Utilizing holistic planned grazing as a regenerative engine for sustainable agriculture

Utilizing holistic planned grazing as a regenerative engine for sustainable agriculture

Summary

A paradigm shift in support of whole-farm grazing knowledge has been initiated by farmers and their local conservation agency professionals and extension educators through more practical grazing planning and implementation on Northeast farms to provide sustainable profit, to create a grass-based regenerative ecosystem they want and to enhance the quality of life for the family.
Because of recent milk pricing, rising energy fees, herd health expenses, time management issues, feed and fertilizer costs, coupled with the on-going National Organic Pasture Standard rules, USDA-NRCS program requirements, consumer interest in grass-based products, and environmental concerns over water quality issues, a record number of requests from farmers for comprehensive, practical grazing planning assistance have been experienced by cooperative extension, conservation districts/NRCS and farmer-educators.

This professional training led by the CNY RC&D Council mentors educational and field staff interested in becoming a local grazing management resource/leader to deliver programming and on-farm strategies while building strong working relationships with customers and meeting “farmers where they are” to help meet their farm goals in the areas of profitability, ecological improvement and social well-being.

Three training sessions were held in NY, VT and PA educating the 45 selected grazing professionals to help their chosen 135 farms establish farm family goals, collect baseline social data and financial indicators related to measuring planned grazing strategies over the life of the project. Over the next year, the project team and the 45 grazing professionals will use these farm family goals (What do I want my future landscape to look like?) to further guide 3 trainings in holistic grazing planning, infrastructure design and biological monitoring on the farms they are working with.

A paradigm shift in support of whole-farm grazing knowledge has been initiated by farmers and their local conservation agency professionals and extension educators through more practical grazing planning and implementation on Northeast farms to provide sustainable profit, to create a grass-based regenerative ecosystem they want and to enhance the quality of life for the family.

Because of recent milk pricing, rising energy fees, herd health expenses, time management issues, feed and fertilizer costs, coupled with the on-going National Organic Pasture Standard rules, USDA-NRCS program requirements, consumer interest in grass-based products, and environmental concerns over water quality issues, a record number of requests from farmers for comprehensive, practical grazing planning assistance have been experienced by cooperative extension, conservation districts/NRCS and farmer-educators.

This professional training led by the CNY RC&D Council mentors educational and field staff interested in becoming a local grazing management resource/leader to deliver programming and on-farm strategies while building strong working relationships with customers and meeting “farmers where they are” to help meet their farm goals in the areas of profitability, ecological improvement and social well-being.

Three training sessions were held in NY, VT and PA educating the 45 selected grazing professionals to help their chosen 135 farms establish farm family goals, collect baseline social data and financial indicators related to measuring planned grazing strategies over the life of the project. Over the next year, the project team and the 45 grazing professionals will use these farm family goals (What do I want my future landscape to look like?) to further guide 3 trainings in holistic grazing planning, infrastructure design and biological monitoring on the farms they are working with.

• Press Release

Objectives/Performance Targets

30 extension educators, conservation professionals, grassland advocates and/or farmer mentors from the Northeast SARE region are trained and deliver holistic and practical grazing strategies to 120 farms, representing 24,000 acres, of which 72 farms on 14,400 acres develop and implement a holistic planned grazing system. We estimate that the impacts on these 72 farms will be (1) financial – $2,000 increase in profitability due to reduced production costs, value added products and/or a production increases; (2) ecological – 25% increase in ground cover, biological activity and improved soil & forage health; and (3) social – measurable subjective improvement in family quality of life.

• Farm Family Holistic Goal examples

Accomplishments/Milestones

Project leaders and four passionate site coordinators from NY, VT and PA recruited a record number of participants (65 people for 30 training slots) interested in grazing training via media flyers, e-mail list-serves and personal contacts throughout the Northeast, even before the project was funded. It was decided to over-achieve, working frugally within the budget, to add 15 more people because of such strong applications and the lack of dedicated grazing assistance in many locales. In short, we needed more trained grazing practitioners to facilitate opportunities on farms.

