CEFS Long-term Systems Research: Providing the Building Blocks for Resilient Food Production Systems Phase III

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: clovers, corn, grass (misc. perennial), hay, rye, soybeans, sunflower, vetches
• Animals: bovine
• Animal Products: dairy, meat

Practices

• Animal Production: grazing management, grazing - rotational, rangeland/pasture management
• Crop Production: agroforestry, conservation tillage, continuous cropping, cover crops, cropping systems, crop rotation, forest/woodlot management, no-till, organic fertilizers
• Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
• Farm Business Management: land access
• Pest Management: integrated pest management, mulches - killed
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, integrated crop and livestock systems, organic agriculture
• Soil Management: soil physics, soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: quality of life

The experimental framework of the original Farming Systems Research Unit (FSRU) will continue: replicated plots of farming systems managed with farm-scale equipment.  We are also merging the agroforestry research experiment within this large-systems research effort, since there is complementarity in long-term nature, similar soil types, soil health evaluation procedures, design of timber production and shade for animals as part of both systems, and evaluation of forage and cattle production as part of some agro-ecosystems.  Within this context, new research questions have emerged.  How do perennial production systems compare with annual production systems?  How does grazing affect botanical composition of pastures compared with various hay management strategies?  Can shade be a significant ecosystem buffer for livestock production in the southeast US?  What are the soil health impacts of integrated crop-livestock systems and pasture grazing compared with more traditional annual cropping systems?  Are timber species more important on certain soil types and can timber species impact other ecosystem services?  Are conventional and organic nutrient amendment strategies having an effect on soil health metrics?  Do farmers have reliable and/or reasonable options for making selection of sustainable farming practices that do not meet mainstream standards?  In this proposal, we have attracted several new researchers to CEFS who have fresh ideas on relating this experiment to the sustainability issues of our time.  Some of the new issues were never envisioned when the experiment was first designed.  Our research team will be able to provide answers to many of the emerging issues on agricultural sustainability through the continued efforts focused on these long-term systems studies.