Reading the Farm: Discovering whole-farm interactions

Reading the Farm: Discovering whole-farm interactions

Summary

Agricultural professionals are often trained in specialized sub-disciplines of agriculture such as agronomy, business management, animal health and management, or environmental resource management. Because of this specialization, agricultural professionals often make recommendations about one part of a farm system without full knowledge or full consideration of how that recommendation may affect other parts of the system. In the “Reading the Farm” project, agricultural professionals with diverse areas of expertise will increase their understanding of whole-farm system interactions, improve their skills in conducting whole farm assessments, and increase their awareness of how recommendations to farmers affect the whole farm system. The agricultural professionals will then use these skills to deliver programs to farmers that more effectively integrate whole-farm system concepts.

To accomplish these objectives, project leaders convened a team of eleven specialists to develop a 3-day workshop which was held in August 2010. Workshop organizers selected two dairy farms as model systems to learn about whole-farm system interactions. Both farms featured innovative sustainable agriculture practices, including rotational grazing, organic production, value added products and direct marketing. Twenty one agricultural professionals from Cooperative Extension, NRCS, and private firms attended the workshop. Beneficiaries engaged the farmers and workshop facilitators with questions and dialogue during a tour and whole-farm assessment of each farm. Eighteen of the beneficiaries increased their understanding of how 6 or more farm system components interacted with other components of the farm system. Thirteen of the beneficiaries increased their confidence in 4 or more whole-farm assessment skills. Following the farm tours, beneficiaries conducted a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for each farm. Based on the SWOT analysis and farmer identified needs and goals, the beneficiaries developed recommendations for each farm and considered how those recommendations would affect the whole farm system. Seventeen beneficiaries increased their awareness of how recommendations about one part of a system affect other parts of a farm system. At the conclusion of the workshop, beneficiaries worked in teams to develop action plans for how they would incorporate knowledge and skills related to whole farm systems into their programs with farmers.

Objectives/Performance Targets

15 agricultural professionals from Cooperative Extension, government agencies, and non-profit organizations will deliver educational programming on how interactions between components of a farm system affect farm sustainability to 15 other agricultural professionals, and at least 400 of their clientele will receive this information.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Milestone 1: One hundred fifty potential project beneficiaries become aware of the workshop opportunity.

Accomplishments: Over 600 individuals learned about the workshop opportunity through Penn State e-mail lists, Northeast SARE State Program e-mail lists, and personal networking. (April- July 2010)

Milestone 2: Forty potential project beneficiaries submit applications to participate in the workshop.

Accomplishments: Twenty five potential beneficiaries submitted applications to participate in the workshop (April-July 2010). Personal networks proved to be the most valuable way to recruit beneficiaries to the workshop. By networking with state leaders in NRCS, newly hired NRCS field personnel throughout Pennsylvania were encouraged to attend the workshop as part of their basic training. Informal feedback from our target beneficiary group indicated that the 3-day time commitment and the scheduling of the workshop in early August, which is both a prime vacation time and a busy time for county fairs, may have been deterrents to applying to participate in the workshop.

Milestone 3: Twenty beneficiaries attend the workshop and increase their knowledge of farm system components that are outside their primary discipline and discover at least two ways that components of the whole-farm system interact.

Milestone 4: Twenty beneficiaries learn at least 3 ways that recommendations from their own discipline affect other components of the farm system.

Milestone 5: Twenty beneficiaries learn at least 3 ways that recommendations from other disciplines affect their own component of the farm system.

Accomplishments: Twenty-one beneficiaries attended the 3 day workshop (August 2010). During the workshop planning process, we changed milestones 3 through 5 slightly to develop more targeted learning objectives and allow for a more effective verification tool. Our revised milestone is that twenty beneficiaries: a) increase their understanding of how components of a farm system interact with each other; b) increase their confidence in skills used to conduct a whole-farm assessment; and c) increase their awareness of how recommendations about one part of a farm system could affect other parts of a farm system.

