Wisconsin SARE State Plan of Work 2025-2026

Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, feed additives, feed management, grazing management, grazing - rotational, livestock breeding, manure management
• Crop Production: application rate management, conservation tillage, cover crops, cropping systems, crop rotation, nutrient management, water management
• Education and Training: decision support system, extension, farmer to farmer, focus group, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, technical assistance, workshop
• Energy: solar energy
• Farm Business Management: agricultural finance, budgets/cost and returns, business planning, farm succession, financial management, labor/employment, land access, new enterprise development, risk management
• Natural Resources/Environment: grass waterways, riparian buffers, soil stabilization
• Pest Management: allelopathy, biological control, chemical control, cultural control, disease vectors, economic threshold, field monitoring/scouting, genetic resistance, integrated pest management, mulches - general, precision herbicide use, row covers (for pests), weather monitoring
• Production Systems: organic agriculture, organic certification, transitioning to organic
• Soil Management: soil analysis, soil quality/health

Initiative 1.  Sustainable Farm
Labor
As part of our regional initiative on “Paths to
sustainability with farm labor,” we will send a team of educators
to a regional training and will develop programming based on that
training. 

Initiative 2.  Responding to Climate Change
 
Wisconsin SARE will support educators as they
develop climate-smart agriculture programming both on the
production side and on the farm management
side. 

Initiative 3.  Supporting Diversity in Sustainable
Agriculture 
Wisconsin SARE will support
stronger educator partnerships with Hmong, Tribal, Black, and
Latine farmers and community based organizations.  

Initiative 4.  Extending
Sustainable Agriculture Knowledge and
Practice   
SARE will continue to support
professional development and educator action for a wide range of
sustainable agriculture practices and approaches identified by
educators.  

Initiative 1.  Sustainable Farm Labor

As part of our regional initiative on “Paths to sustainability with farm labor,” we will send a team of educators from our state to a regional NCR-SARE training on the initiative to be held in 2025 at a Midwest location to be determined.  State SARE funds will be used to provide travel support to the educators attending the training.  Following the training event, we will convene the participating educators from our state to further discuss and plan how we can provide professional development on this labor topic for our state.  We will also stay in communication with other states in the region working on this, including participating in further information exchange facilitated through the NCR-SARE PDP program.  Before the end of the two-year funding cycle, we will implement one or more state-based professional development programs related to the regional initiative topic for educators and farmers in our state. State SARE funds will be used to partially or fully cover the cost of delivering this professional development program in our state. 

Expected outcomes:   

• 8 or more educators will increase knowledge of labor issues in agriculture and sustainable labor practices and resources
• 4 or more educators will incorporate new information about sustainable labor into their programming

Activities

• Send group of 4 to 6 educators to regional training (Farm mgmt., Crops & Soils, Dairy)
• Provide farmer programming or professional development on labor management to agricultural educators. Content, audience, and format to be determined by educators participating in regional training. 
• Develop and/or adapt and disseminate resources for sustainable labor management in dairy and vegetable production

Evaluation

• Number of educators participating in regional training
• Number of educators receiving professional development in labor management
• Number of labor resources developed
• Amount of programming on labor* [including referring farmers to Farm Mgmt resources and programming]
•  

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Initiative 2.  Responding to Climate Change

Wisconsin farms continue to be challenged by climate change, and agricultural educators are working on providing scientifically sound, research-based information in ways that are acceptable to their audiences.   Wisconsin SARE will work to support educators as they develop climate-smart agriculture programming both on the production side and on the farm management side. 

Expected outcomes: 

• 20 Agricultural educators in Extension, NRCS, and Soil & Water Conservation increase understanding of climate science; agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and potential to store carbon; and soil health, cropping system, and other practices to build climate resilience
• 20 Agricultural educators in Extension, NRCS, and Soil & Water Conservation increase skills and confidence for communicating on climate topics
• 10 Agricultural educators in Extension and Soil & Water Conservation increase knowledge of public and private policy and programs in climate-smart agriculture
• 15 Agricultural educators integrate climate concepts into programming

Activities

• Support climate working groups in Extension with time, funding, and information.
• Work with partners in Extension, Land & Water, and NRCS to offer professional development on climate science and climate communication
• Offer mini-grants supporting climate-related work

Evaluation

• Number of educators participating in professional development
• Number of agricultural educators participating in climate working groups
• Number of educators integrating climate into programming and number of farmers reached
• Number of climate-related educational resources produced by agricultural educators

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Initiative 3.  Supporting Diversity in Sustainable Agriculture

Farmer outreach in Wisconsin reaches primarily white farmers of European heritage.  Individual educators face numerous barriers to providing relevant, consistent information and support to diverse farmers.   With our increasingly diverse population more equitable and diverse food systems will further the social and financial aspects of sustainability, while also

diversifying sustainable agriculture practices by including practices from historically

marginalized communities.  Extension is actively working on building stronger relationships and providing better information to Hmong/HMoob farmers.  Wisconsin SARE will continue to support that effort and also seek to encourage stronger educator partnerships with Tribal, Black, Latine, and other diverse farmer organizations. 

Expected Outcomes:

Short term

• 10 or more agriculture educators working with diverse farmers will learn about relevant sustainable agriculture resources

Medium term

• 10 or more agriculture educators will participate in programming for diverse farmers

Activities

• Offer scholarships for educators to attend conferences for diverse farmers
• Mini-grants for projects to improve outreach to diverse farm audiences
• Reach out to and consult diverse farmer organizations

Evaluation

• Number of educators with Community Based Organizations working with diverse farmers who learn about sustainable agriculture resources
• Number of traditional ag educators (Extension, Soil & Water, USDA) adapting outreach to reach diverse farmers
• Number of diverse farmers reached  

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Initiative 4.  Extending Sustainable Agriculture Knowledge and Practice   

SARE will continue to support professional development and educator action for a wide range of sustainable agriculture practices and approaches that SARE helped initiate in Wisconsin, including organic agriculture, perennial cropping systems, and local foods. In addition, the state SARE professional development program needs to be able to respond to emerging opportunities in sustainable agriculture.

Outcomes

• (Short-term) 20 educators will increase their knowledge of sustainable practices and approaches such as local food systems, organic agriculture, and grazing.
• (Intermediate) 8 educators will provide information and programming on topics such as organic agriculture, local food systems, and grazing to 80 farmers and others involved in agriculture.    
• (Long-term) More farmers will adopt sustainable practices from grazing to managing for diversity, and farmers will improve their management of sustainable approaches.

Activities

• Administer SARE mini-grant program.
• Assist agricultural educators with organizing, providing, and funding professional development in sustainable agriculture (co-sponsorships).
• Offer SARE scholarships to conferences, workshops, and other professional development opportunities in sustainable agriculture (pre-approved events include Organic Farming Conf. (Marbleseed), O-Grain Conf., GrassWorks Grazing Conf., Savanna Institute Perennial Gathering, Organic Vegetable Growers Conf., Wisconsin Water and Soil Health Conf., Emerging Farmers Conf. (Minneapolis - St. Paul), Great Lakes Indigenous Farming Conference (White Earth, MN)).

Evaluation

• Number of educators involved in mini-grants, and number of farmers and other educators reached with information from mini-grants. Mini-grant recipients will submit reports on their projects.  
• Number of agricultural educators participating in events co-sponsored by SARE.
• Number of SARE scholarship recipients and types of outreach resulting from SARE scholarships.Scholarship recipients will be sent a questionnaire 6 to 12 months after the event asking them how the scholarship influenced their work.