Training the next generation: the New Agrarian Program

[Note: In 2023, Megan Torgerson from Reframing Rural, a podcast with a mission to share stories of people and places in rural America in an effort to celebrate culture, preserve history and cultivate curiosity and conversation across geographic, class and cultural divides, had the opportunity to attend WWF’s inaugural Sustainable Ranching Initiative gathering. What follows is Megan’s account of her experience at the event, and what participants can expect at this year’s gathering, which will take place on Sept 10-11, 2024 in Spearfish, South Dakota. This post is the third of four in a series. The previous posts are here: Part 1 | Part 2.]

A widely-discussed challenge impacting the agriculture sector is the aging population of farmers and ranchers. The Quivira Coalition is addressing this concern by helping steward the next generation of ranchers through their New Agrarian Program. The New Agrarian Program provides first-time ranchers the opportunity to learn from skilled practitioners of regenerative agriculture.

A majority of the apprentices are passionate about land stewardship and raising healthy food, but did not grow up in agriculture. The eight-month, paid apprenticeship program provides them the opportunity to realize their commitment to sustainable agriculture by being fully immersed in ranching life. They are not only learning hard skills and have access to mentors’ generational knowledge of land stewardship, but gain an understanding of the patience needed to push through days on the land that can be taxing or tedious. This helps dismantle any romanticized notions of ranching in the West and broadens a more grounded understanding of ranching in remote places as apprentices share their experience with distant family and friends. While many of the apprentices didn’t grow up in rural or agricultural settings, the program has an impressive retention rate with 80% of graduates staying in agriculture after the completion of the apprenticeship. In Montana, the apprenticeship program has graduated over 55 people in the last four years on 14 mentor ranches.

The SRI Gathering featured a panel of Montana-based ranchers and mentors who host apprentices, including Bill Milton, Jim Spinner, Betsy and Roger Indreland, and a graduate of the New Agrarian Program, Natalie Berkman.

Host ranchers explained that they teach apprentices what to pay attention to on the land, but the apprentices have something to teach them as well. Betsy Indreland, of Indreland Angus near Big Timber, said they’ve hosted interns from 22-30 years of age with a variety of educational backgrounds including English students and an apprentice who earned a PhD in pathology.

Jim Spinner, of Veebaray Ranch near Sidney, Montana, close to the North Dakota border, said apprentices bring with them a variety of perspectives and viewpoints. They might ask questions that feel like they come from left field, but this makes established ranchers question why they do things a certain way, making them more intentional with decision making and better at communication. Other panelists agreed that having to explain what you’re doing to a new person is both a challenging and rewarding part of mentorship that aids in self-improvement for established ranchers.

The Indrelands said they participate in the program to infuse new energy and ideas into their operations. Other ranchers discussed the desire to contribute to the future of agriculture and that participating as a host ranch enables them to positively impact as many acres as possible, as the apprentice will later go out and share the regenerative practices they’ve learned when they work at other ranches.

Bill Milton who hosted Natalie Berkman and Carlyle Stewart, said apprentices play an integral role in their operation, and that they’ve become lifelong friends. The end goals of the program, to manage land in a regenerative fashion and provide a career in agriculture for the apprentice, were realized by Berkman and Stewart. Today Berkman is vice president of operations at Oxbow Cattle Company, a direct-to-consumer beef business that is protecting land outside Missoula from urban development and reestablishing native plants and species. At Oxbow, Berkman is now mentoring another New Agrarian Program apprentice.

Stewart was also able to jumpstart a career in agriculture after his apprenticeship. This summer he was based out of the Absaroka mountains near McLeod, Montana where he looked after Amber and Trevor Smith’s yearlings for the season for their custom grazing operation. He’s now working for Triangle P Cattle Co. at the Ojo Feliz Ranch in Wagon Mound, New Mexico.