Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Animals: swine, sheep
Practices
- Animal Production: free-range, manure management, grazing - multispecies, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, grazing - rotational, feed/forage
- Education and Training: extension, participatory research
- Farm Business Management: whole farm planning
Proposal summary:
Bruce Dunlop of Lopez Island Farm hopes to benefit from his Farmer/Rancher Grant by improving the sustainability of his sheep and swine operation. Now more than ever, customers are conscious about the production system used for the food they purchase.
This project will take a look at management practices that can solve the imbalance of nutrients on the producer’s farm. Soil and forage will be tested for the expected nutrient increase after swine pasturing and the opposite decrease during sheep grazing. Also, parasites will be monitored on two rotations to evaluate populations on pastures grazed only once by the swine versus pastures rotated through every six weeks.
With the results, the integrated farm hopes to improve productivity, animal health, soil tilth and water quality, while improving economic sustainability. Management recommendations will be summarized into a fact sheet and newspaper article that will be shared with producers with similar challenges.