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WICST Outreach and Communications Activities 1996K. Griffith [1] PROJECT PUBLICATIONSNewsletterWICST’s 6 page newsletter has been published 3 times in the last year. Each issue includes a farmer profile/interview discussing a practice relevant to WICST, news on WICST activities (including those of Friends of the Lakeland Agricultural Complex and the Crop Production Club), discussions of WICST results and findings, brief articles on policy issues relating to sustainable agriculture, and a list of upcoming events. One issue emphasized WICST’s work on soil health and soil quality, another focused on economic findings. The newsletter is sent to a mailing list of about 2100, roughly two-thirds of whom are farmers. Profitable Farming UpdatesThese single sheet publications feature a farmer interview/profile on the front, focusing on a sustainable farming practice, and a more systematic discussion of related WICST findings on the back. The six issues to date have focused on the value of adding soybeans to continuous corn; profitable weed control (emphasizing that herbicides can cost more than they are worth if they are overused); rotary hoeing; adding a small grain and cover crop to a corn/soybean rotation; a very low input corn/oats/alfalfa system for dairy farms; and rotational grazing. In progress is an Update on zone tillage. Brief Introductory Materials on WICSTSeveral one page items provide an introduction to the WICST project. These are sent to interested parties who inquire about the project, and are also available at WICST events: the WICST mission statement; an overview of WICST; a description of the 6 cropping systems; an explanation of "systems-oriented" research. WICST ResultsDollars and Sense with WICST provides an overview of WICST’s economic findings to date, namely that the lowest input cash grain rotation is economically competitive with the more chemical-intensive rotations. The Summary Chart provides a visually simple comparison of the WICST cropping systems, evaluating their productivity, environmental and economic indicators. The chart, with numerous explanatory footnotes, includes data on weed biomass and seedbanks in each system, energy input/output ratios, soil nitrates, yields, gross margins, etc. The labor use chart compares weekly labor inputs in the three cash grain systems, and discusses lifestyle and management implications. Though the most diversified system had the highest labor needs, labor was spread out more evenly over the growing season, easing bottlenecks. The moderately diversified system (corn and soybeans) had the lowest labor needs. Event-Specific PublicationsSpecial publications were prepared for our 1996 winter meeting on Soil Health and Soil Quality. The workshop packet included one page summaries of presentations covering root growth and health and the Wisconsin Soil Health Scorecard. Special publications were also prepared for the 1996 Prairies Jubilee! field day, co-sponsored with the Madison Audubon Society and Prairie Enthusiasts. The materials were geared for an urban environmentalist audience, and included: If diversity is so good, why don’t we have more of it? discussing the policy, economic and other impediments to diversity; Lawns and corn fields may have more in common than you think, examining the similarity in weed control challenges in lawns and corn fields; and an introduction to the WICST project in question and answer format, focusing on the issue of cropping system diversity and its implications. A shorter, somewhat less technical comparison chart of the 6 systems was also prepared for this event. OTHER COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS AND ACTIVITIESDisplaysSeveral displays of WICST activities and results have been prepared. One focused on major economic and agronomic findings of the project. Another, prepared for Prairies Jubilee! focused on cropping system diversity and its benefits, and WICST’s efforts to measure environmental impacts of the cropping systems. Several displays, prepared by various WICST team members, have presented activities and findings relating to soil biodiversity; crop residue decomposition; weed biomass and weed seedbanks; and overall WICST activities and findings. We have occasionally invited non-WICST partners to join with us in educational events. At Prairies Jubilee! our partners had booths on low-input lawn care, organic market gardening, songbirds in pastures, the Conservation Reserve Program, and a hands-on groundwater model. EventsWICST has sponsored or participated in a number of educational and outreach events. These include Prairies Jubilee! and the Soil Health and Soil Quality Workshop, among others (see list below). WICST has also hosted visiting farmers, Extension Agents, researchers, policy makers, and agricultural professionals from Wisconsin, the upper midwest, and several foreign countries. In Walworth County, Wednesday Walkabouts have provided an opportunity for interested farmers and others to see the WICST plots firsthand throughout the growing season. The plots have also been used in an elementary school curriculum on agriculture prepared by WICST team member Lee Cunningham. In Columbia County, the WICST plots have been