Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers (WSBDF)

Emphasizing Business Planning and Pasture-Based Farm Management

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Staff

Our staff is passionate about helping beginning farmers succeed, and we practice what we preach!  And in addition to our core staff, we draw from a range of experts from experienced farmers and extension workers to business experts and lending professionals.

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Nadia Alber, M.S. is Director of the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers (WSBDF). The WSBDF is a program of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) and the Farm & Industry Short Course (FISC) at UW-Madison. Her work focuses on teaching, outreach and promotion for the WSBDF. She is co-instructor/facilitator for the Pasture-based Dairy & Livestock Seminar, a FISC course on Pasture Management, and an undergraduate Managed Grazing Field Study course. She organizes and promotes events to raise awareness and funds for the school; creates and staffs exhibits for farm conferences; and provides administrative support for the WSBDF. She also serves on the board of the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA). The WBSDF Pasture-based Dairy & Livestock Seminar is part of the core curriculum for this formalized 2-year Apprenticeship in agriculture.

Nadia received her graduate degree from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison in 2011. Before going to grad school, she spent over 5 years teaching math/science, outdoor education, wilderness leadership skills and general life skills to children and young adults. She spent summers as an interpretational park ranger and then as a field assistant in a mountain meadow restoration study out west. In 2009 she decided to go back to school and wanted to combine her love of sustainable food systems with her interest in conservation. She did her master’s research on cool-season grasses in a management-intensive rotational grazing (MiRG) system with Jackson (UW-Madison) and Brink (USDFRC). She believes that MiRG is a way for farmers to have a successful career while at the same time protecting valuable environmental resources, biological diversity and wildlife habitat. Nadia and her husband, Chad, run a diversified, small family farm in Arena, Wisconsin. They sell their organic vegetables, duck/chicken eggs, Berkshire pork and Jacob sheep meat/fleece/yarn at several farmers markets as well as directly to customers who come to their farm.

 

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Richard (Dick) L. Cates, Jr., Ph.D., and his wife, Kim, co-own and operate the Cates Family Farm LLC near Spring Green, Wisconsin, a managed grazing, direct-market grass-fed beef business they started in 1987. Dick holds a Senior Lecturer position in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is Emeritus Director of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers, a business and training program for start-up farmers which he helped create in 1995, and he co-teaches courses in grassland- and agro- ecology, pasture management, and managed grazing. Dick recently served on the WI DATCP Board of Directors and the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Council for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, and presently serves on his local River Valley Board of Education and the Southwest WI Community Action Board of Directors. He is a member of the WI Farm Bureau Federation, Farmers Union and Cattlemen’s Association, River Alliance of WI, GrassWorks, Friends of the Lower WI Riverway, Driftless Area land Conservancy, Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Spring Green Lions Club. He has worked internationally as a volunteer consultant with farmer-to-farmer assistance projects, most recently in Azerbaijan, China, Honduras, Mexico, Moldova, and South Africa. His book, Voices from the Heart of the Land: Rural Stories that Inspire Community (2008; University of Wisconsin Press), is based on conversations with elder rural citizens around their values about character and care for our land and rural community. The Cates family was recognized recently with the 2013 Sand County and WI Farm Bureau Federation Leopold Conservation Award for Wisconsin.

Support WSBDF:

Support WSBDF

The support of our many sponsors is what makes our work possible. Click the logo above to learn more about how you can support WSBDF.

Student Testimonials

“You have the opportunity to make lifelong friends; you have so many people there that have the same interests and the same drive.”

"I'm by nature a cynic who doesn't often run into programs, meetings, or groups that truly embody optimism and change, but WSBDF manages to accomplish that in a humble and practical way."

"I can sincerely say that the WSBDF course was everything I had hoped for, and then some. I met a lot of great people, learned an incredible amount, and came out of the experience feeling inspired"

“The most beneficial thing by far was…the network of people I met – classmates and mentors – that are actively farming…to learn from what they are doing and compare [these things] to what I’m doing.”

"We came away with a barn-full of inspiration, and the solid ground-under-our-feet feeling of having been shown 'how it is' with all the beauty and the sweat right there."

“I took the grazing courses [with WSBDF]…and this is the best crash course I’m ever going to get.”

“I really enjoyed all the speakers we had and all the real life experiences they were able to share.”

“The School made me think outside of the box…and look at the many ways to approach a farm business.”

“My fears were primarily financial. The WSBDF showed me that there were different institutions…to loan me money and that is what really got me started."

"The quality and depth of the presenters for the WSBDF has given our family a top notch how-to manual for entering into a grazing based business and life."

“The School opened my eyes up to a different direction of farming that has worked out very well for me. WSBDF was very important in my decision to start a grass-based dairy farm.”

“The business plan put it all into reality. It gave me confidence."

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Read more about

  • Pasture Management Course Now Available Online!
  • Now Available Online!
  • Learning from the Experts
  • A Business Planning Emphasis

Ride to Farm

Link to Ride to Farm Website

Each year the WSBDF hosts Ride to Farm, a 100K bike ride with rest stops at local farms. All proceeds from this amazing event support the WSBDF endowment. Click the Ride to Farm logo above to learn more.

Barn Dance

Barn Dance

The Partnering for Progress’s Barn Dance & Chautauqua celebrates Wisconsin’s working lands, and raises funds to support the important work of the nonprofit partner organizations, including WSBDF. And it's a lot of fun! Click on the image above to learn more!

WSBDF

Sponsored by the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and the Farm and Industry Short Course, both within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and by Badgerland Financial, Culver’s Restaurants, Organic Valley, Wisconsin Cattleman’s Association, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and Wisconsin Farmers Union; with additional support from the NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and individual and corporate contributions to the UW Foundation WSBDF Endowment Fund. A full list of each year's contributors is available in our newsletter, available through the link below:

2018 Newsletter

Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers

The WSBDF office is located in the Soil Science Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus.

Mailing Address:

1535 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Phone:

608-265-6437

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