Archives: State Profiles

Project Highlight: Cardboard Layering Deep Compost Mulch for Weed Suppression, Soil Health, and Profitability

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.

Annual tilling is not ideal for soil health, and the labor cost of hand weeding is high. What if farmers could find a low-cost, sustainable way to control bindweed by harnessing something as basic as cardboard?

Jonah Sloven, Sweet Hollow Farm, was encouraged by early results of burying cardboard beneath deep layers of compost to keep bindweed at bay. Sloven and his colleagues explored whether cardboard layers can suppress weeds, improve soil health and increase profits.

Cardboard is especially good at suppressing grassy weeds, like crabgrass, by blocking seed banks from the sun. But researchers have suspected that bindweed, with its aggressive, horizontal root system, could make its way through or around a blanket of cardboard.

Sloven at others at Sweet Hollow Farm decided to give it a try. They cleared out the weeds within 30-by-96 feet high tunnel, laid down two layers of cardboard, covered it with a thick layer of compost, and planted tomatoes.

The cardboard biodegraded and the soil beneath it is rich with worm activity, aggregate formation and moisture retention – all signs of soil health. Bindweed is not a problem inside the tunnel. They also found a significant decrease in weed pressure in outdoor plots of squash.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number FW22-393. 

Project Highlight: Improve dragon fruit production in the Northern Marianas Island through hands-on student education 

Before World War II, almost 40,000 acres were farmed in Saipan. That has dropped to just a few thousand acres, and most food is imported.

Additionally, a super typhoon hit the island – the most powerful storm to hit the Marianas Islands ever. Families near the Koberville Elementary School were especially hard hit, with many students living in tents or shelters and without power.

Local farmers believe that dragon fruit is easy to sell and is in strong demand. This project added dragon fruit production to the Koberville school farm to enhance the quality of science and business management education; increase student income that could be used for educational activities; and provide information with the community who can also choose to be part-time or full-time farmers. The students took home or sold the dragon fruit they grew.

Despite challenges faced due to COVID-19, the students were still able to successfully harvest 290 pounds of dragon fruit. Through learning how to use marketing skills to advertise their produce for sale, the students sold the fruit for $3.50/pound. From this project research, they learned that contained potted trellis as a production method was a much more effective way of growing dragon fruit than when grown in the ground.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number FW19-345. 

Project Highlight: Training and Outreach for Extension Professionals in Sustainable Capture-based Cage Farming and Hatchery Rearing Methods, of Siganids (Rabbitfishes)

Sustainable, capture-based aquaculture and hatchery rearing methods of Rabbitfish hold promise not only for fisheries management and coral reef conservation, but also for rural aquaculture livelihoods and nutrition. Thirteen species of Rabbitfish can be found in Micronesia, some with traits making them suitable for aquaculture. Those desirable traits include fast growth, schooling behavior, non-aggressive behavior, tolerance of changing temperatures and salinity, tolerance of poor water quality, and good feed conversion. 

Understanding this potential for sustainable development, Simon Ellis of Marine Environmental Research Institute of Pohnpei (MERIP) designed a Professional Development Program project aimed toward expanding Rabbitfish aquaculture in the Pacific Islands. The highly collaborative project shared information and resources with agriculture/aquaculture professionals, extension agents, private sector aquaculture entrepreneurs, and sustainable development NGOs in the Micronesia region. The project included a four-day training at MERIP, a study tour for three personnel to Hawaii to train in marine fish hatchery techniques, and an easy to read pictorial manual on raising Rabbitfish. 

Ellis is excited about an unexpected outcome of the project. “The workshop led to a very positive collaboration with the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Hawaii Sea Grant.”  

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number EW18-006. 

Project Highlight: Sheet Mulch Using Cardboard and NFTs 

Weeds grow at a very fast pace in Guam. Hand weeding, herbicides, and bush cutting (commercial high powered gas trimmers) are common methods to suppress weeds. However, bush cutters can damage crops and be costly and hand weeding takes a lot of labor.

