Issues with Traditional Farming
In Northeastern Wisconsin, a farming revolution is unfolding. Demonstration Farm Networks are tackling water quality and soil health by testing and demonstrating innovative conservation farming practices to improve water quality in the Great Lakes Basin.
Farms are one of many contributors to reduced water quality in the Great Lakes Basin (Upper Fox -Wolf Demo Farms Watershed Pollutants and Between the Lakes Demo Farms Watershed Pollutants). Traditional farming practices can lead to a variety of environmental issues including erosion and sedimentation, soil compaction, a need for increased soil inputs (like fertilizer), and nutrient runoff. In short, they degrade soil, which prevents the soil system from functioning as it naturally would in a healthy system.
Testing Soil Health Practices for Change
But Demonstration Network farmers aren’t sitting back and accepting that. Instead, they’re rolling up their sleeves and doing their part to help improve water quality, and inspiring other farmers to do the same. Demonstration Farmers voluntarily join the Network, then select conservation agricultural practices to try on their land.
They learn, along with agronomists, the Network’s conservation experts, and other farmers, what works best to reduce nonpoint source pollution entering the Great Lakes basin.They then share what they are finding so other farmers can learn and adjust their practices too.
Notably, each region of Wisconsin has diverse geology, climate, topography, and soil. This diversity creates challenges for farmers and land managers to predict just how a soil health practice will perform on that specific piece of land. For this reason, and valuing firsthand experience, farmers prefer to learn from other local farmers who are dealing with similar conditions and have “been there done that.”
Visuals in Action
Here’s where I come in. As an outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin – Extension, I use photography and videography to amplify our Demonstration Farmer’s stories. I share our Farmer’s experiences with soil health practices they’re trying, plus successes and challenges they’re facing. Thus, I’m amplifying their messages, letting other farmers learn from them, and encouraging other farmers to implement conservation farming practices.
I combine my social science and natural resources backgrounds with photography and communication skills to craft visuals that meet the demo farms’ goals for more impactful conservation practices. Some examples include educating about pro-environmental alternative behaviors (conservation practices), reinforcing and/or creating social norms, sharing technical knowledge of how to do a practice, and promoting events.
I’m overjoyed to combine so many of my skills to promote conservation practices with such wide-reaching impacts. Improving water quality in the Great Lakes Basin is an enormous goal that can only be achieved by supporting farmers to do what they can on their own farms and sharing their experiences to help others to do the same.
Digital Outreach & Education
In today’s digital age a lot of farmers gain knowledge online. For this reason, one of the main outreach strategies I use with the demonstration farm networks is digital educational materials that are available online for farmers to access at their convenience. Additionally, farmers prefer to learn from other farmers, especially when the information is locally based and relevant to them. This type of outreach with the demonstration farm networks has included educational photo stories and videos featuring farmers sharing their soil health experiences for other farmers to learn from. Below are just a few examples of outreach materials I’ve created for the demonstration farms.