“Match Made In Heaven: Livestock + Crops” is a 3-year, 6-state grant project that creates opportunities for farmers to share their interests, challenges, and needs, and for the crop and livestock organizations that they engage with to hear from their members and meet their needs with their programming and resources. The project is a collaboration between 50+ groups including crop and livestock associations, universities, public agencies, and soil/water groups.
- The project began by collaboratively creating an infographic to introduce the benefits and challenges of integration.
- The centerpiece of the project is a collaboratively written survey of crop and livestock farmers across the Upper Midwest to identify their interests, successes, and challenges around integration of crops and livestock. The results of the survey will be shared to help guide development of resources to benefit all.
- A smaller team is conducting in-depth case studies of 6 Upper Midwest farms that have successfully integrated crops/livestock in their operation. These studies will be shared as a guide that other farms can use, and a field day will be hosted at each farm.
- Creation of a curated central resource library with shared tools for both educators and farmers (such as the Midwest Grazing Exchange tool).
At the heart of this project is collaboration between farm groups that don’t always get to work together: crop and livestock associations, folks involved with education and service, and farmers themselves. We’re all putting our heads together to move shared interests forward and learn how we can be most effective in our efforts to support farmers. This project is a great opportunity for organizations to hear from their members, and will build great foundations for future projects.
We are always growing! Your viewpoint is a valued contribution. We hope you’ll participate and lend your perspective! Compensation is available for serving in the Advisory Group or helping to distribute the survey.
The Project at a Glance