LUXEMBOURG – Since its founding in 2016, Peninsula Pride Farms has been advocating for its members in Kewaunee and Southern Door counties to implement agricultural practices that help improve their sustainability, the environment and ground and surface water quality. Now the organization says a new study shows these practices work.
The study, conducted by Houston Engineering, Inc., a Midwestern civil engineering consulting firm, collected and analyzed data after four years of the five-year Peninsula Pride Farms Sustainability Project. Eleven farms managing more than 34,000 acres and 40,000 dairy cattle in Door and Kewaunee counties are participating in the project, which will be completed next year.
The project’s results “demonstrate continued improvements in sustainability and water quality among this group of farmers in Door and Kewaunee counties,” according to a news release from Peninsula Pride Farms.
Key findings included:
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Participating farms apply an average of two or more conservation practices to each of their fields analyzed. The most commonly used sustainable agricultural practices included reduced tillage, cover crops, no-till crops and grassed waterways.
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91% of reported acreage reduced the risk of excessive nitrogen leaching into the land’s subsoil, which directly impacts groundwater quality, which has long been a major problem in Kewaunee County. PPF board member Paul Cornette, co-owner of Cornette Dairy in Luxembourg, told the Advocate that the decline in nitrates could be due to several practices, including the use of cover crops or fertilizer capsules that do not break down and release as easily. nitrogen as quickly as other fertilizers.
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The average soil erosion rate for corn kernels over the four-year project period was 0.97 tons per acre per year, significantly lower than the state benchmark of 3.5 tons per acre per year.
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The group’s energy consumption was 209,632 BTUs per tonne for grass silage, 33% better than the national figure.
These results are important to show PPF members and the public that their efforts are making a difference, Cornette said.
“When Peninsula Pride Farms was founded, it was with the understanding that we needed to communicate what was going on,” Cornette told the Advocate. “We also know that we needed an investigation to see how we were doing.”
These efforts are part of multi-year sustainability projects led by Farmers for Sustainable Food, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that supports nine farmer-led watershed conservation groups such as PPF. Cornette is also chair of Farmers for Sustainable Food.
Another FSF member group took part in the sustainability project. Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance completed the fifth and final year of the project, with 15 farms in Lafayette County managing more than 40,000 acres. Their key findings from their results, which were announced at the same time as the PPF results, were reportedly similar.
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Similar to PPF, participating farms apply an average of two or more conservation practices to their fields, using contouring and strip cropping, along with cover crops, reduced tillage and no-till.
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83% of the reported area reduced the risk of excessive nitrogen leaching into the subsoil.
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The average soil erosion rate for corn kernels over the five years was 1.7 tons per hectare per year, about half the state benchmark.
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And the group’s energy consumption was 145,575 BTUs per ton for grass silage, which is 53% better than the national figure.
A press release from Farmers for Sustainable Food said the practices examined in the study will continue in the farms’ commitment to FSF’s Climate-Smart program. It uses data to help farmers make decisions about using conservation practices and potentially creating added value for the food they produce. Participating farmers also receive financial grants of between $1,500 and $9,000, depending on their level of participation.
Cornette said the most important thing the public can learn from the survey is that members of Peninsula Pride Farms “are still as committed as ever to where we can invest our capital in conservation.”
He said it also shows they are working to be good neighbors in their community in the long term. Cornette’s family has owned and managed the farm since his father started it in 1972. Currently there are about 360 dairy cows and they grow their own feed, hay, silage and most of their own corn, along with some wheat and soybeans. 1,000 hectares.
“We care about our natural resources as much as anyone around,” he said. “We are definitely part of the community. Our neighbors are not just neighbors, but friends and family, and we want to be able to pass on what we have.”
For more information about Peninsula Pride Farms and its sustainability efforts, visit peninsulapridefarms.org. For more information about Farmers for Sustainable Food, visit farmersforsustainablefood.com.
ccontact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared in Green Bay Press-Gazette: Sustainable agriculture helps environment in Door, Kewaunee counties: Study
