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EXTENSION – TARGET AUDIENCE: PRODUCERS
Land Grant University Extension educates and trains producers, farmers, and advisors how to make wise nutrient and pesticide management decisions that will minimize ground and surface water contamination. Here is a sampling of these Extension programs.
Making Best Management Practices Reality
Best Management Practices (BMPs) are effective, practical, structural or nonstructural methods which prevent or reduce the movement of sediment, nutrients, pesticides, and other pollutants from the land to surface or ground water, or which otherwise protect water quality from potential adverse effects of agricultural activities. These practices are developed to achieve a balance between water quality protection and agricultural production within natural and economic limitations. More information about nutrient and pesticide management BMPs can be found on our research page.
The Neuse
Crop Management Project (NCMP) 
met
their goal of enabling farmers to adopt BMPs so that they could
continue to earn a living while helping the Neuse River. NCMP
implemented nutrient and weed integrated pest management practices
on 100,000 crop acres, helped farmers decrease soil-applied herbicides
by 40%, and assisted farmers to collectively reduce overall nitrogen
fertilizer application rates by more than 23%.
The Kansas Grassland Water Quality Stewardship Project at Kansas State University works directly with producers and those who interact with producers to improve water quality. A variety of activities and educational tools, including meetings, workshops, demonstrations, publications, newsletters, and one-on-one range management planning, are being used to disseminate information across the state.
The Great Lakes Regional Water Program is developing a regional drainage management extension bulletin that introduces nitrate processes and eight drainage technologies that can reduce nitrate loss from tile-drained fields. The key message of the publication is that new research and technologies are available to reduce nitrate losses from drained land. The bulletin will be distributed nationally, particularly to those who make decisions about conservation policies.
The University of Rhode Island Extension in conjunction with 4-H Programs are creating an adoption-outreach Extension Education Program aimed at small acreage livestock owners and managers. This program will minimize the barriers and maximize the benefits of adoption of BMPS for water quality protection. A major outcome of the project is for 90% of trained volunteers and the target audience to be capable of identifying the most common pollution and health risks associated with livestock activities on their properties and have the capability to identify appropriate BMPs to minimize pollution and health risks associated with small acreage livestock activities.
BMP Demonstration sites have been established across the nation
at Land Grant Universities. Local
producers tour these BMPs in Oklahoma rather than being confined to a classroom.
A council of crop and livestock producers, with Iowa State
University Extension’s assistance, implemented a locally-managed
incentive program that
allows cooperators to define and demonstrate for themselves performance
measures for environmental stewardship at a reasonable cost and
linked to accountable farm management decisions. Increased
water protection practices were installed over a majority of watershed
acres.
Precision Agricultural Trainings
Traditionally, we've managed our cropland based on the average soil condition and treated the entire field as a single unit. This method is sometimes inefficient, because fertilizer may be over-applied in some areas and under-applied in others. Precision agriculture uses information technologies, like Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and remote sensing, to target nutrient inputs and management practices to site-specific variable field conditions. These technologies take into account unique soil/landscape characteristics resulting in less excess nutrients leaving the farm thereby reducing the pollution risk to ground and surface water. Training programs occur at Land Grant Universities that incorporate precision agricultural techniques.
The University of Minnesota Precision Agriculture Center partners with industry, farmers, and academics to develop content for training modules. Present areas of emphasis include yield map interpretation, intensive soil sampling methods, on farm experiment design, and precision farming profitability studies.
Class participants learn how to integrate tools, such as GPS, GIS, sensor technologies and other geodata, into management decisions in the Precision Agriculture Data Management, Analysis and Decision Making Workshop at Ohio State University.
A combination of lecture and hands-on exercises allows participants to learn about the newest developments in precision agriculture through Precision Agriculture Workshops and other Extension Programs at the University of Nebraska.
A series of demonstration projects at Texas A&M University show farmers the benefits of precision agricultural technology, specifically improving water quality and reducing chemical costs, thereby increasing the rate of precision farming adoption by Texas producers. These producers also learn about the processes involved in implementing this technology.
Producers are learning to use precision agriculture software (Geographic Information Systems and mapping packages) to properly manage and analyze spatial data through an outreach program at the University of Kentucky. The program addresses issues of data availability and compatibility while providing hands-on educational experience with field data collection, building spatial farm databases, and data analysis.
Alabama
Extension is helping
farmers combine geospatial applications with yield monitoring and
other innovative technologies. For
example, in a north Alabama total farm field demonstration, the
producer was able to save over 13 percent on their nitrogen input
to field corn.
After running a University of Georgia seminar and demonstration series, the total number of autosteer “rover” units increased from 6 to 34 in the two-county area.
