A newly formed unit of the Wisconsin National Guard soon will deliver Dairy State know-how to war-torn Afghanistan. Team members received a 40-hour crash course from UW-Madison instructors in topics ranging from beekeeping to fish farming to water management to the ins and outs of growing corn, pomegranates and poultry.
?They are not going to be experts by any means, but at least they won?t be clueless,? said Karen Nielsen, director of the Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research. The institute does a lot of international education, but this curriculum was unique, Nielsen said. ?We haven?t had to train at this level before because most of those we?ve worked with have electricity and machinery, but the people in Afghanistan don?t,? Nielsen said. The institute plans to bring in Amish farmers to help train the next group, Nielsen said.