Training in Sustainable Livestock Production Systems on Rangelands of the Western Dakotas

Training in Sustainable Livestock Production Systems on Rangelands of the Western Dakotas

Summary

Training of North and South Dakota Extension and NRCS personnel was conducted in two workshops. Participants were taught concepts of animal husbandry, natural resource management, economics, systems analysis, and adult learning styles. Multi-agency teams were established to apply concepts in solving a case-study problem. Survey results show that the training has positively impacted the ability of participants to perform their jobs. Work is in progress to publish proceedings from the training and a manuscript reporting training philosophies.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The goal of this project is for ag advisors to gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to help livestock producers incorporate information on sustainable range livestock production into their operations and develop a commitment to it. The overall objective of this project is to provide CES and NRCS staff with professional development training in sustainable livestock production systems on rangelands of western South Dakota and North Dakota. This project focuses on three major objectives:
1. Provide information and hands-on training in the diverse areas, and more importantly the interrelationships among those areas, impacting sustainable livestock production systems on rangelands of the western Dakotas, including natural resources, animal husbandry, rangeland management, rangeland livestock nutrition and behavior, economics, and marketing.
2. Provide CES and NRCS staff with experiential learning situations that will teach them effective methods for transferring information to their clientele.
3. Evaluate the success of this training and modify these approaches for future training opportunities.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Objective 1
Training workshops for North and South Dakota Extension educators and NRCS staff were held in August 2002 in Dickinson, North Dakota and December 2002 in Mandan, North Dakota. The three-day session in Dickinson combined classroom and field training to build on concepts introduced during the 2001 sessions. Training focused on enhancing the understanding of complexity in biological systems, analysis of agricultural businesses, fundamentals of agricultural economics, natural resource monitoring, adult education, and cow management. In order to facilitate incorporation of concepts into practice, participants were divided into multi-state, multi-agency teams and given a real-world problem to work through. The scenario was based on an existing farm/ranch operation with realistic production, natural resource, and financial information. Participant teams were charged with helping the operation plan through a severe drought with a goal of long-term sustainability of the operation. Teams collected necessary data as they rotated through a series of teaching/data collection stations, including cow body condition scoring, economics, rangeland monitoring/management, and ration balancing. Assignments were for teams to work together to prepare both a written and oral report to be presented at the December session in Mandan. Written reports were to focus on the process and underlying concepts necessary in helping producers plan for profitable and sustainable operations, and the presentations were to focus on applying those concepts to helping the operation plan through a drought. Teams were asked to incorporate all principles and concepts taught during the course in completing the assignment. Papers were collected by trainers during the session in Mandan, and all groups presented their drought planning information. Presentation feedback was provided to each team by trainers. Feedback discussion was based on whether or not presentations contained the following: 1) incorporation of appropriate concepts; 2) an appreciation for systems complexity; 3) appropriate recommendations; 4) adequate appreciation for multiple learning techniques during the presentation; and 5) the use of multi-disciplinary involvement in presenting the information.

Overall, participants effectively incorporated important concepts into presentations, had appropriate recommendations, used a variety of teaching methods to account for different learning styles, and used a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving. Participants also showed an appreciation for systems complexity, but they struggled with the incorporation of such knowledge in their presentations. Post-workshop survey results revealed that the majority of participants felt the exercise was very useful in tying everything together. They were enthusiastic about what they learned and requested further training. Trainers will review papers and work with team members on necessary revisions. Papers will be published in Proceedings.

During the workshop in Dickinson, participants and trainers toured a unique ranching operation in eastern Montana. Interaction between participants and the ranch owner illustrated the enthusiasm participants had for learning new methods and working with people.

Objective 2
During the two workshops conducted in 2002, trainers continued to teach concepts of teach-coach-mentor (TCM), a style of teaching that allows teachers to progress to coaching and finally mentorship roles in the learning process. In teaching concepts during these training sessions, trainers demonstrated the TCM methodology through interaction with each other and participants. During the workshop in Dickinson, participants were coached to ask the right questions from trainers in regards to the production system information they needed to complete their assignment. For purpose of working on the team projects, one trainer was assigned to each team as a mentor, again demonstrating the technique. Participant teams designed during the workshops were comprised of members from both Extension and NRCS so that coaching and mentorship could take place. In general, NRCS staff coached and mentored Extension staff in areas of rangeland monitoring, range management, and government programs. Extension staff coached and mentored NRCS staff in areas of rations balancing, cow body condition score management, and ranch economics. During the workshops and in development of assignments, trainers were able to document the TCM concept being incorporated into the multi-disciplinary teams. A slide presentation showed photographs from the training sessions of TCM taking place amongst the participants.

An adult education specialist participated in the workshops to teach concepts of adult learning and help participants identify various learning styles of adult clients.

Training was also provided on the identification of personalities. This was taught in the context of working with and teaching clients with various approaches to decision making. Workshop survey results revealed that participants gained a great deal of useful information from these exercises.

An Extension Associate has been hired to coordinate and develop Proceedings for this project that will contain resource material for major concepts discussed in the training session. In addition, the Extension Associate is working with trainers to develop abstracts and a publication outlining the curriculum and professional development approach used in this project.

Objective 3
A survey was conducted after the training in August 2002 to collect participant feedback from the workshop. Comments from this survey were incorporated into the planning process for the workshop held in December 2002. A project survey was conducted after the December training to assess participants’ perspective of the project. Results showed that participants: 1) found the information needed and useful; 2) developed networks between agencies and states; 3) gained an appreciation for bio-complexity; 4) implemented information on various personalities and learning styles into their programming; 5) found information useful (but wanted more training) on systems analysis; and 6) had improved confidence. Participants were asked to rate the course in its value in helping them perform their assigned job (1 = not valuable; 2 = somewhat valuable; 3 = valuable; 4 = extremely valuable). The range in scores was from 2.5 to 4.0, with an average of 3.71. Comments were very positive, and the majority of participants wanted advanced training in the concepts presented during the course. The publication of papers stemming from the 2002 assignment in a Proceedings book will serve as documentation of the concepts learned by participants.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The impact of this professional development project is apparent. We have documented improved confidence and competence among participants in this course. One participant from Extension commented: “I have learned that my strengths and weaknesses are OK because I now have a tremendous resource base of people to help with them . . . I have used some of the concepts and tech info in programming.” Another Extension participant wrote: “I have already used my training in estimating forage amount . . . Planning programs have definitely improved.” An NRCS participant commented: “We have learned there is a lot of good planning information out there, we just need to use it. In our planning process, everyone had added knowledge.” These comments, among others, serve as documentation that the training has impacted the programming efforts of participants. We have observed participants planning producer meetings with more confidence and with only the mentorship of Specialists. Participants from this project are better trained, have more confidence, and have the resource network necessary to help producers improve profitability and sustainability.

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