MONROE — The Agriculture and Rural Initiative, Compeer Financial’s donor advised fund, has granted $600,000 to community and technical colleges across the cooperative’s 144-county territory, including $25,000 to Blackhawk Technical College. 

In 2021, Compeer committed $1.9 million in grants and scholarships at select colleges over the next five years with the goal of further developing agriculture’s workforce. This announcement represents the second of three rounds of grants being presented.

“The future of agriculture and our client’s farms rely on a strong, vibrant and robust agricultural workforce, and our partners in higher education provide opportunities for young adults to explore and gain hands-on experience in these careers,” said Greg Nelson, a Compeer Financial Director. “Our clients continue to list workforce development among their highest concerns, and these grants and scholarships are the first step to improving this challenge for the industry.” 

Blackhawk is one of five community colleges in Wisconsin receiving these grant dollars, and the college will use the grant for equipment and technology purchases, including a Bovine Injection Simulator, a Bovine Birthing and Ultrasound Simulator and a Flex Farm Hydroponic Set-Up. The grant also will help with student recruitment through the production of a recruitment video.

“We are grateful to the Compeer Financial grant that provided Blackhawk the ability to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and technology to teach our students — the future workforce of the agriculture industry — real-life applications that they will encounter in the industry upon graduation,” shared Lisa Hurda, Director of College Advancement & Foundation. “By utilizing a recruitment video to create awareness of agriculture as a salient career pathway with high school students, it will provide an opportunity to strengthen the future agriculture workforce talent pipeline for our region.”

The other Wisconsin colleges that received grants are Fox Valley Technical College, Lakeshore Technical College, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and Western Technical College.

In addition to these colleges represented this year, more will receive grants in 2023 as part of this program. Each partner college will also receive two annual $1,250 scholarships to award students enrolled in the school’s agriculture program or pathway over the next four years.