Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, Inc.
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. A network of the farms are also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Farm Eligibility
Unknown
CT, IL, IA, IN, MA, ME, MI, MN, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT, WI, & WV
Prescribed Grazing
Does not specify
Money Matters
Does not specify
The 30 farms participating in this pilot will receive $50 per acre in early adopter payments.
Refer to program category descriptions for general stackability potential. Reach out to the program contact for more information.
Not applicable
Contracting Info
The Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program is a five year program starting in February 2023.
Acreage, current grazing practices, current monitoring method, soil type. (https://forms.gle/zSHcMUCyeVRNodfK6)
Does not specify
For this project, DGA will also bring, on two new staff members to provide technical assistance, climate education, and resources to assist participants as they interface the development of new markets for climate-smart commodities. Year 1 will be focused on farmer recruitment, education, and training, Years 2 – 4 on technical assistance in support of data collection, and Year 4 – 5 on providing support during implementation of the new standard, verification, and market development. The table below summarizes the components of and timeline for the technical assistance, farmer outreach, and training needed for this program.
Technical Info
Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, Inc.
Participating dairy graziers will use PaddockTrac technology in concert with scientific modeling to quantify soil carbon storage and sequestration rates as well as other ecosystem services provided by grazing acreage on their individual farms.
Starting in Year 2, DGA will develop a cohesive program at DGA to manage a verification standard for data- driven grazed milk. DGA will work with Taste Profit Marketing to brand the verification program so that it can be implemented by channel partners who adopt the standard and want to market their participation on their own labels.
Does not specify
