By Margo Hale, NCAT Southeast Regional Director, Armed to Farm Program Director, and Agriculture Specialist
My day begins with a hot cup of coffee and a quick check of our farm. What a thrill to find a new baby calf from our Belted Galloways, to watch the antics of our pig, to have my girls gather farm-fresh eggs, and to watch the goats grazing. Livestock bring life to the farm!
Then again, livestock can bring difficulty. The bull escaped; we need to return him to the pasture and fix the fence. The processor doesn’t have a slot for the pig, the price of chicken feed rises, and the goats get into mischief.
While I can’t imagine life without livestock, I recognize that they don’t fit on every farm or for every farm family. Let’s consider the benefits and some of the challenges of living with livestock.
Benefits of Livestock
Livestock can turn your over-ripe or excess vegetables into meat. On the Hale farm, goats and pigs take care of the discarded Halloween pumpkins. Photo: Margo Hale, NCAT.
On our farm, and yours, livestock turn pasture and browse into healthy meat. Pasture-raised hogs and poultry need other feed as well, but the meat and eggs produced on pasture are healthier for our family and community. Those grazing animals improve the fertility of our land and boost soil health. And during the garden season our livestock “recycle” excess or over-ripe vegetables, turning waste into meat or eggs. Farms that already have a customer base will find that adding farm-raised meat or eggs can really boost sales and bring in new customers.
There are also many intangible, but real, benefits, as we have learned. Livestock are fun to watch and interesting to raise. They’re valuable for teaching children to be responsible, observant, and curious. They teach kids how science and nature work and how food is grown. These life-long lessons were given to me as a child, and it is satisfying to pass them on to my children, as well.
Assessing Resources
For our family, livestock are a perfect fit. Are they for you?
Before getting started with any enterprise, it is important to consider the goals you have for your farm, family, and lifestyle. How will livestock help you meet your farm goals? Your farm goals, including financial goals, will impact the livestock species you choose, your scale of production, and marketing streams.
Chickens are easier to contain and need much less space than cattle, so they can be a good fit on small acreage. Photo: Robyn Metzger, NCAT.
Next, what are your available resources? Consider land, money, infrastructure, and time. Some enterprises lend themselves best to smaller acreages: poultry, rabbits, and bees take little space. Grazing livestock need more area so that you can protect soil and pastures and keep livestock healthy. If you have sufficient acreage to raise larger livestock, then the type of forages may influence your decisions. Woodlots are a good fit for hogs and goats, whereas farms with mostly grass pastures best suit sheep and cattle.
Another factor that influences your choice of enterprise is the money you have available to invest in livestock and infrastructure. You can start small with any enterprise, but some are easier and cheaper to contain, such as poultry and rabbits. Grazing livestock need a larger enclosure and are therefore more expensive to start. If there is existing infrastructure, that is very helpful. If not, you will need to budget funds for fence, water, and needed equipment. These up-front costs can be significant, but they are vital. You don’t want an angry phone call from your neighbor about your goats killing their fruit trees!
Having a way to deliver adequate quantities of water to your livestock is also imperative and can be tricky to figure out. In addition, livestock usually need supplementary feed. Poultry, rabbits, and hogs need grain, while grazing animals need hay in winter. Where can you source feed, for what price? Where can you store feed to keep it dry and protected from livestock and rodents? Feed goes into the budget, as all feed costs are paid before you get meat to sell.
Shelter may be an issue. In our moderate climate and with our choice of hardy cattle and goats, we rarely need shelter. However, baby goats born in a cold rain will suffer. If they get too chilled to nurse, they will die. Therefore, we need a plan for circumstances where the livestock do need shelter.
Local markets and processing may also influence your choice. Pasture-raised eggs are always popular, but what is the selling price for a dozen in your area? Can you make money selling at that price, given your feed cost? Similarly, meat enterprises may be feasible or not, depending on the local prices, processing, and feed costs. You will need to do some homework, investigating the local situation and plugging the numbers into a budget to see if the enterprise makes sense. The sample budgets in ATTRA’s Small Scale Livestock Production publication can serve as a starting point. Also see publications on the ATTRA livestock page about whatever enterprise you are considering. Know before you begin what you can produce and for what cost—this knowledge can help guide your choice of livestock enterprise and save your family from a costly mistake.
