Overcoming Barriers to Grass-Based Agriculture in the Driftless Region

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial)

Practices

• Animal Production: grazing management, grazing - rotational
• Education and Training: participatory research
• Sustainable Communities: community development, community planning, local and regional food systems, quality of life, social networks

Overcoming Barriers to Grass-Based Agriculture in the Driftless Region

In the Driftless Region of Northwestern Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin, working grasslands have been dramatically decreasing over the past 30 years. The decline of grass-based farming practices have been associated with increased soil erosion, reduced water quality, and diminished wildlife habitat. Going forward it will be important to consider ways in which grass-based farming can be incorporated into farmer land-use decisions. Common sense suggests that agricultural land-use decisions are based solely on economic efficiency for maximum production. While economic factors are undoubtedly an important aspect of agricultural land management, such factors do not offer a complete explanation.

Our project examined the structural factors that influence farmer land-use decisions in Grant County, WI, and Jo Daviess County, IL from August 2019 to December 2022. To shift agricultural practices in the direction of regenerative practices, there is a need to understand and elevate the visibility of community-based influences on farming decisions. Land use strategies that are developed through collaborative efforts combine insights from both research and experiential knowledge. Incorporating various perspectives on agroecosystems offers advantages when implementing land-use strategies that integrate conservation within their production-based goals. Our project found that farmers and community members were interested in the concept of well-managed rotational grazing but expressed the presence of systemic barriers, such as intense social sanctions, that impeded adoption of the practice. To move forward, well-managed rotational grazing, a regenerative form of agriculture that builds soil, enhances water quality, and provides wildlife habitat, communities in the Driftless Region identified the need to implement their landscape vision through collaborative processes. An emerging example of the collaborative effort is the community driven endeavor to develop a Driftless beef supply chain that rewards production systems that promote farmer quality of life, community vitality, labor rights, and a wide array of ecosystem services.

The project was developed for farmers, community organizers, researchers, and extension staff to learn from one another and identify collaborative strategies for overcoming barriers to grass-based agriculture. The first learning objective centers on gaining awareness of land-use perspectives from farmers, agricultural organizations, regional conservation groups, and researchers. Through collective dialogue and learning processes a set of potential interventions that work toward the adoption of grass-based farming approaches was developed. From these identified interventions communities identified future projects that can work toward a desired agricultural landscape. By going through the processes of place-based social learning, a set of recommended areas of focus have been identified for future projects that work toward increasing the amount of working grasslands in the Driftless Region of Illinois and Wisconsin.