In this project, farmer Glen Takai proposed testing sheet mulch and nitrogen fixing trees (NFTs) as a solution.  Sheet mulching is a layered method of mulching. Typical sheet mulching methods consists of initially laying single or multiple layers of cardboard over a targeted area. Cardboard layers can be topped with shredded/chipped organic waste material. Cardboard is an abundant resource on this remote island due to high imports, and it creates much waste into the landfill.  The use of cardboard and NFTs as sheet mulch to manage weeds could also improve soil quality through adding organic matter. 

The project has demonstrated significant differences in labor cost savings using sheet mulch compared to not using sheet mulch. Yield data shows that plants using sheet mulch produced significantly higher than plants not mulched. The common use of herbicides was completely eliminated. Lastly, the project promotes the idea of reduce, reuse, and recycle.  

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number FW19-348. 

Project Highlight: Agricultural productivity of Kratky's non-circulating hydroponics method in cropping specialty vegetables for limited resource growers in Manu'a

Growing vegetables hydroponically, such as bok choy or lettuce, can improve access to fresh produce in remote communities dependent on imported food. Additionally, the quality of locally grown produce can be higher than imported produce that can wilt during shipping.

A Western SARE funded project in American Samoa researched and quantified benefits of a non-circulating hydroponics system for limited-resource growers. Later demonstrations to farmers, village groups and government agencies, as well as a companion Teachers Hydroponics Resource Kit, documented a modern method of farming – while raising awareness of healthy lifestyles, developments in sustainable agriculture, and food security.

The project, led by Toni Leano of Maun'a Leta Creative farm, found the benefits to be:

• Crop yields higher than using conventional growing methods
• Better protection from pests
• Protection from extreme weather, such as heavy rain
• Ability to supply and monitor required nutrients easily
• Easy to adopt system for limited resource growers
• Provide access for local communities to fresh nutritious food

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number FW19-352.

Project Highlight: Growing and Marketing Ancient Grains in Wyoming 

Markets for ancient grains such as spelt, emmer, and einkhorn are growing due to their nutritional qualities and well-liked flavor. In addition, they are reported to require lower water and nutrient inputs than modern varieties. Caitlin Youngquist, Extension Educator at the University of Wyoming, considered that conducting research and working with farmers on these grains could help meet some of Wyoming’s agricultural challenges. According to Youngquist, challenges include low soil fertility and quality, saline and alkaline soils, arid conditions, high crop evapotranspiration demands, and isolation from markets.

Youngquist and her partners studied the nitrogen and water demands of the three grains; evaluated crop performance in various growing regions of the state, quantified costs and benefits associated with growing ancient grains in the state; assessed impacts of growing conditions on grain quality; and worked to develop local markets for cooking and baking. The research was conducted at three University of Wyoming research stations in addition to five on-farm trials. The team hosted numerous presentations, baking workshops, Facebook Live events, and field days. They sent product samples to six food bloggers. Several bulletins and fact sheets were developed for the public from this project.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number OW19-340. 

Project Highlight: Sustainable Crop-Livestock Integration for the System Health in the Dryland Inland Pacific Northwest

In north-central Washington, along the Canadian border, dryland wheat production has been the dominate production system for a century using a wheat-fallow rotation. Some wheat producers use direct-seed tillage to improve soil health, but that can lead to increased pesticide and herbicide use. Producers are interested in economically sustainable strategies for reducing pesticide use and further improving soil health. Leslie Michel, Washington Department of Agriculture wanted to experiment with a more biologically intensive and sustainable management system, integrating cover crops, and livestock to improve soil health, suppress weeds and reduce pesticide use.

She worked with five producers to integrate cover crops and cattle onto their fields before their wheat or other grain cash crops were grown. The results were encouraging but mixed. Most soil health parameters didn’t change significantly, and soil moisture was significantly lower in the grazed cover-cropped areas than the control plots. Despite that, plant-stand establishment and plant height in the following cash crop was the same and yields were similar. The cows and calves grazed on the cover-cropped plots did well. Since the trials, farmers continue to experiment with cover crops and grazing.

For more information on these projects, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number OW17-051.

Project Highlight: Can We Manage Public Rangelands for Producers and the Environment?: Using Grazing-duration to Balance Livelihoods, Clean Water, Sage-grouse habitat, and Sustainable Forage.

