Other Ag News: Learn How to Grow Your Agricultural Business with Our Courses

A diverse farm is a resilient one, and there are many ways an agricultural business can expand and grow. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned producer, our online ourses can give you the confidence to incorporate and scale vegetables, berries, mushrooms, poultry, maple, or cut flowers in your operation.

Join our second block of online courses, starting live instruction next month, and gain the tools to get started in a new enterprise, from site assessment, to growing techniques, to marketing and sales.

Our online courses are designed to be flexible and user-friendly. All course materials are stored on our single, 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 now for all courses. Make sure to enroll for our first block of classes, which will run for six weeks beginning November 3.

BF 120: Vegetable Production I

Wednesdays from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET

This course helps new and aspiring vegetable producers answer basic questions about site, soil and planning up through planting. Topics covered include soil health, crop layout and rotation, equipment, and financial aspects of vegetable production. Don’t miss BF 121: Vegetable Production II, the continuation of this course, which takes you through the growing season from planting to harvest.

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BF 122: Berry Production

Tuesdays from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET

If you’re exploring the idea of adding berries and bramble fruits to your farm, this course will help you consider all the aspects of this decision, from varieties and site selection all the way through profit potential and marketing.

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BF 130: Poultry Production

Tuesdays from 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. ET

Many new farmers get started with poultry, because it’s a relatively low-investment enterprise with a fairly quick turnaround time from start-up to revenue. The margins can be slim though, and farmers need to develop the necessary skill set to produce a product that is both safe and profitable. This course will help you get started with all the basic information to build a successful poultry enterprise.

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BF 151: Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation

Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET

Mushrooms are an emerging niche crop with many benefits, including improving farmer stewardship of forested lands and the ability to offer a unique and highly desired product. With a bit of practice, mushrooms can be easily grown outdoors on many materials and in alignment with the seasonal and cyclical nature of outdoor growing. This course trains new and experienced farmers in the background, techniques, and economics of outdoor mushroom production. Students will learn the basic biology of mushrooms, cultivation techniques for shiitake, oyster, lion’s mane, and other easy to grow mushrooms, proper conditions for fruiting outdoors, managing pests and other issues, and harvesting and marketing strategies.

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BF 152: Intro to Maple Syrup Production

Mondays from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET

Maple syrup production is rapidly growing around the Northeast and offers a sound financial opportunity to utilize woodlots. This course explores the range possibilities of maple sugaring on your land – be it for supplemental income or for your livelihood. Also discussed are “alternative” trees for production, including Birch and Black Walnut. The content presented assumes the student has little past knowledge of sugaring, but a background in agriculture or forestry will be very helpful.

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BF 170: Cut Flower Production

Thursdays from 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET

Fields of flowers are dreamy and bursting with joyful color, but unless you have background knowledge on production techniques and a solid plan for selling them, those flowers can be more costly than profitable or enjoyable. This course will introduce you to the topics, resources and questions you’ll need to answer if you intend to operate a flower farm or add flower production as one component of an established business.

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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.

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.

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