Time is a precious resource and your farm setup and the enterprises you choose must take this into consideration. Our family includes two children and two full-time, off-farm jobs; therefore, one of our goals is to have easy-to-manage enterprises that don’t take much time. That is important when we need to leave the farm; also, our farm sitter needs the chores to be low-stress and easy to complete. We accomplish that by being intentional in our enterprise selection, infrastructure setup, and our management. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by taking on more than you can easily manage in the time you have available.
In next week’s blog, I will share some of the strategies and infrastructure we use on our farm to save time and money. Stay tuned!
Learning More
No matter what livestock you choose, it is best to start small. Learn with a few animals so your mistakes—and you will make mistakes—won’t be as costly. Continuously monitor your enterprise and adjust as needed. Remember to keep your farm and family or lifestyle goals in mind. Is this livestock enterprise helping you meet those goals? For example, while our sheep were profitable, we found that we didn’t enjoy raising them and they took too much time. In contrast, my coworker, NCAT Livestock Specialist Linda Coffey, found that sheep worked better than meat goats on their farm. Their customers wanted lamb and the sheep made best use of the pastures. We sold our sheep, and Linda sold the meat goats. Both of us are happier.
There is much to learn about raising and marketing livestock. I would suggest finding a mentor who you can learn from and lean on for advice. Connecting with local producer or grazing groups is a great way to find a mentor. ATTRA has many resources (linked below), and our Livestock Specialists are available to answer questions and talk with you about these considerations. Linda and I will be discussing species specific considerations in an upcoming podcast. Send your questions to us at margoh@ncat.org and lindac@ncat.org.
ATTRA Resources
Getting Started with Livestock Podcast
Small Scale Livestock Production
ATTRA Livestock and Pasture resources
Livestock as a Tool: Improving Soil Health, Boosting Crops
Integrating Livestock and Crops
Managed Grazing Tutorial
Healthy Animals, Happy Farm
Working With Your Meat Processor
Claire Putnam, Women’s Health Services
“Everyone should have an MREP energy audit! I would not have been able to do my REAP grant without them! Danielle was incredibly helpful in finding ways to save money, and getting maximum rebates to help me improve my energy savings. Not only was she insightful and spot-on with her knowledge of energy efficiency and ways to cut costs, she was fun to work with! She would call me up and say ‘I think I found some more money for you, send me your receipts for that!’ I will certainly continue to refer other friends and business owners to her, so they can find ways to save energy and save money!” – Claire Putnam, MD, Women’s Health Services, Bozeman
Dr. Claire Putnam purchased a building on 7th Ave. in Bozeman and planned to remodel the building into a women’s clinic. The one-story building was built in 1940 for residential purposes and converted into commercial space several years later. It currently has an unfinished basement. The remodel was intended to improve the energy efficiency of the building while creating a comfortable space for the patients. The remodel included new windows, a completely updated HVAC system, all new LED lighting, upgraded insulation, and cosmetic upgrades on the exterior and interior.
Total Savings for the Project
This project will save over 14,000 kWh and 107,000 kBTUs per year. That is the equivalent of saving 1,410 gallons of gasoline! The project is outlined in the table below with each elements’ annual savings, cost, and simple payback. The simple payback uses the current utility rates to calculate the cost savings on an annual basis.
Annual kBTU
Savings
(converted)
Payback
(yrs)*
Utility
Funding
$432.00
HVAC Equipment
The new HVAC system includes an ENERGY STAR-rated furnace and air conditioner manufactured by Trane. The old system consisted of an older furnace (assumed rating at 78% efficiency) and a Bryant 10 SEER outdoor unit for cooling. The new furnace is 97.3% efficient with an electronically commutated motor (ECM) for the blower fan motor and a variable-speed drive (VFD) on the condensing unit. The new outdoor unit for cooling has an SEER of 18.
