SARE 1997 Highlights

SARE Program Advances Grazing Systems

Management-intensive grazing has become one of the most promising agricultural strategies to reduce operating costs, provide environmental benefits and improve quality of life for farm families. Increasingly, producers are shifting from confinement-based livestock systems to raise cows, sheep and hogs wholly or partially on pastures offering a nutritious mix of grass and legumes.

Reflecting the growing demand for information on grazing systems, the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has funded dozens of collaborative projects that address how to establish profitable, environmentally sound pasture systems. The SARE program, in existence since 1988, helps meet the needs of information-hungry producers trying to adapt New Zealand-style forage systems.

"SARE has funded projects that clearly show management-intensive grazing is more profitable for producers and better for the environment," says SARE Director Rob Myers. "Many producers emphasize how much more they enjoy being outside with their livestock in this system, rather than working in the barn all day."

Helping farmers and ranchers save money through grazing system improvements that also protect natural resources remains a key goal of many scientists receiving SARE research and education grants. These grants, typically awarded to university and nonprofit organization researchers, require project leaders to collaborate with producers and publicize their results.

A SARE-funded project in North Carolina compares an intensively managed grazing system with a livestock system relying on row crops for feed, harvested forage and conventional confinement. Economic data for the two systems were similar in the second year of the project, but North Carolina State University project leader Steve Washburn predicts the grazing system numbers will improve as the fledgling graziers gain more experience developing the right balance between pasture and supplemental feed.

Veterinary costs went down in the grazing system because the cows on pasture had fewer health problems. "There was mastitis in both groups, but a much lower instance in the grazing group than those in confinement," Washburn says. "The cows are in a cleaner environment."

SARE-funded researchers in Oregon recently conducted a more comprehensive study of how rotational grazing affects the surrounding ecosystem. The project, which examined how the sensitivity of riparian habitats varied with grazing seasons of different lengths, suggests graziers can manage the time their livestock spend in such habitats to minimize impact on water quality and wildlife.

Particularly in semi-arid regions such as eastern Oregon, waterways and wetlands vegetation remain integral to production, providing irrigation for pasture and shade for animals. Management-intensive grazing systems put less stress on riparian habitats than chemical-intensive row cropping.

"Prior to the use of different grazing practices, many habitats were removed from the landscape," says Dan Edge, a wildlife ecologist with Oregon State University. "Only in the last 10 to 15 years has their value been recognized."

SARE passes information about grazing management techniques through its Professional Development Program (PDP) to Extension Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service staff and other agricultural professionals. The ag educators, in turn, help farmers and ranchers improve their livestock operations.

SARE also disseminates information through its outreach arm, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN).

A SARE PDP project in the mid-Atlantic region is educating Extension and NRCS field staff who rated raising livestock on pasture their top informational need. "They have found they can't answer some of the questions farmers have about pasture management," says Elmer Dengler, an NRCS coordinator in Allegheny County, Md.

A series of workshops will feature visits to 12 grazing farms as well as study sessions on soils and plants; animal nutrition and physiology; grazing-system design; and environmental/economic issues.

While many SARE grants consider the "big picture" issues in grazing, others fill information gaps by funding producer projects that fine tune farm management skills. Through 1996, 45 SARE producer grants focused on some aspect of management-intensive grazing.

In Wisconsin, Marcie and Myron Herek received a SARE producer grant to study ways to improve their grazing system. The funds helped them complete grazing paddocks on the 200-acre farm, install a watering system and rebuild a cow lane leading from the fields to the milking parlor. The improvements came three years after the Hereks switched from a conventional dairy to a management-intensive grazing system.

Grazing opens the door for cost savings, environmental gains and well deserved quality of life improvements. The grazing system wins out over their former practice of raising crops, harvesting grain, feeding the cows and disposing of manure, Marcie Herek says.

"Grazing is definitely a less labor- and capital-intensive way to farm," she says. "It provides a better quality of life for us: Work is easier, involves fewer hours per day of physical labor and is safe because the amount of time spent with machinery is greatly reduced."

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