Novice-to-Producer Agroforestry Education: Linking demonstration farms to online learning, apprenticeships, & communities of practice

This event followed a laid-back style and had an open-house structure that allowed people to stop by the farm, connect with Savanna Institute staff, network with attendees, and tour the Hudson Agroforestry Demonstration Farm.

The tour was self-guided; each participant was provided a packet with background, information, maps, and information on each of the plantings. This big hit as people could walk around at their leisure and then find a Savanna Institute staff member to ask more targeted questions. It also allowed people to come and go as their schedule allowed. These self-guided tour packets were designed to be a pilot to see what more permeate additions to signage we would want to implement in the next year.

The loose structure also allowed for more in-depth networking between attendees. The majority of people in the audience were farmers or landowners who were interested in agroforestry or had already started establishing practices. This mix allowed the opportunity for more experienced producers to connect with people considering adoption and talk through their successes and challenges. The conservation and ag professionals in attendance also jumped into these conversations at times providing more insight and resources.

This structure was so successful, we plan on hosting at least one a year in 2024 and beyond. 

This Twilight Tailgate hosted in partnership with The Land Connection, explored the benefits of incorporating trees into conventional grain systems to support water quality, carbon sequestration, soil health, and wildlife habitat. The event featured an introduction to alley cropping and windbreaks, a walking tour of the 4H Memorial Camp alley cropping system that covered design, planning, maintenance, and long-term succession, and plenty of time for attendees to ask questions and connect with Agroforestry Technical Service Providers.

This was an evening event, which worked great as the weather had been very hot and dry and people did not have to stand in the middle of an open field at the hottest parts of the day. 

Similar to the Happy Hour event at Hudson Agroforestry Demonstration Farm, the networking among farmers, landholders, and ag professionals was deep and robust. We ended up ending the event an hour and a half later than originally planned because people were chatting, making plans to visit each other's farmers, and trading successes and challenges. Close to half of the attendees have never attended a Savanna Institute event before, but have heard a staff member speak, watched a video, or heard about it through word of mouth. 

The Agroforestry Social for Non-Operating Landowners, hosted at Fields Restored, focused on peer-to-peer learning about how non-operating landowners can incorporate agroforestry into their operations.  Fields Restored landholders Scott and Sandy Williams, along with their farm partners the Roger Family, walked landholders through their motivations for planting tree-based agricultural systems on their farms, how they worked with their farmers to design and incorporate the trees into their production system, and their partnership with the Savanna Institute to host an Agroforestry Demonstration Farm. There was then a walking tour of the farm where the Williams family, the Rogers family, and the Savanna Institute talked through maintenance and succession options. 

Landholders attended from 3 states and traveled to network and learn from like-minded farmland owners. After this event, 3 enrolled in Savanna Institute's Technical Service Program and 2 others worked with agroforestry professionals in their state. 

This event was focused on a walking tour of the Fields Restored Demonstration Farm exploring the benefits of incorporating trees into working farmlands to support water quality, carbon sequestration, soil health, and wildlife habitat. There was plenty of time for attendees to ask questions and connect with Agroforestry Technical Service Providers. This tour featured cattle silvopasture, a multi-functional riparian buffer, specialty crop alley cropping, and a functional windbreak.

This event was sparsely attended but did provide a great opportunity to train Savanna Institute Technical Service Providers, who work directly with farmers and landholders. 

This event brought together Agroforestry Technical Service Providers, Conservation Professionals, and support organizations from across the Midwest for a 3-day training on providing planning, design, and implementation help for farmers and landowners adopting agroforestry. A key component of this training was demonstration, tours, and workshops around the ideation, planning, establishment, partnership-building, and educational approach of the IL and WI Agroforestry Demonstration Farms. 

Many in attendance were familiar with the farms and program due to them being featured in webinars, online courses, videos, podcasts, conference presentations, and other media. However, being directly on the farm provided the opportunity to see how well the systems were working, what obstacles were being discovered and overcome, and learn more in-depth about the practical realities of the farms. 

This event also served as the in-person component for the online Agroforestry Training for Natural Resource Professionals course. 

