Brooksville farm school trains new Hernando County farmers for success

Brooksville’s Small Farm Start-Up School is teaching 30 new farmers how to run businesses, market crops and navigate financing in a nine-week course built around the realities of small-scale agriculture.

The program, expanded statewide by UF/IFAS and Florida A&M University in March, runs from April 14 to June 23 and is offered in 11 Florida counties, including Hernando. UF/IFAS said classes are limited to 20 people per site, a sign that the school is designed to stay hands-on rather than lecture-driven.

For aspiring growers, the lesson is as much about balance sheets as it is about soil. UF/IFAS said the course is meant to help beginning farmers deal with market, labor and land-access challenges, and it can also support Farm Service Agency loan education requirements. Registration was listed at $299 for up to two people, with textbooks, course materials, farm visits and business-plan guidance included.

The curriculum reflects that business-first approach. Online instruction covers business planning, marketing plans, production practices, loan management and insurance information. In-person sessions add farm visits, question-and-answer periods with business owners and networking with agribusiness professionals, giving new farmers a chance to build the relationships that often decide whether a small operation survives its first years.

The economic stakes are local. If even a portion of the trainees turn classwork into operating farms, Hernando County could see more locally grown food, more direct sales through local markets and more farm-related spending on inputs, equipment, transport and packaging. That would not just add another source of fresh food for the county. It could also keep more agriculture dollars circulating close to home and reduce dependence on outside suppliers.

Brooksville is a practical base for that work. FAMU’s Brooksville Agricultural and Environmental Research Station sits on 3,800 acres in Hernando County, and the university says the site was intended to support beginning farmer and rancher programs, outreach projects and economically viable, self-sustaining land-based opportunities. UF/IFAS Extension Hernando County, also based in Brooksville, is a partnership among UF, USDA and Hernando County government that provides agriculture and natural-resources education.

The broader context is striking. UF/IFAS says small farms account for more than 90% of all farms in Florida, with more than 40,700 small farms statewide. In a county where land, labor and margins are tight, training the next generation of small operators is less a classroom exercise than an investment in the local food economy.