visited by several hundred primary and secondary school students learning about soils and sustainable agriculture during field days organized by WICST team member Dwight Mueller. WICST has also played a key role in organizing and publicizing events sponsored by the Friends of the Lakeland Agricultural Complex (the Walworth County WICST site) and the Crop Production Club (drawing from the counties near the Arlington Research Station). In particular, WICST has done prior and follow-up press work for the events. These events have included a series of meetings to strategize how to save the Lakeland Ag Complex and WICST project, a harvest celebration, and the Harvest Taste of Walworth County, an event aimed at increasing understanding between farmers and non-farmers in Walworth County. In the Columbia County area, WICST helped organize and publicize a well-attended meeting on zone tillage, a summer field day, and a winter workshop covering a variety of production related topics. 1996 Events
Policy WorkWICST takes its findings to the policy level. We have tried to inform and support federal and state policy initiatives that promote sustainable agriculture. We have sent letters to Wisconsin’s Senator Herb Kohl urging him to support worthwhile federal programs, in the process educating and obtaining support from numerous WICST collaborators and friends. We have written opinion pieces for Wisconsin newspapers discussing policy issues and how they impact production decisions on Wisconsin farms. Finally, WICST played a key role in a ceremony honoring Wisconsin’s Senator Herb Kohl for his energetic efforts on behalf of sustainable agriculture. WICST provided and coached several speakers for the event, helped publicize it, and coordinated press coverage. WICST has also assisted FLAC in obtaining press coverage of events and controversies relating to the County Farm, and has helped prepare press packets for County Board members prior to and following key Board decisions regarding the farm. WICST also participated in public education activities such as tabling at the County Fair, and helping build the coalition that worked to save the County Farm. NetworkingWICST has played a key role in the formation and ongoing activities of the Friends of the Lakeland Ag Complex committee and the Crop Production Club. WICST has provided logistical support, communications assistance and press work, and -- where appropriate --agronomic expertise and WICST findings. WICST and Michael Fields, as members of the Integrated Farming Systems Network, also obtained funding for and organized two media skills and strategy workshops for sustainable agriculture activists. These well-attended workshops have trained nearly 60 IFS and other sustainable agriculture colleagues from around the country; negotations are underway to fund several more. In addition, WICST wrote an article on the importance of communications strategy and press work for the newsletter of the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Media WorkMedia work has been a core communications strategy for WICST. We focus our efforts on the state agricultural press for the most part, but where appropriate submit items to urban papers and the weeklies in the Walworth County area. Our work in the past year has included 5 radio spots on WICST and the Lakeland Agricultural Complex targeted at Walworth County stations; numerous press releases on WICST findings and events; an in-depth profile of WICST collaborator and FLAC chair Steve Pinnow; a feature piece on soils for the Elkhorn Independent; and op-ed pieces on high versus low-input agriculture, the Farm Bill, and federal policy initiatives for sustainable agriculture. We have both written and solicited letters to the editor on a variety of WICST, LAC and sustainable agriculture topics which have appeared in local and state papers. WICST also worked closely with a reporter at the Janesville Gazette for extensive coverage of WICST, FLAC, low-input agriculture, and small grains in the paper’s special agricultural supplement in January of 1996 and 1997. WICST was written up in the Profiles in Success section of Keeping Current, a water quality newsletter published out of the U.W.’s Environmental Resources Center. We have worked closely with a UW agricultural journalist on a major press release on WICST’s economic findings, and the lead article on WICST in the College of Agriculture’s Science Report. WICST has received particularly extensive coverage in Walworth County local papers for its work at the Lakeland Ag Complex, as part of a broader effort to build support for the farm and increase awareness of its activities. WICST Project NotebookTo provide a simple, comprehensive introduction to WICST, we have prepared a project notebook with sections on collaborators, research activities and results, outreach, community support, media work, policy work, and activities and impacts within the university. Including publications, photographs, newsclippings, and congressional testimony, the notebook is useful with journalists, potential funders, new collaborators, and others needing an introduction to the project.
1. WICST Communications Coordinator. Email: katgriffith@hotmail.com |
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