Savanna Institute Technical Service Program clients were invited for a walking tour of Silverwood Demonstration Farm to see in action what they had learned about their education and consultation with TSPs. The tour highlighted the organic grain and chestnut alley cropping,  multi-functional windbreak, and tasting orchard demonstrations at the site. The tour was then followed by networking with Savanna Institute staff and fellow agroforestry enthusiasts, as well as a chestnut roast. 

This event provided a great opportunity for farmers and landholders in the process of adopting agroforestry to explore what a more mature system would look like on the ground and if it matched their understanding of what agroforestry looked like and could do. This meet-up led to deeper, and sometimes changed, goals among the clients in attendance. 

In 2024 we are planning at least two of these events for clients and advisors. 

This event, co-hosted by Savanna Institute and sister company Canopy Farm Management, brought together Canopy Farm Management clients, Savanna Institute Technical Service Program clients, farmers and landholders interested in the adoption of agroforestry, as well as, local University researchers on the Hudson Agroforestry Demonstration Farm. The event featured an in-depth introduction to agroforestry, its benefits, and funding opportunities, a walking tour of the farm, and a targeted discussion about key crops for Central Illinois. 

This event led to 2  farm families contracting to work with Canopy Farm Management and 1 attendee to apply to the Technical Service Program at Savanna Institute. 

Throughout the 2023 growing season, Savanna Institute welcomed over 50 people to farm through small group tours focused on donor cultivation, research, education, outreach, and crop commercialization. These tours were targeted and were led by multiple Savanna Institute staff members. These types of small tours were extremely effective in building stronger partnerships, exploring opportunities for collaboration, and introducing visitors to the reality and scale of the Savanna Institute Agroforestry Demonstration Farms. 

Robust maintenance utilized best practices, innovative equipment, and a production-oriented approach continued in partnership with Canopy Farm Management for the 2023 growing season. All management decisions are made by the Savanna Institute, with collaboration and input from the field staff at Savanna Institute. Highlights for the 2023 season include trialing 3 different cover crop mixes for agroforestry establishment and completion of the nut and berry crops at Hudson Agroforestry Demonstration Farm, the first planting, cultivation, harvest, and spraying of soybeans growing under tree canopy at 4H Memorial Camp Farm, and the stronger partnership between Savanna Institute, Canopy Farm Management, and the Rogers Family at Fields Restored. 

281 people visited the four Agroforestry Demonstration Farms in 2023. This number is lower than the proposed 500 due to the farms still not being completely open to the public. 2024 will see the establishment of systems that will allow this to happen. 

6,222 people engaged with the Agroforestry Demonstration Farms online through YouTube videos, webinars, and online courses. 

In the summer and fall of 2023, Savanna Institute partnered with The Nature Conservancy and US Nature4Climate to create a video, blog, and factsheet entitled Advancing Agroforestry in the Midwest: Hudson Demonstration Farm. This series highlighted the opportunities, barriers, and field-level work of agroforestry in the Midwest through the story of establishing the Hudson Agroforestry Adoption Farm. 

Since its release, this suite of resources has been utilized by partners across the Midwest and the US to bring attention to the role that demonstrations can play in expanding climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry. 

In 2023 Savanna Institute completed and launched the website LearnAgroforestry.com; this initiative cumulatively trained 225  natural resource professionals through a train-the-trainer model since its launch. It is now being used as the foundation for a national agroforestry training program piloted by the National Association of Conservation Districts, a new partnership to provide intensive training for county conservationists in Wisconsin through Wisconsin Land + Water, and is being leveraged as a model for the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service for a national program to ensure at least one agroforestry trainer is available in every state.

The Savanna Institute Agroforestry Demonstrations Farmers were incorporated into the curriculums for the Alley Cropping, Silvopasture, Riparian Buffers, and Understanding NRCS Support modules. Demonstration Farm Educator Kaitie Adams also provided an in-depth presentation for online course enrollees on the alley cropping at Hudson and 4H Memorial Camp Agroforestry Demonstration Farms.