| Title | Strategies of Pasture Supplementation on Organic and Conventional Grazing Dairies: Assessment of Economic, Production, and Environmental Outcomes | |
| Team | Cabrera, V.E., Gildersleeve, R., Wattiaux, M., Combs, D. |
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| Term | 48 months January 2010 - January 2014 | |
| Amount | $575,000 | |
| Sponsor | Organic Agricultural Research & Extension Initiative Agriculture Food and Research Initiative National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CRIS) |
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Overview
Pending USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards for dairy and livestock production require that 30% or more of dry matter intake are provided by pastures on organic farms during the grazing season. Managed pastures provide abundant, high quality forage, but also present challenges when balancing dairy rations. Organic farms may have additional economic, production and environmental challenges when growing or purchasing supplemental feeds for grazing dairy herds. Organic and conventional grazing dairy producers have expressed the need for more information on use of pastures in combination with feed supplement ingredients with respect to impacts on production, economics and environment.
This project is designed to investigate the impacts of pasture supplementation decisions made by Wisconsin organic and conventional grazing dairies on selected economic, production and environmental variables. It is anticipated that organic dairy producers, transitioning producers and even conventional producers will benefit from this project as it identifies the farm level factors that influence pasture supplementation decisions and feed resource management on dairy farms. Project results will be utilized to develop outreach materials and decision aids that will be useful to farmers, extension agents and other agricultural professionals as they assist organic, transition, beginner or grazing dairy producers with farm planning and risk management decisions.
Project results will benefit individual operations by optimizing farm profitability, production and environmental management and the Wisconsin dairy industry. Our results will also be of interest to organic and conventional dairy grazing producers across the Upper Midwest and Northeastern United States who operate under similar constraints.
Objectives|
1. Identify farm level factors contributing to pasture supplementation decisions on organic and comparable conventional dairy grazing farms. 2. Evaluate the economic, production, and environmental outcomes of pasture supplementation strategies. 3. Develop sustainability indexes to compare within and between organic and conventional grazing dairies. 4. Create decision support aids and consult one-to-one with participating farms on research results to assess long-term production, economic, and environmental sustainability. 5. Disseminate extension information and evaluate effectiveness of dissemination methods and impacts of changes of supplementation feeding strategies to organic, transition or grazing dairy producers with whole farm planning and risk management to optimize human, land, and capital resources for long-term farm sustainability |
Scope
Approximately 50 commercial organic (ORG) dairies and 50 comparable non-organic grazing dairies (GRAZ) in Wisconsin will be recruited for this project. Dairy herds that have been utilizing management intensive grazing and shipping milk for at least 3 years will be eligible and invited to participate and further categorized as ORG (shipping certified organic milk) or GRAZ (not ORG). Once identified, all farms will be asked to define their preferred pasture supplementation strategy by peer category (no grain, grain—on farm sources, or grain—off farm sources). A stakeholder research advisory panel will be established for guidance on relevant data to be collected, expected outcomes, and delivery of results to interested individuals and groups. Relevant data on selected economic, production, and environmental variables will be collected during 6 scheduled visits over two grazing seasons, using a combination of questionnaires and physical samples, depending on the variable of interest.
InvestigatorsVictor E. Cabrera, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Extension Specialist in Dairy Management Department of Dairy Science University of Wisconsin-Madison Phone/fax 608-265-8506 1675 Observatory Drive Room 279 Madison, WI 53706. http://dairymgt.uwex.edu/about.php
Role: Main Project PD/PI. He will provide overall leadership and responsibility of the project implementation and reporting. Dr. Cabrera will provide leadership on translating project results in practical decision support systems. In close collaboration with the other Co-PIs, Dr. Cabrera will support activities related to on-farm research, data and sample collection, and publication of results. |
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Rhonda R. Gildersleeve, Ph.D. UW Extension Grazing Research Specialist UW-Lancaster Agriculture Research Station 7396 State Rd 35 & 81 Lancaster, WI 53813-9725 phone: (608) 723-6243 email: rhonda.gildersleeve@ces.uwex.edu
Role: Lead co-PI for the project’s Extension-related activities, including outreach efforts to grazing network and industry groups as well as Extension colleagues across the state during farm recruitment, data collection and project evaluation efforts. |
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Michel A. Wattiaux, Ph.D. Pronounced: "Watt-"-"tea"-"oh" University of Wisconsin-Madison Associate Professor, Dairy Systems Management Department of Dairy Science 266 Animal Sciences Building 1675 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706-1284 http://dairynutrient.wisc.edu/
Role: Dr. Wattiaux is an international expert in nutrient budgeting according to diet formulation, cattle performance and field crops. He will provide leadership on the data collection, analysis of results, consulting during the construction of decision support tools and discrimination of main take-home messages learned through the project. |
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David K. Combs Professor Dairy Science Department University of Wisconsin-Madison 934F Animal Sciences http://dysci.wisc.edu/faculty/individual/combs.htm Role: Professor Combs conducts research in forage utilization and ruminal digestion of fiber by dairy cows. He will support the sample lab test analysis, the analysis of results, consulting during the construction of decision support tools. |
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CalendarYear |
Quarter |
Activities |
Objectives |
1 |
1-2 |
Receive stakeholder input; identify participant farms; recruit study staff; organize training; finalize content and methods for data collection and analysis; order supplies; set up farm visit schedules |
1, 2 |
|
3-4 |
Farm visits and data collection year 1; sample submission and analysis; begin preliminary data analysis |
1, 2, 3 |
2 |
5-6 |
Continue data analysis for year 1;preparations for year 2 farm visits and data collection; provide updates to funding agency, farmer participants and other partners |
1, 2, 3 |
|
7-8 |
Farm visits and data collection year 2, sample submission and analysis, continue data organization and analysis |
1, 2, 3 |
3 |
9-10 |
Provide updates to funding agency, farmer participants, other partners; complete data analysis, begin development of Extension program materials, decision aids and conduct in-service training with Extension and agricultural professional groups as needed |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
|
11-12 |
Conduct individual farm consultations, continue extension programming, initiate evaluation of project outcomes. Graduate student 1 will finalize and defend dissertation |
4, 5 |
4 |
13-14 |
Provide updates to funding agency, farmer participants, other partners; complete individual farm consultations, evaluation and reports on project outcomes; identify additional research and Extension needs of producer clientele groups as appropriate to current project |
4, 5 |
|
15-16 |
Wrap up project with final reports, updates, etc. Graduate student 2 will finalize and defend dissertation |
4, 5 |