A 3 year project shows that conservation practices have a lasting impact on the natural resources of the farm. Most notable was that 91% of fields in the project have improved water quality by mitigating excess loss of subsurface nitrogen.
The project in Kewaunee County and Door County looked at 5,400 acres. The impact of conservation practices can have on both natural resources and the overall farm productivity was shown. Members of the project included Peninsula Pride Farms, a farmer led conservation group committed to protecting soil, water, and air.
The project looked at accepted metrics from Field to Market’s: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture’s Fieldprint Platform® to better understand the impact of conservation practices on crop land. The project also uses a tool called Prioritize, Target and Measure Application for looking at the impact on local resources. The three-year findings, based on 2020-2022 data, is detailed in a 19-page report available online at farmersforsustainablefood.com/projects.
Each project member receives their individual farm report, before the full report is released. They then determine how their fields are doing using some of Field to Market’s sustainability metrics. Those metrics include biodiversity, energy use, gas emissions, land use, soil carbon, soil conservation and water quality. This report provides the foundation for individual farms to meet their individual goals.
The northeast Wisconsin project is one of several projects following a nationally recognized framework [available online at farmersforsusutainablefood.com/resources] for sustainability projects shared by Farmers for Sustainable Food and its partners. FSF is an organization that promotes and supports farmer led solutions to today’s environmental challenges. The Nature Conservancy, a global organization, also provides project support through funding and environmental insights.
“We had areas within our watershed where we believed improved nutrient management practices could be implemented. This project helps provide the data to show us that the increasing use of conservation practices we and other farmers have adopted, can impact the groundwater resources,” said dairy farmer Duane Ducat, a project member and PPF president.
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