This project increases opportunities for beginning farmers to learn about and implement sustainable farming methods through mutual-help discussion groups and continuing education opportunities. Local groups established in six areas in northeast Nebraska in 1991 constitute the Beginning Farmer Support Network (BFSN). At workshops held throughout the year, the groups discussed goal setting, financial planning, alternative crops, farming practices, enterprise options, and grazing practices. Twelve beginning farm families that attended the BFSN workshops were selected for whole-farm case study analysis of their farm entry strategies. They kept records on machinery, inventories, energy use, fertilizer and pesticide purchases and use, assets and liabilities, and farm and nonfarm income and expenses. The following recommendations developed by the project include: mechanisms to hasten loan approval, to supplement beginning farmers' cash down-payments, and trade up-front acquisition costs for longer-term financing would help beginners; programs and policies that foster businesses and job creation in small towns are essential, since beginning farmers rely on off-farm employment to supplement their incomes; access to professional, educational, and extension services at nonstandard times and ways is needed; and information is needed that is geared toward basic facts, lowest-cost and least-input methods, and diversified integrated farms. Appended are farm family summaries. (TD)