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Agriculture Training Program

Curriculum | 2011 Video | Staff/Contact | Student Testimonials

Learn how to start and run your own small organic farm!

Applications are  being accepted for the 2013 Pro­gram which begins March 11th!

Ag Training Program Overview

2011 student Adam Brown

This full-time, 7-month long expe­ri­en­tial pro­gram is for aspir­ing farm­ers seek­ing to learn and prac­tice the tech­ni­cal and busi­ness skills needed to run a small-scale organic farm. Through coop­er­a­tively man­ag­ing the Center’s ten-acre farm and attend­ing weekly lec­tures, dis­cus­sions and demon­stra­tions on top­ics includ­ing organic crop pro­duc­tion, soil sci­ence, busi­ness plan­ning, and direct mar­ket­ing, par­tic­i­pants will acquire a thor­ough edu­ca­tion in organic small farm man­age­ment. Par­tic­i­pants also engage in inde­pen­dent stud­ies includ­ing monthly book reports, a research project and the cre­ation of a per­sonal busi­ness plan. Bi-weekly field trips to regional farms allow par­tic­i­pants to see a vari­ety of farm­ing styles and talk to expe­ri­enced pro­duc­ers. Through man­age­ment of the GFATC Farm, par­tic­i­pants develop their prac­ti­cal farm skills includ­ing plan­ning, tillage, green­house prop­a­ga­tion, weed­ing, har­vest­ing, mar­ket­ing, record keep­ing and more. Stu­dents also learn to build a green­house, oper­ate trac­tors, make com­post and man­age the farm’s poul­try and bees. With the skills and knowl­edge gained and a busi­ness plan in hand, pro­gram grad­u­ates are ready to start or man­age their own small organic farm.

Program Instruction

An edu­ca­tional proverb states,“Hear and For­get, See and Remem­ber, Do and Under­stand”. In this spirit, our full­time pro­gram is focused on pro­vid­ing a hands-on expe­ri­ence that allows con­cur­rent aca­d­e­mic stud­ies to come to life.

Students learn to operate equipment safely

For 29 hours each week, par­tic­i­pants are in the fields of our five acre farm learn­ing about, and work­ing on, pro­duc­ing organic veg­eta­bles for sale through a 50-member CSA pro­gram, a farm­ers mar­ket and local retail­ers. The farm also grows a vari­ety of seed crops, berries, veg­etable research plots and cover crops. The Farm Man­ager trains and guides par­tic­i­pants in-group ses­sions and/or indi­vid­u­ally as needed and par­tic­i­pants work both coop­er­a­tively and indi­vid­u­ally to accom­plish the farm work. This work includes bed prepa­ra­tion, plant prop­a­ga­tion, weed­ing, har­vest­ing, deliv­er­ing pro­duce, run­ning the mar­ket stand, cover crop­ping, mak­ing com­post, trel­lis­ing, and much more. Farm respon­si­bil­i­ties are rotated within the group to ensure that each par­tic­i­pant has an oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence all aspects of the farm. By August, a foun­da­tion of skills and con­cepts has been estab­lished and par­tic­i­pants are encour­aged to fur­ther develop their skills by tak­ing coop­er­a­tive lead­er­ship of the farm and make farm man­age­ment deci­sions with feed­back and assis­tance from the Farm Man­ager. (Please note: Accom­plish­ing farm work is a phys­i­cal activ­ity that requires par­tic­i­pants to be phys­i­cally active and out­doors on a daily basis for seven months. Before apply­ing, please con­sider your abil­ity to per­form this level of activity.)

For 10 hours each week, par­tic­i­pants take part in classes and dis­cus­sions on the pro­duc­tion, busi­ness, eco­log­i­cal and social con­cepts that lie behind the prac­ti­cal work. On Mon­day morn­ings the class walks around the farm, observ­ing and dis­cussing changes in the crops while strate­giz­ing man­age­ment options and plan­ning the upcom­ing week’s work. On Wednes­day morn­ings, we com­plete, review and refine the farm’s busi­ness, mar­ket­ing and record keep­ing aspects while in the after­noons, we meet to dis­cuss and deepen our rela­tion­ships to each other and cre­ate a team atmos­phere of respect and sup­port. This meet­ing encour­ages par­tic­i­pants to develop their com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lis­ten­ing skills while fos­ter­ing a group dynamic that is pos­i­tive and pro­duc­tive. Thurs­day after­noons are the core of our Farm School aca­d­e­mic pro­gram­ming with a three-hour class exam­in­ing organic crop pro­duc­tion, busi­ness plan­ning and direct mar­ket­ing con­cepts. In this class, we uti­lize and review the two cur­ric­ula devel­oped at the Cen­ter for Agroe­col­ogy and Sus­tain­able Food Sys­tems (CASFS) as well as other resources.