During the workshop, 26 farm system components were considered in the whole-farm assessments, broadly categorized into areas of agronomy, animal performance, business management, environmental resources, and social issues. Twenty beneficiaries increased their understanding of how one or more farm system components interacted with other components of the farm system. Eighteen of the beneficiaries increased their understanding of how 6 or more farm system components interacted with other components of the farm system. (See document 1, below, for a full list of the farm system components that were considered and the full results from the verification survey.)

Beneficiaries also practiced several skills that are important for conducting a whole-farm assessment, such as identifying the farmer’s goals for the whole farm system and asking informed questions outside their area of expertise. Twenty of the beneficiaries increased their confidence in one or more whole farm assessment skills. Thirteen of the participants increased their confidence in 4 or more whole-farm assessment skills. (See document 1, below, for a full list whole-farm assessment skills and the full results from the verification survey.)

Seventeen of the beneficiaries increased their awareness of how recommendations about one part of a farm system could affect other parts of a farm system.

Several of the beneficiaries attending the workshop were agricultural professionals with several decades of work experience. However, the facilitated programming was targeted towards entry level professionals, which may explain why there are some individuals that reported minimal gains in knowledge, confidence, or awareness. Despite this, the more experienced beneficiaries played an important role in the group dynamic, sharing their wisdom, experience, and perspectives during the farm tours and discussions.

Milestone 6: Twenty beneficiaries outline how they will use new knowledge on whole-farm interactions in their educational programming and contribute to the development of new educational materials that meet their programming needs.

Accomplishments: Nineteen beneficiaries indicated that they would change how they make recommendations to farmers (August 2010). These changes included:

• Being more sensitive as to why some recommendations may not be followed
  Looking more closely at the farmers goals instead of just natural resource concerns
  Taking more time to consider all of the options proposed to a farmer
  Understanding how recommendations could affect the profitability and production level of the farm
  Making recommendations that are not just farm specific, but farmer specific.

At the end of the workshop, 21 beneficiaries wrote action plans of how they would incorporate whole-farm system concepts into their educational programs (August 2010). These plans varied widely among individuals, reflecting the diversity of the beneficiary group. (See document 2, below, for the completed action plans.) Whole-farm system interactions that beneficiaries planned to include in their future programs included interactions between:

• Farmer goals, production practices and marketing/business decisions
  Production practices and environmental resources
  Agronomic practices, animal nutrition, and milk production per acre
  Soil amendments, soil health, plant health, crop productivity, and profits
  Crop productivity and livestock needs
  Conservation practices, crop productivity and profitability
  Animal nutrition and nutrient management

Activities that beneficiaries plan to organize where information on whole-farm systems will be disseminated included:

• Field days
  Conferences
  Fact sheets
  Newsletter articles
  County fairs
  Winter extension meetings
  Private farm visits
  Whole farm assessments and SWOT analyses for farmer clientele

Milestone 7: Fifteen beneficiaries communicate with project leaders and other participants the successes and challenges of incorporating content about whole-farm system interactions into their educational programs. (August 2011)

Accomplishments: We have not yet conducted follow-up surveys to the workshop to verify this milestone.

• Results from verification survey for milestones 3 through 6
• Action plans completed by project beneficiaries

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We have not yet done a formal verification of impacts and outcomes as this is the first year of the project. However, we feel confident that beneficiaries are on track to complete the performance target. We know through informal networking that several of the beneficiaries have already begun integrating whole-farm systems concepts into their programming. One beneficiary and a workshop organizer are working together to develop a training program in Pennsylvania for new NRCS personnel that will feature “Reading the Farm” style farm visits that emphasize the interactions among farm system components. Another beneficiary is working with two of the workshop organizers on a network of on-farm demonstrations in Pennsylvania that focus on the use of cover crops for livestock forage, which will enhance environmental resources, increase crop productivity, reduce feed costs, and increase farm profitability.

We plan on doing formal verifications of project impacts in August 2011 and August 2012.

Collaborators: