DARLINGTON, Wis. — Over 50 attendees, including farmers, community members, allied businesses and partners, gathered for the Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance annual meeting on March 12 to review the group’s sustainability progress and hear plans for the year ahead.
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LASA member Jason Rowe was a featured speaker at the event. He discussed the conservation practices he has implemented on his farm to enhance soil health and reduce erosion. He also shared how his farm continues to evolve through new initiatives, including his participation in the group’s DATCP Nitrogen Optimization Pilot Project.
Andrew Pritchard, a senior meteorologist at Nutrien Ag Solutions with over 20 years of experience covering high-impact weather events, shared his insights about the upcoming spring and summer weather outlook.
“In terms of temperature, we’re seeing a mild start to the spring with opportunities for some cold shots,” Pritchard said. “We’re also seeing more active patterns for this spring with more moisture and perhaps a chance for a late-season winter storm.”
He explained how the science and models available today for forecasting weather events are quite dependable when predicting long-term seasonal weather patterns and short-term (7-10 days) forecasts. However, there can be a disconnect when bridging the gap between short-term and long-term forecasts, making them less accurate within the two to four-week range.
UW-Madison NOPP Research Director Monica Schauer and UW-Extension Regional Crops and Soils Educator Jordyn Sattler shared an update on LASA’s NOPP Project, including the project’s first year report. The project allows farmers to evaluate nitrogen trials on their farms to help determine the optimal nitrogen rate on corn following soybean and rye cover crops.
“In the first year, we saw a lot of variability from site to site, which is why multiple trials are so important,” Schauer said.
The LASA NOPP project is one of many similar projects throughout the state. It will help inform future nitrogen recommendations.
Farmers for Sustainable Food staff, including Sustainability Project Specialist Marti Viste and Senior Project Manager Jamie Fisher, shared an update on LASA’s Climate-Smart Project and invited other members to join the project.
Viste also presented the group’s 2024 Member Conservation Practice Survey results. With seven years of data, the 2024 survey shows the group’s use of various conservation practices, including soil sampling, planting cover crops, utilizing no-till and reduced-till methods, split nitrogen application, low disturbance manure application and planting directly into cover crops, also known as “planting green.”
“We started with five or six member farms, and now we’re up to 29 farms,” Steve Carpenter, LASA vice president, said. “As a group, we look forward to hosting field days this summer and continuing to engage with all those who are interested in sustainable agriculture.”
During the business portion of the meeting, the group held board elections. Jean Stauffacher was re-elected as Secretary, Jim Winn was re-elected as President and Chris Wilson was also elected to the board. Brian Schilling was recognized as an outgoing board member.
Other board members include Vice President Steve Carpenter, Treasurer Ken Norgard, Jim Digangi, Mike Berget, Ryan Temperly and Jason Rowe. Steve Fleming and Dennis Busch are board advisers.
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