Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Our audience inluded undergraduate students taking the Organic Production class. It alsoincluded Missouri organic growers and those using organic practices without certification. This audience was invited toon-farm field days and was given one-on-one assistance as requested. NRCS and Extension staff also worked with the MUorganic program to provide services to farmers across the state. Our extension efforts reached approximately 140 organic and transitioning farmers at summer field days and another 500 growers, agricultural professionals and government staff at the Mid-America Organic conference. We reached approximately 120 researchers and students from around the nation at the American Society of Agronomy Conferences and an additional 60 researchers, farmers, and governmental staff from US programs at the SARE conference. We also reached 2200 high school students in Missouri. Changes/Problems:Lincoln University was a collaborator on this grant. We intended to utilize the Lincoln University Busby Organic Research Center as a site for research trials. However, in 2017 LU experienced deep budget cuts and laid off most of their farm staff. Because of this, the farm no longer had the staff capacity to conduct this research. Therefore, we utilized a hog farmer in Frankenstein, MO as our third research site. LU researcher S. Pathan continuedto collaborate with the University of Missouri researchers, although the LU farm was no longer part of the project. In year one of the project he was moved to a 100% research appointment, thus no longer taught crop science. Severe drought was experienced in the fall of 2017and spring-summer of 2018, which led to poor cover crop and crop emergence at the research sites. Equipment problems in the summer of 2018 (project tractor lost its PTO) also led to delayed organic weed control insoybeans, resulting in no crop yields for soybean at the three sites. Corn yield in 2018 wascollected only at the Cope site.The Linnenbringer and Kremer sites had no ears on the corn plants due to drought. Weed pressure caused crop failure at two research sites in 2019. One field was replanted but did not yield a viable grain crop for harvest. Late maturity of cash cropsdelayed cover crop planting in 2018-2020, leading to slow fall growth and no capacity for fall grazing of animals.Dry weather and low germination of cash crop in spring2020 led to planting of sorghum sudangrass at two locations. The third location was planted with corn and soybean but hadhigh summer weed growth in plots. The Linnenbringer farm uses no tillage and our attempts to provide organic no-till weed control proved difficult.The cover crop residue provided some weed control in plots with cover crop. Non-cover crop plots had pre-plant weed control using a broadcast flamer, and seasonal weed control using a between-row mower. However, weed growth in mostplots was still high and the grasses were difficult to control using the between-row mower. The presence of cover crop residue raised the risk of a wildfire if the flamer had been used for weed control in the corn plots. At the Kremer Farm, the residual weedbank from previous years of low weed control was a strong force. Theresearch field was innundated with cocklebur, which was difficult to control with a cultivator due to a side slope in the field that pulled equipment into the crop row. As a result of these issues, cash crop yields were only viable at the Cope Farm. Cope allowed tillage in the second and third years of crop production Poor weather conditions led to limited cover crop growth after grazing, thus only one grazing cycle was possible in the spring most years. Farmers also had difficulty moving animals into the plots and the cattle knocked down the electric fence in 2018. Although the Cope Farm had adequate regrowth for a second planting in 2019, the farmer did not have the time or resources to move the animals back to the area of the farm where the research plotswere located. The combination of cover crop grazing, moving animals, and organic cash crop production made this a challenging project. Coventional weed control would have made the cash crop production far easier. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Emily Millerearned her MS degree in Rural Sociology through this grant funding. Ms. Miller collaborated on development of organic education at the University of Missouri and conducted research on the difficulties in organic certification experienced by farmers in the Mid South. Kerry Clark and Md. S. Pathan attended the November, 2018 American Society of Agronomy Conference in Baltimore, MD. Kimberly Griffin attended the 2019 Soil Science Society of America Conference in San Diego, CA. Emily Miller attended the 2019 Rural Sociology Conference in Richmond, VA. Kerry Clark and Md. Pathan attended the 2019 and 2020 (virtual) American Society of Agronomy Conferences and Mary Hendrickson and Emily Miller attended the 2020 (virtual) Rural Sociology Society Conference. Emily Miller also participated in the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service and the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group 2020 Annual Conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?On July 29, 2018 we held a field day on Organic Transitioning in Poplar Bluff, MO onan organic farm owned by Don Delozier and co-hosted by Midwest BioAG and Pipeline Foods that was attended by 20 areafarmers. This part of Missouri (Mississippi River delta) is traditionally low in organic production but due to its high productivity,buyers are interested in recruiting organic farmers from the area. A major topic of discussion ended up being the difficulty oforganic and non-GMO soybean production in the area due to the large scale of dicamba