Developing the Western Cover Crop Council and Promoting the Regenerative Agriculture Movement through Cover Crops and Human Health

2 Other educational activities: A program assistant was hired in the spring of 2020. A survey was developed and deployed to all areas covered by Western SARE. The survey instrument was used to gather input from producers, Extension, Government Agency, and NGOs on the barriers to adoption of cover crops and educational programming needed to assist with cover crop adoption. The survey was made available in the spring and we closed access in June. The program assistant has spent the summer and fall 2020 compiling the data received from over 800 surveys. The data have been complied and one article, submitted to Journal of Soil and Water Conservation has been accepted for publication but has not yet been printed.
A major objective of the grant was to have at least three conferences throughout the WSARE region to introduce and develop the Western Cover Crops Council. Covid-19 certainly put a wrinkle in those plans but did not stop us. In December 2020 and January 2021 the first sub-regional conference was held for the Intermountain sub-region. It was made up of three-1 1/2 hour webinars and a final session where the participants were broken into four focus groups to dig deep into four identified priority areas. Our goal of the focus groups is to come away with actionable project ideas that the WCCC can focus on and provide leadership for Extension or other agencies as those groups work to help producers find ways to overcome barriers identified in focus groups and the survey. One of the sessions was a virtual field tour and cover crop projects from Oregon, Idaho, and Utah were highlighted. There were 120 participants in first session, 93 in the second, and 66 in the third.
In February and March 2021 a five session virtual conference was conducted to focus on the Pacific Northwest sub-region. There were four 1 1/2 hour webinars and a final session where the participants were broken into three focus groups to focus on identified priority areas. There were 214 participants in the first session, 185 in the second, 145 in the third, and 87 in the fourth. The break out groups were separate Zoom meetings and the total attendance was apparently not collected. For both conference, non of the seven break out sessions has more than 10 participants so the total participation was less than 70.
The sub-regional conferences were recorded and can be found on the Western Cover Crop Council website: https://westerncovercrops.org/videos-webinars/from-the-ground-up-series/
In the summer of 2022 a third conference was held in California. The organizer chose to do a one day traveling tour of the region which included tours of various cover cropping systems in the Sacramento Valley. Lunch and dinner gave the opportunity for presentations. There were 49 attendees. The results of the evaluation are in that section of this report.
We were able to get out of the Pacific Northwest and reach producers in Hawaii by collaborating with University of Hawaii faculty and Oahu RC&D staff. Here is the report of their program:
On October 25, 2022, Oʻahu RC&D organized a cover crop outreach workshop at Hui O Makaʻainana on Kauai targeting producers using rotational wetland production systems for taro, an important indigenous food crop for Hawaiʻi. In order to conduct effective cover crop outreach, the event included presentations by Dr. Koon Hui Wang and Dr. Ted Radovich of UH-CTAHR, Q&A and collaborative design of a cover crop demonstration planting tailored to the unique coastal conditions and challenges of the host site, its wetland taro production system, and farm management goals. The workshop agenda covered the process of selecting cover crop species and cultivars appropriate throughout the year, estimating the seeding rate needed for the demo plot, annual cost for the seed, a plan for establishing the seed by flooding the wetland field using the existing irrigation system, estimated labor cost for prepping the demo plot and seeding, and estimated labor cost for maintaining and terminating the cover crop. The outreach event targeted a group of producers that are participating in a Soil Health Cohort and was attended by 15 commercial farmers, in addition to the three speakers. An additional three farmers from the host site attended the farmer-to-farmer discussion that followed the workshop. Demonstrating the process for designing an annual cover crop system for a wetland taro system is important to accelerating the adoption of this soil health practice for taro farmers in Hawaii.

Fallowing is an important component of a wetland taro rotation and as part of the workshop, a farm map and crop plan were included to assist in determining an annual schedule to replace the fallow period with a cover crop. As part of the design process, the cost and practicality of using a cover crop treatment versus the application of crustacean meal was explored as alternatives to address the farm management goal of suppressing nematode pests, which negatively impact taro yield and crop quality. The design process involved the farm manager working closely with Dr. Koon Hui Wang, a local expert in Nematode Ecology, and Sustainable Pest Management, Soil and Agroecosystem Health Management. Nematode suppressive traits provide a strong incentive for farmers to cover crop immediately prior to the cash crop. However, the salt and limited sunlight hours experienced at the demo site during the winter season made it impractical for the farm manager to use cover crops as a pest management strategy during this season. The farm management goal of sustaining planting and harvests year-round required the use of crustacean meal prior to winter time plantings to address nematode pressure.

A colleague in Oregon was hired through a sub-award to Oregon State University to compile the survey data from the Pacific Northwest virtual conference held in 2021. The resulting fact sheets are attached to this report.