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Over the past ten years, organic dairy production has been the fastest growing sector of the organic market . However, research-based information on organic dairy farming techniques is lagging and many agriculture service providers have had little training or experience in offering technical advice and analysis of organic dairy operations . Federal and state funding for organic research and financial support for technical services has failed to keep pace with this growth .<P> Today's economic crisis has accelerated the maturation of the organic dairy industry and the realization that planning for a continued annual 20% increase in demand is likely unrealistic. Early organic dairy adopters were established farmers who realized the demands that transition would place on their production practices and had good support by the few existing field staff. The change in NOP regulations attracted farmers who had little organic production experience and few support services. <P>Steep increases in recent feed and fuel costs have added financial strain to all organic dairy farms. The U.S. economic crisis has lead to a stagnant and, in some cases, even declining market which has resulted in lower pay prices for organic dairy producers. Unfortunately, there have been very few support services to assist farmers in adapting production processes to cut costs. <P>The crises in organic dairy has highlighted that assistance for the more than 2,030 U.S. organic dairy farms remains underserved. To sustain organic dairy farms, agricultural service providers need training in organic dairy production systems and the USDA NOP. Dramatic changes in demand for organic dairy products have necessitated balancing of supply by lowering farmer pay price and restricting production. Today, organic dairy farmers will need to develop production practices that are based on fluctuating pay price, low cost production and full utilization of their own forages. T<P>his project develops an innovative educational strategy to increase the number of knowledgeable service providers and profitable dairy farmers. The first step will be through the development of high quality curricula. Materials will be developed by extensive collaboration among top organic dairy leadership in the U.S. <P>We also recognize that internet usage on dairy farms lags behind other agricultural producers and know that not all farmers and service providers enjoy learning in isolation. Farmers already spend many long days alone and enjoy the social interaction that meetings provide. To overcome these barriers we have developed an innovative learning strategy that will give our stakeholders access to high quality content while providing a regional social networking among producers and those that serve them. Part of ensuring knowledgeable future service providers is providing them with good foundation.<P> This eXtension project will develop and demonstrate educational tools for county Cooperative Extension personnel and other agricultural professionals who advise producers on organic dairy practices.
Non-Technical Summary: Over the past ten years, organic dairy production has been the fastest growing sector of the organic market (McBride and Greene, 2009). However, research-based information on organic dairy farming techniques is lagging and many agriculture service providers have had little training or experience in offering technical advice and analysis of organic dairy operations (Jones, 2007). Federal and state funding for organic research and financial support for technical services has failed to keep pace with this growth (Wheeler, 2008). Today's economic crisis has accelerated the maturation of the organic dairy industry and the realization that planning for a continued annual 20% increase in demand is likely unrealistic. Early organic dairy adopters were established farmers who realized the demands that transition would place on their production practices and had good support by the few existing field staff. The change in NOP regulations attracted farmers who had little organic production experience and few support services. Steep increases in recent feed and fuel costs have added financial strain to all organic dairy farms. The U.S. economic crisis has lead to a stagnant and, in some cases, even declining market which has resulted in lower pay prices for organic dairy producers. Unfortunately, there have been very few support services to assist farmers in adapting production processes to cut costs. The crises in organic dairy has highlighted that assistance for the more than 2,030 U.S. organic dairy farms remains underserved. To sustain organic dairy farms, agricultural service providers need training in organic dairy production systems and the USDA NOP. Dramatic changes in demand for organic dairy products have necessitated balancing of supply by lowering farmer pay price and restricting production. Today, organic dairy farmers will need to develop production practices that are based on fluctuating pay price, low cost production and full utilization of their own forages (NODPA, 2010). This project develops an innovative educational strategy to increase the number of knowledgeable service providers and profitable dairy farmers. The first step will be through the development of high quality curricula. Materials will be developed by extensive collaboration among top organic dairy leadership in the U.S. We also recognize that internet usage on dairy farms lags behind other agricultural producers and know that not all farmers and service providers enjoy learning in isolation. Farmers already spend many long days alone and enjoy the social interaction that meetings provide. To overcome these barriers we have developed an innovative learning strategy that will give our stakeholders access to high quality content while providing a regional social networking among producers and those that serve them. Part of ensuring knowledgeable future service providers is providing them with good foundation. This eXtension project will develop and demonstrate educational tools for county Cooperative Extension personnel and other agricultural professionals who advise producers on organic dairy practices. <P> Approach: This project will conduct activities to meet the following objectives: Objective 1. eOrganic training materials (articles, videos, webinars, and two on-line courses) will be developed to provide education to U.S. Extension educators, USDA NRCS personnel and other service providers, and the farmers with whom they work, on certified organic dairy production systems. Continuing Education Credit can be earned by professionals and curricula for undergraduates will be available for universities and colleges to adopt or integrate into their programs. To that end, the courses will constitute a "Train-the-Trainer Certificate Program." Online Courses. The culmination of all materials developed for this project will be the creation on two online, asynchronous courses: 1) An Introduction to Organic Dairy Production Systems, and 2) Advanced Organic Dairy Production. The on-line organic dairy production courses will be developed as content modules that are posted to the eXtension's online course site designed for the general public at http://campus.extension.org. eXtension uses Moodle for its online course development. Objective 2: Delivery of training materials to U.S. service providers and farmers Training materials will be delivered to no fewer than 500 service providers and farmers across the U.S. Upon completion of content development, press announcements will be created and distributed through multiple communication channels announcing their availability. Articles, narrated powerpoints, and FAQs will be published on eXtension.org and we will monitor their use through Google Analytics, a web statistics service. Videos will be made available on both eOrganic's YouTube channel as well as eXtension.org with accompanying audio text. Objective 3: Facilitation of service provider-farmer networks The long-term success of the organic dairy farming community depends upon strong, trustworthy support systems. This project will build service provider-to-farmer as well as provider-to-provider networks for the benefit of farmer support and increased research and education collaboration. To that end, we propose to develop four regional learning hubs (one each in the Northeast, South, Mid-west, and West). These hubs will serve several purposes: 1) provide a gathering place for farmers and service providers to view the webinars together as co-learners; 2) provide access for farmers who do not have high-speed Internet to access this information; 3) act as focus groups where service providers and farmers will provide feedback on the webinars; and 4) provide local support groups (based on the farmer-discussion group model). Regional hubs will also be able to develop educational information pertinent to the geographical area and climate. Each region will have a hub coordinator that organizes the groups and provides follow-up assistance (i.e. directing participants to appropriate resources and/or planning follow-up field-based events).