damage experienced by all farmersnot growing dicamba resistant soybeans. A second field day was held August 29, 2018 in Arrow Rock, MO on an organic farm owned by Derek Davis and co-hosted by River Valley Ag Exchange, an organic elevator and farm supply company located in Marshal, MO. Attended by 120 farmers, this field day was focused on organic weed control and Gary McDonald was the primary speaker. Gary detailed soil health and cultivation methods for a full day. We also had equipment demonstrations, including a Weed-Zapper, which kills weeds with electrical current, and the University of Missouri between-row mower. On January 24-26, 2018, we had a booth at the Mid-America Organic Conference in Kansas City, MO and presented information on organic production in MIssouri. The event was attended by 600 midwest organic growers and other interested parties such as Extension and NRCS. On April 5, 2018, Kerry Clark presented our field research for the ORG project to 60 farmers and scientists at the SARE Our Farms, Our Future National Conference. This was done at the farm of research collaborator Harry Cope. On September 6, 2017 we presented 22 fifteen minute talks on organic production to 22 Missouri high school students. We continue to reach Missouri farmers through our research center website at https://bradford.missouri.edu. Kerry Clark spoke on our cover crop grazing research at three Byron Seed Field days for organic producers on January 7-10, 2019 in northern Missouri. These fields days targeted Amish and Mennonite producers and had approximately 300participants. On September 10, 2019, we co-sponsored the University of Missouri/River Valley Ag Exchange Organic Field Day in Nelson, MO. The event focused on cover crops and was attended by 170 organic growers, Extension and NRCS staff. Results were disseminated through the 2020 Mid-America Organic Association Conference and the University of Missouri/River Valley Ag Exchange field day in August 2020. This was attended by 100 producers and ag professionals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Environmental Quality Research Integrating crop and livestock agricultural production systems is an innovative solution to the global challenge of mitigating the negative effects of agriculture on the environment while intensifying production to meet food security needs. At the farm scale, integrated crop-livestock systems make more efficient use of on-farm resources, resulting in improved nutrient recycling, soil health, and profitability. In the Midwestern U.S.A., using cover crops as livestock forage during late fall, winter, and early spring following a summer row crop has been a viable integration method, but an understanding of best practices is critical to promote adoption regionally. Over a three-year period, we examined the effects of spring cover crop grazing on soil quality parameters on three Missouri farms under organic management using different livestock at each farm (sheep, cattle, and pigs). We used a randomized block designto evaluate three cover crop treatments (none, low seeding rate, high seeding rate) and two grazing variables (none, spring) on carbon sequestration, active carbon, soil nutrients, microbial community, soil moisture, and soil structure (aggregate stability and compaction). Using repeated measures models, we determined that time of sampling affected carbon sequestrationand active carbon, though not in any singular direction, suggesting these parameters fluctuated greatly between sampling times. We used generalized linear mixed models to find that no other soil quality parameters were affected by the treatments tested. Our results suggest that spring grazing cover crops does not change soil health within three years, and that this strategy may be an effective crop-livestock integration tool for organic producers in Missouri. This study showed that there were no negative effects of cover crop grazing on soil health parameters.Grazing cover crops could bolster profitability of farmland in Missouri by providing opportunity to raise dairy or meat and crops on the same land. However, grazing times were short, and two farms' plots were already in pasture prior to implementing the treatments, so the treatments may not have been enough to cause any changes.We were not able to test fall grazing in this study due to limited fall cover crop growth. Grazing the cover crops also negatively impacted the ability of the cover crops to suppress weeds as thick residue, which in turn affected summer crop production Educational Programs University curriculum on organic animal and crop production was created and delivered In the Organic Principles and Practices course for two semesters in 2018 and 2020. Six students participated in internships on cover crops for organic farms.Open Source Learning modules named "Organic Lessons from the Field" were created and posted here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVXlCnfZhAxd9-185x_1RAA/playlists).Twostudents from Lincoln University engaged in the Organic Internship and Lincoln University professor S. Pathan integrated organic production into his crop science class. Providing university curriculum and instruction on organic production enables system-wide support for organic agriculture as students assume future positions as teachers, researchers, policy makers, or in agribusiness. Extension and Outreach Our Extension Activities are detailed in the section on result dissemination. Throughout the project, we partnered with Missouri organic production organizations (MOA) and private sector organic support (River Valley Ag Exchange) to bring extension opportunities to Missouri producers.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Miller, Emily M., Mary Hendrickson, Christopher Murakami, Kerry Clark. 2021.
