Public News Service - IA | By Dick Layman

DES MOINES, Iowa - During the winter months, Iowa farmers are often unable to attend educational events to pick up additional skills for the coming planting season - until now. Practical Farmers of Iowa is offering off-season Web seminars they call "Farminars."

Sally Worley with Practical Farmers of Iowa says this is the right time of year.

"It's great for us to have in the winter because our members want more networking opportunities, and they don't have to leave their homes if they have a computer, and they can do it without battling the snow."

Worley says today's Farminar features an upstate New York vegetable farmer who is giving details on how he decided to scale up his production.

"Even if you aren't growing exactly what he's growing, he has quite a bit of wisdom on how he sells things as well as decision-making tools for how he has justified scaling up certain areas of his production."

To participate go to www.practicalfarmers.org. Worley says there will be another series of Farminars this spring, focusing on beginning farmers.

By Dick Layman, Public News Service - IA