So much to learn with specialty crops. Grounded in Ag makes it easy!
Fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers.... There is a lot to learn when it comes to specialty crops. Understanding the framework and some of the basics are critical pieces of 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.
Learn from the experts about what it takes to grow so many of our favorite foods, the people who grow it, the challenges they face and so much more.
Learning from Specialty Crops 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 specialty crops experts include:
Specialty Crops: A Systematic Way to Build 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 specialty crops, 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)
Specialty Crops Take the Stage
Specialty crops have a range of similarities and differences and very few fit the mainstream production practices of the big row crops. This multi-hour course provides a depth of information (including more than two dozen PDF pages) that significantly reduces the learning curve. Included in this course are lessons about:
- Overview of a Year
- A look at the role of honey bees
- Farmers weigh in
- On the farm and focusing on production
- Business and marketing
- Is this a specialty crop or not?
- In-Depth Presentation on Specialty Crops, the farms growing them & businesses involved
- Must Know Facts & Trivia
- Essential Resources
(more than 2.5 hours running time)
Learn All 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 the specialty market? This program is for you!
While most Americans are familiar with a range of fruits and vegetables, enjoy snacking on tree nuts and reach for spices and flowers with smiles on their faces, having a real understanding of the farms & crops. And yet that understanding is crucial for many jobs -- it makes it easier to develop solid strategies and enables client and customer relationships to be serviced in ways that build trust. Grounded in Ag makes it easier than ever to develop that understanding by letting people learn about agriculture from wherever you are and at your own pace.
