Making pasture walks more than just a walk in the pasture

View the project final report

• 2011 annual report
• 2012 annual report
• 2013 annual report

Commodities

• Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial), hay
• Additional Plants: native plants
• Animals: bovine, goats, poultry, sheep, swine
• Animal Products: dairy

Practices

• Animal Production: feed/forage, grazing management, grazing - multispecies, grazing - rotational, manure management, pasture renovation, pasture fertility, stocking rate, stockpiled forages, watering systems, winter forage
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, study circle, workshop
• Energy: energy conservation/efficiency, energy use
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, marketing management, risk management, value added, whole farm planning
• Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration
• Pest Management: cultural control, physical control
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management, organic agriculture
• Soil Management: organic matter, soil microbiology
• Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, social networks, sustainability measures

This project sought to merge the established informal communication and education mechanisms that serve grazing farmers with institutional research-based resources by creating a network for enhancing the capacity of agency and non-profit personnel to deliver managed grazing education to their local clientele. DATCP worked with GrassWorks, Inc. Board of Directors and staff who partnered with grazing entities and experts around the state to plan, organize, and carry out a series of trainings and workshops for grazing educators from various agencies and organizations. These efforts included organizing and executing numerous train-the-trainer events during the grant period.

 The goals of this project were to: 1) create a network or ‘Community of Practice’ that allows collaboration and communication among grazing educators throughout the region, 2) establish a conduit to provide local agency and non-profit staff access to research based grazing information and specialist expertise, and 3) provide training for grazing educators in effective adult education methods, including program planning and evaluation as well as the unique farmer to farmer learning that occurs within grazing networks.