RSVP for Ride to Farm

press release: Join us for a beautiful 100k, or half-day, ride in Green County on June 4, 2022. Our 18th Annual Ride to Farm event will start (at 8:30 am) and end at New Glarus Woods State Park, with a morning rest stop at Morning Dew Dairy (Organic Valley Member) outside Argyle, a lunch rest stop at Culver's Restaurant in Monroe, and an afternoon rest stop at Green Fire Farm! Sign up online by June 1; sign up via phone call to Nadia by June 3: 608-924-1154

Ride to Farm is a bicycle ride to raise awareness and funds for the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers (WSBDF) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The school's mission is "If you have a dream to farm, we're here to help you get started." The WSBDF emphasizes business planning and pasture-based farm management. Donations can be made to individual riders by using the Pledge link at the top of this page and putting the person's first name into the search field that appears or you can make a general donation here. Riders must raise a minimum of $100 to participate in Ride to Farm. See details below for the 2022 Ride to Farm registration and eligibility for prizes.

Retiring farmers are leaving farming at a much faster rate than new farmers are starting. Our school meets the critical need to train, mentor, and support Wisconsin’s next generation of dairy and livestock farmer stewards who will work to ensure the availability of local food and healthy rural communities. Our dairy and livestock seminar emphasizes low-capital, environmentally friendly, grass-based dairy farming. About 600 students have attended the school and more than 75 percent of its graduates are farming today!

Donations will go to support WSBDF and be used in a variety of ways, including:

• Tuition scholarships and internship expenses
• Scholarships for student travel to conferences
• Honoraria for farmers who help teach this course
• Short-term and long-term support for the school through staff salary and its endowment at the UW-Madison

Donations will go to the University of Wisconsin Foundation and are tax deductible.

The Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers is sponsored by the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and the Farm and Industry Short Course, both within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UW-Madison.