Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
Organic dairy farms are disappearing nationwide and in the State of Maine. Existing farmers are getting older and new farmers face critical barriers to entering the field. At the same time, demand for organic milk is increasing and confinement dairy operations that deplete natural resources and reduce the number of owner-operated farms are expanding their herds to meet industry needs. Wolfe's Neck Farm's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program (DFAP) aims to address these issues by sustainably strengthening the livestock and dairy agriculture system. The long-term goal of Wolfe's Neck Farm's DFAP is to increase the production of organic milk in the northeast while fostering the next generation of organic dairy farms and improving their profitability and sustainability.To achieve this goal, Wolfe's Neck Farm (WNF) is expanding and scaling their Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program. Beginning farmers live and work on WNF's educational farm for a two-year apprenticeship in which they gain experiential employment and mentoring as well as formal classroom instruction and business mentoring. The DFAP will create an infrastructure for learning, innovation and training to help grow the dairy industry and identify a successful path to sustainable dairy farming in New England. Increasing the presence of sustainable dairy farms will ultimately improve local economies, prevent farm loss and provide environmental services that will benefit both farmers and their communities.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of Wolfe's Neck Farm's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program (DFAP) is to increase the production of organic milk in the northeast while fostering the next generation of organic dairy farms and improving their profitability and sustainability.To achieve thisgoal, the DFAP will achieve the following overarching objective:Integrate the Wisconsin-based and nationally accredited Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program into the Educational Farm model at Wolfe's Neck Farm and use this model to support the expansion of Master Training farms into New England.To achieve this integration and expansion, Wolfe's Neck Farm will undertake the following five specific objectives:Expand and scale Wolfe's Neck Farm Apprentice programAdapt DGA's experiential training guidelines to an educational farm modelReplicate and adapt the DGA classroom education in New EnglandIdentify a successful path to dairy farm operation and ownership in New EnglandPosition Wolfe Neck's Farm as a New England regional hub for the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship1. Currently, Wolfe's Neck Farm's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program is hosting the first class of four beginning farmers that live and work on the farm for a two-year apprenticeship. To maximize the advantages of the educational farm model, the project will double the number of apprentices and scale to eight beginning farmers by the end of 2016. As an educational farm with an existing dairy, Wolfe's Neck Farm is able to support multiple apprentices. WNF's non-profit status will allow it to quickly scale the program and make use of multiple funding streams that are not available to private farms. By doubling the number of apprentices trained per year, the Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program will become a hub for education and training that will efficiently grow the sustainable dairy industry in New England. With multiple apprentices, WNF will develop relationships with regional partner farms that could host apprentices for additional education and training.2.Objectives 2 and 3 necessitate a deeper explanation of the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship. DGA is the first formal apprenticeship for farming in the country and it aims to create a new generation of farmers who are independent owners of grazing dairy farms. DGA matches an apprentice with a Master Dairy Grazier for two years. The 4,000 hour program includes 3,712 hours of employment and mentoring at a Master Training farm and 288 hours of additional classroom instruction. As a DGA partner, Wolfe's Neck Farm will offer apprentices the same two-year training at their dairy with the same focus on (1) experiential, on-farm employment and mentoring and (2) classroom instruction. To ensure that the employment and mentoring hours are suitable for an educational farm model, Wolfe's Neck farm will adapt DGA's training guidelines. DGA uses a checklist of skills in their training guidelines to direct the apprentices' experience and to assess their abilities. The Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program will expand upon this checklist and develop a curriculum that is New England specific and that effectively maximizes the advantages of an educational farm model.3.The 288 hours of classroom instruction in the DGA program include seminars and online courses at Wisconsin-based schools. In order to strengthen the viability and relevance of beginning dairy farmer training in New England, WNF's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program will replicate the DGA classroom education in New England. This will include developing and formalizing regional education partnerships.4. DGA also provides financial planning and farm transition services through Cadwallader Consulting. While WNF apprentices will benefit from these services, the Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program will develop regional business planning support services and transition planning to ensure the successful path to farm operation and ownership in New England. WNF will accomplish this objective by developing a Business Mentorship Program for apprentices and through further development of partnerships with organizations and businesses that will support the transition process. 5. In order to position Wolfe's Neck Farm as a regional hub for the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, WNF will also support the expansion of Master Training farms in New England. The DGA Master Farm model links aspiring dairy farmers with current farmers for two years of on-farm employment and mentorship. Apprentices are matched with an established farmer, a Master Dairy Grazier, and also have an opportunity for equity transfer, a model that helps transition apprentices into dairy grazing careers. The expansion of Master Training farms, in conjunction with the development of WNF's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program, will provide significant opportunities for new and beginning dairy farmers in the region. Increased opportunities for training and ownership will allow for meaningful growth and will ultimately increase the strength of dairy farming in Maine. As a regional hub for the DGA and dairy farming education and training, Wolfe's Neck Farm will also be positioned to host conferences and workshops to benefit farmers throughout New England.
