Image credits, left to right: Richard Cates; Matt Seymour on Unsplash.com; Sven Brandsma on Unsplash.com; Richard Cates, Cates Farm; Richard Cates, Cates Farm; Laura Paine; Laura Paine.
The Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group’s mission is to facilitate an increase in land used for pasture and perennial forage production in the Upper Midwest, and to improve the environmental performance of farming systems, while maintaining agricultural production and profitability.
The Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group is composed primarily of grazing educators with all kinds of affiliations: state agency, federal agency, university faculty and Extension, non-profit organization, and industry. The group helps grazing educators in the Upper Mississippi River Basin connect with each other and engage in shared work that advances the mission of Green Lands Blue Waters.
Core group members commit to participating regularly in Working Group operations. Working Group operations include quarterly meetings, an annual in-person meeting, development of grant proposals, and implementation of funded projects.
Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group conducted this project in 2017 – 2018 with funding from USDA-Risk Management Agency.
You may download, print, and distribute any of these materials for educational purposes. These are open-access; you do not need to ask permission. Please do not charge recipients more than the actual cost of printing and distribution.
PowerPoint slides may be downloaded and used in any manner for educational purposes. Proper credit is already included on the slides.
The Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group (MPFWG) was awarded a SARE Research & Education grant for the proposed project, “Match Made in Heaven: Livestock + Crops.” The project will survey producers in six Midwestern states about the opportunities and barriers related to integration or re-integration of livestock and crop production with the goal of identifying strategies to capture the environmental, economic, and social benefits of diverse crop rotations and integrated systems.
The three year project will create opportunities for farmers to speak about their interests, challenges, and needs, and allow the crop and livestock organizations that they engage with to adapt their programming to meet current and future interests and needs.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 Am 3 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number LNC21-453. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Infographic about Perennial Forage for Infrastructure ProtectionPDF Web Version (8.4 Mb) PDF Print Version (13.4 Mb)
Proceedings of those conference sessions are available online:
Are you a grazing specialist, land manager, or grazing educator? Want to be involved in the development of grazing education? Join the Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group!
We meet quarterly by conference call and once per year in person.
