State of Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation And Lake Champlain Basin Program Agronomy and Conservation Assistance Program Final Report Organization Name: University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Extension Division Project Name: Agronomy and Conservation Assistance Program Award Number: 2011-CCC-ACAP Start/End Date: 2/20/2011 - 6/30/2014 Contact Information: Jeffrey Carter, University of Vermont Extension Agronomist 23 Pond Lane, Suite 300, Middlebury, VT 05753 Phone: (802) 388-4969 x 332 e-mail: [email protected] Heather Darby, University of Vermont Extension Agronomist 278 South Main Street, Suite 2, St. Albans, Vermont 05478 Phone: (802) 524-6501 x 437 e-mail: [email protected] Executive Summary: Phosphorus and soil that moves off site from agricultural lands in Vermont has been identified as a major cause for degraded water quality in the Lake Champlain. UVM Extension Faculty Agronomists Jeff Carter and Dr. Heather Darby conducted an outreach education and technical assistance program from 2011 to 2014 to work directly with farmers in the Lake Champlain watershed in Vermont to implement farm practices that reduce soil and nutrient losses to surface water. The Agronomy and Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP) was funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission through the efforts of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and awarded through the Lake Champlain Basin Program, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to support this project. Two UVM Agronomy Outreach Professionals were hired by UVM Extension in 2011 to collaborate with livestock and cash crop farmers in the Lake Champlain watershed in Vermont to provide technical assistance to address identified resource concerns on their farms. As a direct result of outreach and technical assistance provided by the UVM agronomists and support staff, a total of 461 conservation practices were implemented on 260 farms in the watershed, reducing soil and nutrient runoff from 58,608 acres of cropland and associated livestock production facilities. Implementation of conservation practices included 20,897 acres of nutrient management plan development on 47 farms, 8,109 acres of alternative manure management on 28 farms, 13,559 acres of reduced tillage and no-till planting on 164 farms, 12,360 acres of cover crops on 125 farms, 15 livestock exclusion projects and 68 other production facility Best Management Practices installed during the three-year project. Page 1 of 18 A whole farm inventory was completed for Sixty (60) core participant farms using a Farm Practice Checklist to identify specific practices that needed improvement to focus on for each farm. A Farm Practice Inventory worksheet was developed for the project to track improvements made on the farm-specific identified conservation practices and to quantify the degree of improvements made using pre- and post- implementation scores. The core farms improved or implemented an average of 3.2 practices per farm raising their overall beginning score of 4.3 for those practices to a final improved score of 1.7, based on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 represents poor management and 1 represents excellent management. Lake Champlain and the local farming community will be a better place because of the technical assistance provided by this project. Continued support for a University based agronomy outreach team that provides a blend of outreach, education, field demonstrations, and technical assistance for local farmers is critical to continued efforts within the agricultural community to reduce phosphorus loading into Lake Champlain and other surface waters in Vermont. Project Introduction: The Agronomy and Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP) was initiated to provide an increased level of direct one-on-one technical assistance for livestock and crop farmers in the Lake Champlain Basin to help them plan and implement farm practices that would reduce losses of soil and nutrients into surface water. The desired goal was to improve water quality in Lake Champlain and tributaries through permanent adoption of new farm management practices that would enhance water quality and also improve their farm business economic sustainability. Phosphorus that runs off from agricultural lands in Vermont has been identified as a primary source of concern for degraded water quality in the Lake Champlain as reported by Lake Champlain Basin Program in their series of published reports State of the Lake and Opportunities for Action. Protecting and improving the water quality of Lake Champlain will be enhanced as loading of sediment and agricultural nutrients into streams and rivers is reduced by management practices that retain soil and phosphorus on agricultural lands. This project was designed to target specific farm practices that would reduce direct runoff from livestock production facilities, protect stream banks and riparian areas, reduce soil and nutrient loss from farm fields, improve crop yields and build healthier soils that could absorb excessive rainfall events to reduce overland flow of water. Changes in farm business management are perceived as very risky so this project increased the availability of direct one-on-one outreach and technical assistance to increase the chance of successful long-term adoption of new conservation practices by farmers in the watershed. Funding from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission was secured in 2010 through the efforts of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy and awarded to UVM through the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), and Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VTDEC) to support this program for three years. In 2011, two UVM Agronomy Outreach Professionals (agronomists) were hired by University of Vermont Extension to work with farmers in the Northern and Central portions of the Lake Champlain watershed. This was part of a larger ACAP project with a third agronomist Page 2 of 18 hired by the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD) to work in the South Lake portion of the watershed. The UVM agronomists collaborated with the PMNRCD agronomist and also with three other agronomists within the watershed who were providing similar technical assistance as part of the Lake Champlain Strategic Watershed Action Team (SWAT) which was funded by Vermont USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The number of farms and amounts of conservation practice implementation in this report summarize the impact of the farm assistance provided by the UVM agronomists, faculty and staff during this three year project. Beyond the base ACAP funding for the two agronomist positions, outreach efforts were supplemented by several grants awarded to UVM Extension that provided additional funds for farm project implementation, outreach education, field demonstrations and field technician staff support. The UVM agronomists worked collaboratively with state and federal agencies and other conservation partners to enhance their outreach efforts and provide farmers with a gateway for accessing additional financial and technical assistance to help them implement new farm practices. Most notably, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Lake Champlain Basin Program supported the efforts of the agronomists with direct funding for farm practice implementation and supplemental grants for outreach projects. Project Staff and Role: Middlebury, VT Jeffrey Carter PI, Project Manager, UVM Quality Assurance Manager Rico Balzano Agronomist Dan Infurna Field Technician Donna Brown Administrative Assistant St. Albans, VT Heather Darby Program Manager Brian Trudell Agronomist (1 year) Jeff Sanders Agronomist (2 years) Amanda Gervais Field Technician Tasks Completed: Task 1. Identify two staff agronomists. UVM Extension received ACAP funds to hire and dedicate two agronomists to provide technical assistance with agronomy and conservation practices to participating farmers. Brian Trudell and Rico Balzano were hired as UVM Extension Agronomy Outreach Professionals in 2011 to work with a minimum of 30 core farms each in the north and central portions of the Lake Champlain watershed. The two agronomists worked under the supervision of University of Vermont Extension Faculty Agronomists, Jeff Carter in Middlebury and Dr. Heather Darby in St. Albans. Page 3 of 18 The position in St Albans (Trudell) was vacated after one year and Jeff Sanders was hired in spring of 2012 to fulfill the grant objectives for the remainder of the project. Additional duties for the St Albans position were added at that time to provide program leadership for training programs for nutrient management mobile technology, no-till and precision feed management. Several additional grant projects were initiated during the timeline of this project to assist the agronomists with expanding their outreach and project implementation on participant farms. Task 2. Identify farm participants. The agronomists enrolled 60 farm participants (core farms) to help identify high priority conservation practices for their farms and then assist them with practice planning and implementation to reduce soil and nutrient runoff from fields and livestock production areas. These farms were evaluated using a Whole Farm Inventory to identify specific practices to focus on that needed improvement.