Natural Resources/Environment

This publication is designed to assist farmers in conducting efficient, cost-effective, on-farm composting that presents reduced risk to surface and groundwater quality. It was written for operators of small to medium-size on-farm composting enterprises who handle about 100 to 5,000 tons of raw organic material per year.

Agroforestry helps farmers diversify – products and income. Trees that produce an annual fruit or nut crop can also be grown for a future timber harvest. Shrubs can be grown instead of, or with, trees and can produce a yearly crop. Forages and other fruit, vegetable or specialty crops can be harvested for market or grazed by livestock. NCR-SARE has invested in more than 50 research and educa- tion projects to help achieve the sustainability of agroforestry operations and to optimize production, discover or develop markets, and enhance environmental benefits.

This website represents the collaborative efforts of: the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy; Ohio Department of Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture; Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA); the Organic Food and Farming Education & Research Program of the Ohio State University Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center; and the Ohio State University Extension. These entities, working together as Begin Farming Ohio, aim to build Ohio’s capacity to provide, expand, enhance, and sustain services to beginning farmers.

Building Soils for Better Crops is a one-of-a-kind, practical guide to ecological soil management, now expanded and in full color.

This website hosts an interactive map that locates over 170 data layers for a variety of factors that influence the sustainability of food systems in Virginia and North Carolina. 

Using sustainable agriculture practices on your rented land can help protect soil and water quality, increase income over the long term, and satisfy personal values for the landowner and/or the tenant.

Cover crop adoption has been increasing rapidly in the last 5 years, with an estimated 1.5 to 2.0 million acres of cover crops planted in the U.S. in 2012. To learn more about this trend, during the winter of 2012-13, the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) carried out an NCR-SARE-funded survey of farmers who have grown cover crops. This analysis includes results from that survey.

Steven Schwen’s farming roots were established during the ‘back to the land’ movement in the 1970s. Earthen Path Organic Farm grew out of his vision of a sustainable world based on local economies.

After working at a treatment facility for juveniles for 16 years, Tim Carroll never planned to have a successful career logging with horses. But when Carroll married his wife, Doreen, who had three riding horses, he soon grew attached to draft horses and began using them to plow his driveway and do other work on his property.

Soon after, down the road from his home in Minnesota, Carroll noticed a neighbor had hired a machine logger. The rest, you could say, is history.

The primary short-term goal of this graduate student grant project was to test a strategy for utilization of  native plants to increase biodiversity in a perennial fruit system. This project is of particular relevance to specialty crop farmers that are under pressure to reduce pesticide inputs while also producing the highest quality food. 

A guide for towns, institutions, and land trusts using or leasing farmland.

NCR-SARE Graduate Student grant recipient Meghann Jarchow and other Iowa State University (ISU) researchers say tallgrass prairies offer many other benefits to landowners in addition to fertile soil.

See how prairies can benefit farms and find the steps necessary to establish and manage prairies. Look at various uses for prairies: livestock grazing, hay production, biomass feedstocks, and carbon sequestering.

SARE-funded extension specialists in 42 states are making homestead farmers better stewards of their land.

One of the most comprehensive and adaptable curricula in the country for training natural resource professionals to, in turn, teach small-acreage landowners how to care for their soil, air and water while maximizing the land’s value.

A graduate student from North Dakota State University created these five extension fact sheets after monitoring and reporting on the riparian ecosystem associated with the Middle Sheyenne River, a perennial stream in eastern North Dakota.

While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm’s natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests.

Management-intensive grazing (MIG) maximizes the feed potential of pasture by moving grazing animals through a series of pasture paddocks. By monitoring the growth of pasture plants, producers can control the grazing activities of the animals, ensuring that they are harvesting the forages with the best nutritional quality. NCR-SARE has supported research and educational opportunities around the topic of management-intensive grazing in order to help producers reduce costs and increase profits.

Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists is a first-of-its-kind, step-by-step, full-color guide for rearing and managing bumble bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees and other bee species that provide pollination alternatives to the rapidly declining honey bee.

Managing Cover Crops Profitably explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation.

This Montana State University publication addresses medium- to large-scale composting as a management option for animal producers in cold, semi-arid environments.

Beneficial insects are valued on farms for their abilities to perform services like pollination and pest control. Researchers at Michigan State University are exploring whether plantings of native Midwest flowers can support beneficial insects and lead to improved crop productivity and quality.

In this video, NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant recipient, Todd Mortenson, describes some of his family’s many conservation efforts on their ranch in South Dakota.