Project Methods
To meet the objectives of this project, Wolfe's Neck Farm will expand the DFAP apprentice program, initially making use of the Wisconsin-based Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA)'s training resources. Then, WNF will develop regional educational resources and ultimately begin the expansion of DGA's Master Farmer model to New England. WNF will carry out the following activities to achieve the project's specific objectives:Objective 1: Expand and scale Wolfe's Neck Farm apprentice programWolfe's Neck Farm currently hosts 4 beginning dairy farmers and will double the number of apprentices with this project. To expand the program to 8, WNF will focus on recruitment, applicant screening and hiring. WNF will recruit beginning farmers for the Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program through agricultural organizations and academic networks. WNF's recruitment strategy will be two-fold in that it will leverage the existing work of DGA and focus on regionally specific outlets such as high schools, community colleges, technical schools and trade shows.Objective 2: Adapt the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship's experiential training guidelines to an educational farm modelThe DFAP will modify DGA's one-on-one focus between apprentice and master farmer to an educational farm model. WNF will modify DGA's training guidelines and create a New England Sustainable Dairy Farming Training Manual. This manual will standardize the training for WNF apprentices and create a consistent, replicable model. The manual will be a comprehensive reference that will explain why and how to perform the necessary skills, as well as alternative methods for farms with different levels of resources.To develop the manual, WNF will research, reference and use existing resources such as curriculum on newfarmers.usda.gov, farmanswers.org and Start2Farm, BFRDP's Curriculum and Training Clearinghouse. WNF will also work with regional organizations to ensure that the manual incorporates existing materials and addresses all the necessary components of sustainable dairy grazing farming in New England.Objective 3: Replicate and adapt the DGA classroom education in New England Currently, WNF apprentices are participating in DGA's suite of classes offered by WI-based educational institutions. WNF apprentices receive this instruction through webinars or online courses. To strengthen and improve the educational experience for apprentices in New England, WNF will undertake the following activities: develop relationships with regional partners; research programs at New England universities; and approve and execute formal partnerships.Objective 4: Identify a successful path to dairy farm operation and ownership in New England.WNF will ultimately develop a Business Mentorship Program for apprentices that will prepare them for farm operation and ownership by sharing information and requirements and connecting them with the key regional players and collaborating organizations. A WNF Education Coordinator will lead the further development of this effort.The DFAP Business Mentorship Program will use existing resources and curriculum and collaborate with local organizations that can support apprentices as they approach completion of the program and begin to launch their own enterprises. The Business Mentorship Program will also convene panels of additional local experts on industry topics such as value added products, processing options and potential cooperatives.Objective 5: Position Wolfe Neck's Farm as a regional hub for the Dairy Grazing ApprenticeshipTo achieve this objective, WNF will expand the traditional DGA Master Farm model to Maine and New England. Wolfe's Neck Farm will employ an Education Coordinator that will identify and assess potential Master Farms, provide local administration to pair apprentices with these private farmers and eventually monitor on-farm employment, training and mentoring.The Education Coordinator will conduct outreach and develop relationships with existing dairy farms in Maine with the goal of creating Master Farm sites. The Coordinator will also provide the local administration to pair apprentices with private farmers.EvaluationIn order to measure the achievement of the goals and objectives of the Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program, Wolfe's Neck Farm will track the outputs and evaluate the outcomes of the project. WNF is currently considering using a third party evaluation service for this process.WNF will report on each of the project outcomes and document the changes in knowledge and behavior of all participants. This section describes the plan for documentation and evaluation of two important outcomes:Empowering 50 dairy farmers to improve the sustainability of their practicesIncreasing 12 apprentices' knowledge of sustainable, organic dairy practicesEmpowering 50 dairy farmers to improve the sustainability of their practicesWolfe's Neck Farm will interact with regional dairy farmers through various events such as a New England dairy conference, trainings and pasture walks at the farm. To obtain a baseline understanding of the practices these farmers use, WNF will distribute pre-event surveys to the participants. These surveys will ask farmers to answer questions about their farming practices and their interest in increasing the sustainability of their farm. A follow-up survey to be distributed 6 months after the event will ask the same questions. WNF will compare the baseline results to the post-survey answers to determine how many opinions and practices changed and calculate the total percent change. Additionally, WNF will distribute annual surveys to farmers in an effort to determine the effectiveness of their organic dairy programming. This survey will ask farmers to rate the degree to which WNF's program empowered them to improve the sustainability of their farming practices.Increasing 12 apprentices' knowledge of sustainable, organic dairy practicesWolfe's Neck Farm's Dairy Farmer Apprenticeship Program will train and educate 12 apprentices over a 3-year period. Starting with the second cohort of apprentices that will enter the program in the summer of 2016, WNF will distribute a questionnaire to all incoming apprentices. The questionnaire will assess the beginning farmers' knowledge of sustainable, organic dairy practices through multiple-choice questions. At the conclusion of both year one and year two of the apprenticeship, apprentices will take the same questionnaire. Base-line scores will be compared to scores at year one and year two. This will allow Wolfe's Neck Farm to assess how many of the apprentices' have increased their knowledge of sustainable, organic dairy practices by how much. The results will also enable WNF to determine if there are areas that require further training or different types of teaching methods.Apprentices will also fill out an evaluation survey after each year of the apprenticeship and for two years after graduation. These evaluations will ask the apprentices to rate the quality of the instruction, the training opportunities and the subject matter. Post-graduation, apprentices will be asked if the program prepared them for dairy farming and if they desired additional skills or information.Wolfe's Neck Farm also plans to conduct follow-up interviews with graduates. These interviews will enable WNF to capture stories and qualitative data about DFAP graduates' skills, abilities, and practices and ultimately highlight and replicate success stories.