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California Farm Academy

Curriculum

The California Farm Academy (CFA) training program consists of 32 weeks of classes, hands-on experience, farm visits and other field trips during a nine-month period. Session 2 will start on January 29, 2013 and meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 pm – 7:30 pm and two Saturdays per month through April, then Tuesdays and every other Saturday through October 15.

You will get more than 250 hours of training time between courses and farm visits, time spent learning by doing, as well as mentoring and lectures by farmers and agricultural professionals. Your time will be spent in the classroom, the greenhouse, out in the field or packing shed, and on the farms of some of the region’s most successful farmers and ranchers.

Attendance and participation are critical to your success in the training program and as a beginning farmer. Graded (pass/fail) work will consist largely of class participation, including activities and worksheets, keeping a field journal, take-home reading and short homework assignments.


seeds sprouting in a tray

There are also two long-term assignments:

  1. a business plan that will be developed in and out of class during the nine months and which you will present to a panel of farmers and lenders prior to graduation;
  2. an independent study project in the middle of the session. The independent study project will allow you to focus in more depth on your specific farming and marketing goals and requires you to seek information from outside resources; examples include trying to obtain a loan from a bank or the Farm Service Agency; seeking entry to a farmer’s market or food cooperative; or researching the growth requirements of a particular crop variety.

Your individual learning plan, created by you and a program advisor and based on your background, farming and marketing goals, will shape your California Farm Academy experience. The learning plan will detail the core classes, electives, time spent working in the field and your independent study project, which combine to fulfill the total number of required hours and competencies needed for graduation.

Topics that you will explore led by CFA teachers, farmers, academic faculty and staff from colleges and universities, agricultural, natural resource and business professionals include:

The California Farm Academy’s farm business incubator program also provides farmland for lease to qualified CFA graduates. Successful attendance, participation and an approved crop plan and business plan are required to lease land in the incubator program. Plots of land (some organic) from ¼ acre to 1 acre or more are available at the Center for Land-Based Learning, UC Davis Russell Ranch, and/or other sites to be determined.