press release

Dan Anderson, research specialist at the University of Illinois, is looking for 10 small-scale farmers to participate in an on-farm research project on sustainable vegetable production.

“Ideally, we will choose 10 farmers from across Illinois who have the potential to help us achieve the goals of this research: to improve the sustainability of small-scale, management-intensive vegetable farms through the facilitation of on-farm experimentation and utilization of cover crops during fallow periods,” Anderson said.

Farmers who are chosen, and who successfully complete the project, will be awarded a $500 honorarium.

“We’ll work with the farmers to design, implement and measure the effects of four different fallow treatments. This research builds upon previous experimental field trials to test cover-cropping strategies using on-farm research and farmer-to-farmer education,” Anderson said.

Green Winds got a $5,000 challenge grant to build and test wind turbines for rural farmers.

Green Winds president Gary Lay accepted the grant from the Northwest Region Entrepreneurship Center at Galesburg City Hall on January 18, 2011.

The company will match the award to fund a project which will build a wind turbine, including the grid tie control system and battery backup storage system.  The project includes material procurement, system fabrication and testing, evaluating the system and market research. 

Green Winds is working with the City of Galesburg and the Illinois Small Business Development Center at WIU on the project.