Window Upgrades
The building contained 31 single-paned operable windows. Twenty-one of the windows were equipped with half a storm pane: half screen on the outside, six windows had full storm panes, and four windows had no storm pane at all. Many of the windows were cracked and the storm panes were not installed properly. This project included a full energy-efficient window replacement.
Old upstairs window.
New Upstairs window.
Old basement window.
New basement window
Insulation Upgrades
The project also included increasing the insulation levels throughout the building. The above-grade walls and attic contained an estimated insulation value of R-11. The blown-in cellulose insulation in the attic was not spread evenly and there was no insulation in the roof structure. The basement exterior walls are concrete only with no insulation.
Basement insulation.
Lighting Upgrades
The owner also replaced the halogen track lighting fixtures with new LED flat panel fixtures that are more energy efficient and provide a better quality of light, with a longer service life.
Old track lighting.
LED fixture.
City of Anaconda
Energy costs for city and county governments are often a very large budget item. But energy-efficiency upgrades can start at a smaller scale and still result in significant energy savings. One such area is street lighting.
The City of Anaconda would like to upgrade its current street lighting to LED to save energy, lower utility bills, and decrease maintenance. Current street lighting varies from metal halides to high-pressure sodium bulbs at four different sizes and wattages.
The Montana Resource Efficiency Program (MREP) conducted an audit of the current street lights by performing a street-by-street bulb characterization and lamp count. MREP then determined that corn-cobb-style LEDs, similar to the LED shown in the image at right, would be the simplest, most cost-effective retrofit for the City.
To allow for resident comment and to ensure that the light is bright enough and the color is acceptable for the area, MREP advised the City to test several city blocks with the recommended LED lights.
If installed, the project will result in the following savings:
C Sharps Arms
The C Sharps Arms building is located in Big Timber, Montana, and is used to produce custom firearms. The building is divided into two sections, the workshop and the retail/office space. The workshop is the largest section, accounting for approximately 11,100ft2. The building has high ceilings throughout both the workshop and retail spaces, while the offices are standard height with storage above. The basement is used as a packaging area and shooting range to test the company’s products.
Workshop lighting was the main concern for both the management team and the craftsmen. Lighting consisted of (101) 8-foot, two-lamp T12 fluorescent fixtures and (16) 4-foot, two-lamp T12 fixtures. Only 26 of the 8-foot fixtures and nine of the 4-foot fixtures were working or had bulbs. The goal of the management team was to increase lighting in the work areas, while leaving the unused areas dim. There is a second building that had (6) 8-foot fixtures, of which only three were working. The office and retail lighting was also out-of-date, but this was a secondary concern to the workshop. With this type of situation, it was recommended to do a complete replacement of the light fixtures. The table below shows the recommended replacement fixtures.
Fixtures
Wattage
Wattage
Saved
Based on these upgrades, this project was eligible for $7,575 through a utility lighting rebate program. The rebates dropped the net project cost to $4,407. Annual energy cost savings was $2,391, for a simple payback of less than two years.
Bill
Savings
Cost
Rebate
Cost
Savings
Savings
Payback
Conversion
Bozeman Job Service
Even though the building owners continuously upgrade Bozeman Job Service, Montana Resource Efficiency (MREP) auditors located several cost-effective efficiency measures, all with a payback period of a three years or less.
The Bozeman Job Service is a one-story office building located in downtown Bozeman. In 2010, the building owner installed new furnaces, new ductwork, and fluorescent lighting. The MREP audit identified energy-efficiency opportunities for the plug-load, lighting, building envelope, thermostats, and heating, ventilation, and air condition (HVAC) systems.
