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Farmers drive environmental, economic sustainability solutions
Study: Conservation pays off financially, too, in nationally recognized project
Three years of results from an eye-opening sustainability project in southwestern Wisconsin show that farmers who incorporate environmental practices that improve water quality and conserve soil can also benefit financially.
Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance (LASA), a farmer-led watershed conservation group, today released the latest results from an ongoing study of its nationally recognized sustainability project. Data was collected and analyzed from 15 farmers for the 2019-2021 crop years to demonstrate the impact of conservation on soil and water quality. Four of the farms also participated in an assessment of how the practices affect financials.
The bottom line: Implementing conservation practices has maintained and, in some cases, increased yields, and has generated positive gross returns per acre all while increasing environmental quality.
Brey |
“Farmers have been working to improve soil health and water quality for many years, but now they are able to see how it is affecting the bottom line for their businesses,” Lauren Brey, managing director of Farmers for Sustainable Food, said.
Brey’s group, a nonprofit organization of food system stakeholders, helped shepherd the project. It is the first one piloted according to a guide called the Framework for Farm-Level Sustainability Projects, which was developed by the group and its partners.
The project has three key purposes: Assess the impact of farming practices on soil and water quality; demonstrate the financial effects of conservation practices; and increase the use of sustainability measurement tools by farmers to inform land and water management decisions.
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Jay Stauffacher, co-owner of Highway Dairy Farms in Darlington, is one of the participants in the project, both in the environmental assessment and financial component. The 55-year-old family farm has 1,100 cows.
Stauffacher said he appreciates being able to compare his farm’s scores with the composite of the project and learn what other farmers are doing to improve. This helps inform his management decisions.
“What started as a way to reduce erosion after corn silage has led into improving soil health, reducing our farm’s carbon footprint and opening up new techniques of achieving crop yields in a more environmentally friendly way,” Stauffacher said. “Also, putting the financial data into this project has shown us which practices have reduced our costs in achieving the same yields, if not better, and other practices that would make financial sense that we currently do not use.”
The assessment uses nationally accepted metrics from Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture™ to address on-farm sustainability indicators, such as greenhouse gases. A tool called Prioritize, Target and Measure Application is being used for measuring impact on waterways.
The top six conservation practices farmers in the project are using are grassed waterways, contouring, cover crops, reduced tillage, strip cropping and no-tilling. The study’s findings are detailed in a 12-page report.
Among them:
· A cumulative water quality score increased 18% between 2019 and 2021, suggesting that, on average, each of the 15 farmers is mitigating two pathways, meaning fewer nutrients are able to leave the field from the surface or subsurface and make their way into streams and rivers.
· Nitrogen leaching to subsurface water was mitigated in 88% of participants’ fields.
· Farms had 9% lower greenhouse gas emissions per bushel of corn grain in fields using manure compared to fields that used only commercial fertilizers.
· Farmers are cutting sediment loss in the watershed by 3 tons per acre per year, 36% lower than national averages for corn silage.
· Financial effects show stable yields and positive returns per acre when implementing conservation practices.
In addition to Farmers for Sustainable Food, LASA has partnered with many others to develop and implement the project. Grande Cheese Company, The Nature Conservancy and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College are among supporters. The broad collaboration drew a national sustainability award in 2021 from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
“Having diverse partners support this project is truly what has made it successful and unique,” Brey said.
Ihm |
The technical college provides the financial analysis. Deb Ihm, director of agriculture at the college and a lead analyst for the project, pointed to two other key discoveries in addition to the positive yields and returns.
Market price has a greater impact on financial sustainability than environmental practices, Ihm said. Farmers need to know their cost of production per acre and identify ways to improve environmental quality, feed quality and price management.
Also, farmers can consider adding value by harvesting additional forage versus termination on the following cover crop, Ihm said. Grazing seasons could be extended in the fall if managed correctly.
The final two years of the five-year project will see an expansion of the financial metrics to include more whole-farm data like current ratio, debt-to-asset ratio, term debt ratio and operating expense ratio. Also, a University of Minnesota database called FINBIN that is being used to benchmark the Wisconsin project is expanding to allow analysts to sort data by farms utilizing environmental practices. The farms in the database are not participating in the project.
“It is difficult to identify exact return on investment for one particular conservation practice because most farms in our study are using five to seven conservation practices on their crop ground,” Ihm said. “At that point, we focus on yield metrics and return per acre.
“It is important for the farmer to understand their cost of production, market price, total yield and how it all connects with a final return per acre. Environmentally, we know the farms participating in this study have shown many positive strides in soil conversation and water quality.”
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The Nature Conservancy provides environmental insight and funding for the project, acknowledging there are additional costs and a certain amount of risk in terms of productivity when farmers transition from tried-and-true farming methods to conservation practices.
“Farmers in Wisconsin have been using conservation practices like no-till and cover crops on their farms for many years now, and we know they are making a difference in improving soil health and keeping local waters clean,” said Steve Richter, The Nature Conservancy’s director of agriculture strategies in Wisconsin. “What’s exciting to see in the year three results of LASA’s sustainability project is that implementing conservation practices is also having a positive financial impact.
“This is good news for the individual farmers, but as they spread the word through their field days, we hope it will also encourage adoption of these practices by more Wisconsin farmers, increasing the environmental impact and the sustainability of agricultural communities.”
