Agroforestry Training Academy
2024 Agroforestry Academy
April 15 – May 17 (Online Course)
May 28 – 31 & June 4 – 7 (3-Day In-Person Field Experience)
The Agroforestry Academy is an intensive educational program designed for agriculture and natural resources professionals & farmers to gain an in-depth understanding of agroforestry practices, design concepts, species selection and management, economics and marketing, and more.
Applications for the 2024 Academy have closed.
Deadline – December 10, 2023
Notice: Due to increased demand on our Agroforestry Academy programming, we are shifting to application-based enrollment this year. Applications will be reviewed and considered throughout December, and we will notify you in early 2024 if you have been accepted or waitlisted. Upon acceptance, we will contact you to finalize payment, inform you of scholarship availability and next steps, etc.
We will offer 2024 Agroforestry Academy spots to individuals on the waitlist as they become available. We can also connect individuals on the waitlist to other agroforestry training programs or other relevant resources.
For questions about registration, contact Kelsi Stubblefield at k.stubblefield@missouri.edu or by phone at (573) 884-3161.
The 2024 Agroforestry Academy will take place both as a 5-week online course with an additional 3-day in-person field experience component at the Center for Agroforestry in Mid-Missouri to complement the online coursework.
The 5-week online course will take place in Canvas, a virtual learning platform, with recorded presentations and extensive course materials; Zoom meet-up and consultation sessions with agroforestry professionals, researchers, and experienced growers; virtual farm tours; and networking opportunities. Each week, approximately four-six hours of dedicated time for the course is expected.
The course content includes:
- An overview of temperate agroforestry practices, planning, design, and management
- Land access and financing opportunities for agroforestry
- Perennial tree and shrub crops cultivation including chestnut, walnut, pecan, hazelnut, elderberry, pawpaw, forest botanicals, fungi and others
- Planning and design process walk-through for your site
- Soil and water conservation considerations
- Integrating livestock, from bees to bison
- Processing and marketing infrastructure and cooperative models
- Long-term economic planning for perennial crops
…and more!
Participants will have the opportunity to meet with instructors and farmers to discuss their plans, progress, questions, and insights. These direct consultation sessions are ideal for those just getting started on-the-ground, for professionals seeking to learn and apply this information in their work, and for those looking to expand their network of agroforestry practitioners as mentors.
The 3-day field experience portion of the academy will take place in Mid-Missouri and will feature 5 farm visits with hands-on learning opportunities at each site to help ground the agroforestry content knowledge covered in the online course, and to empower participants with peer learning and knowledge exchange.
The field experience will feature These Visits & Activities & More:
- MU Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Farm cultivar trials, forest farming demos, and two decades of agroforestry field research, including pecan, black walnut, chestnut, hazelnut, elderberry, pawpaw, silvopasture, buffers, biomass, and more!
- Rusted Plowshare Farm organic alley cropping with hazelnuts and chestnuts, sheep silvopasture, intergenerational farm management.
- Cedar Hill Farms chestnut and elderberry at scale, processing and packaging infrastructure.
- The Mother Farm diversified perennial crops and innovative marketing strategies, multi-species silvopasture, and community agroforestry.
- Green Pastures Farm woods-grown culinary mushrooms, silvopasture with cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens at Greg Judy’s home farm.
- Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture’s Ag Park demonstration food forest, native perennial herbaceous and woody guilds, public education site.
- + Networking and beautiful Missouri River views at the A-Frame
- Mushroom inoculation for forest-grown fungi
- Tree grafting demonstration
- Forest thinning exercise for silvopasture establishment
- Management and processing equipment demonstrations
- Elderberry wine, cocktails, and networking at ElderBlossom View Vineyard
2024 Academy Pricing:
$750 (5-week online course only)
Includes all course materials (electronic and/or hard copies), weekly discussions with agroforestry producers/researchers, and access to Canvas course for one year.
$1,750 (Online course + 3-day in-person field experience)
Includes all course materials (electronic and/or hard copies), weekly discussions with agroforestry producers/researchers, access to Canvas course for one year, and enrollment in the 3-day field experience. All food and lodging costs included in this fee.