Grow Your Farm Dreams and Cultivate New Skills with Online Courses
Do you want to grow your farm dreams in the new year? Register now for our next block of online farming courses, which begin in live instruction in January. These courses cover a range of topics any farmer needs to succeed, such as access to capital, holistic financial planning, sheep production, vegetable production, and so much more.
Our online courses are designed to be flexible and user-friendly. All course materials are stored on our easy-to-use web platform, which you can access for life after enrolling in a course. Tune in to weekly webinars to hear from experts and ask questions in real time, and complete all other course reading and assignments when it works for you.
Registration is open for all courses, with live content starting in mid-January for our third block of courses.
Mondays: January 12 – February 16
It can be very difficult to navigate the process of getting grants or loans, especially if you did not come to farming with a background in finance. This course will cover the various aspects of seeking funding for a farm enterprise.
Tuesdays: January 13 – February 17
Interested in incorporating goats for dairy, meat, or fiber? Goats can function as a profitable stand-alone enterprise or can be integrated into your existing farm structure to provide a variety of products and make use of marginal lands that would otherwise go unused.
Indoor Specialty Mushroom Production
Tuesdays: January 13 – February 17
Mushrooms are an emerging niche crop and can easily be grown. This course trains new and experienced farmers in the background, techniques, marketing, and economics of farm-scale indoor commercial production.
Martes: 13 de enero – 17 de febrero
¿Tiene una idea para una empresa agrícola pero no está seguro de si es factible? Este curso le ayudará a explorar los mercados potenciales y la rentabilidad de sus ideas, retomando el punto donde lo dejó BF 101: Como Iniciar su Negocios Agrícola. (Si no tomo BF 101, no hay problema, aun así puede tomar BF 102).
Tuesdays: January 13 – February 17
If you’ve been struggling to make your farm operation profitable without driving yourself into the ground, this financial planning course is for you. You will learn how to make financial decisions toward farm and family values and goals.
Wednesdays: January 14 – February 18
Discover the many ways of combining trees, forage, and animals in useful, efficient, practical, and profitable arrangements on your farm. When you take this course, you’ll be able to describe, plan for, and evaluate particular silvopasture practices and understand their place in the broader categories of Silvopasture and Agroforestry.
Wednesdays: January 14 – February 18
Continue where Vegetable Production I leaves off – expand upon production from transplanting to harvest, including information on in-season fertility, integrated pest management, weed control options, harvesting strategies, and tips for marketing your products.
Exploring Markets and Profits
Thursdays: January 15 – February 19
Have an idea for a farm enterprise but not sure if it’s feasible? This course will help you explore the potential markets and profitability of your ideas, picking up where BF 101: Starting at Square One (not a prerequisite) left off.
Thursdays: January 15 – February 19
Have sheep or thinking about getting a flock? Producers of all experience levels will find something for them in this lively, wide-ranging course. There is no one right way to raise sheep — this course covers many of these different options.
In our ongoing commitment to equitable access to education, we have maintained tiered pricing for our courses based on household size and income. We also offer scholarships for eligible farmers in New York who face an entry barrier to farming, and for military veterans in New York State.
A new course being offered this year is “Silvopasture: Integrate Trees, Livestock, and Forage for Multiple Wins on Your Farm” which begins live instruction on Wednesdays, January 14 – February 18. This course will give you the tools to create silvopasture plans for your farm, and to engage with the topic of silvopasture as a practitioner and experimenter.
In recent years we added “Growing Uncommon Fruit,” which will help you determine whether incorporating uncommon fruit into your operation is the right decision for you, “Goat Production,” which will guide beginning farmers through the production and marketing of goats for dairy, meat and fiber, and “Identifying and Partnering with Mushrooms in Farms, Gardens and Forests” to teach you basic ID, species, life cycle, and potential applications of mushrooms to solve community-level challenges.
Other newer additions include “Stress Reduction for Farmers,” which offers strategies for streamlining your farm; “Access to Capital” for anyone seeking funding for a farm enterprise; “Cut Flower Production” on the business of flower farming; a course on “Beef Cattle Management;” a primer on “Social Media & Online Marketing” for your farm business; and a 4-week intensive in how “Reading the Land” can help you monitor its health.
You can browse all of our course offerings on our website. You can learn more about our courses, including answers to common questions, on our course FAQ.