In addi­tion to time spent on the farm and in the class­room, par­tic­i­pants work on inde­pen­dent read­ing and research projects includ­ing a busi­ness plan, a research project and monthly book reports. After ini­tial group dis­cus­sions on the projects, par­tic­i­pants work inde­pen­dently in their own time and meet sep­a­rately with the Farm Man­ager every two weeks to review the progress made and deter­mine the next steps. When com­pleted, par­tic­i­pants share and present their reports to the group. Our goal for the busi­ness plan project is to sup­port par­tic­i­pants in thor­oughly ana­lyz­ing their per­sonal farm­ing goals and help them cre­ate a real­is­tic plan towards accom­plish­ing them. The research projects will be focused on devel­op­ing or improv­ing aspects of the farm and may include crop vari­ety tri­als, soil man­age­ment alter­na­tives, pest man­age­ment strate­gies, resource con­ser­va­tion strate­gies or other par­tic­i­pant ini­tia­tives approved by the Man­ager. Each project lasts 12 weeks and gen­er­ally takes 50 — 60 hours to complete.

Student Testimonials

Curious to hear how graduates have viewed their experience at the GF Agriculture Training Program? Visit our Student Testimonials page to see student reflections on their time at the program and learn about what they’re doing now.

Certified Organic

Our farm is cer­ti­fied organic and par­tic­i­pants are taught key cer­ti­fi­ca­tion stan­dards as well as how to cer­tify a farm. Stu­dents are involved in all required record keep­ing and par­tic­i­pate in the annual cer­ti­fi­ca­tion inspection.

Setting

The Ag Train­ing Cen­ter Farm is located at the Green­bank Farm on Whid­bey Island in Wash­ing­ton State. The farm’s 151 acres are publicly-owned and include fields, for­est and wet­lands as well as a 10-acre eco­nomic devel­op­ment cen­ter.  Its mar­itime cli­mate offers wet mild win­ters and cool dry sum­mers while views of the waters of the Saratoga Pas­sage and the Cas­cade Moun­tains rise from the gardens.

The tuition cost for the full­ time Train­ing Pro­gram is $5200. An ini­tial $1000 is due upon accep­tance of a posi­tion in the pro­gram. The bal­ance is due by the first day of train­ing. Pay­ment plans may be arranged based on need. Stu­dents are respon­si­ble for pur­chas­ing sev­eral books and hand tools that they keep when the pro­gram ends (total costs of around $150). Hous­ing pay­ments are due at the begin­ning of each month. A secu­rity deposit is due upon move-in.

AmeriCorps Education Awards may be applied toward expenses associated with the Agriculture Training Program.

Contact Us

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Sebas­t­ian Aguilar
Farm and Train­ing Man­ager
trainingcenter@greenbankfarm.com
(360)222‑3171
765 Wonn Rd A-201
Green­bank, WA, 98253

Ag Training Center Partners

The small farms and farm­ers of Puget Sound
The Organic Seed Alliance (http://www.seedalliance.org/)
WSU Island County Exten­sion (http://county.wsu.edu/island/Pages/default.aspx)
WSU Mount Ver­non Research Cen­ter (http://mtvernon.wsu.edu)
Tilth Pro­duc­ers of Wash­ing­ton http://www.tilthproducers.org/ & South Whid­bey Tilth http://www.southwhidbeytilth.org/
Goose­foot (http://www.goosefoot.org/)
Good Cheer Com­mu­nity Food Bank Garden  http://goodcheergarden.wordpress.com/
Deer Lagoon Grange (http://www.deerlagoongrange.com/)
Whid­bey Insti­tute http://www.whidbeyinstitute.org/

Support for our Programs and Educational Training

The con­tin­ued cre­ation of a sus­tain­able agri­cul­tural sys­tem that includes our land, our food — our health – and our com­mu­nity, will be in the hands of the small but grow­ing group of moti­vated young farm­ers that are start­ing small-scale, organic, direct-market farm­ing oper­a­tions around the coun­try. These young farm­ers have the pas­sion, intel­lect and strength to over­come the hur­dles placed before us by the grad­ual indus­tri­al­iza­tion of agri­cul­ture over the past 150 years. To ensure that these farm­ers suc­ceed, they must have access to oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn and expe­ri­ence the best man­age­ment prac­tices of organic farm­ing as well as how to plan and oper­ate finan­cially prof­itable busi­nesses. The New Farmer Train­ing Cen­ter has taken on this mis­sion and has suc­cess­fully pro­vided its stu­dents with a com­pre­hen­sive edu­ca­tion in how to start and oper­ate a small-scale organic farm.

Our sup­port comes from pri­vate and pub­lic sources: indi­vid­u­als, foun­da­tions, busi­nesses and grants from the United States Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture. We are a pro­gram of the Green­bank Farm not-for-profit organization.

For the past three years, we have been build­ing the farm infra­struc­ture nec­es­sary to sup­port our land stew­ard­ship activ­i­ties and small farm busi­ness activ­i­ties. This includes stu­dent hous­ing, work­spaces, tools, green­houses, trac­tors, imple­ments, fenc­ing and an irri­ga­tion sys­tem. While a basic and func­tional sys­tem has been put into place, infra­struc­ture is expen­sive and in farm­ing – most costs are ‘front end’ costs. We have many improve­ments to bet­ter demon­strate best prac­tices planned and a fundrais­ing effort is under­way to accom­plish them.

Please con­sider a gift to our pro­gram. For more infor­ma­tion on giv­ing to the Train­ing Cen­ter, please contact us at gbfarm@greenbankfarm.com or 360.678.7710.