Food & Farming Conference

SARE Farmer's Forum: Three Projects

Bale Grazing to build Soil Health- Erin and Drew Gaugler
This project was designed to address the resource concerns of land that had been historically farmed with no inputs and depleted to a point of no longer being productive. To rejuvenate the land and demonstrate how sustainable agriculture can be adapted to fit each operation, project coordinators used bale grazing. This management strategy allowed us to demonstrate a practice that was ecologically sound, profitable and socially responsible.

Mike Ostlie
The focus of the presentation is how the CREC is working to incorporate cover crops into cropping systems through the use of grazing. The work is being supported through NCR-SARE, and involves holistic management of the integrated crop and livestock system.

Douglas Landblom
Beef cattle and cropping systems research at the Dickinson Research Extension Center has been funded by two NCR-SARE Research and Education grants. As a long-term integrated systems project, traditional feedlot finishing has been compared to extended grazing of perennial native range combined with annual forage grazing within a multi-crop rotation. Coupling forage crops and grazing within the diverse cropping system has improved nutrient cycling and soil health, reduced crop input, increase beef cattle net return, sequestered carbon through reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O), and improved system economics. A brief summary of results will be presented during the session.