The project team developed a curriculum and teaching materials consistent with participant’s local needs. Participant strengths included being multi-species focused, practical, passionate in implementing a comprehensive grazing program from farm to consumer, to become a local leader and “work” with and not “for” farmers in helping meet their whole farm goals. Interest in developing the “grazier’s eye” and implementing a workable grazing plan based on sound family goals, financial indicators and good stewardship was very important. Most identified being better connected and having a strong working relationship with farmers as a crucial element for success. A litany of specific production oriented grazing practice questions such as; animal nutrition, herd health, infrastructure design, estimating forage yield, leading successful pasture walks, communicating and working on outreach materials also showed the diversity and varied experience level of the professionals. These will be addressed throughout the project.

Perfect attendance (NY-15, PA-13, VT-17) was achieved for the (Oct./Nov.) initial training in creating farm family goals, developing financial indicators and biological benchmarks at all three training sites. Ninety percent of participants have chosen three farms to work with. It was decided to scale back to three farms per person (135 farms instead of 150) because of on-going workload issues and concentrating the effort closer to an individual’s locale without sacrificing the performance target goal of 72 farms implementing a holistic planned grazing system.

Practical tools were developed and shared at the first training to assist professionals working with farmers on creating farm family goals and collecting social and financial data. The participants learned the processes by using decision cases, group exercises, working on their own personal goals during the training and hearing from guest farmers tell their personal stories on how thinking decisions through helped them. These tools can be accessed at www.cnyrcd.org/planned-grazing-participants/.

All training sites were coordinated by team project members and featured local entrees, desserts and beverages with ample time to network followed by pasture walks on neighboring farms. This style of teaching allows the opportunity to learn from each other and builds relationships.

• The Pennsylvania Grazing Professionals
• The Vermont Grazing Professionals
• The New York Grazing Professionals
• Grazing Training participant application

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Based on 100% evaluation response, the inspired grazing professionals committed to the idea of assisting farmers, landowners and themselves in “creating the life and landscape they want” by looking at the wholes of agricultural systems in a soil-holding, solar collecting, grassland setting.

The educational methods, styles and setting for learning appealed to 100% of the participants. Several commented how engaging it was and were happy without a power-pointed focus. When asked, “Do you intend to complete your own personal goal using what you learned in this session?” Ninety-nine percent said yes! Quotes abound like: “It was eye-opening”, “Helps me prepare for the future”, “It helps me discover not only what I want but who I want to be”, “I think I now realize what a powerful tool this is”, “I see lots of value in having a personal plan for professional and family life and “It will be beneficial for developing farm goal & professional development working with other producers”.

Evaluation questions included asking participants to rate their level of knowledge and value in working with farmers to create farm family goals, collecting financial and social data, and did this session prepare them to work with farmers to enhance the grazing planning process, before and after the training session. On a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 indicating no knowledge, 45 conservation professionals, extension educators and farmer mentors all moved their knowledge base positively up two points. However there was strong consensus that working with farmers on farm family goals will be stressful and move folks out of their comfort zones even though it was deemed important for the planning process.

The question of knowing the differences between holistic grazing planning and agency prescribed grazing plans after the training generally moved knowledge one point or stayed even. This may be a result of experience among the participants and a further opportunity to learn as the project goes matures. Holistic planned grazing has been described as “Getting animals to the right place at the right time for the right reasons”. This approach is very complex and will take time, patience and in-field practice to learn.

The instructional team received good to excellent ratings for this initial training with the guest farmers being part of the teaching process and telling their real-life stories as an excellent way to put a face on grazing planning considerations. Driving time and distance to sessions by participants averaged 2.5 hours. Because of the diversity and interests, future sessions will be moved to accommodate participants and the project leaders traveling to meet participants in regional areas as follow-up. All said holding sessions on farms was imperative for learning, which was duly noted by the comments.

Other activities have included one-on-one mentoring, developing a social-media page for participants to share information, press releases, formulating specific grazing planning monitoring charts, and working with local grazing groups to meet the needs of customers as described by service providers throughout the region. These targeted meetings will lay the groundwork for future curriculum activities by building relationships and learning to “Ask farmers the right questions and meet farmers where they are.”

Other comments from grazing training students include: “Grazing is my rock!”, “I didn’t realize how in-depth the social part of this was.”, “It’s going to take time to digest all this”, “I’m excited to move forward with this and work with farmers”, “Great place to learn—food and hospitality were fantastic. I appreciate the local food gesture to this project, Thank you”.

• New York Site Coordinator, Nancy Glazier
• USDA-NRCS-RC&D Coordinator and HM trainer, Phillip Metzger
• PA farmer mentor, Jen Carson enjoying homemade lasagna
• Page 6 story on SARE Project

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