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A sign identifies the Little Bear Gymnasium Thursday night at Stone Child College. U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $265,179 grant to the college to help train beginning farmers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded Stone Child College $265,179 to help new agriculture producers get the knowledge and information necessary to succeed.
Stone Child College President Nate St. Pierre said Thursday the money will be used for seminars, workshops, distributing up-to-date information on the agriculture industry and creating several pilot courses for certificate programs.
St. Pierre said those courses will include: Intro to Animal Science, Agriculture Plant Science, Intro to Farm Management, Livestock Feed and Production and Intro to Soils.
He said the college expects to train about 40 people and issue at least 35 certificates.
"The numbers might seem small but for a community like this it's not," St. Pierre said.
The grants are being made through the USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, or BFRD, to provide education and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers with 10 years or less of experience in the industry.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Wednesday at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, that $17.8 million would be provided to 37 universities and other institutions throughout the U.S. which are working on such projects, a press release said.
The release said the program awarded two grants to the National Center for Appropriate Technologies in Butte that total $470,120.
Since BFRD was launched in 2009, more than $126 million have been awarded, the release said.
St. Pierre said given Stone Child is a 1994 land-grant college, providing such services to people looking to break into the field makes sense.
St. Pierre said Stone Child put in a grant application when the application process opened.
He said that Mary St. Pierre, Stone Child's tribal college Extension agent, will be the project director for the three year grant.
Nate St. Pierre said that work will begin immediately to lay the groundwork for the forums, pilot courses and other efforts. He said he does not, however, know yet when those courses will become available or workshops will be scheduled.
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