Energy-efficiency measures found in the HVAC system include installation of compressors and variable-frequency drives to their existing furnaces. The compressors will have an energy-efficiency rating greater than 12, which will result in savings of approximately 2,600 kWh of energy. The variable-frequency drives (VFDs) will accommodate the demand of air flow through the building. This measure would save approximately 1,055 KWH annually. The economics associated with these two measures is:
The office also has a large plug-load energy use from computers, copiers, printers, and other large office equipment. This building houses 42 computers with monitors that are powered on all hours of the day due to software and/or computer updates from the state. Each computer uses approximately 1.408 kWh per workday and 1.968 kWh per weekend left running. That adds up to almost 21,500 kWh per year. This is almost half of the building’s current usage. There are two options to cut down on this usage:
Within the office space, the lighting consists of CFLs and fluorescent T8 bulbs. MREP recommended an LED conversion with the following economics:
Additional energy-efficiency measures identified in the audit include weatherizing windows and doors, as well as programmable thermostat setbacks and scheduling.
Big Sky Senior Living
A lighting-upgrade project is saving a senior living center in Butte significant lighting energy costs, while providing higher-quality lighting for its residents, staff, and visitors.
The Big Sky Senior Living complex consists of one main building and 12 cottages. The main building contains common areas, apartments, offices, kitchens, dining rooms, maintenance areas, parking garages, a memory care unit, a hairdressing shop, and a physical therapy center.
The Montana Resource Efficiency Program (MREP) performed a detailed energy audit for Big Sky Senior Living, selected the LED lighting, facilitated both the purchase of the lighting and the utility rebate process. Lighting at the complex ranged from metal halide bulbs in parking garage and exterior fixtures, to incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent lights in the interior fixtures. The new LED lighting is more energy-efficient and will provide a better quality of light, with a longer service life.
Prior to the lighting conversion, Big Sky Senior Living used 731,612 kWh annually at a cost of $73,808, and 13,118 therms of natural gas annually at a cost of $9,038. As a day of service, a group of 15 Energy Corps volunteers and MREP engineers performed the complex-wide light bulb change-out and assisted in packing the 4,300 bulbs for recycling.
Future energy-efficiency potential at the complex includes boiler and hot-water pipe insulation; installing variable frequency drives (VFD) on fan motors of air-handling units, rooftop units, energy-recovery units, make-up air units, condensers, unit heaters, and AC units; installing variable frequency drives (VFD) on the pumps in the hydronic heating systems; installing energy-efficient air-conditioning units; and installing an energy-efficient air-condensing unit for the walk-in cooler and freezer.
LED Conversion per Fixture Type
Best Western Heritage Inn
The Best Western Heritage Inn in Great Falls, Montana, is one of the city’s largest hotels. Built in 1972, the hotel is two stories tall with 230 guest rooms, including four two-room suites and five one-room suites. The building also houses a steakhouse, casino, pool, hot tub, bar, fitness center, and 12 large conference rooms in a convention center.
LED Lighting Conversion
Lighting at the Heritage Inn included metal halide bulbs in the parking lot and incandescent, CFL, and fluorescent lights throughout the interior. Based upon the information in the audit, MREP facilitated an LED conversion project. This project had a less than one year payback:
Additional Recommendations in the MREP Audit Report
In addition to the LED conversion, MREP also recommended occupancy sensors for guest rooms and public areas, such as the fitness center, business center, and offices. These sensors could help save as much as 40% more energy by turning lights off in unoccupied spaces. Several occupancy sensor options are available for hotels, including a technology that involves sensors in the key readers. A standard sensor wall switch can cost as little as $10.00 per switch.
Interior Room Heating
The 76 interior rooms and hallways have 10 dedicated electric roof-top ventilators. These ventilators are direct expansion (DX) cooling only, with no heat. Each room is equipped with its own thermostat tied to a duct-mounted electric heater. This allows each guest to adjust the temperature according to their comfort levels. The supply air to these heaters is not preheated and it takes a large amount of energy to heat air when there is a large temperature difference. It would be beneficial to replace the current roof-top units with a gas-fired model. MREP recommended this upgrade only if and when the current roof-top units are replaced or upgraded. The gas-fired roof top units will preheat the air and use a less-expensive fuel. They will also lower the electricity required by the smaller duct-mounted heaters.
