Project Overview
Information Products
Commodities
Practices
- Crop Production: conservation tillage, cover crops, cropping systems, crop rotation, drought tolerance, no-till, water management
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, technical assistance
- Farm Business Management: agricultural finance, business planning, e-commerce, financial management, marketing management
- Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration, soil stabilization, Soil health
- Production Systems: dryland farming
- Soil Management: soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, sustainability measures
Abstract:
Over the past two years, Illinois SARE (IL SARE) has sponsored state-wide research and demonstration on cover crops, supported e-marketing programming for local produce farmers needing to sell producer to consumers during the Covid pandemic, sponsored and had a presence at the Illinois Organic Grains Conference and the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference (ISCC), publicized grant opportunities available through IL SARE and NCR SARE, and participated in cover crop field days. With the help of the NCR SARE communications specialist, the IL SARE web presence has been updated. In addition, the IL State Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator (ISSC) has provided guidance to people wishing to submit a NCR SARE grant application, and reviewed many proposals before submittal. 2022_ISCC_Sponsor
Over the past two years, there have been many changes in the leadership of IL SARE, Dr. Branham resigned as State Sustainable Ag co-coordinator as well as the IL SARE program assistant during the first half of 2021. None of those positions have been able to be refilled. In addition, the current ISCC is working through a recent family crisis.
Two new Co-coordinators joined IL SARE at the beginning of 2024. Cate Loomis, Illinois Extension Outreach Associate, is taking over responsibilities for outreach, grantee support, and management of the sponsorship and travel scholarship programs. Dr. Emily Heaton, will provide oversight and be the academic liaison with the University. With this new influx of energy, the IL SARE program is being overhauled to improve our program accessibility and presence in the state.
The past two years has seen a shift in how farmers want to receive educational content. There seems to be a shift to a preference for remote learning over in-person, which is a continuing challenge in how to deliver agricultural educational content remotely in a way that farmers/ranchers find engaging and useful.
Project objectives:
The IL SARE team proposes four areas of focus for 2023-24. The funding of a part-time program assistant in 2023 to provide better day-to-day management of SARE activities. Our four primary initiatives for the 2023-24-time frame are highlighted by a state-wide demonstration/research project on cover crops and soil health for corn/soybean growers. Agriculture in Illinois is dominated by these two crops and this project will provide invaluable education and outreach activities for Illinois farmers. Two of our other initiatives focus on beginning and new farmers and ranchers. A state-wide focus on beginning farmers and ranchers will focus on improving the business management skills, it has been noted within our state that many new farm operations are lacking the business management skills necessary to be a successful sustainable business. IL SARE will partner with IL Extension to produce a series of short videos and in-depth webinars on better business practices to implement by new and beginning farmers to improve the sustainability of their farms into the future. The other focus will be developing and implementing marketing strategies for these new and beginning farms and their farmers. For this, we will continue working with The Land Connection to develop more training webinars focused on successful marketing strategies for selling the products produced on their farms. Our final initiative will focus on "Adapting to a changing climate and other food system disruptions" with IL SARE's efforts focused on promoting, sponsoring and supporting organizations working in the areas of sustainable and regenerative agriculture to encourage the adoption of better soil health practices, increasing the use of more diversified crop rotations, the implementation of better integrated pest management practices that reduce reliance on pesticides, and the reintroduction of livestock on the farm as a vital part of being a sustainable farm.