Blanket NOP Rules and Regional Realities: From the Field. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. Manuscript number: RAFS-D-20-00148
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Emily Miller, 2019. USDA Certified Challenges: Key Perceptions of Organic Producers in the Mid-South US. Annual
Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Richmond, VA. August 7, 2019
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Our extension efforts target organic and transitioning farmers at summer field days and growers, agricultural professionals and government staff at the Mid-America Organic conference. We reach researchers and college students from around the nation at the American Society of Agronomy Conference. We target high school students at the annual University of Missouri Agricultural Education Field Day. Our education efforts are aimed at University students at the University of Missouri and Lincoln University as well as people looking for online content related to organic production. Changes/Problems:Weed pressure caused crop failure at two research sites in 2019. One field was replanted but did not yield a viable grain crop for harvest. Late maturity of cash crops has delayed cover crop planting in 2018-2019, leading to slow fall growth and no capacity for fall grazing of animals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Kerry Clark and Md. S. Pathan attended the November, 2018 American Society of Agronomy Conference in Baltimore, MD. Kimberly Griffin attended the 2019 Soil Science Society of America Conference in San Diego, CA. Emily Miller attended the 2019 Rural Sociology Conference in Richmond, VA. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Kerry Clark spoke on our cover crop grazing research at three Byron Seed Field days for organic producers on January 7-10, 2019 in northern Missouri. These fields days targeted Amish and Mennonite producers and had approximately 300 participants. On September 10, 2019, we co-sponsored the University of Missouri/River Valley Ag Exchange Organic Field Day in Nelson, MO. The event focused on cover crops and was attended by 170 organic growers, Extension and NRCS staff. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we will collect and analyze crop yield and soil quality data from the 2019 growing season. We will continue to graze animals at the three research sites and follow research protocols to grow crops after grazing and monitor soil quality changes. We will conduct field days on organic practices, including grazing cover crops, in summer 2020. We are developing online organic curriculum We will have research internships for students in 2020
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project has completed two full cropping cycles. The specific objectives of the proposal and items accomplished under each goal are listed below: Quantify yield and soil and environmental quality indicators in an integrated organic cropping system that utilizes livestock grazing of cover crops. Seven and 14 day samples after grazing were collected at the three farms in the spring of 2019 and the soil has been analyzed in the lab for some parameters. Bulk density data was also collected pre and post graze. Cash crops are currently being harvested for the 2019 season. Develop and implement educational programs on organic crops, livestock and soil health through: The project graduate student, Emily Miller, has been conducting interviews to develop case studies for both online and educational modules and the MU and LU Organic courses We have been filming segments for open-source learning modules. Provide extension and outreach to organic and transitioning producers with a focus on cover crops and crop/livestock integration We collaborated with Byron Seeds in winter meetings in 2019 to reach an audience of Amish and Mennonite organic grazers A field day on September 10, 2019 was conducted in collaboration with River Valley Ag Exchange and focused on the use of cover crops in organic production. Calculate economic benefits of crop/livestock integration in an organic system. Data has not yet been analyzed that would contribute to this objective.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Emily Miller, 2019. USDA Certified Challenges: Key Perceptions of Organic Producers in the Mid-South US. Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Richmond, VA. August 7, 2019
|
Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Our extension efforts reached approximately 140 organic and transitioning farmers at summer field days and another 500 growers, agricultural professionals and government staff at the Mid-America Organic conference. We reached approximately 120 researchers and students from around the nation at the 2017 American Society of Agronomy Conference and an additional 60 researchers, farmers, and governmental staff from US programs at the SARE conference. We also reached 2200 high school students in Missouri. Changes/Problems:Lincoln University is a collaborator on this grant. We intended to utilize the Lincoln University Busby Organic Research Center as a site for research trials. However, in 2017 LU experienced deep budget cuts and laid off most of their farm staff. Because of this, the farm no longer had the staff capacity to conduct this research. Therefore, we are utilizing a hog farmer in Frankenstein, MO as our third research site. LU researcher S. Pathan continues to collaborate with the University of Missouri researchers, although the LU farm is no longer part of the project. Severe drought was experienced in the fall of 2017, and spring-summer of 2018, which led to poor cover crop and crop emergence at the research sites. Equipment problems in the summer of 2018 also led to poor organic weed control in soybeans, resulting in no crop yields for soybean at the three sites. Corn yield in 2018 will be collected only at the Cope site. The Linnenbringer and Kremer sites have no ears on the corn plants due to drought. