Crowd-Sourcing Livestock Integration Innovation | Audio Article

Organic farmers don’t have to be convinced of the value of diversified farming systems that integrate livestock in terms of nutrient cycling, breaking pest and disease cycles, promoting soil health, and making our farms economically resilient. Though viewed by some as impractical and inefficient in today’s era of specialization, there are sound scientific principles underlying diversified agroecosystems. Organic farmers have been capitalizing on these economic and environmental benefits for a long time and know the challenges that come with these complex systems. The Match Made in Heaven survey seeks to ‘crowd-source’ innovative ideas from farmers across the Upper Midwest with the goal of sharing what works and addressing barriers to restoring diversified systems as a foundation of Midwestern farming systems.

Bare ground is the problem. There are a lot of big picture reasons why this is important! From water quality to climate change, the annual cropping systems that dominate our landscape leave vast tracts of ground bare for 70% of the time, leading to soil and nutrient runoff, loss of soil carbon, and plunging biodiversity in the Midwest.

This dominant cropping system is one of the big, missed opportunities when it comes to capturing the sun’s energy. In these systems, crops are planted in May and ready to harvest by September, give or take, leaving the ground devoid of living plants nearly 70 percent of the time over the two-year corn–soybean rotation. Cover crops can help (currently about 7% of acres) and bringing forage crops like alfalfa into the rotation can bring the proportion of bare ground down to 30 percent over a four-year rotation. Then there is perennial pasture, which maximizes living cover and energy capture.

States that have lost their livestock sector have limited tools in their toolbox to conserve soil and store carbon. In Illinois, 80 percent of cropland acres are in corn or soybeans; in Wisconsin, it’s 43 percent. The difference is livestock and the hay and pasture grown to feed them. If you think of this on a continental scale – over 90 million acres of annual crops nationwide – you can imagine how much ecosystem productivity is lost, how much soil carbon storage is missed, and how many calories of the sun’s energy are wasted just warming bare ground.

Starting a conversation about re-integration. The Match Made in Heaven project is about starting conversations, building partnerships, and sharing knowledge on reintegrating livestock and annual cropping systems for the benefit of both! The three-year SARE-funded project is facilitated by Green Lands Blue Waters and is working to engage new and existing partners in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. Just as we’ve seen a trend toward specialization in farming systems, the organizations that farmers belong to and rely on for information have also become specialized. Corn Growers, Soybean Growers, Cattlemen’s Associations, and similar groups, by definition, focus on a single commodity rather than the system within which it’s produced. Match Made in Heaven creates a space for these organizations to engage in conversation around how we can best listen to what farmers need and then collaborate to meet those needs. The project has engaged an active advisory team of farmers and farm-service organizations who are currently working together to publicize and distribute the Match Made in Heaven survey.

Integration infographic. The project began in late 2021 with development of an infographic that explains how integrating crops and livestock can work and why a farmer might want to consider it. Intended as an educational tool for public use, it is downloadable from the Match Made in Heaven website in several forms for online or print use. A second page of the infographic provides a narrative describing the illustration. For organizations wishing to use the infographic in educational programming, the PDF contains space to add your own contact information.

The illustration not only highlights continuous living cover options above ground but also demonstrates what’s going on underground. The bright white, healthy, living roots actively cycle nutrients and hold soil in place. Root structure and rooting depth are other factors depicted. Expanding the time that living roots are in the soil each year contributes to soil health and water quality, nutrient cycling, and soil carbon storage.

Learning from farmers. The infographic presents a picture of both the benefits and challenges of integrated systems. The soil health and environmental benefits of integrating livestock into annual cropping systems are clear and well-documented in the research literature, and there is emerging evidence of economic benefits from reduced production costs and diversified income streams. But these systems can be complex and challenging to manage, increasing labor and financial risk. The Match Made in Heaven project is engaging farmers across the crop and livestock spectrum to learn about the creative methods farmers are devising to integrate their systems. The project will capture their learning and innovation through case studies, field days, and the aforementioned survey.

In-depth case studies and field days. The case studies will engage one or more farmers from each of the six states in a deep dive into the unique approaches these farmers have taken to integrate their systems as well as an in-depth look at the financial synergies in these systems. Each farmer case study will include a narrative about their farm, detailing their innovative ideas and the challenges and opportunities they have encountered. A summary of financial learnings across the six farms will be developed and shared. In the final year (2024) of the project a series of field days in each state will highlight what we’ve learned and showcase a variety of integrated farming systems.

Understanding barriers and opportunities. There are significant barriers to making changes to farming operations and the Match Made in Heaven survey will gather farmers’ perspectives and ideas about overcoming the challenges. Many crop farmers have no interest in owning livestock but could consider a partnership with a nearby confinement livestock operation. Such partnerships can allow both operations to benefit from diversified crop rotations, shared equipment, improved animal health, and consistent relationships for buying and selling crops, feed, and fertility. The information we gather through the project will help crop and livestock associations, universities, public agencies, soil/water groups, and other organizations better understand farmers’ goals and interests to better meet needs.

A final activity of the three-year project will involve gathering existing and new information on crop and livestock integration and making it available on the Green Lands Blue Waters website. For more information about the project, contact Laura Paine (608-338-9039, lkpaine@gmail.com) or Project Coordinator Amy Fenn (fennsfolly@gmail.com). To participate in the survey, visit the Match Made in Heaven Survey page or click on this link.

Bios:

Amy Fenn is Project Coordinator for the Match Made In Heaven: Livestock + Crops project, and Board Treasurer for GrassWorks, a farmer-led organization supporting managed grass-based agriculture. She lives near Ferryville, WI with her livestock guardian dogs, graze heifers, sheep, and two goats.

Jane Grimsbo Jewett is Associate Director of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota. Part of her role is with Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW), a multi-state consortium focused on continuous living cover for high-efficiency agriculture, water quality, and soil health. She provides staff support for GLBW’s Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group. Jane also raises grass-fed beef, lamb, and pastured pork and poultry near Palisade, MN and is a meat vendor at the Grand Rapids, MN farmers’ market.

Laura Paine is Outreach Coordinator for Grassland 2.0 and co-lead of the Green Lands Blue Waters Match Made in Heaven project. Both projects seek to engage farmers and rural communities in reimagining our food and farming system as a grazing-based agro-ecosystem that delivers clean water, healthy soils, stable farm incomes, and thriving communities. Her 30 years of work experience includes research, education, and market development work for grass-fed and organic farmers. Laura and her husband recently retired from raising grass-fed beef on their 82-acre farm near Columbus, WI.

Issue: Apr 2023
By: Laura Paine, Amy Fenn, and Jane Jewett