Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Animals: bovine, goats
Practices
- Animal Production: grazing - multispecies, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, grazing - rotational, feed/forage
- Crop Production: organic fertilizers
- Education and Training: demonstration, display, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
- Pest Management: competition, cultural control, weed ecology
- Soil Management: soil analysis, soil quality/health
Proposal summary:
Eastern Red Cedar and Multiflora Rose are pervasive weed species in the Mid-Atlantic states. This project will attempt to control these species without the use of chemical herbicides by intensive grazing and nutrient management. An organic fertilizer will be used in the form of turkey litter from local producers. The local and national media have been publicizing surface water contamination by nutrients from the application of poultry litter. A goal of this project will be to establish that using best management practices and applying fertilizer according to soil test and the nutrient management plan a producer can sustainably apply organic fertilizers without negative impact on the environment. An additional goal of this project is to test if these weed species can be controlled by intensive grazing of cattle and goats. The local agricultural economy revolves around the production of livestock. We hope to show that a producer can control weed species and increase production using innovative grazing strategies, thus eliminating the use of costly herbicides and sustainably using organic fertilizer.
We hope to show through this work that organic fertilizer can be used in large-scale agricultural production without adverse effects to the surrounding environment