WisconsinState Technical Committee Meeting
January 25, 2007
Minutes
Present
State Technical Committee Members: Sandi Cihlar, Wayne Craig, Keith Foye, JeffGaska, Richard Gorder, John Hall, Dick Hauser, Pat Leavenworth, Bob Micheel, Don Roberts, JulianZelazny.
Others: Renae Anderson, Susan Butler, Regina Hirsch, Tom Krapf, Patrick Scallon, JanWhitcomb.
Guests: Richard Cates, Ray Ellenberger, Jeff Hudson, Brian Pillsbury, Sara Walling.
Opening Remarks – Pat Leavenworth
Pat is back after her detail in Oklahoma. Don Baloun is currently acting as the State Conservationist in Virginia for three months.
NRCS is still working under an advisory allowance provided to Wisconsinlast November. It is very lean in terms of how NRCS is to operate. The current Farm Bill expires at the end of September, so we are anticipating the 2007 Farm Bill.
Following are the advisory allowances for the state at this point.
EQIP: $17,193,221
FRPP: $819,738
WHIP: $590,562
WRP: $6,481,707
CSP: $4,194,500
There has been a lot of conversation about biofuels, which was one of the venture goals in the NRCS national strategic plan. In Wisconsin, there will be an Earth Day conference sponsored by the Nelson Institute talking about ethanol. The conference will be Friday, April 20, at the Monona Terrace. The title is “Sustaining the Wisconsin Landscape, The Challenge of Biofuels. Part of the discussion will be the potential soil and water impacts of growing corn and ways to work with it.
Another event coming up is the “Future of Farming and Rural Life,” a special initiative with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, on May 14-15 at MononaTerrace: It will cover the five subject areas the academy has been looking at, including conservation and landuse, and rural health care.
Pat attended theWisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council (WTCAC) meeting in Odanah. One of the items discussed was the new NRCS policy on tribal interactions of the agency and how it will work with the tribes. The policy defines Indian tribe, tribal conservation district, consultation, and talks about tribal conservation advisory councils. Wisconsin was the first state to have a tribal conservation advisory council. The WTCAC has been operating as a subcommittee of the WSTC. This new policy allows the council to exist alone as an advisory council to the State Conservationist. The WTCAC would like to continue interactions with the WSTC and would like to have a common meeting annually. The policy from the national office describing this committee was distributed.
There was a call for a new adhoc livestock subcommittee. This is a reminder to the individuals invited to be on this subcommittee to reply by February 1. The subcommittee will be looking at components in the EQIP eligible practices list and other related issues.
Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and approved.
Digester Loan Program – Jeff Hudson (Rural Development)
Jeff distributed handouts describing the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program (Section 9006 Program). This program provides grants and guaranteed loans to farmers and businesses for energy efficiency improvement. The proposed national FY 2007 grant allocation is approximately $11.5 million and the guaranteed loan allocation is approximately $200 million.
Applicants must meet applicant and project eligibility criteria and have eligible project costs. Eligible technologies include biomass, anaerobic digesters, geothermal, hydrogen, solar, wind, and energy efficiency. Grant requests cannot exceed 25% of the project costs. Guaranteed loan requests cannot exceed 50% of the project costs.
Beginning Farmer Issues - Ray Ellenberger and Dick Cates
Ray and Dick were selected to be on theAdvisory Committee on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. The committee met in WashingtonDC in July. At that meeting, it was clear how much NRCS is involved in the discussion. Handouts were distributed, including a letter from the Secretary addressing the recommendations presented by the committee.
One of the recommendations is to target funds for EQIP to be used by beginning farmers and ranchers.
The second item is a recommendationfor NRCS to revise the definition of beginning farmer and rancher to match the definition used by FSA.
The third item is in regards to FSA and NRCS doing a joint marketing effort emphasizing that FSA can provide financing for EQIP to beginning farmers and ranchers until cost share funds are available from NRCS. Other states have done this successfully. NRCS and FSA will come up with recommendations to present at the next meeting on how this can be done in Wisconsin.
There was discussion on whether new farmers are aware of all programs available to them, and if not, how to make them aware. One of the recommendations in the letter to the Secretary is to support the reauthorization of beginning farmer and rancher development program. This is a competitive grant program authorized by research and related matters title of the 2002 Farm Bill. It would provide a mandatory $20 million per year of Farm Bill funding for this program for the states.
Mike Schmidt of Senator Feingold’s office is putting together a Rural Opportunities Act of 2000 to amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to promote local and regional support for bioenergy, biodiesel, and the future of farming and food systems. This act is similar to what the committee is doing in that it promotes the same things.
Brochures were distributed containing information about the WisconsinSchoolforBeginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers. About half of the students in the school do not come from a farm background. There are 40 students in the class this year. Distance education through the UW and MATC is bringing this programming to broader audiences around the state for those who cannot come to Madison. By the end of this year, about 230 students have gone through the program. Of those, 75-80% are farming and about half of those started a rural enterprise. The school has received financial support from some entities in Wisconsin. They would like to see funds from the work the advisory committee is doing in WashingtonDC come to Wisconsin for additional support for the success of these new farmers.
NRCS and FSA staff will meet to develop an action plan for beginning farmers to present at a future meeting.
Working Lands Initiative- Keith Foye
The UW Extension and DATCP are sponsoring a workshop, “How to Sustain Our Working Lands.” This is a one-day workshop to be held in three different locations on February 26, 27, and 28.
Understanding the Components of a Managed Grazing Plan - Brian Pillsbury
The NRCS defines prescribed grazing as the controlled harvest of vegetation with grazing/browsing managed to achieve a specific objective. All kinds of lands can be used for prescribed grazing except for marshlands/wetlands and woods/forests. The land should be able to be accessed by livestock and/or haying/forage equipment. Grazing periods are followed by 15 to 45 day rest periods. Animals begin grazing when the average plant height is 6 to 10 inches. How much land is needed depends on factors such as soil type/fertility, age of the sward, and sward species density and composition. Merits of prescribed grazing include forage efficiency, lowered costs, more profit, improved health and stability of existing natural resources, and increased soil carbon content.
Wildlife Subcommittee –Jeff Gaska
The Wildlife Subcommittee discussed what is considered a noxious weed species in CRP. They are in the process of defining certain species and deciding whether they are acceptable to have in CRP. The wording currently says any weeds in CRP are bad, which is what they are trying to change. The committee will have more information by the next WSTC meeting.
Next Meeting
The next WSTC meeting is scheduled on February 22, 2007, at the NRCS State Office.