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Kerry Clark attended the November, 2017 American Society of Agronomy Conference in Tampa, FL. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Because we do not have any data to present yet on this first year of research (harvest has just begun), we focused on other topics in our extension events in 2018. On July 29, 2018 we held a field day on Organic Transitioning in Poplar Bluff, MO on an organic farm owned by Don Delozier and co-hosted by Midwest BioAG and Pipeline Foods that was attended by 20 area farmers. This part of Missouri (Mississippi River delta) is traditionally low in organic production but due to its high productivity, buyers are interested in recruiting organic farmers from the area. A major topic of discussion ended up being the difficulty of organic and non-GMO soybean production in the area due to the large scale of dicamba damage experienced by all farmers not growing dicamba resistant soybeans. A second field day was held August 29, 2018 in Arrow Rock, MO on an organic farm owned by Derek Davis and co-hosted by River Valley Ag Exchange, an organic elevator and farm supply company located in Marshal, MO. Attended by 120 farmers, this field day was focused on organic weed control and Gary McDonald was the primary speaker. Gary detailed soil health and cultivation methods for a full day. We also had equipment demonstrations, including a Weed-Zapper, which kills weeds with electrical current, and the University of Missouri between-row mower. On January 24-26, 2018, we had a booth at the Mid-America Organic Conference in Kansas City, MO and presented information on organic production in MIssouri. The event was attended by 600 midwest organic growers and other interested parties such as Extension and NRCS. On April 5, 2018, Kerry Clark presented our field research for the ORG project to 60 farmers and scientists at the SARE Our Farms, Our Future National Conference. This was done at the farm of research collaborator Harry Cope. On September 6, 2017 we presented 22 fifteen minute talks on organic production to 22 Missouri high school students. We continue to reach Missouri farmers through our research center website at https://bradford.missouri.edu What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we will collect and analyze crop yield and soil quality data from the 2018 growing season. We will continue to graze animals at the three research sites and follow research protocols to grow crops after grazing and monitor soil quality changes. We will conduct field days on organic practices, including grazing cover crops, in summer 2019. We are teaching the Organic Practices class in fall of 2018. We will have research internships for students in 2019 We will develop online educational material We will publish a website dedicated to organic production research at the University of Missouri
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project has not yet completed one full cropping cycle, so results are limited. The specific objectives of the proposal and items accomplished under each goal are listed below: Quantify yield and soil and environmental quality indicators in an integrated organic cropping system that utilizes livestock grazing of cover crops. In January 2018, a research specialist was hired to complete the field work on this project. Pre-graze soil samples were taken in Fall, 2017 at the three collaborating farms and samples were taken at the Cope Farm 7 days after fall graze but no samples were taken at the 14 day mark due to freezing conditions. The Linnenbringer Farm did not fall graze due to limited cover crop growth in the drought. Hogs at the Kremer Farm were not grazed in the fall due to their destructive grazing patterns. Seven and 14 day samples after grazing were collected at the three farms in the spring. Drought and poor weed control adversely affected cash crops at all three farms, with corn not putting on ears at two farms. Equipment failure coupled with environmental conditions led to poor organic weed control in soybean plots, so they were removed during the growing season to prevent further weed seed production. Develop and implement educational programs on organic crops, livestock and soil health through: In August 2018, a graduate student in rural sociology was given an assistantship to work on the curriculum part of the project. Chris Murakami, a co-PI on the project left MU to take a position at a college in PA. However, we re-hired him as a consultant, so he has continued to contribute to the project. In 2018, we created University of Missouri curriculum on organic animal and crop production and created an Organic Principles and Practices course and an internship course in Organic Research and Production at the University of Missouri. There are 16 students taking the class (started in August, 2018) and currently one student intern. We have begun to film some segments for open-source learning modules. Integration of organic research results into Lincoln University curriculum has not started because our collaborator has been reassigned from teaching to 100% research. We will be seeking new collaborations in the teaching faculty at LU in 2019. We have also created organic curriculum for the environmental science program at MU. Provide extension and outreach to organic and transitioning producers with a focus on cover crops and crop/livestock integration We held several field days in 2018, including one that focused on organic transitioning. The 2018 SARE National Conference had a field trip to the Cope Farm, where we presented this cover crop/grazing research to about 60 researchers, farmers and extension people from around the nation. Calculate economic benefits of crop/livestock integration in an organic system. Data has not yet been collected that would contribute to this objective.
Publications
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