From pasture to classroom, a how-to-farm class at Delaware Valley University

These days, Bob Brown says, people really care about what they eat.

"People want to know where their food comes from," said Brown, who teaches animal science at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown. "… There's a lot of skepticism about what you buy in the supermarket."

So Brown had an idea: a class that would teach people how to raise livestock and produce their own food.

Brown's colleague, John Urbanchuk, was in.

They developed a course that will teach students to feed, breed, and prevent disease in poultry, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, along with unconventional livestock, like rabbits and emus. They'll also teach them how to raise horses.

"We know there's a huge demand for information like this," Urbanchuk said, referring to a growing interest in small farming and local food production.

At a time when countless books, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and videos are dedicated to the basics and intricacies of small farming, Brown and Urbanchuk are poised to start a farming class. It's open not just to students at the school but to anyone who's interested. For $125 a person or $175 per couple, Brown, who owns a 20-acre farm in Hatfield, and Urbanchuk, assistant professor and the department chair of agribusiness at the school, will start their academic venture next week.

They've designed the class to stand apart from the average college course and appeal to aspiring farmers and their spouses.

"This is informal community-based education," Brown said in an email. "… We just want them [the students] to get a working knowledge across all of these species."

Delaware Valley, which began as an agricultural college in 1896, seemed the perfect place to hold a class for people interested in learning about farming — or even starting a small livestock farm.

The venture will fill a void. Across the state, there aren't enough farming classes for those who want them, especially at times or places that work for farmers, said Holly Bortfeld, who owns the Felton Homestead in York County.

Pennsylvania State University, she said, "has some interesting (but very expensive) classes … and traveling to places like State College in winter is a death-defying proposition so those conferences are out," said Bortfeld, who raises poultry and lambs. "We do have a local educational place and I've attended some classes there, but they don't do a lot of farming classes."

The Delaware Valley course will meet from 6:30 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday beginning Oct. 9. There will be no homework, testing, or textbooks, but all students will have their own soil-testing kit and class manual.

In the first week, Brown and Urbanchuk will teach students about soil testing, pasture management, and manure management.

They'll also teach students about local zoning laws and public nuisance violations, should disgruntled neighbors complain about noises, smells, and the occasional wayward acts of  livestock that might escape and amble across the road.

The teachers' enthusiasm aside, some farmers are dubious that students working in an academic setting could master the basics of how to start and run a small livestock farm.

"You can read all you want in books or have someone stand and lecture, but until you actually get your hands dirty, you don't truly learn what it is all about because there are just too many variables," said Kendra Dechert, owner of Nims Acres, a livestock farm in Lebanon County.

Brown and Urbanchuk acknowledge that a class can't prepare would-be farmers for all scenarios but added that there's a "tremendous need and desire for people who have small farms who want to know how to raise livestock."

A similar need exists for crop farmers, too, which has spurred them to work on creating a similar short course on home gardening, to be unveiled in late winter or early spring.

"When you start dealing with living things — to a lesser extent, plants — they require a level of care that you've got to provide all the time," said Urbanchuk, who grew up on a farm. "People have to understand what they're getting into."