Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, rye, grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Additional Plants: native plants, trees
- Animals: bovine, goats, sheep, fish
- Animal Products: dairy
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage, housing, grazing - continuous, manure management, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, preventive practices, grazing - rotational, watering systems, winter forage
- Crop Production: conservation tillage
- Education and Training: technical assistance, demonstration, display, extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
- Farm Business Management: new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, agricultural finance, risk management, whole farm planning
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, hedges - grass, grass waterways, habitat enhancement, indicators, riparian buffers, riverbank protection, soil stabilization, wetlands, wildlife, hedges - woody
- Pest Management: allelopathy, competition, field monitoring/scouting, mating disruption, prevention, weather monitoring, weed ecology
- Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management
- Soil Management: composting, earthworms, green manures, organic matter, soil analysis, nutrient mineralization, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: partnerships, public participation, analysis of personal/family life, employment opportunities, social capital, sustainability measures
Abstract:
Participants in this work are driven by their commitment to selective, managed riparian grazing and careful monitoring as tools for improving environmental, financial, and social aspects of agriculture. As a diverse collaborative of farmers, agricultural educators, and others, they hosted four on-farm grazing schools, compiled an annotated bibliography of riparian/grazing references, wrote a chapter for monitoring pasture vegetation, and participated in several conferences and workshops designed to 'train the trainers' as well as farmers and other land owners who manage the agricultural landscape. Evaluations indicated that this management alternative and the field school approach struck a positive chord in participants, who have asked for more of each.
Project objectives:
Objective 1. Synthesize key concepts in riparian grazing and monitoring learned from recent research, publications, videos, grazing networks and individuals, in several new and cohesive publications.
Objective 2. Conduct on-farm training of riparian grazing and monitoring issues for agricultural agents and others who work with farmers.
Objective 3. Disseminate information, concepts, and support materials through presentations, articles, professional journal publications, a resource center in each state, partner agency offices, the web, and an on-going monitoring newsletter.