Dairyland State Academy(DSA) is an historic collaborative effort of the DSA Board, Northcentral Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, University of Wisconsin-Extension, and University of Wisconsin-River Falls. At the working, for-profit DSA farm and in the classroom, students will be involved in every aspect of the farm from genetics, nutrition management, culling, waste management, and crop management to marketing, input costs, profitability, and taxes.
“Nearly 50 percent of all farms in the northcentral region of Wisconsin disappeared between 1987 and 2002,” says Dale Heise, President, Dairyland State Academy (DSA). “Education is the key to reversing this trend.”
Students of DSA can earn a two-year Applied Associate Degree in Dairy Science and transfer to a four-year degree program at UW-River Falls. “Students can be introduced to an idea in the classroom and immediately deal with it in the barn or field,” adds Mickelsen, “Everything is in place to reverse the decline in dairying – now we’ve taken the next step by launching our site.”
The site is designed along specific user paths, is peppered with three- plus years of research and hosts an online community. “We want to interact with people and start a conversation that benefits our state and the dairy industry,” notes Heise. “Everyone is affected by the dairy industry – whether you’ve lost a job because an ag-related factory closed or because you have to pay more for dairy products. We all should have a say.”