Commodities

Virtual Fence User Guide

The virtual fence webpage on Rangelands Gateway allows potential users to access resources, tools, workshop materials, webinar information, and multimedia resources. Virtual fencing (VF) has the potential to change grazing systems by allowing unprecedented impact over livestock distribution. The systems use invisible barriers, established by GPS coordinates, to influence livestock movement with a combination of […]

Can Introducing Mason Bees Boost Berry Pollination?

When it comes to berry pollination throughout the West, honeybees are the biggest show in town. That can be a problem for pollination diversity and for farmers because honeybees aren’t always the best option for some crops. “That’s especially true with blueberries,” said Miranda Jones, a graduate student in biology at Utah State University. “Blueberries […]

The Terroir of Bison

Is Grass-Fed Bison Better for your Health? Not all bison burgers are created equal. As with other livestock, it stands to reason that how and where bison are raised would impact the meat’s nutritional profile. But there isn’t much science on how different forages and finishing strategies effect bison quality. Until now.         Nutrition science […]

From Vertical Farms to Outer Space

Research projects can at times lead to unanticipated results. While working to identify an alternative and sustainable source of carbon dioxide (CO2) generation for enriching plant chambers within the growing vertical farming industry as a graduate student at the University of Arizona, Justin Chung discovered the potential benefits for sustaining astronauts in long duration missions. […]

Idaho Student Researchers Work to Eradicate Pale Cyst Nematode

When the pale cyst nematode, Globodera pallida, was discovered in southeastern Idaho in 2006, potato exports in Idaho and the United States were severely impacted. The nematode, which can devastate a potato crop, is a quarantine pest regulated by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Idaho infestation is found within […]

Can Kelp be Alaska’s New Agricultural Frontier?

Alaska is relatively new to the business of farming kelp, a type of seaweed gaining popularity across the globe because it’s healthy for humans and good for the planet, too. Kelp is rich in vitamins, minerals and protein, requires no soil or fertilizers to grow, provides habitat for fish, and balances ocean acidification caused by […]

User Guide of the Hazelnut Production Costing Tool

Hazelnut growers can use this tool to estimate their costs of production. This information by Oregon Tilth can be used to help growers better understand their cost structure and explore how changes to production practices, yields and price will impact net returns and long-term viability. The link to the tool is included in the guide.

Exploring Montana Agriculture

The SARE Fellows trip to Montana was amazing. I enjoyed seeing the collaborative efforts among the various farms and organizations to share their knowledge, expertise, and resources to help each other thrive while meeting the needs of the community. This experience has shown me how people working together is what truly makes programs sustainable. – […]

Rediscovering Dry Farming

Climate change poses a serious challenge to Western farmers. How do you grow crops profitably when rainfall and drought are becoming so unpredictable and extreme? For many producers, dry farming may offer a way forward. Instead of relying on surface irrigation throughout the summer, dry farmers are finding ways to capture water from winter rains […]

Researchers Work to Develop, Test Dry-Farm-Adapted Corn Varieties

As farmers and agricultural researchers work to adapt to changing climatic conditions, some are looking to future innovations, some are exploring past agricultural practices, and some are doing both. In Western Oregon, a collaborative effort to establish and expand dry farming – growing crops without irrigation – is decidedly in the “doing both” camp. “There […]

Experimenting with Kernza

While some growers and researchers are experimenting with drought-adapted varieties of existing crops, others are testing more substantial shifts in agricultural practices. One of those shifts is from annual grain crops that have to be replanted every year to perennial grains that produce a crop year after year without replanting. In eastern Wyoming, a Western […]

Switching to Winter Crops Might Help Farmers Cope with Warming World

For people who grow food and cultivate the land, climate change isn’t something experienced though charts, graphs and predictions of foreboding futures. For growers, the threat of a warming world is immediate and increasing. “Climate change is playing out on farms like mine every day, every season and in every extreme weather event,” said Caitlin […]

CAB Collective Sustainable Agriculture Action Plan

The Sustainable Agriculture Action Plan for Cabernet Sauvignon and red Bordeaux (CAB) Wine Production in Paso Robles is a document developed by the Paso Robles CAB Collective winegrape growers, winemakers, marketers, proprietors, and other wine industry stakeholders for under a pilot grant program by Western SARE.

Farmers Test Benefits of Using Hemp Stalks to Produce Mushrooms

When optimists are buried in proverbial lemons, they make lemonade. When the women who own Intentional Growth Farm in Utah had too many hemp stalks, they produced exceptionally large, tasty mushrooms. “We used the hemp stalks as the nutrient source for our oyster mushrooms, and customers said they were the best mushrooms they ever tasted,” […]

Heritage Grain Guidebook

From 2016 through 2021, Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance (RMSA) worked with a grassroots network of nearly 200 grain growers in varying climates, initially across the Western United States and eventually growing nationally and globally, in trialing over 250 varieties of ancient and heritage grains including Indigenous and alternative (pseudo) grains to determine varieties that can thrive in the changing climate conditions of the 21st century. Through this effort, 20 of the most adaptive and resilient varieties of cereal grains, including wheat, barley, and rye, of which there was enough seed stock, were selected for formal replicated research trials at four locations in the Mountain West. Results of both the participatory grassroots trials and the research trials, including grower and grain profiles, are documented in this manual in an effort to inform and inspire others to grow these unique varieties of grains, and to support regionalized grain networks and localized food systems.

Farmers Test Whether Cardboard Can Keep Bindweed at Bay

Bindweed can be the bane of farmers’ existence. The climbing vine spreads easily by seed and rigorous root system, choking off crops and other plants along the way. “Even when we till in the spring, we spend a huge amount of time hand weeding throughout the season to manage bindweed,” explained Jonah Sloven, who grows […]

Reasons to Like Wine

Reasons to like wine Number 462: It can be good for New Mexico’s native bees and other pollinators. Even though grapevines are largely self pollinating and don’t need insects like bees or butterflies to produce fruit, vineyards themselves can provide habitat for native pollinators and other insect species, benefiting both the grower and the environment. […]

Cheatgrass-Eating Sheep

Wildfires in the West are inevitable and part of a natural, necessary ecological cycle, but invasive grasses like cheatgrass can make fires burn hotter, spread farther and cause more destruction. So, across the West, researchers, range managers, cattle ranchers and others are looking for ways to economically control cheatgrass and other invasive grasses on millions […]

Growing Mushrooms to Remediate Contaminated Soil

Mushrooms can bio-remediate certain contaminated soils, although it's not a simple or foolproof process. But for someone interested in mushrooms or already growing them, it can be work the effort.