Farmer led watershed groups are popping up all over Wisconsin. Passionate about both farming and conservation, the farmers leading the groups work directly with their neighbors and communities to encourage their peers to put more conservation practices into play on more acres. Recently the WI Dept of Ag awarded out over $1m of grants to these groups.
Patricia Cicero is a Director at the Land and Water Conservation Department in Jefferson County. She works closely with the Jefferson County Soil Builders, one of the groups that just received a $30k grant. The soil builders are one of the more recent groups to form and Patricia says this is the second year that the group has received a grant to further their work.
The funds have been earmarked for two main purposes. The first is to create a financial incentive for farmers to try out cover crops. To help mitigate some risk of trying cover crops on farms or increasing the amount of acres planted with cover crops, the group offers a money per new acre planted. The following year when crops pop up, the cover crop planting is verified and the farm receives a payment. The second purpose is to help fund some experiments looking at keeping nitrogen where it’s applied.
While these farmer led groups main purpose is to connect with peers and encourage conservation practices, Patricia says the opportunities go beyond farm fields. She shared while in the past there has been a lot of finger pointing towards farmers when it comes to water quality, that is changing. She shared that one example was a citizen group in the county called the Rock Lake Improvement Association, coming to the Soil Builders to learn more about partnering with farmers to improve water quality.
The communication and education doesn’t stop at the county line. As more and more of these farmer lead groups form across the state and region, Patricia says she sees farmers coming from outside of the area to learn and network with peers. A conference held in Wisconsin Dells this week focused on grant opportunities and we will be sharing coverage here if you’d like to learn more.
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