Multimedia:
FSF would like to recognize Dairy Management Inc. and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy for support in producing this video as a winner of the 2021 U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award for Outstanding Supply Chain Collaboration.
Documents:
FSF would like to recognize Dairy Management Inc. and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy for support in producing this video as a winner of the 2021 U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award for Outstanding Supply Chain Collaboration.





Colleen Geurts
Background: what do you do/how did you got involved with sustainability? Taking care of the environment is something I’ve always been passionate about. It started when I was a little girl. On fishing trips with my Dad, he always taught me to leave things better than when we found them and enjoy the natural beauty around us. Girl scouts was the same. On our camping and hiking trips we would always pack everything out that we took in as well as trash others had left behind. This passion led me to a career in environmental engineering and now sustainability.
Why did you want to be a part of FSF and serve on the board? I wanted to serve on the FSF board because I believe in its mission to empower farmers to develop and implement practical, innovative solutions collaboratively for environmental, economic and social good. I believe it is so important to play a part in helping farmer-led working groups be successful in their environmental practices while also making sure that farms are sustainable financially. It is so impressive to see all the work the farmer-led working groups we support are doing to reduce environmental impacts from their farms and I love that it’s all farmer-led.
Why should others join FSF? FSF is creating an important connection between farmers and food processors to share knowledge and implement best practices together. When I first joined the board, I thought I would be able to share what I have learned being in the dairy processing industry and working with our branded customers. What I didn’t know is how much I would also learn about the good farmers are already doing and want to do going forward. It’s a great opportunity to share knowledge and work together on a sustainable food system.



Wisconsin dairy earns national award with whole-farm approach to sustainability
Manure digester, cropping practices, animal care stand out at Deer Run Dairy
A Wisconsin dairy farm, Deer Run Dairy, has won national recognition for a comprehensive approach to sustainability.
The farm’s Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability award comes from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy as part of the center’s 11th annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards.
Deer Run, owned by partners Duane and Derek Ducat (father and son) and Dale Bogart, milks about 1,650 cows with an additional 250 dry cows on site. The 2,500 acres of farmland is in an area with fractured bedrock and in some places very shallow soil, posing unique challenges to water quality.
“We really take a whole-farm approach to sustainability ― from our animals’ health, to being stewards of the land and using our manure digester to reduce pathogen levels,” Duane Ducat said. “We have a culture that’s developed at Deer Run to embrace the challenges that come with introducing new practices and methods that make it possible to be sustainable for the future.”
The sustainability awards, announced last month, recognize dairy farms, businesses and collaborative partnerships for practices that demonstrate outstanding economic, environmental and social benefits; a longstanding commitment to continuous improvement; and a replicable model to inform and inspire others in advancing dairy sustainability leadership.
“Deer Run is always willing to step up and take on new challenges by accelerating the adoption of practices that lead to continuous improvement in conservation,” said Tim Trotter, CEO of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, who nominated the farm. “This farm takes great pride in the commitment they’ve made to be a leading advocate for sustainability in the dairy community, and we could not be prouder to be associated with such an extraordinary representative.”
Learning and adapting are ongoing processes at Deer Run. The farm is part of the Door-Kewaunee Watershed Demonstration Farms Network with guidance from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Duane Ducat is also a founding member of Peninsula Pride Farms (PPF), a farmer-led conservation group whose members work together to protect the local watershed and encourage other farmers to try conservation practices such as cover crops, buffer strips and no-tillage.
Through PPF and the network, Deer Run hosts field days to show practices in action and share the benefits. Among the many people who have toured the farm to see the conservation up close is Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
The farm’s sustainability efforts are wide-ranging.
“We are very deliberate with our manure applications to the land as well as our cropping practices,” Duane Ducat said. “We are planting cover crops in the late summer and fall, as well as no-till planting green into these cover crops in the spring to help protect and enhance soil health.”
With the use of an anaerobic digester, Deer Run is reducing pathogens in manure by a thousandfold, leaving just one-tenth of 1% of the pathogens found in untreated manure. In 2020, the digester was converted to produce renewable natural gas, a clean, low-carbon fuel for the transportation market. Byproducts from the digester include animal bedding and nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be either used by the farm for cost savings or sold for profit.
In 2021, a partner company began the engineering process to expand the digester system’s capacity and impact by installing a mixing tank that will enable other local farms to bring animal waste to Deer Run.
The farm also focuses on cow comfort and energy efficiency. Antibiotic use is minimal, and feeding trials are being conducted to reduce methane gas production in the rumen of the cows. The barns are cross-ventilated by fans that conserve energy while keeping the animals cool.
“All of these practices help paint a complete sustainability picture at Deer Run,” Duane Ducat said.
The advancements at Deer Run Dairy to constantly improve cow care and the health of the soil and water are championed in Wisconsin. There are more than 40 farmer-driven watershed protection groups in the state, all striving to improve the land and water for future generations.
“Consumers continue to look for and make purchase decisions based on sustainable messaging on labels,” said Patrick Geoghegan, executive vice president of industry relations for Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin. “Deer Run Dairy, and many other Wisconsin dairy farms, have great stories to share about how they care for their cows, their community and the environment. Awards such as this affirm the efforts of the state’s dairy farmers but also our rich heritage in conservation efforts.”
Judges in the Innovation Center awards program evaluated dozens of nominations based on economic, environmental and community impact. The independent panel — including experts working with and throughout the dairy community — also considered learning, innovation, scalability and replicability.