Nutrient and Pesticide Management Trainings
The iSNAP Project at Oregon State University provides Technical Service Providers, pest management consultants, and Certified Crop Advisors (CCA) with experience in selecting and implementing nutrient and pest management practices. These trained agricultural professionals are providing improved services for landowners while increasing protection for water resources.
Follow-up survey data from workshops conducted by the Western Integrated Nutrient Management Education Project, including Cooperative Extension and Natural Resources Conservation Service representatives with funding from CSREES SARE, indicate that participants are using the knowledge they gained in their work. The first year workshop participants cumulatively impacted nutrient management on 500,000 acres. One accomplishment from the project was a well-designed program evaluation process. The evaluation information gathered allowed project team members to understand how their training was being received and what changes might improve how they deliver information to participants. In addition, the partnership between Cooperative Extension and NRCS was strengthened.
UVM Extension developed and conducted a curriculum and needs assessment to teach livestock farmers how to develop a Nutrient Management Plan during February and March 2006. Ten farmers from two targeted watersheds participated in the training program and collectively contributed over 165 hours outside the class to plan a total of 7,779 acres. 100% of the farmers would recommend the class to other farmers, and 50% of the farmers planned to apply less nitrogen and phosphorus to their fields as a result of the plan.
As at many Land Grant Universities, Iowa State University Extension provides training and certification programs for commercial and private pesticide applicators. In a 2002-2003 program evaluation, 22% of respondents indicated that as a direct result of the training they will now observe a minimum of 50 feet as a setback from wells, water sources, or surface waters when mixing, loading, and applying pesticides.
Information on trainings given to livestock producers, including Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning (CNMP) workshops and materials, can be found on the Animal Waste Management Educational Programs webpage.
The CSREES Integrated Pest Management Center funds numerous regional projects that minimize pesticide application thereby protecting water quality. These programs are reducing unreasonable adverse environmental effects from pests and the use of pest management practices. Pro New England is a collaborative of the six New England Land Grant Universities and their Cooperative Extension programs working together to communicate pest management research and information with a regional focus.
Land Grant University Extension is also able to conduct organic training programs or give tours of organic demonstration farms. For example, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T University formed the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. Land Grant Extension often turns to the CSREES Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program for information on transitioning to organic farming. UMaine and UNH Extension partnered to conduct two training programs for dairy and livestock producers that focused on the latest research on alternative forage systems and sustainable weed management.
The University of California-Riverside Cooperative Extension developed a PesticideWise website that allows farmers or researchers to search a comprehensive EPA-USDA database and presents critical information on a pesticide’s properties and water quality risks.
Pollution Assessment and Prevention Programs
Farmers voluntarily identify water pollution risks on their properties and develop plans for mitigation of these risks in Farm*A*Syst Programs. At the South Carolina Farm*A*Syst (Clemson University) website, farmers can take an online environmental assessment on handling and storing pesticides.
Master Farmer Programs at many Land Grant Universities help agricultural producers voluntarily address the environmental concerns related to production agriculture, as well as enhance their production and resource management skills that will be critical for their continued viability. Producers becoming more knowledgeable about environmental stewardship, resource-based production, and resource management through a voluntary producer certification process. Examples include the Louisiana Mater Farmer Program and the Arkansas Master Farmer Program.
"We are beginning to see signs of water quality improvements in some areas of our state where landowners have participated in the programs that encourage the use of BMPs. We appreciate everyone’s hard work on helping us to reach these shared goals of improved water quality and a viable agricultural community within Louisiana," said Jan Boydston with Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). As of July 2006 2,300 farmers have completed Phase 1 of the program; 13 received Master Farmer certification.
Through the Purdue Extension Water Quality Program, farmers and crop consultants can use the farmstead assessment and field assessment materials to improve their nutrient and pesticide handling and use. These materials will take you step by step through a self-assessment of your farmstead and field management practices.
Participatory Research
Participatory on-farm research involves farmers working in collaboration with scientists or extension educators to design an experiment to answer an agronomic question. Farmers actually conduct the experiment on their farm providing a real-life setting to test their theories. Farmers learn hands-on about nutrient and pesticide management.
Participatory on-farm research at South Dakota State University has exposed farmers to meetings or training events that has helped them to learn about advances in agronomy that they may apply to their farm management and improve water quality.
The Wisconsin Discovery Farms and Water Action Volunteers (an extension volunteer water quality monitoring program) joined forces to work with privately owned farms to identify effective and economical BMPs and to monitor and learn how these BMPs are improving water quality.
page last modified on
April 8, 2008
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