Overview of Emerging Conflicts over AgriculturalLand Use

I’d like to use my opening comments today to set the stage for the rest of the program. But first, a few words about my background. I’m a sociologist and an economist trained in the dynamics of change in the farm sector. I help direct a research and outreach unit called the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies that tracks the impacts of new technologies and public policies on farm families, and only came to the world of land use planning through the back door. Specifically, as we’ve worked with farmers across the state in the last five to seven years, land use issues began to come up as an increasingly important part of farmers’ lives, both in a positive way and a negative way. As a result, we began to direct some of our program resources to examining that issue. In the last year and a half, I have assumed additional responsibilities as a co-leader of a workteam within UW-Extension that is developing educational programs for local decision-makers concerning agricultural trends and agricultural land use. I’ll call your attention to a display in the back of the room that illustrates some Townlevel land use trend data that our team helped collect in the last few years. A number of you may have received copies of our Town Land Use Databooks in recent months. I know we sent them out to a lot of agencies and local government officials. In my comments I will be using some maps and images that are based on those data. Finally, I am a member of the faculty in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and have become much more familiar with the formal world of planning and zoning through my colleagues there

Planning for Agriculture in Wisconsin: A Guide forCommunities

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with basic information to help Wisconsin’s rural communities prepare to plan for agriculture. The guide was developed in response to the Comprehensive Planning Law passed under the 1999-2001 Wisconsin State Biennial Budget. This law requires that by January 1, 2010, all programs, actions, and decisions affecting land use must be consistent with the locally adopted comprehensive plan in order for the community to continue making land use related decisions. The law applies to cities, villages, towns, counties, and regional planning commissions

Smart Growth and Wisconsin Agriculture

Relatively low and volatile agricultural commodity prices have placed increasing pressure on the state’s farm sector in the 1990s. At the same time, an unusually robust non-farm economy has generated significant demand for rural housing and recreational land development. The result has been a dramatic acceleration in the rate of farmland conversion to non- farm uses over the last 15 years. Non-farm growth pressures have affected many other aspects of Wisconsin’s urban and rural landscape as well. To help communities grapple with these new challenges, the state legislature passed a new “Smart Growth” law in the fall of 1999 (1999 Wisconsin Act 9). This law encourages municipalities to write and use new “comprehensive plans” to guide all their land use decisions by January 1, 2010. Under the statute, one required element of comprehensive plans will be an assessment of agricultural resources and a plan for their future use or protection. This article assesses the significance of the new Smart Growth legislation for agriculture in Wisconsin. I begin with an overview of trends in farmland loss in the state. Because agricultural planning had a long history in the state even before the Smart Growth law, I examine some of the political and economic challenges of writing and implementing effective land use plans in rural communities. I conclude with a detailed consideration of what the Smart Growth law will require concerning agriculture, and explore some of the ways in which it could impact farms, the general agribusiness economy, land markets, and rural communities in Wisconsin

Status and Prospects for the Wisconsin Dairy Goat Sector

The Wisconsin dairy goat industry is a diverse, vibrant and robust sector that has grown rapidly over the last decade. Goat milk output has increased several-fold in the last ten years, and retail markets for goat cheese appear to be increasing at double-digit annual rates. The most recent data shows just over 200 licensed farms in Wisconsin in 2009. According to 2006 numbers, Wisconsin dairy goat farms were milking an average of 118 does that produced 1,416 lbs. On average, Wisconsin dairy goat farms were both larger and more productive on a per animal basis than farms in any other state except Iowa

The Changing Face of Wisconsin DairyFarms: A summary of PATS research on structural change in the 1990s

