The Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers offers qualified students the chance to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course, special training sessions, seminars in the management of grazing-based dairy farms, farm internships, mentoring by experienced graziers and UW faculty, classroom and field experience, and the potential for future support and training.

Applications must be received by Monday Oct. 23. Classes begin Nov. 13 and run through mid-March on the UW-Madison campus, followed by on-farm internships. Students who choose internships work and usually live on the farms of veteran Wisconsin graziers who serve as teachers and mentors. A variety of scholarships are available to help WSBDF students with tuition and internship expenses.

For individuals interested in the grass-based dairy seminar only, a distance education option is available. The seminar is available by internet hookup through participants” home computers. The distance education option costs $300 for the first person per site; additional students at one site are $100 per person.

Based at the UW-Madison”s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the distance education option will allow students to “meet” with the experts on their home computers. The seminar will be taught at the Animal Sciences building on the CALS campus, with audio and synchronized PowerPoint visuals transmitted over the Internet to home PCs.

Through presentations and discussions, the seminar will familiarize students with the principles and practices of developing and managing a grass-based dairy farm business. Instructors include grass-based dairy farmers, UW-Madison scientists and UW-Extension specialists and county agents, and representatives of ag lending and other ag agencies.

The course will meet on Wednesdays for three terms, beginning Nov. 15 and ending March 17, 2001.

Term 1 will cover starting a grass-based dairy business, including goal-setting, economic and agronomic principles, fencing, watering and lane construction, farm selection and layout, winter feeding and housing, and milking center design.

Term 2 will cover developing a business plan, including loans and grants, business arrangements for a dairy start-up, and software for start-up projections.

Term 3 will cover managing the business, including pasture nutrition and ration balancing, herd health, breeding and reproduction, and buying feed and selling milk.

To register for or learn more about the school or the distance learning options, call (608) 262-5200 or (608) 588-2836; fax: (608) 265-3020; mail: Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers, c/o CIAS, 146 Agriculture Hall, UW-Madison, Madison, WI 53706; e-mail: kmtaylor@aae.wisc.edu

You can also talk with WSBDF coordinator Dick Cates at the following events:

Oct. 4, 10 a.m.-noon meeting at the Lakeland Agricultural Complex, W3929 CTH NN, Elkhorn, Wis. The informational meeting will be held in the main building at the complex.

Oct. 4-8 in the CALS booth at World Dairy Expo in Madison.

Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. meeting at the USDA Dairy Forage Research Station, S2088 Hwy 78, Prairie Du Sac, Wis. Lunch included at no charge but preregistration is required by Oct. 4; call the WSBDF office at (608) 262-5200 to preregister. The meeting will be held in the main building at the station. In addition to WSBDF Coordinator Dick Cates, the meeting agenda will include speakers involved with the WSBDF, including a graduate of the program.

Oct. 19, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. pasture walk at the Tom and Sally McMahon farm, 21863 Jim Town Rd., Soldiers Grove, Wis. To get to the farm travel W on Hwy 14 about 1/4 mile from the intersection of CTH G/Hwy 14 at Bosstown, then S for 1/2 mile on Jim Town Rd.

Trempealeau Co.: Date and location to be announced; contact Mary Anderson, Grassland Conservationist, NRCS office, Whitehall, Wis., at (715) 538-4396 Ext.33 for meeting details.

The only program of its kind in the nation, the school is sponsored by the CALS Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and UW-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course, in cooperation with GrassWorks, Inc.; Cooperative Extension, UW-Extension; the Wisconsin Technical College System; and the Farm Link Service of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Additional support comes from the Mike Cannell Scholarship Fund and private endowments held within the UW Foundation.