These fact sheets discuss alternative containers, marketing and crop selection, alternatives to synthetic herbicides and integrated pest management in nurseries.

This video series describes measures nursery producers can take to improve sustainability in the areas of irrigation, energy use, runoff, recycling and more.

Dan Forgey has farmed for 40 years based on the belief that if you take care of the land, it will take care of you, evidenced by his commitment to no-till, cover crops and crop diversity.

A series of eight handbooks for new farmers or established producers seeking to transition to organic or improve their current practices. Print only; order from Chelsea Green.

A group of farmers in Wimbledon, ND are working to turn a conventional chemically dependent farm into a fertile, sustainable, organic, farming unit. What started as a farm restoration project for the sake of their beef market ended by using all of the livestock to restore the soil.

Organic agriculture is a whole-farm management system that replaces synthetic inputs with methods that mimic natural ecological processes. Demand for organic food is far outpacing supply, as U.S. sales in this dynamic sector have nearly quadrupled in the last decade. All 50 states have USDA-certified organic farmland, totaling more than 4 million acres of range, pasture and cropland. NCR-SARE has invested in more than 100 projects to help achieve the sustainability and well-being of all aspects of organic agriculture and those communities that support organic agriculture.

The Organic Dairy Short Course for Ag Professionals, a Professional Development Grant Program project, aimed at improving the ability of public and private sector agricultural educators and advisors to serveorganic and transitional organic dairy producers.

The project developed, delivered, and evaluated a professional development training module called “Organic Dairy 101: A Workshop for Agricultural Professionals” at four locations in Minnesota and three in Wisconsin, training a total of 174 dairy andagriculture professionals. 

Charles Francis, editor, compiles a current look at what we know about organic farming practices and systems, primarily from the U.S. and Canadian perspectives.

A Kansas rancher uses patch burning to improve the nutritional value of her prairies while protecting diverse native species.

Pervasive cheatgrass has long posed a threat to ranchers and their communities in the Intermountain West, but there is new hope in forage kochia, a perennial shrub with the potential to improve grazing and biodiversity.

A publication to foster recognition of the Appalachia region and encourage preservation of heirloom seed varieties.

This Iowa State University video/fact sheet describes how to build a system to catch, store and reuse the rainwater for irrigation in a high tunnel.

Steve Van Vleet found that properly managing grasslands with mob grazing significantly helped regenerate the vegetation and improve species diversity. 

Southern SARE Addresses Water Quality

Order an entire set of SARE Outreach books and bulletins for one low price.

This multimedia project includes four video segments on the economics of behavior. They are: 1) Improve Rangeland Use and Profitability: Using Low Moisture Block to Extend the Grazing Season, 2) Reduce Feed Costs and Improve Feed Efficiency: Let Animals Mix their Own Diets, 3) Improve Rangeland Use and Profitability: Herding and Low Stress Handling, and 4) Cost Effective Weed Management: Training Cows to Eat Them.

Irrigation is an important part of growing with season extension structures, where natural moisture is not readily available.

As producers throughout the nation grow increasingly concerned about water scarcity, farmers, ranchers and agricultural educators are beginning to explore new, conservation-oriented approaches to water use.

This publication provides a guide for selecting best management practices that consider both production and environmental-sustainability goals for corn production in South Dakota.

The purpose of the guidebook is to assist the rancher and/or land manager use business planning and ecological monitoring to ensure the ranch or land is managed in a sustainable manner. Material focuses on:

• Business planning
• Financial and ecological monitoring
• Assessment of ranch management

Nevada rancher Agee Smith is using a farmer/rancher grant to add sagebrush to his cattle's diet, which has the potential to lower winter feed costs while improving rangeland biodiversity. 

Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, the producers in The New American Farmer, 2nd edition have embraced new sustainable approaches to agriculture.

As the drought in the Texas High Plains continues to intensify, a unique partnership of producers and researchers is working diligently to find economically viable alternatives to the region’s irrigation-dependent crop monocultures.

Wisconsin researchers were awarded a SARE grant to investigate the properties of grassfed milk when made into cheese, butter, or other products. This 13 minute video summarizes the research they’ve done and the development of the grass-based (or pasture-grazed) dairy industry to date.

NCR-SARE grant recipient, Craig Maier, discusses the research his team conducted to learn more about improving forage production and quality with native legumes in grazed warm-season grass stands. 

Woodchip bioreactors, installed at the edge of agricultural fields, can remove 15 to 60 percent of the nitrate in tile-drained water annually. This innovative approach for protecting the water quality in Midwest streams and rivers is described in a new fact sheet available from Iowa State University.