Progress report for LNC23-491
Project Information
Agroforestry, the integration of trees with crops and livestock, is a transformative solution to the ecological and economic issues of agriculture. However, some of the hurdles to agroforestry adoption in the Midwest include inadequate demonstration of practices at scale and limited on-the-ground training opportunities. As a consequence, it can be difficult for farmers seeking to adopt agroforestry to access information about the best practices or day-to-day management of agroforestry systems, particularly organic agroforestry. With support from previous NCR-SARE grants, the Savanna Institute created a network of eight Institute-operated Demo Farms in Illinois and Wisconsin and launched an apprenticeship program. Together, these programs aim to catalyze agroforestry adoption across the Midwest and develop the next generation of agroforestry farmers through on-farm job training, research, and demonstration. In 2021, Savanna Institute expanded its demo farm network to include a four-farm campus in Spring Green, WI. The campus works with local farmers to demonstrate production-scale agroforestry and provide intensive job training for beginning farmers.
While the Savanna Institute has been sharing information and best management practices for years based on its experience on the Demonstration Farms, the SGC is the first network of agroforestry demonstration farms experimenting with organic management practices at scale. For many years the agroforestry community in the Midwest has requested more detailed resources on best practices for organic agroforestry. Through hands-on experience at the Spring Green Campus and on-farm training with neighboring farms in the Spring Green area, apprentices in the Savanna Institute program are well-positioned to gather and disseminate information about organic agroforestry in a range of settings.
This proposal seeks support for coordinated educational efforts including (1) documenting the empirical knowledge gathered during the establishment of the Spring Green Campus farms using organic methods, (2) providing on-farm training to farmers looking to learn about agroforestry, (3) supporting the local community of farmers looking to implement agroforestry, and (4) gathering and sharing best management practices for organic agroforestry and integration of agroforestry with other organic agriculture. This project builds on the Savanna Institute’s existing Spring Green Campus, apprenticeship program, and outreach program by expanding their geography, diversifying the type of on-farm opportunities available to beginning agroforestry farmers, empowering partner farmers and landowners as researchers and educators, and overall increasing the impact of the Spring Green Campus to serve as an invaluable education hub for farmers, landowners, policy makers, and the public throughout the upper Midwest region.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Document and share knowledge about the implementation of organic agroforestry systems at scale
- Support local farmers and institutions looking to implement agroforestry
- Educate apprentices about how agroforestry at the SGC integrates with other organic practices
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Increased understanding of agroforestry management, profitability, and environmental benefits
- Increased visibility and accessibility of the SGC Farms as educational assets
ACTION OUTCOMES
- Applying agroforestry knowledge obtained through on-farm education by beginning farmers, site visitors, and collaborators
- Increased number of agroforestry professionals able to support adoption and demonstration
SYSTEM CHANGE OUTCOMES
- Widespread adoption of agroforestry
- Enhanced farm profitability and ecological resilience
2024 was the first year of this project focused on connecting knowledge creation at Savanna Institute's Spring Green Campus, an organic agroforestry research and demonstration farm, with apprentice training and early adoptor education.
Research
Education
The farms in the R&D Farm Network facilitate a broad range of decentralized education, demonstration, and research functions and provide a “one-stop shop” for engagement with a wide range of agroforestry practices in a publicly accessible location. Savanna Institute's Spring Green Campus (SGC) serves the same function in the Driftless region, where many local farmers have expressed interest in adopting agroforestry. While the SGC will be hosting regular educational events during the growing season to showcase the diversity of agroforestry practices, the agroforestry community has also asked for further opportunities to engage directly with SI staff and receive support in their efforts to implement the practices.
In 2024, Savanna Institute started the work of gathering and sharing information about the planning and implementation of the organic agroforestry systems and engaging farmers and apprentices through peer-to-peer learning opportunities on the SGC farms. This project focuses on sharing knowledge about the planning and design of agroforestry systems by including the apprentices in the diverse activities of the demonstration farms and hosting events geared towards early adopters and TSPs. Learning opportunities are also made available to farmers throughout the North Central SARE Region using a combination of multimedia materials, an online curriculum, and case studies of planning inspired by the work of SI’s Technical Service Program.
Savanna Institute's education approach for year 1 of this project has focused on apprenticeship education, mentorship, and support, as well as, the connection of apprentices to a network of producer knowledge and support. Additional work has been completed around documentation of key crop and livestock systems at the campus, as well as, events that connected early adopters and technical service providers to agroforestry systems on the campus.
Project Activities
Educational & Outreach Activities
2 podcast episodes
Participation Summary:
The first year of this project has focused on setting up apprenticeship systems, documentation, and data tracking protocols, the connection of producers to demonstration and technical support through events, and the creation of blog posts and podcast episodes.
For 2024, there were a total of four apprentices, two apprentices in their first year and two apprentices returning to continue their second year of training. All worked for a minimum of 10 weeks/season. All four apprentices attended a monthly cohort call where they connected with other trainees on different mentor farms, to learn together and from each other. In addition to these meetings, all four apprentices were given access to agroforestry coursework through www.learnagroforestry.com. The courses, Agroforestry for Natural Resource Professionals, covered basic and intermediate technical skills with more than 50 hours of content and connected this work to available resources through the NRCS. Apprentices also attend monthly calls to review this work, ask questions, and learn from guest practitioners on the subject. The bulk of their education and training happens in the field. They focus on all sorts of work including perennial crop maintenance, harvesting, planting and maintaining veggies in our alley crop systems, post-harvest handling, silvopasture (by addition and subtraction) establishment and maintenance, and lots of other land management, etc. On workdays with apprentices, our team makes an extra effort to not only teach about the work we're doing but to describe why we're doing it. We also offer off-site field trip opportunities that tie into our work such as prescribed burns, and touring/learning from other local farmers and producers. They also receive a stipend for professional development of their choosing.
One apprentice specializes in plumbing and irrigation. They assisted SGC's Farm Director in installing a permanent, underground irrigation system, and set up documentation of that system. All of the apprentices have received chainsaw certification and have gained skills through on-farm saw work, specifically silvopasture by subtraction. All of the apprentices have also been trained on daily sheep chores and have had several learning opportunities in areas including but not limited to nutrition management, grazing, lambing, and sheep health & maintenance, as well as documentation of all these activities. Additionally, all of our apprentices have been trained in post-harvest handling of organic produce grown on the farm and involved in documentation, food safety compliance, and development of Standard Operating procedures.
Apprentices have worked with and visited several farmers, land stewards, and producers in the area. This has included facility and farm tours, knowledge sharing, fieldwork, fencing projects, prescribed burning, and more. These farmers and farms include Michael Dolan of Seven Seeds, Cates Family Farm, Meadowlark Organics, Jeb Barzen of UW, and Kathy and Tom Dice of Red Fern Farm.
Events for the 2024 season are outlined in the above section and include information on target audiences and attendees.
Savanna Institute created 2 podcasts focused on the Spring Green Campus' organic agroforestry systems and two blog posts featuring stories for specific farm landscapes. These media pieces are the first step in a larger package that will also include video production, signage, and public presentation off the farm.
Sharable documentation and resources are planned for 2025 and will be supported by the newly hired Spring Green Campus Administrator, who is focused on systems documentation with support from apprentices.
Learning Outcomes
- Agroforestry
- Silvopasture
- Alley Cropping
- Forest Farming
- Systems Documentation
- Rotational Grazing
- Propagation
- Irregation
- Farm Construction
- Food Safety
- Organic Weed Management
Project Outcomes
Alley Cropping
Silvopasture
Forest Farming