Federal agencies managing public rangelands often face calls or litigation to curtail grazing due to expectations that the land provide clean water and habitat for wildlife such as the sage-grouse. Yet ranchers depend on these lands for their livelihood, which is reduced when grazing intensity is reduced. In response, thirty-six Rich County Utah producers engaged in an eleven-year collaborative process with federal and state agencies to develop an innovative grazing plan for their public lands. Altering grazing-duration along streams is an important component of the plan they created. Understanding how grazing-duration affects key ecological goals and producer economic-vitality is critical to determining this plan’s success.

Kris Hulvey led the Western SARE project with ranchers to examine how three grazing-durations in replicated riparian areas affected water quality, sage-grouse habitat, and forage recovery. They additionally assessed costs for altering durations as required in the new grazing plan. They found grazing duration can be used to manage forage height, bare ground, and the recovery of both in riparian areas. Shorter grazing durations (2-3 weeks) led to significantly taller vegetation and less bare ground than areas grazed for 1.5 months

They also found that grazing duration has mixed effects on sage-grouse habitat parameters.  Lastly, they found grazing duration can be used as a tool to manage E. coli concentration without fencing-off riparian areas or removing cattle from rangeland pastures with streams. Shorter grazing duration led to fewer E. coli regulatory violations. There was no strong evidence that grazing duration affected stream water temperature, dissolved oxygen or pH.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number SW19-905.

Project Highlight: No/Low-till Practices as a Water Conservation tool on Small-scale Vegetable Farms East of the Cascades

Farmers in Oregon’s drier areas have been impacted by drought. Many work creatively to conserve water, and for some, it’s a mandate when irrigation is cut off. Katie Swanson, Sweet Union Farm which grows vegetables on seven acres in Klamath Falls in south central Oregon, explored with five other farmers how no or low-till practices can increase drought resilience on small-scale farms east of the Cascades.

Each farmer prepared one control plot and two test plots using the low-till or no-till practices of their choice. Farmers selected which annual vegetable or herb they wanted to study, but each of their plots had to contain the same crop and receive the same amount of water. Throughout the season they measured how much water was available to their crops using water-tension sensors installed at different depths in the soil.

In general, plots prepared without tilling held the most moisture. The study also suggested that no-till farming is more feasible for single-season crops rather than those that require many quick successions. One finding was especially surprising: Water tension readings were remarkably low across the board until August. This provided a realization that crops don’t need as much irrigation earlier in the season as the farmers thought.

Water sensors can also provide farmers more peace of mind late in the season when irrigation is limited or completely shut off. Katie is hopeful this new network of small farmers can support each other as well as farmers throughout the West.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number FW22-405.

Project Highlight: Initiation of a New Mexico Participatory Vegetable Breeding Program

Landrace varieties of vegetable seeds develop from farmers saving their own seed. These crops, due to selections made by the farmer, are more tolerant to stresses faced in a specific region. This contrasts with institutional breeding programs that may focus on larger farms and ignore diverse landscapes and climates. These programs may not assist the small farmers, who grow for local markets and small food distributors. Raising crops that are adapted to their region allows farmers to use less inputs and be more productive. Researchers at New Mexico State University wanted to help increase and preserve diversity of crops grown in their state, as well as breed for hardiness in locally adapted vegetables. Their project aimed to promote cultural heritage and local food economies through an innovative approach to plant breeding by creating the New Mexico Participatory Vegetable Breeding Program.

Breeding trials and plans were located at five geographically dispersed farms, as well as at three New Mexico State University locations. Each farmer chose the type of trial they wanted to conduct. In addition, field days, trainings, and webinars were conducted to inform other New Mexico farmers what each of the project farmers learned during the time of the project. The project farmers also provided consultations to their neighboring farmers.

For more information on these projects, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number OW20-353.

Project Highlight: Gaining a Better Understanding of Ag Complexities on Reservations 

In the United States, more than one in three farms benefits from a range of direct payments by the federal government, according to USDA statistics. But when it comes to farms operated by American Indians, that figure plummets to nearly one in 10. 

