Grazing Education for Educators and Bankers

Grazing Education for Educators and Bankers

Summary

The specific objectives of this project were:

1) Educate local agricultural educators and bankers about the benefits of Management-Intensive Grazing (MIG).

2) Develop grazing farm pasture walks and a curriculum for high school and technical college agricultural educators to follow so that MIG can be successfully taught to our current and future farmers.

This project began by initiating personal contacts with agricultural educators and bankers to explain the basics of grazing-based farming. All educators and bankers in Marathon and Lincoln County were invited to all the pasture walks and other grazing-based farming field events that were held in 1998 and 1999.

We then started working with the high school and technical school agricultural educators. Each educator was personally invited to attend a training session on grass-based farming. The basics of grazing-based farming were explained to them as well as the economics, lifestyle and environmental benefits. An in-depth discussion was held with the educators to assess their current views of grazing-based farming and how to best implement grazing-based farming into their curriculum. All educators were provided with a University of Wisconsin (UW) Extension Grazing Reference Materials Manual. A brainstorming session was held with the educators, which provided the foundation for our grazing curriculum. All agricultural educators and bankers in Marathon and Lincoln counties were invited to all of our grazing-related training events, including 23 pasture walks, five demonstrations and two winter conferences.

The next portion of Objective 1 was to educate bankers about the benefits of MIG. In addition to inviting local bankers to our pasture walks, we encouraged graziers to personally invite their bankers to our pasture walks. This has worked rather well, and we usually have one or two bankers at each pasture walk. We generally have one or two pasture walks each month. In addition to this, we held a one-day meeting for bankers. The day was spent reviewing the economic benefits of MIG, the financial status of three local graziers and the economic impact of successful graziers on the community. We also had a pasture walk just for bankers at two local grazing-based farms where we reviewed the farms’ current economic status and then toured their farms to discuss management. At both meetings the graziers also discussed how they are able to maximize production and net profit while protecting the environment and improving their family lifestyle.

The second educational phase was the development of a curriculum for the agricultural educators to follow. A thorough investigation into the current curricula available from UW-Madison and other schools that have grazing courses was conducted. Appropriate course material was used from all existing sources to avoid duplicating useable materials already available. A general joint curriculum was then developed for both the high school and technical college levels. The curriculum was developed primarily by two graziers who were formerly high school ag teachers. The curriculum was reviewed and approved by advisory members from the Central Wisconsin River Graziers network, UW Extension, NRCS and key agricultural educators.

The curriculum consists of classroom instruction of basic grass management techniques, the tools needed to properly manage a grass-based farm and instructions on the environmental and lifestyle benefits of MIG. The classroom curriculum provides the basics of MIG. We have encouraged instructors to tie the in-class curriculum with follow-up visits to grass-based farms to expose students to active, profitable grass-based livestock farms.

We were given an unexpected opportunity to provide a much wider instruction and distribution of the grazing curriculum than what we expected. We were invited to hold a training session to train both high school and technical school agricultural instructors at the statewide conference for the Wisconsin Association of Vocational Agriculture Instructors. We provided a curriculum and video to more than 325 instructors at this conference. In addition, we provided hands-on training on how to use the curriculum to 21 instructors at the conference at a two-hour training session. The curriculum and video were also distributed to all of the high school and technical college agriculture instructors in Marathon and Lincoln counties who did not attend the conference.

For more information:
Paul Daigle
Conservation Specialist,
Marathon County Land Conservation Department
Network Coordinator,
Central Wisconsin River Graziers
210 River Drive
Wausau, WI 54403-5449
715-261-6006
715-261-6016 (fax)
padaigle@mail.co.marathon.wi.us

Collaborators: