Now available! Biological Farming: Develop a High Yield Production System, a course by Gary Zimmer and available from Eco-Ag U Online, part of the Acres U.S.A. family of products.

Here are the course details:

The father of modern biological farming Gary Zimmer shares the secrets to his highly profitable farming operation at Otter Creek Organic Farm in Wisconsin. More than 45 lessons cover how to build your own biological farming system, no matter where you live, the amount of land you have or the volume of capital in your bank account. 

During the course, you will watch videos about soil management techniques, read recommendations about fertilizers, tour a fertilizer shed, download worksheets on soil testing, build strategies for cover crops, watch soil testing in action and develop natural systems for weed and pest control … and much, much more.

Students who finish this class will be able to identify clear next steps and immediately build your short- and long-term biological farming strategy.

A sample video from the course:


Learn from this Course

Gary Zimmer’s students around the world walk away from his online classes and multi-day classes learning the following: 

  • key biological farming terms and the concept of a biological growing system;
  • how soil health fits into the biological farming system;
  • how to measure soil health;
  • how the principles of biological farming factor into the entire system;
  • why some farmers till, and why no-till might work against your biological farming systems;
  • why biodiversity is important to managing weeds, and specific methods to controlling weeds without toxins;
  • how to understand the difference between negative and beneficial insects in their fields, and be able to make the basic connection between soil health and pest and disease pressure; and
  • how to build a biological farming system customized for your land, operation and goals.

About the Instructor:

Gary Zimmer was raised on a dairy farm in northeastern Wisconsin. He received training in dairy nutrition, earning a bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii (1970). For the last 30 years, Gary Zimmer has been evaluating farming practices, which has presented him with many interesting observations and methods for successful biological farming. In the early 1980s, he and three partners started Midwestern Bio-Ag. With their main emphasis on education, Midwestern Bio-Ag currently works with more than 3,500 farms and has 75 trained consultants. Besides being president of Midwestern Bio-Ag, for the last few years, Gary has also managed the Bio-Ag Learning Center, a livestock and crop demonstration farm where he tests products and methods for successful biological farming. Gary continues to be an educator at heart and is a much sought-after speaker. He conducts presentations around the world for diverse groups of people, including farmers, farm financial groups, private farm consultants, environmental groups and other agribusinesses. 

About Otter Creek Farm

Gary Zimmer’s Otter Creek Organic Farm is also operated and co-owned with his son Nicholas. The 240-acre farm is certified organic and grows edible beans, corn and forages. On the 100 acres of creek bottom pasture, rotational grazing is done either with dairy heifers or beef cattle. The first major test project on this farm was to see how rapidly low-fertility, run-down soils could be fixed with organic methods.

Learning Tools Include:

Video Instruction

Learn from Gary Zimmer as he walks the Otter Creek Farm and shows you specific tactics for biological farming. Learn in the classroom as he demonstrates clear steps to build the soil testing and tilling parts of your operation.

Useful Worksheets

Bring your strategy to a tactical level by building clear goals and next steps.

Proven Recommendations

Learn what works on the Owl Farm that Gary Zimmer runs, including sample soil tests and fertilizer recommendations. 

Not sure? Take a short course!

Biological Farming Short Course: Build a Soil Testing System

Rule #1 of Gary Zimmer’s Biological Farming System is, “Test Your Soils.” In this short course you can complete in one morning, learn with Gary Zimmer in the field and in the classroom, as he walks you through the key concepts to understand before you start soil testing. Fifteen lessons including video, text, graphics, downloads, worksheets, case studies and more will give you the right information to save you time, energy and money establishing a working soil testing system.

About short courses: If you complete the short course and choose to take the full Gary Zimmer Biological Farming course, you will receive a coupon worth the amount of your purchase to any short course. This is a perfect chance to test the quality of our courses!

Visit learn.acresusa.com to browse all of our online course options.