Missing out on these programs is one glaring example of how USDA professionals have long struggled to serve agricultural producers on American Indian reservations. And it is one reason why University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Educators Loretta Singletary and Staci Emm used a SARE grant to develop a broad-based curriculum that helps USDA service providers in four western states understand the unique needs and complexities of agriculture on reservations. 

Reception to the 178-page teaching guide, called People of the Land, has been so positive that USDA agencies and state departments of agriculture in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have begun adopting it, and its authors have had to print a second run. To develop the curriculum, Emm and Singletary started by assessing the agricultural needs of American Indians on the 10 largest reservations in their four-state region, and by speaking with the agricultural professionals who serve them. Their work also earned them the 2011 National Extension Diversity Award. 

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number EW11-006. 

Project Highlight: Montana Food Economy Initiative

The Montana Food Economy Initiative (MFEI), a project of the nonprofit organization AERO, works to strengthen the network of Montana community food systems to ensure producer sustainability and resilience. MFEI cohorts, AERO members, and the 2016 Governors’ Food and Agriculture Summit highlighted a lack of coordinated efforts between producers and the other sectors of the food system, which diminished producer viability.

Building on the data gathered in its regional food system development, AERO led this project as a two-prong approach to community food system development that is best suited to accommodate the range of capacity in Montana’s rural, often isolated, communities. Their MFEI program accomplishes its goal by training producers and ag professionals in collaborative leadership to strengthen cross-sector relationships. The two prongs were: (1) an “intensive coaching” program designed to engage community stakeholders to self-identify and support change makers in  building a community’s capacity to focus on food system development and cross-sector engagement, and (2) a “grassroots to systems” pick list of discrete, short-term projects for producers in more established food system communities to lead and which enhance on-farm resilience and cross-sector engagement. These two strategies aimed to build farmers’ collaborative leadership capacity to implement projects at the community level.

Upon completion of a wide-variety of initiatives, AERO reported increased producers’ knowledge and skills in collaborative leadership and cross-sector community project facilitation to advance on-farm resilience/climate adaptation, community food system development, and/or food equity. A producer-led Advisory Board supported the effort at all levels, helping design shovel-ready mini-grant projects and support tools, and mentoring grantees.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number RGR20-009. 

Project Highlight: Pest Reduction on Agricultural Lands due to Hawaiian Short-eared Owls

If you can encourage a threatened native species, help control non-native pests, benefit the state’s farmers, and preserve a culturally important icon, you’ve hit an ecological grand slam. That’s exactly what the University of Hawaii’s Melissa Price is trying to do with the islands’ pueo owls. The native pueo have an important place in the island’s spiritual life and are listed as threatened on Oahu. Exact numbers are hard to come by. Getting a better idea of the population and distribution of pueo was one of the objectives of Price’s project. In fact, the owls are so hard to count, some people told Price her team would be lucky to find any pueo at all. However, based on sightings and surveys, Price has documented the birds nest in wetlands, at higher elevations, and in native forests under ferns. 

Hawaii also has barn owls, which were introduced to the island ecosystem in the 1950s, but barn owls prey on both native and non-native species. Price’s research documented the seasonal use of agricultural lands by pueo and developed recommendations for producers on how to conserve or create pueo habitat to get their pest-management benefits.  Due to increased knowledge about pueo, producers are now helping to achieve a “win-win-win” for the native Pueo, for Hawai‘i conservation, and for economic benefits to agriculture.

For more information on these projects, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number OW18-017.

Project Highlight: Impact of Genetics and Grazing Management on Enteric Methane Emissions and Performance in Stocker Steers

As cows digest grasses and other cellulose-rich plants, microbes in their large first stomach – the rumen –break down the feed, releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane as a natural fermentation byproduct. A low-emission beef cow would use fuel – in this case feed – more efficiently, converting it into muscle readily and minimizing methane emissions over the life of the animal.

Ashley Schilling, a doctoral student with Colorado State University’s AgNext program, worked on a Western SARE-funded project that examines how animal genetics and grazing practices effect both emissions and performance. Her project compared two sets of genetically distinct steers – one group sourced locally within Colorado, the other imported from Nebraska – in a production environment. The local steers originate from a similar shortgrass steppe ecosystems as the experiment station, while the Nebraska steers originate from a tall grass prairie ecosystem.

