It was 2 a.m. when Jessica Matthews stumbled across a website that would completely change the course of her career.

Burned out from working at a psychiatric hospital, and in search of agriculture-based answers to health challenges her patients were experiencing, Matthews followed her curiosity that night and the days that followed to ultimately become a dairy grazing apprentice in rural Pennsylvania.

It was a big step, a huge change, but it was one that she felt she needed to explore. As a mental health professional, she was coming to understand food injustice and the role nutrition plays in mental wellness. And an immersive experience in agriculture may help her understand it all a little better.

As a fish out of water in the agriculture industry, Matthews went from having an interest in raising chickens and growing backyard vegetables to being able to identify pastures for their potential nutritional value and understanding that cows have best friends. The Dairy Grazing Alliance (DGA), the nation’s first formal agricultural apprenticeship to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, made that possible.

DGA received a $4.7 million Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities grant that allows farmers to learn the dairy grazing trade through on-the-job training. That training is complemented by college courses and mentors. For Matthews, her on-the-farm training with her mentor was an invaluable, immersive learning experience.

“I learned how to do everything it would take to run a farm on a daily basis. Not just milking but calf care, the importance of keeping things clean, being proactive with preventing health problems in the female cows, and then learning about grazing,” she said. “And, I didn’t feel self-conscious about not knowing anything about cows. I really knew nothing. I had never been on that side of the fence.”

She also learned about soil health and pasture rotation, about lactation cycles and nutrition’s impact on them, and how to know which cows are “in milk” and which ones need to dry off. The learning curve was steep and the knowledge sharing was steady, and Matthews said the physical workload that comes with dairy grazing was as challenging as the mental one.

“My mind was blown by how hard farmers work,” she said. “I’ve been a pretty strong person, I thought, but that daily work, the new muscles, the new mental muscles…I had to learn how to get something done, not feel great about it and do it anyway and show up the next day and do it again. There’s something very zen in knowing that was my best but I can do it again tomorrow. It was really transformative.”

The funding provided to the mentors through the DGA allows them to pay their apprentices a wage that is more competitive than would have otherwise been possible. Beyond the financial aspect, the DGA also offers mentors and apprentices guidance and support. And that’s what Matthews is doing now.

After learning dairy operations, and even starting a raw milk operation on the farm where she apprenticed, Matthews was offered an opportunity to transition from the field to an apprenticeship management position with DGA that allows her to support others in their agricultural journey. 

Careers in dairy grazing, it turns out, take different shapes. And as a former apprentice, Matthews brings her experience from both sides of the fence to her role supporting farmers and farmers-in-training. She shares every bit of new information she learns like that cows have vibrant personalities and they love being around their sisters and daughters.

“DGA is the catalyst for a lot of careers for folks in the dairy industry,” Matthews said. “If we don’t have the next generation of dairy farmers, we lose those dairy farms. What DGA hopes to do is position folks who want to be dairy grazers, we want to set them up for success as farms become available and the aging population ages out and that next generation of dairy grazers is trained to be able to be successful.”