Webinar on starting up small-scale organic hops production now available
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EmailCatch a glimpse into the world of small scale organic hops production in the Midwest through a webinar covering the start-up do’s and don’ts, up-front and ongoing costs and market potential.
Michigan State University Extension educator Rob Sirrine and New Mission Organics operator and Michigan Hop Alliance member Brian Tennis recently hosted a webinar on starting up small-scale organic hops production. The webinar offers insight into producing hops to meet the growing demand by micro-breweries in the Midwest and the potential to help diversify Michigan's organic production.
The “Starting up small-scale organic hops production” webinar covers the start-up do’s and don’ts, up-front and ongoing costs, and market potential. Sirrine and Tennis discuss the natural history and taxonomy of hops, characteristics and growth habits, production and growing requirements, pest and disease challenges, trellising and processing, economics and market trends, as well as brewer needs and research trials. A long list of resources is also available.
The “Starting up small-scale organic hops production” webinar is hosted by eOrganic. eOrganic is the Organic Agriculture Community of Practice at eXtension.org. The eOrganic website contains articles, videos and webinars for farmers, ranchers, agricultural professionals, certifiers, researchers and educators seeking reliable information on organic agriculture, published research results, farmer experiences and certification. The content is collaboratively authored and reviewed by our community of university researchers and Extension personnel, agricultural professionals, farmers and certifiers with experience and expertise in organic agriculture. The eOrganic webinar schedule and recordings of all webinars are offered at the website.
For more information on growing hops in the Great Lakes region, see Sirrine’s article, “Hop to it: Farmers expand into novel crops.”
Editor’s note: Sirrine has developed a website with information about small scale hops production in the Great Lakes Region that launched during December 2011 at www.hops.msu.edu.
