friday and received the reviews of our Industry Analysis. We’ll need to rework the Industry Analysis since we earned somewhere in the B to B- range on our first attempt.
Turned in our project to the 4th Annual MU New Venture Idea Competition. We’re finalists in the non-profit category. Yea!!! We present at 9:50 AM Cornell Hall Room 15, Friday, November 14, 2008. If we do well enough we could win $1500 total between the four of us. The team is Sally Mayo, Abby Berndt, and Whitney Middleton and myself.
Hoping to be done with as much of the business plan and feasibility study before Thanksgiving break so we can write up for a Federal SARE Grant for our project on break, the deadline is Dec 1st . If it proves too much, it will just have to wait. That’s it for now.
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