Project Plans FY09

Nutrient Management: Livestock and Crops

Project Leader: Masoud Hashemi

Participating Staff:

• Masoud Hashemi
• Carrie Chickering Sears
• Sarah Weis
• Jacqui Carlevale
• Ken Miller
• Ed Bodzinski

Participating Faculty:

• Stephen Herbert, Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
• Timothy Randhir, Department of Natural Resources Conservation

Project Year: 2009

Brief Description

The crops, dairy, livestock, and equine industries are important economic contributors to the Massachusetts economy, both directly and indirectly through the services and industries they support. Together the dairy and livestock farmers manage more than 130,000 acres of hay, pasture and corn, contributing to open space that is important to both non-farm residents and tourism. Massachusetts also has a sizable equine industry with a horse population of more than 45,000, with more than 10,000 horse owners. The UMass Extension Nutrient Management: Livestock and Crops Project provides educational opportunities to farmers, livestock producers and horse owners to increase their knowledge of environmental issues and their ability to reduce the threat of pathogens and nutrient loss from barns, stables, fields and pastures.

The project focuses on reducing the risk of non-point source pollution from all crop, livestock, and horse farms through the development and voluntary adoption of Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans and principles by farmers. An additional goal is finding management alternatives that, when implemented, help to ease the burden of increased prices of grains and nitrogen fertilizer. Educational activities include: on-farm demonstrations, field meetings, workshops, facts sheets, and consultation. Animal operation farms, including beef cattle, dairy, goat, hog, horse, and sheep, occur in almost all watersheds. The project therefore also has potential to reduce the threat to water quality in many communities.

Activities

• On-farm research demonstration
• Visiting Dairy and Livestock Farms and Equine facilities,
• Workshop presenting the results of on-farm research, field days, and MassAggie seminars
• Fact sheets on different aspects of nutrient management,
• Crops Dairy, Livestock Newsletter
• UMass Crops, Dairy, Livestock, Equine website
• Publishing the Agronomy Journal and the International Journal of Plant Production
• Presentation at American Society of Agronomy annual meeting,
• Applied research on different aspects of cover crops for effective nutrient removal from soil, pasture and grazing management
• Agronomy research reports

Inputs: Time and Effort

Outcomes:

This Project will document progress towards the following:

• Participants adopt practices to optimize nutrient planning and on-farm feed production which help off-set some of the increased costs of feed and nitrogen fertilizer.
• Participants adopt sustainable resource management and environmental best management practices for operating natural resources-based businesses
• Horse owners acquire the knowledge to implement best management practices to protect and restore water resources.
• Participants will acquire the knowledge and skills to prevent and reduce threats to water quality and protect and restore water resources.

This project is part of the Agriculture & Landscape program