Apply Here for the 2024 UMass Student Farm Program!

All Student Farm courses require instructor permission before you can register for the courses on Spire.  While most student farmers have an academic background in the agricultural sciences or related fields, we encourage all interested UMass students to apply.  We welcome a diversity of majors, career goals, and life experiences on our farm.  Questions about farm courses and how to register for them should be directed to amandabrown@umass.edu.

The Stockbridge Student Farm Program Curriculum

To fully participate in the UMass Student Farm program, students must fill out an application and gain acceptance.  Once accepted, students will be enrolled in these FOUR courses across TWO sequential semesters.

(See our Stockbridge Student Handbook for the most current course descriptions and prerequisites.)

Spring

  • STOCKSCH 376 "Managing the Student Farm I: Planning for Production" (3 credits, lecture)
  • STOCKSCH 398E "The Student Farming Enterprise" (3 credits, practicum)

Fall

  • STOCKSCH 476 "Managing the Student Farm II: Harvesting, Marketing and Finances" (3 credits, lecture)
  • STOCKSCH 498E "The Student Farming Enterprise" (3 credits, practicum)

Summer Employment

The UMass Student Farm provides students fully enrolled in the program the option to seek a paid, full-time, summer work experience cultivating the land. 

A History of Student Farming Decisions

Said Walt Whitman, "The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."  Every farm class since 2008 has crafted a written record of their farming and business decisions, an assessment of their results -- good and bad, and recommendations are made for the next year's class.  We compile all of this final student work into a yearly Student Farm Almanac, which stands as a record of the season, and serves as a text book for the following year's new generation of student farmers.  Each year, current farm students scour the annual records.  They analyze crop yields from several previous years of student farming, repeat the most successful ideas, and try to avoid repeating the worst mistakes.  When you join the Stockbridge Student Farm Program, you will contribute the next verse in the Farm's long history of student decisions. 

Have a look at the 2023 Student Farm Handbook.


 

Take a look at what it's like to be a student farmer in the video below!