organic farm practicum - pss 209 z1 - course syllabus

7/29/2019 Organic Farm Practicum - PSS 209 Z1 - Course Syllabus

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Organic Farm Practicum (3 credits)Summer

PSS 209

Jessica Sanford

Office: University Heights South, Room 9Email: [email protected]

Phone: 802-656-9833

Class Meetings: Mondays and Thursday at 8-8:45 am

Monday, May 20 Friday, August 9

Farm work expectations = 8 hours of farm work a week from June 1 to August 30

Course Description

Students will learn farm management and production techniques by running a farm, and by

interacting with local organic vegetable growers. As an experiential learning course, students

will gain experience in implementing their business and farm management plans generated

from the spring course, Organic Farm Practicum PSS 196. This course will emphasize field

management, customer relations, problem-solving skills, team management, and your hard

work in the field!

Course PhilosophyMy role in this course is to act as a facilitator and guide for students to learn what business and

technical skills needed for farming. Experiential learning in sustainable agriculture can be awonderfully-rich experience for students because of the multitude of possibilities. While this

course is not meant to teach you everything about agriculture, it is intended to expose students

to the farming business while emphasizing accountability and responsibility. In this course, you

will draw from your previous agricultural courses and experiences to decide on how you will

farm. Within Vermont, we are also quite fortunate to be part of such a vibrant and open

sustainable agriculture community, and this course serves to connect students with agricultural

professionals.

The course is focused on farming at Common Ground Student Organic Farm. Running a farm is

hard work, and a big part of running a farm together is learning how to work together. My roleas a facilitator will also be to help students to work together.

I will be challenging you to think in depth how to improve operations. My role is to provide

contacts and resources to help you in the areas that you may not knowledgeable. It is your

responsibility to follow up on these leads and to be prepared for class with whatever resources

are needed.


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Course Structure

The course will consist of weekly meetings, working at the HRC, assisting with harvests in the

fall, and an independent project to improve the farm operations. Running a farm is hard work,

and everyone is expected to pull their share. Your efforts on the farm will be evaluated by your

peers, and will count towards your final grade. This means that showing up, being punctual,working hard, and being conscientious will convince the other student farmers that you are

pulling your weight.

Class trips

We will have three work trips to visit vegetable growers. At the start of the summer semester,

we will work on the scheduling of these trips. We will identify areas where we are deficient in

knowledge. The following growers have graciously agreed to provide training. We will then

practice these skills on their farm, by working with them for part of the day. We will need a 4-8

hour block of time for these farm visits.

Farm visits Farm Date

Andy Jones Intervale Community Farm, Burlington, VT TBD

Spencer Welton Half Pint Farm, Burlington, VT TBD

Grading PointsIndividual farm improvement proposal 50

Individual farm improvement report 100

Organic Certification records 100

Assessment of farm season report 100

Attendance 50

Peer evaluation of farm work 125

Picture documentation 25

Total 550

General Grading Rubric

I will grade based upon how well you addressed all the questions in the assignment, and the

level of detail and realism put into your answer.

Assignments/Sources of Grades

1. Individual Farm Improvementproposal (50 points)


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In the beginning of the course in June, we will meet as a group and identify the priorities

for the farm in the upcoming season. Topics can include: controlling weeds in cover

cropped fields, improving labor management and communication, cutting losses in

trickle tape over the season, improving records management, or finding varieties that

work well on the Common Ground plots. Students will pick topics from this list, and

work on them throughout the course. These topics need to be substantial enough todedicate one student (work-hour equivalent) for the season.

In this farm proposal, you provide the background justification for the

improvements that you are planning for the upcoming farm season. The proposals

should be a minimum of 2 pages (double-spaced, 12 point font). Please use the relevant

literature (research journals, extension reports, online information) to support your

justification for your proposal.

Key points to address:

a. What is the problem? (5 points)b. What are you proposing to do? (10 points)c. What is your justification for your proposal? (15 points)d. What will your methods be? (10 points)e. How will you evaluate if this was successful? (10 points)

2. Individual Farm Improvement report(100 points) Due Dec. 9In the Individual Farm Improvement report, you will report on the outcomes of your

Individual Farm Improvement project.

Address the following questions in your report,

a. What was the problem? (5 points)b. What did you propose to do to address the

problem? (5 points)

c. Describe what you did? (25 points)d. What were your results? (25 points)e. Why do you that it solved the problem? You

may include photos for documentation in your report. (20 points)

f. What would you recommend for the nextgeneration of Common Ground students? (20 points)

3. Organic Certification records (100points) Oct 28Please read Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF) Guidelines for Certification of Vegetable

Crops. VOF follows the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) list of approved

materials for use on organic agriculture. To collect the following information, I will

expect you to work closely with your fellow farmers, especially the full-time crew. You


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can also choose to work together to collect all of the records. The following information

needs to be collected over the entire season.

Records required for organic certification include the following:

Field production logs that include crops planted, dates and rates of manure, compost,

fertilizer or other input applications Greenhouse records

Spray records

Harvest yields for each crop

Sales records

Current and updated farm maps with all boundaries, buffer areas and natural features

Purchase records for all inputs (ex. amendments, pest controls)

Receipts for all purchased seeds

If untreated non-organic seed is purchased, documentation must be available that

organic versions were commercially unavailable

Untreated and/or inoculated seed labels (to verify that the product has not been

treated with prohibited substances)

Production, harvest and/or sales records for buffer crops, transitional or conventional

crops

4. Assessment of farm season (100points) Due Dec. 9In this report, you will provide your assessment of the field season at Common Ground,

and your suggestions for the next years crew. I will be expecting a minimum of an 8

page paper (double-spaced) at the end of the fall semester. In this write-up, you should

answer the following questions:

1. What were the five most important field management lessons that you learned overthis season? (25 points)

2. What worked this season and what didnt? Why? (25 points)3. How did you manage labor issues? What worked and what didnt? (10 points)4. What were the top three things that the budget was spent on? Why? (10 points)5. What do you think you will do differently and what kind of information do you think

is important to pass on to the next generation of Common Ground farmers? (10

points)

6. If you were growing commercially, what changes would you make? (15 points)7. Are you still interested in pursuing a career in farming? Why or why not? (5 points)


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5. Peer evaluation of farm work (125points)This course strongly emphasizes team work. At the end of the season, you will evaluate

the rest of the farm crew in terms of their field, organizational, and management

efforts. Likewise, you will be evaluated in terms of your efforts in the field. Were you

punctual? Were you reliable? Did you get the job done? Did you work hard and fast? Did

you push yourself for the rest of the crew? I have assigned the most number of points

here, because the actual field work counts the most!

6. Picture documentation (25 points)Submit a minimum of 25 unique photos over the season. You can include them in your

assessment of the field season at the farm. In order to count for full credit, they should

include the following categories:

a.

Clients or shareholdersb. Students working in the fieldc. Demonstration of field management approachesd. Field problems (diseases, weeds, nutrient or water deficiency, or insect damage).

organic farm practicum - pss 209 z1 - course syllabus

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