Agroforestry Training Academy

The Agroforestry Training 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.

5-Week Online Course: April 12 – May 14, 2027

4-Day In-Person Field Experience: May 25 – 28, 2027

Applications Now Open for the 2027 Agroforestry Training Academy

Submit Your Application

Application form closes December 6, 2026

Due to the unprecedented level of interest in our Agroforestry Academy over the last few years, we are maintaining application-based enrollment for our programming. If you have any questions or clarifications about this process, please contact Kelsi Stubblefield (k.stubblefield@missouri.edu).

About the Agroforestry Training Academy

The Agroforestry Academy takes place as a 5-week online course with an additional 4-day in-person field experience component 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 4-6 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 4-day field experience portion of the academy will take place in Mid-Missouri and will feature 8 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.

Past field experiences Have featured 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!
  • Three Creeks Farm and Forest, a diversified farm with vegetables, herbs, flowers and wild edibles, including high value forest botanicals and a pawpaw alley cropping system.
  • Rusted Plowshare Farm organic chestnuts, sheep and pig silvopasture, intergenerational farm management.
  • Cedar Hill Farms chestnut alley cropping at scale, processing and packaging infrastructure.
  • Green Pastures Farm woods-grown culinary mushrooms, cattle silvopasture 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.
  • The Missouri River Center hub for place-based conservation education, robust alley cropping and riparian forest buffer demonstration plantings.
  • 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 Orchard and Winery

For questions about the Academy, please contact Kelsi Stubblefield at k.stubblefield@missouri.edu or by phone at (573) 884-3161.

2027 Academy Pricing:

Please note: prices are subject to change each year.

$800 (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.

$1,800 (Online course + 4-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 4-day field experience. All food and lodging costs included in this fee.


If cost limits your ability to attend or you would like more information about available financial support, please contact Kelsi Stubblefield (k.stubblefield@missouri.edu)

Program Background

Agroforestry offers a novel approach to land management that provides opportunities to combine productivity and profitability with environmental stewardship, resulting in healthy and sustainable agricultural systems that can be passed on to future generations. To advance adoption of agroforestry as a cornerstone of productive land use, a week-long agroforestry academy was developed and offered first in 2013 by a regional consortium of experts from Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Agroforestry Academy is now an annual offering through the MU Center for Agroforestry. The Academy is designed to train farmers as well as natural resource professionals, extension agents, and other agricultural educators who work with farmers and land managers. Advanced training is provided on temperate zone agroforestry practices integrated with options for processing and marketing, social and economic dimensions, and ecosystem services.

The central activity of the program is an applied planning and design exercise. Academy trainees gain hands on practice in agroforestry design based on the needs of a working farm. Academy trainers and graduates form the core of the knowledge infrastructure needed to enhance farmer/landowner adoption of agroforestry, resulting in increased sustainability of rural communities and agricultural systems.

Sarah Lovell, PhD, Former Director of the Center for Agroforestry

Michael Gold, PhD, Associate Director of the Center for Agroforestry

Hannah Hemmelgarn, Assistant Program Director at the Center for Agroforestry

Ashley Conway, PhD, Silvopasture Faculty at the Center for Agroforestry

Ron Revord, PhD, Tree Crop Breeding Faculty at the Center for Agroforestry

Zhen Cai, PhD, Agroforestry Economics Faculty at the Center for Agroforestry

Dusty Walter, PhD, University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

Patrick Byers, University of Missouri Extension, Field Specialist in Horticulture

Andy Thomas, University of Missouri Southwest Research Center, Research Assistant Professor

Lauren Cartwright, Missouri Natural Resources Conservation Service EQIP Coordinator

Joe Alley, Missouri Natural Resources Conservation Service State Forester

Richard Straight, USDA National Agroforestry Center, Lead Agroforester

Kate MacFarland, USDA National Agroforestry Center, Agroforester

Leo Sharashkin, PhD, Horizontal Hive, Forest Beekeeper

Greg Judy, Green Pastures, silvopasture practitioner

Eliza Greenman, HogTree, silvopasture practitioner

Stesha Warren, Eliana’s Garden, forest farming practitioner

John F. Munsell, Virginia Tech forestry faculty, forest farming outreach

Katie Commender, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Appalachian Harvest Herb Hub

Bill Stouffer, Cedar Hill Farms, chestnut and elderberry producer

Kathy Dice, Red Fern Farm, producer – pawpaw, chestnut, and many other specialty perennial crops

Terry Durham, River Hills Harvest, elderberry producer

Austin Unruh, Crow & Berry Land Management, and Trees for Graziers, silvopasture and buffer practitioner

John Hendrickson, University of Wisconsin, Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, Farm Viability Specialist

Emily Wright, Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri president and Three Creeks Farm & Forest producer

Roger Blackwell, Chestnut Growers of America president

Greg Miller, Route 9 Chestnut Cooperative

Catherine Bukowski, Kindred Roots Design, author of The Community Food Forests Handbook

Josh Payne, chestnut and hazelnut producer, sheep silvopasture practitioner

…and many more!

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