Outagamie County

Sowing Success: Fox Farmers Wraps Up

On: December 19, 2023

In: Agriculture, andy kiefer, conservation, conservation champions, cover crops, Fox-Wolf Basin, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, GLRI, huebner farm, in progress, Keepers of the Fox, kesler farms, land and water, low disturbance manure application, Lower Fox River, manure injection, no-till, Outagamie County, outagamie county land conservation, regenerative, seven oaks dairy, soil health, Water quality, Watershed Project

As we come to the conclusion of the Fox Farmer Conservation Champions grant, the outcomes of this initiative to promote sustainable farming practices are becoming increasingly evident. The collaboration between Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Outagamie County Land and Water Conservation Department (LWCD), and local producers have not only yielded successful results but have also fostered trust and a shared commitment to the journey toward enhanced soil health.

Despite the conclusion of the grant this winter, the enthusiasm among local farms remains palpable. The prospect of experimenting with new ideas and implementing previously successful strategies underscores the enduring commitment of producers to soil health practices. And producers beyond those enrolled in the grant project are on board. Due not in a small part to the influence of the project’s farmers, many surrounding farms are installing cover crops with and without cost-share payments. The commitment the participating farms have to soil health practices has been one of the project’s most noted successes. This commitment is shown by both expanding soil health practices on acres outside those under contract and continuing practices on acres that no longer receive cost share from this grant or others. Soil health practices are beyond the minimum requirement of cover crops and no-til and are being incorporated as part of each farm’s operation. At first, the different practices seemed challenging or an extra step, for example buying seed or finding someone to drill in cover crop directly after harvest. With each year, the farms were able to better manage these challenges or “extra steps.” Now planting cover crop, for example, is almost fully incorporated into their mindsets.

A triumph of this initiative lies not only in tangible outcomes such as acres implemented but in the relationships and trust woven between farms and project staff. The willingness of producers to confront challenges head-on, coupled with their commitment to learning and adaptation

Grandview_injectingat12K_fallkilledalfalfa-9.28_low disturbance manure application

paints a vivid picture of the great work our these and other local farmers are undertaking. Thanks to funding and investments in planning resources, producers are empowered to navigate obstacles, forging a resilient path rather than abandoning sustainable practices. The harmony between producers and project staff reflects a shared dedication to the soil health journey.

As we wrap up this Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project that started back in 2019, the success stories and lessons learned from this collaborative venture resonate as a model to replicate in other grant projects. The commitment to innovation and adaptability by the producers and the strong relationships established between producers and project staff have demonstrated the need for conservation staff to support producers in adopting soil health practices. With each growing season, agricultural conservation work across the basin shows that by sowing the seeds of collaboration and sustainability, the harvest reaped is one of resilience, prosperity, and environmental stewardship.

These efforts are possible through a GLRI grant focused on:

Continuing to build on conservation momentum in the Plum and Kankapot subwatersheds by providing support to producers by Outagamie County Land Conservation Department staff
Working with Conservation Champions to overcome the hurdles of consistent implementation of cover crops, no-till, and low disturbance manure injection and
Tracking successes and challenges and communicating best practices to other local producers

Questions? Want to learn more? Contact the Lower Fox River Watershed Program Director, Katie Woodrow, at katie@fwwa.org

Questions? Contact us:

Basin Agriculture Coordinator: Justin Loehrke, 920.841-6938 or justin@fwwwa.org

Climate Smart Agriculture Project Manager: Katie Woodrow, 920.915.5767 or katie@fwwa.org

To receive periodic updates on these projects as well as many others, please subscribe to our newsletters: CLICK HERE

The post Sowing Success: Fox Farmers Wraps Up appeared first on Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.

Original Article

Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance

https://fwwa.org/2023/12/19/fox-farmers-wraps-up/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fox-farmers-wraps-up

Katie Woodrow

Farm Progress Report – A Tool to Tell the Conservation Story

On: September 29, 2023

In: Agriculture, air seeder, Bay of Green Bay, Fox-Wolf Basin, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, FWWA, interseeder, interseeding, Keepers of the Fox, low disturbance manure application, Lower Fox River, NEW Water, no till drill, non point pollution, Oneida Nation, Outagamie County, Outreach and Education, phosphorus, planter, restoration, roller crimper, runoff, sediment, shed, soil health, soil health education and demonstration, Surface water, trial plot, Water quality

When making conservation plans, producers and conservation professionals alike want to know the impact that farm practices have on our local water. Through work funded by Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance and Outagamie County have developed a Farm Progress Report to tell the story of conservation, one farm at a time.

The Farm Progress Report utilizes data from SNAP+, a program widely used by Wisconsin farmers, to generate modeled soil and phosphorus loss on each field based on soil type, phosphorus test results, and field management (tillage, manure management, crop cycle, etc).

This information is then compiled to create per field and per farm loss data, which is compared to the local conservation goal of 1 lb per acre per year of phosphorus loss and 0.5 tons per acre per year of soil loss. This information is visualized in the Farm Progress Report through simple to read graphs that include the annual average compared to the community goal as well as tables that list the top ten fields to improve.

The Farm Progress Report has two purposes:

Farm Knowledge: For farmers to understand the impact of their current farm practices on water quality, the goals for the community, and how they can make changes on their farm to improve their phosphorus and soil loss
Communication: Farmers can utilize the Farm Progress Report to communicate with their local communities to show the positive impact they are having as well as to their processors to show that they have adopted conservation practices that may meet the processor’s environmental standards

A Farm Progress report was generated for each producer participating in the GLRI grant project and Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance and Outagamie County LWCD met with each farm, along with their agronomist. The Farm Progress Report was presented to each farm with an explanation of where the data was derived from, the community goal, and where their current farm practices compared to the goal. Feedback was solicited from the producer and their agronomist on the information presented and the response was positive. Producers understood the how the data was derived, how their on-field practices generated that data, and were interested in the potential of using the Farm Progress Report to communicate the great work they are doing to meet conservation goals in their watershed.

Further work will need to be done to streamline the data collection and input process and to ensure that the SNAP+ system is used consistently across the basin. Overall, the Farm Progress Report was well received by farmers and they expressed interest in continuing to use it to watch their progress toward improving water quality. Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance intends to continue developing the report and promoting its widespread adoption to producers outside of this project.