MILLHEIM, Pa. — USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) a three-year, $390,000 grant to fund its Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA).
Program
The Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship combines two years of full-time, paid, on-the-job training, with related instruction, culminating in a federally-accredited Journey Dairy Grazier certification.
By treating farming as the skilled profession it is, DGA has grown from a small group of farmers in Wisconsin, in 2010, to a network of over 100 Master Grazier farms and over 200 apprentice candidates, spanning 10 states.
Since partnering with DGA (in 2016) in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region, PASA has enrolled nine Master Graziers and three Apprentices in the program.
Over the course of the next three years, PASA anticipates certifying seven Journey Dairy Graziers, while enrolling a total of 15 Apprentices on Master Grazier dairy farms.
Collaborations
A key partner in this work is the Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence (CDE), which will help Masters and Apprentices develop business plans and improve profitability on the farm.
PASA will also partner with the Pennsylvania Grazing Lands Coalition (PAGLC) by developing multiple educational events each year aimed at supporting and strengthening local grazing networks.
Finally, PASA will collaborate with scientists at the USDA-ARS Pastures Lab to develop a capstone project, wherein Apprentices will work with computer models to guide management decisions and build a holistic understanding of dairy agroecosystems.
For more information about DGA, visit www.dga-national.org.
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