What she found was the local steers emitted more methane but they also had a greater average daily weight gain so their overall emissions intensity was significantly lower than the steers from Nebraska. The results of this study indicate that cattle origin alters CH₄ emissions and animal performance in stocker steers grazing extensive semi-arid rangelands.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number GW22-232. 

Project Highlight: Potter Valley Tribe’s Native Mushroom Cultivation from Waste Byproduct Substrate for Food Sovereignty

The Potter Valley Tribe in Ft. Bragg, California, began a small operation prior to their SARE project growing various mushrooms with the objectives of food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, income, and education. Food sovereignty for Native Americans acts as a resurgence of culture, bolstering health, economic development, and native nationhood. The Tribe notes that mushrooms have long been an important feature in Northern Californian diets but are rarely cultivated on Tribal lands.

This Western SARE project experimented with growing on spent coffee grounds, hardwood sawdust from sawmills, and other less frequently utilized local ‘waste’ byproducts such as hemp production. The Tribe aimed to develop their own methodology for production rather than purchasing spawn from other growers.  This would increase food sovereignty and diversify the Tribe’s revenue.

Their outreach and education brought in over 40 new participants in the project, including elders and youth, representing eight different tribes. They came together to continue educating tribal youth in mushroom cultivation, cooking, and gathering. The Potter Valley Tribe also created five instructional videos and Mushroom Manual with step-by-step instructions, as well as developed a mushroom cultivation lab.

Three additional tribes will begin their own mushroom operations after becoming inspired by the success of the Potter Valley Tribe project.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number RGR20-010. 

Project Highlight: Collaborative Training for Southwest Grassland Restoration under Environmental Uncertainty

Early settlers’ descriptions of southeast Arizona told of uninterrupted grassland stretching from one mountain range to another. That’s changed. Today much of that land has been invaded by mesquite and other woody shrubs and the ecological services provided by the grassland – including water recharge into the underground aquifers – has been diminished.

One reason for the change has been fire – or more specifically the lack of it. Once viewed as natural to the landscape as rain, total fire suppression became standard practice in the early 1900s throughout the West. Without frequent fires to control their growth, the woody shrubs spread across desert southwest grasslands. But as the importance of preserving the grasslands became more apparent, university researchers, conservationists, ranchers, government agencies and others began looking for ways to preserve these important landscapes, even in the face to today’s climate uncertainty.

Western SARE helped the effort by funding an important professional development project to bring all those experts and other interested people together for three day-long workshops looking at the history of the Southwest grasslands and management methods and options for controlling brush and woody species.

One thing that came out of the workshops was a Brush Management Matrix – a decision-support tool for ranchers and land managers to consult when considering brush-management projects. To extend the reach of the project, all of the presentations were recorded and posted on the web, and a series of six videos were produced.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number EW17-006. 

Project Highlight: Appropriate Technology and Cooperative Marketing to Increase Root Crop Production on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula

The Kenai Peninsula is the fastest-growing agricultural region in Alaska, with the number of farms increasing at nearly three times the rate of the rest of the state. But most of those farms are small – less than five acres – and selling direct to consumers at farmers markets or to local restaurants. 

The Kenai Soil and Water Conservation District commissioned a study, completed in early 2017, that found for growers there to expand their distribution, they need to increase their production and look at coordinating marketing and distribution. The study also looked at potential cash crops. Potatoes were one of the crops identified.

The problem for small growers, however, isn’t how well potatoes grow. It’s how much work they are to harvest when you’re digging them up by hand with a pitchfork. 

So, as a first step to expanding production and exploring cooperative marketing and distribution on the Kenai, the conservation district tested – and now rents out – a single-row potato digger and tub washer at a very reasonable rate. 

It’s already paying off for the Alaskan farmers, where labor is always in short supply. One grower reduced his harvest and processing time from seven days to less than two. There is a four- to six-week window for harvest that allow the region’s growers to share the single machine.

For more information on this project, see sare.org/projects, and search for project number OW18-029.