Nevada Small Farm Conference set

The Nevada Small Farm Conference will be from Feb. 21-23 at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks.The conference will cover livestock and poultry production, hoop houses, agritourism, organic farming, local food systems, business planning and more. Topics will include commercial hops production, seed starting and saving, value-added production and small farm business planning.“Nevada has an ideal climate for hops, barley and seeds,” Ann Louhela said. “Processing raw product into value-added products offers opportunity for year-round sales. These enterprises have potential for growth and job creation. Many people don't understand that agriculture creates jobs off the farm as well as on.”Sponsoring organizations include Western Nevada College; University of Nevada, Reno-College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources; Whole Foods Market; U.S. Foods; Great Basin Brewing Company; Rail City Garden Center; Silverado-Stanislaus Farm Supply; Friends of Nevada Organics; Marie Gibson Management & Consulting; NevadaGrown; Nevada Certified Farmers Market Association and Western Nevada Development District.For conference details and registration information, go to www.wnc.edu/sci, or contact Louhela at 775-351-2551 or email ann.louhela@wnc.edu.