Project Overview
Over the course of Building Farm Foundations and Planning for Success: Beginning Farmer Training for Military Veterans, we have complete 4 -40 hour Armed to Farm trainings with 90
participants from throughout the Intermountain and North Western US. In addition we did a follow up
training for Armed to Farm Alumni titled Armed to Farm 2.0 a Lean Canvas Enterprise
Planning model with 13 hours of training. This training had 13 Armed to Farm graduates that
wanted to dig into their business plan or try out planning for a new enterprise. Of the 90 veteran participants in
the Armed to Farm training, 23 have started farms and our post training evaluations indicate that 60 made positive changes
to their business planning and production practices as a result of
the trainings.
In an effort to increase the success
of our Armed to Farm graduates, we provided one on one technical assistance at
the trainings as well as follow up technical assistance as needed. This included 55 individual technical assistance sessions by NCAT
staff and our project partners throughout the course of the project.
We
have watched a network of veteran farmers grow and solidify through the efforts
of NCAT, the veteran participants, and our project partners. We have a Montana based email
listserve to promote agriculture events of interest for Armed to Farm alumni to
attend. 25% of the Armed to Farm alumni in Montana have joined the national
Armed to Farm Facebook group and participate regularly.
Our partner Vilivus Training Institute's efforts to recruit a
veteran apprentice on their organic grain farm, did not materialize. Vilicus
Training Institute, instead, provided mentoring and guidance on organic certification,
USDA program participation, and cover cropping strategies to 10 veteran
farmers.
Number of Participants: 95
Promotional Materials
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Educational Materials
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Reports & Evaluations
There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.
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Individual Stories / Examples of Success