Learning wheat from seed to bread!
The wheat industry is a critical part of the food industry and of many businesses in the U.S. Understanding how the crop is grown is a central to building customer and colleague trust. Grounded in Ag has the courses to take you from day one in agriculture to a place of deep understanding and critical thinking in the details wheat production and use.
Learning from the Experts
One of the pieces that drives the impact of Grounded in Ag is that all of the courses and lessons include perspectives from people in the industry who live this day in and day out.
Each course provides decades of experience from people who live ag, and we ground it with team members who have recently joined agriculture throughout the development and publishing process to ensure the material is understandable and accessible. The full list of experts helping with Ag 101, Sustainability, and Focus on Crops is on our website, and our wheat experts include:
A Systems Approach to Building Knowledge
Our courses are designed to meet people where they are and begin developing the depth of knowledge, vocabulary, and understanding of agriculture that can be elusive to build without focused, structured efforts. For people seeking to understand wheat, there is a four-course program.
Ag 101 and Sustainability Set the Foundation
The Ag 101 course provides multiple sources across the US to provide you with the basic building blocks you need to understand agriculture, but more than that, we give you the context you need to put that information to work right away. The video modules in this course are designed to help you understand:
- Farmers, the way they set up their businesses, the changes they see happening, and their communities
- The industry and business as it works in the real world, with topics including cash flow, mental health, equipment, and farming organizations
The Sustainability course will help you understand the intersection of agriculture and sustainability and what that means for people and planet.
- Sustainability from multiple perspectives discussing varying approaches to soil, water, carbon & climate, pollinators & wildlife, and people.
- Farm tours to show you how farmers apply sustainability concepts to their daily work and business decisions
(more than 6.5 hours running time)
Depth in Crops Comes Via Focus
Once you have the foundational knowledge of agriculture, we begin layering in depth. This course covers growing crops for food, feed, fiber, and fuel. Lessons come from farmers and experts who have spent years, many even decades in their fields or fields of study.
Topics range from decisions about what crops to plant and how varieties/hybrids are chosen to some of the seasonal activities undertaken. Experts in weed science, entomology, and plant pathology also provide in-depth lessons on these critical challenges farmers face in the field and how the ways those challenges can be addressed.
(more than 2 hours running time)
Deep Dive into Wheat
Wheat is one of the few crops that can be planted in wildy different seasons. The crop comes in six different classes and are produced in different geographies for different end uses. Understanding all that, the challenges faced in a season and keeping an eye on quality for use on our plates is complex to learn for someone who's not spent a lot of time on farm. This course provides a depth of information that significantly reduces the learning curve. Included in this course are lessons about:
- Overview of a Year in Wheat Production
- Production in Different Areas
- Midwest double cropping
- Oregon specialty
- Spring wheat in Montana
- In-Depth Discussion of Physiology & Crop Challenges
- Must Know Facts & Trivia
- Essential Resources
- (approx 3 hours running time)
Learn About Crops & Livestock
Grounded in Ag has programming that includes the basics on livestock sectors and commodity crops. Each commodity course takes a similar approach, moving from basics to greater depth and insight, and the full package (more than 20 hours) comes at a reasonable rate. The full slate of courses includes:
New to ag or taking on a new role in wheat? This program is for you!
Wheat is a part of most days for many people around the world but so many of us haven't had a chance to get to know what it takes to grow wheat. This 3+ hour course will help you develop and build out a lot of the knowledge that will help you understand the crop's growth, the challenges faced, the farmers who grow it and more.
