The Land Conservancy of McHenry County offers free Learning Circle for Women Farmland Owners Oct. 10

Women who own farmland are invited to a free Learning Circle, co-hosted by The Land Conservancy of McHenry County and the McHenry-Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District.

The Learning Circle will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, starting at Alden Township Hall, 8515 S. Alden Road in Harvard.

The workshop is free and includes continental breakfast and lunch.

Participants can register online at www.ConserveMC.org or call (815) 337-9502 by Friday, Oct. 4.

The event will begin with a conservation discussion in the morning and there will be an optional field tour in the afternoon, which will allow participants to view farmland conservation practices in the area.

The program concludes at Alden Township Hall at 3 p.m.

The field tour is of a farm that belongs to a woman who attended a previous Learning Circle. She inherited the farm and wanted to learn more about how to take care of it. The group will be using the farm as a case study, looking at how it is being farmed currently and how it could be farmed better.

The group will discuss possibilities that attendees can try on their own farms.

Nearly half the farmland in Illinois is owned or co-owned by women, and many women now manage farmland on their own.

Learning Circles provide women the opportunity to meet other landowners, share their farm successes and challenges, discuss their goals for their land and get advice and technical assistance.

The Land Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health and preservation of natural and agricultural land in McHenry County.