Use of Whole Farm Analysis to Reduce Nutrient Losses, Improve Nutrient Cycling, Carbon Status and Energy Use on Small Dairies in New York State

Use of Whole Farm Analysis to Reduce Nutrient Losses, Improve Nutrient Cycling, Carbon Status and Energy Use on Small Dairies in New York State

Summary

In 2009, four on-farm winter meetings were held to discuss the results of 2008 MNB and identified questions resulting from the analysis, identified potential areas where nutrient use efficiency might be improved, discussed impacts for 2009 farm nutrient decision-making and formulated a plan with the farm management team for helping the farm make the changes. Plans were made on each farm to update soil test information as a baseline for decision-making. All fields on the farm were tested for the Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test (ISNT), soil test phosphorus (STP), and soil test potassium (STK) and micronutrients.

An additional tool, a Precision Feed Management Benchmarking tool, was identified as potentially useful by one member of two management teams. Each management team evaluated the tool and decided to focus on a crop management indicators and not enough interest was held by the whole group to engage the PFM tool. All four teams set it aside as something important to look at in the future.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Performance Target: Four small dairy farms, through the use of the AEI-based whole farm analysis, implement management changes that resulted in improved nutrient use efficiency and farm energy use. Four county extension educators will become well-versed in the AEI-based data collection and whole farm analysis process with an additional eleven county educators being trained at bi-annual extension retreats. Seventy-five small farms will use the new AEI’s through the voluntary MNB program. At least 35% (combination of MNB farmer meetings and popular press articles) of the small dairy farms in New York will become aware of the project and the benefits of the whole-farm analysis and 15 additional farms will start implementing changes to improve nutrient use efficiency by the end of the project.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1) A research team will be formed for each participating farm made up of the farmer, county extension educator, and Cornell campus staff. This team will complete baseline, year one and year two whole-farm analysis to identify nutrient use efficiency, carbon status and energy use. The annual results will be used to identify and implement changes to improve nutrient, carbon and energy use efficiency during the second and third year. Efficiency gains will be quantified at the end of three years. (3 years)

1/2009-3/2009 – 2008 Mass nutrient balance data were collected for all four participating farms and a MNB analysis completed.

1/2009-6/2009 – Farm field maps and manure quantity and manure analysis information was collected as well as field crop information.
6/2009-9/2009 – Soil samples were taken on every field on all four farms and analyzed for ISNT, STP, STK and micro nutrients (188 fields, 2000 acres).

9/2009-11/2009 – All corn fields on two farms and a subset of corn fields on a third farm were sampled for CSNT (42 fields, 530 acre) (the fourth farm only grows grass and the CSNT was not applicable).

2. The team will assess the farm data for potential internal (herd and cropping) system efficiency indicators and a list of data pages will be generated. This information will be used to develop and implement record keeping systems (farm specific) to address data gaps. A protocol will be developed to calculate and interpret each of the herd and cropping efficiency indicators that are feasible with data found or generated easily on the four small farms and this will become part of the annual assessments (3 years).

1/2009-3/2009 – Four on-farm winter meetings were held in which annual Mass Nutrient Balance summaries were reviewed and verified by farm management teams and plans made for the 2009 cropping season. One farm requested an additional meeting to investigate feeding issues on the farm while all four farms requested additional meetings with crop consultants and extension agents to implement soil sampling and corn stalk nitrate sampling plans.

3. Four Extension educators will gain skills and experience throughout this process in data collection and whole farm analysis. They will collaborate with university staff to provide training for fellow extension educators at bi-annual field crop extension retreats (1-2 day events). A total of 15 dairy and field crop extension educators will be educated on implementation and interpretation of whole farm analysis through these professional retreats (2 years).

1/2009-12/2009 – Farm management teams expanded and on-farm meetings included four Cornell Cooperative Extension educators (3 field crops and 1 dairy), two dairy nutritionists/feed sales persons and three certified nutrient management planners/crop consultants:

Joe Lawrence, CCA
Cornell Cooperative Extension
PO Box 72
5274 Outer Stowe Street
Lowville NY 13367
315-376-5270 , jrl65@cornell.edu

Peg Cook
Cook’s Consulting
RD #2 Box 13
Lowville NY13367
pegcook@northnet.org

Brian Gillette
Blue Seal Richer Dairy Nutrition
315-778-5047
bgillette@richer.com

John Conway
Cornell Pro-Dairy
123 Lake St., Cooperstown, NY 13326
(607)547-2536
jfc6@cornell.edu

Janice Degni
Cornell Cooperative Extension
60 Central Avenue
Cortland NY 13045
Richard Dale
Agricultural Consulting Services
585-314-5315

Stephen R. Canner
Field Crops Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension
St. Lawrence County
1894 SH 68
Canton NY 13617
315-379-9192 Ext 233
src93@cornell.edu

Eric Bever
Champlain Valley Agronomics
10 Train Road
Peru NY
12972
518-643-2360
ebever@charter.net

Rick Button
Cargill
802-373-0367
Rick_Button@cargill.com

4. The most relevant AEI indicators will be included in the MNB Project annual mass balance assessments in which 75 small farms participate. Of these 75 farms it is expected that at least 15 farmers will implement management changes, the results of which will be tracked through annual assessments that are part of the Mass Nutrient Balance Program.

12/12/2009 – 2008 Mass Nutrient Balance reports were sent out to 85 farmers. The reports included new herd and crop AEI’s that had been developed as a result of a previous case-study project. These indicators were found to be helpful in whole farm analysis during the on-farm meetings with Marc Laribee and also in the MNB meetings held in Cortland County NY.

5. Four farm/project impact reports will be published in popular press journals such as Northeast Dairy Business, Small Farms Quarterly, County Folks, and Farming magazines (1 year, over years 2 and 3). It is expected that these articles will be read by at least 35% of the small dairy farmers in New York State. In addition the results of this research will be published in a scientific peer-reviewed publication.

4/2009 – published farm/project introductory story in the SFQ
7/2009 – published second farm/project introductory article in the SFQ

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We established four farm management teams, one for each farm and collected a second year of data for Mass Nutrient Balance analyses. We developed improved standard reporting formats based on feedback from 2008 and 2009 on-farm winter management meetings. We published two introductory/baseline articles featuring two the casestudy farms in the project. All fields on each farm (total of 2000 acres) were soil sampled and tested for baseline information on nutrient status of each field and the whole farm. We tested all corn silage fields for stalk nitrate status at the end of the 2009 growing season. We updated manure analysis information on each farm and collected baseline field and crop management information.

Collaborators: