Prairie and Ranch Resources

Students explore a wide range of the Midwest’s agriculture in this travel trip to the mid-grass prairies of South Dakota under the leadership of Prof. Al Bjorkman.

Along the way students observe Old Order Amish, animal agriculture at an award-winning miniature-horse farm, community-supported agriculture (CSA), large-scale organic row crop farm, modern large-scale row crop farm, prairie grass-based beef cow calf ranch, and meat production facilities to determine what are sustainable and unsustainable methods of food production. Participants stay at the first rural consolidated school in the history of South Dakota for ten nights amidst thousands of acres of virgin prairie.

The trip is conducted every other year the last two weeks before the fall semester begins. The next course is scheduled for the summer of 2011.

For more information, see this overview and program application (PDF) and PowerPoint presentation or contact Dr. Al Bjorkman by email.