You Don’t Have to Be Big to Be Profitable: Teaching Youth How to Meet Community Needs, Maintain a Farm System, and Treasure Family

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Commodities

• Animals: goats, poultry
• Animal Products: dairy, eggs, meat

Practices

• Animal Production: grazing management, grazing - multispecies, grazing - rotational
• Education and Training: mentoring, youth education
• Farm Business Management: agritourism, apprentice/intern training
• Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, quality of life, sustainability measures

The Grace Heritage Farm Youth Internship Program features goat microdairy and meat herd management. Up to two qualified youth aged 14-19 are offered a competitive position as a paid intern in this 8-month educational intensive, where they will gain highly individualized counseling and education regarding herd management of both dairy and meat goats. Interns will participate in hands-on experiences catered to teaching regenerative agriculture, targeted rotational grazing, livestock health, farmer/rancher partnerships for proactive weed management between species, budget management, and direct value-added, consumer marketing through agritourism. Students will be expected to develop and present educational material to the public.

Throughout the internship, interns will:

1. Describe three basic herd management practices of meat and dairy goats.
2. Plan and execute the managed grazing of meat and dairy goat herds through seasonal needs.
3. List and explain five benefits of targeted grazing with goats.
4. Have seven hours of direct-consumer points of contact, with four of those hours being during a county-wide agritourism event.
5. Visit three local agritourism-focused farms to understand direct-to-consumer marketing and production.
6. Participate in value-added production of microdairy products and consumer education.
7. Budget for, prepare, and present an educational project to agritourism event attendees.