Member Spotlights
Member Spotlight: University of Nebraska
Learn how the University of Nebraska is partnering with farmers on a journey of continuous improvement.
Since 2010, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Nebraska Extension have been partnering with Bunge North America and the Kellogg Company on a Fieldprint® Project engaging corn producers to benchmark environmental outcomes and share lessons learned over time. Expanding on this foundation, Nebraska Extension has offered grower workshops around Field to Market’s measurement framework for the last two years and joined Field to Market in April 2015.
“Field to Market aligns very well with the educational programs we’re already doing in Nebraska,” said Rick Koelsch, an extension specialist with Nebraska Extension. “We spend a lot time working on water use efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency and managing that soil resource. Field to Market gives us another tool so farmers can begin to measure their environmental sustainability.”
“We’ve been challenged when sustainable agriculture is defined as a specific set of practices that a farmer needs to follow in order to be considered sustainable,” Rick explained. “We appreciate an outcomes-based approach, like Field to Market, where an individual producer can measure their current practices and determine what will help them move the needle towards improving specific sustainability outcomes.”
Two years ago, Rick and his colleagues created the Nebraska Extension Fieldprint Project, which involves hands-on grower workshops in winter that familiarize both Extension specialists and farmers with the Fieldprint Calculator to define and measure sustainability in corn, soybean and wheat production in throughout the state. Participating farmers each walk away with an individualized Fieldprint analysis on their sustainability performance. Nebraska Extension plays a role in teaching leading farmers about conservation practices and sustainability, with the intention that as farmers learn more about their performance and make comparisons against peers, they will identify opportunities for improvement and document and demonstrate their sustainability efforts.
© Nebraska Extension
“The Field to Market approach brings multiple indicators that collectively contribute to sustainability and ask a farmer to consider his or her farming system and how the management choices affect overall farm sustainability,” said Rick. “This provides a way to discuss sustainability issues with farmers. It’s the idea of helping farmers think about sustainability from more of a systems perspective rather than a single issue.”
Last year, there were roughly 40 crop producers who participated in Nebraska Extension’s workshops, collectively conducting Fieldprint® analyses on 30 corn and 15 soybean fields across the state. An overwhelming majority of workshop participants, who manage 50,000 acres in total, reported in an estimated savings of $10.25 per acre, or $512,500, as a result of understanding their Fieldprint analysis and following Nebraska Extension’s guidance. Over half of the participants said they anticipated the educational experience will assist in maintaining high yields with lower inputs and will improve the overall sustainability of their operations.
“I look at the Fieldprint Calculator and these workshops as tools to help farmers ask some hard questions about sustainability, help them identify what they are doing well and flag areas where opportunities for improvements exist,” Rick shared. “I see it as part of our ongoing education to help producers make more informed decisions.”
After the 2015 Winter Workshop, Nebraska Extension produced a comprehensive report which enabled each farmer to compare their performance to their peers using anonymous, aggregated data comparisons. This report facilitated conversations to explore various management issues that affect sustainability, including nitrogen and water management.
Rick Koelsch
Extension Specialist,
University of Nebraska
“Field to Market is moving us toward a consistent definition of sustainability across the supply chain. That is something we’ve not had in the past. Agreement as to how we will define sustainability provides a better target for farmers.”
Rick Koelsch
Extension Specialist
University of Nebraska
