WISCONSIN SCHOOL FOR BEGINNING DAIRY & LIVESTOCK FARMERS

A Distance Education Gateway to the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences through UW-Extension and Colleges.

In a collaboration with UW-Extension in Lincoln and Marathon Counties, UW-Marathon County and Madison Area Technical College, 2007 saw the successful completion of the first distance education credit course offering of the UW-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers, and it also saw an expansion of the course in its second academic year reaching more students in more locations. While distance education classes delivered online and through interactive media such as Wisline Web and compressed video are not new in the University of Wisconsin, offering a blended learning course that combines Wisline Web, local facilitation and co-taught with area farmers, from several sites around the state, is new. The first year of the course not only met the goal of bringing aspiring farmers together at a couple of distance locations, one in Wausau and the other at Reedsburg, with students in the classroom on the Madison campus, it also had two students take the course for credit and broke down institutional barriers by offering the class at the UW-Marathon County campus and Madison Area Technical College at its Reedsburg campus.

Graduates of the class in Wausau are already seeing a difference in their lives because of the knowledge they gained in the course and the support networks that are being created. One student took his initial business plan and modified it as the course progressed and has entered into an equity building relationship with an established farmer who helped teach in the class. Another student used the information to hold off starting his own farm until he gained more experience and put himself into a better equity position. The course introduced him to an established farmer that created a herdsman position that is providing the graduate with valuable experience while at the same time opening up equity building opportunities. The local dairy farmer sees local graduates as a great resource for farmers evaluating retirement or expansion opportunities. A third student, Lucinda Harlow, found the class to be extremely helpful in getting her and her husband’s new farm off to a good start. In a cover story article in the December 7, 2007 AgriView, a state farm newspaper, Harlow claimed that attending the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers at the Marathon County satellite site gave them the edge that they needed to establish their pasture-based dairy farm.  In the second year, which began in November of 2007, the course not only attracted more students to the Wausau site, going from 8 to 12, and the Madison site, going from 24 to 32, kept stable at the Reedsburg site, at 6 students, it expanded to two more sites, the Spooner Ag Research Station and the Price County Extension Office in Phillips, with 4 students each.

The Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers is demonstrating the value of not only improved distance education technology but the importance of local facilitation to provide farmers a place to meet and network in a positive learning environment.

Tom Cadwallader, Agricultural Development Agent - 2007 Success Story

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