Medium-sized, diversified, family-labor farms1 have long defined the structure of dairy farming in “America’s Dairyland.” The red barns, silos, farm houses, and fields of hay, grain, and pasture associated with these operations have given rise to the state’s distinctive pastoral landscapes. As family businesses these farms have been successful enough to provide their operators with “middle-class” standards of living. Nationally, in the 20th century, Wisconsin’s dairy sector produced more milk and especially more cheese than any other state in the U.S. Among Wisconsin residents, much cultural pride stems from the state’s preeminence in dairying — car license plates bear the motto “America’s Dairyland,” while sports fans are particularly infamous for donning foam “cheeseheads” to identify themselves as from Wisconsin. Over the last 50 years the dairy farm sector in Wisconsin has witnessed considerable changes in the size of their milking herds, use of production technologies and management practices, and mix of livestock and cropping enterprises. Despite these changes, most dairy farm operations have typically remained at a scale such that they are still operated and managed predominantly by farm household members. Indeed, until quite recently, Wisconsin only had a handful of large dairy farms that rely heavily on hired labor. At the same time, it has typically had fewer “very small” dairy farms typical of some other midwestern or southern states. The distinctive character of Wisconsin dairy farming has been attributed to the state’s unique political, cultural, and socioeconomic history (Gilbert and Akor, 1986)

Management Intensive Rotational Grazingin Wisconsin: the 1990s

Growing numbers of Wisconsin dairy farmers have reported success using management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) techniques that rely on pastures as the primary source of forage for their milking herds. The Program on Agricultural Technology Studies (PATS) has been tracking the use and performance of MIRG systems in Wisconsin since the early 1990s through periodic large-scale, random sample surveys of Wisconsin dairy farmers. This fact sheet incorporates recent results from PATS 1999 Dairy Farmer Poll into an overall summary of PATS grazing research

You’re the Expert! A participatory approach tonitrate pollution research in Central Montana

Participatory approaches to water resources research are intended to promote sustainable behaviors and management of complex problems. The goal of this research is to improve BMP adoption through producer participation in the research process

The Use and Performance of IntensiveRotational Grazing Among Wisconsin Dairy Farms in the 1990s

Growing numbers of Wisconsin dairy farmers have reported success using management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) techniques that rely on pastures as the primary source of forage for their milking herds. The Program on Agricultural Technology Studies (PATS) has been tracking the use and performance of MIRG systems in Wisconsin since the early 1990s through periodic, large-scale, random sample surveys and on-farm interviews with Wisconsin farmers. Utilizing recent results from the PATS 1997 and 1999 Wisconsin Dairy Farm Polls, this report provides an important update to previous PATS reports. In our surveys, the dairy farmers who report utilizing pastures for forage are a diverse group. Grazing practices ranged from moving livestock several times a day through an extensive network of improved pasture paddocks to grazing the same large field all summer long. For purposes of maintaining consistency, in analyzing our data we defined MIRG as a system in which dairy farmers rely on pastures for at least part of the forage ration of their milking cows and move these cows to fresh pastures at least once a week. Farms that utilized pastures to obtain forage for their milking cows, but did not rotate their cows to a fresh pasture at least once a week, were classified as non-intensive grazing operations. Farm operations that did not rely on pasture for any part of their forage ration were categorized as confinement systems. On our 1999 survey, 22 percent of farmers reported using MIRG systems, 22 percent used pastures non-intensively, and 56 percent used full confinement systems

Cache County, Utah Agricultural LandEvaluation and Site Assessment Handbook

Urban encroachment on farmland has serious implications for the farm sector. As the county’s economic base and population has grown, important agricultural lands have been converted to urban uses. Since 1986, Cache County has lost 8,884 acres of prime and statewide important farmland - nearly 14 square miles - to urban development. The current rate of development is consuming over 600 acres of prime and statewide important farmland each year. As we plan for the future and the most cost efficient means for housing this population growth, it is important to note two things: 1) Housing is most affordable in communities where infrastructure such as water, sewer, roads, and schools are already available and 2) agricultural lands actually subsidize residential development. Studies have shown that farmland in the valley only requires .57 in public services for each dollar paid in property taxes. Meanwhile residential land receives $1.27 in services for every dollar paid in taxes

Immigration and Farm Labor in the U.S.

Hired workers comprise 33 percent of people employed on farms but do an estimated 60 percent of the work performed on U.S. farms. Most hired farm workers were born abroad, usually in Mexico, and most are believed not to be authorized to work in the U.S. Changes in Mexico-US migration flows and more restrictive immigration laws and policies have increased the vulnerability of U.S. agriculture to labor supply shocks, which could increase costs and threaten the ability of some farmers to harvest laborintensive crops. Congress is considering major changes in immigration policies. Farm employers want access to a reliable supply of legal foreign workers, while worker advocates want to protect the wellbeing and improve working conditions for both U.S. and immigrant farm workers