Hot Water Heating
Hot water for the entire building, including the pool and hot tub, is heated by three gas water heaters. The main hot water heater for the guest rooms operates at 79% efficiency. By installing a new high-efficiency hot water heater Heritage Inn would save 5,000 therms of energy or $3,500 per year. The cost of a new high-efficiency water heater ranges between $1,500 to $3,000, resulting in a simple payback for this energy conservation measure of three to five years.
Farm Equipment and Infrastructure
By Margo Hale, NCAT Southeast Regional Director, Armed to Farm Program Director, and Agriculture Specialist
Last week, I shared a few thoughts about getting started with livestock.
In the Getting Started with Livestock Podcast, NCAT Livestock Specialist Linda Coffey and I discussed our farm goals, how our livestock enterprises help us meet those goals, and how the goals influence our livestock management. On my family’s farm, we want our livestock to make money, so we are always looking for cost-saving ideas. We also want our livestock enterprises to be easily managed without too much labor. We are a busy family and have focused on time- and money-saving systems.
I want to share with you a few pieces of infrastructure and equipment we have on our farm, why they work for us, and ways they don’t work. I always find it helpful to see how other farmers feed and water their animals. Maybe you will get ideas that you can implement on your farm—or you can send me ideas for improvement.
Watering Systems
As Linda and I discussed in the podcast, providing water is one of the first things you must figure out. On our farm we have a pond, a well, and county water. We also collect rainwater from our barn and sheds. We use all these resources to water our animals on different parts of our farm, depending on how we have our pastures divided and animals separated.
We try to find cost-effective ways to do most everything on our farm, so we like to use recycled materials and captured rainwater as much as possible. In one of our pastures, we have gutters on part of a shed and small shelter that empty into a tub. One of our friends had new gutters installed on her house and gave us the old gutters to use around the farm.
We did have a regular stock tank here, but it was too tall for our young goats to reach. We had an old IBC tote that we weren’t using, so we cut it in half to use as a waterer. This works great for the goats, but when cows are in this pasture, they tend to stand in these low totes, dirtying the water. It doesn’t take much rainfall to fill this water tub. We do have a water hydrant nearby that we can use to fill the tubs if there hasn’t been enough rainfall.
We have a small pasture next to our barn that we use when we have pigs and when our goats are kidding. Our free-range laying hens like to hang out in the barn, so they use this waterer, too. There is a 55-gallon barrel that captures rainwater and fills the bowl waterer, pictured above. The gravity-fed bowl is mounted over a small concrete pad, so the animals (pigs especially) don’t make a muddy mess around the waterer. We don’t often graze our cows in this small pasture, but when we do, this waterer doesn’t work too well. Several cows can empty that 55-gallon barrel quickly!
We use a similar set-up at our chicken coop (pictured above right). We have a coop with nest boxes and an enclosed run built on the back side of our shop. The hens have free range of our pastures, but we shut them in the coop at night. Once again, we use gutters on their coop roof, draining in to an elevated 55-gallon barrel. There is a hose from the barrel to a water bowl with a float. Our winters are fairly mild so we can use this system year-round. On occasion, the bowl and hose freeze and we have to carry water to the chickens. We have used this for our flock of about 20 chickens for about seven years, and I’ve only had to put water in the barrel a couple of times.
Hay-feeding Systems
We are in hay-feeding season on our farm, so I will share with you the equipment we use to feed hay.
We use a hay ring (above) to feed our cows, but this is problematic if you have goats or sheep. We have a few young goats with our cows right now to keep them away from our billy. They prefer to eat standing on top of the hay, soiling the hay and causing a lot of waste.
We have an elevated, round bale feeder that we use for our goats. This keeps the hay off of the ground and the goats cannot get on top of it. The cows are able to easily eat out of it, too. This reduces the amount of hay they waste.
We also have an elevated square bale feeder. We don’t feed many square bales (remember we want low labor), but do use them when we have goats in a small pasture right after they have kidded or are just feeding a few goats. Once again, keeping the hay off of the ground reduces waste.
We move the hay feeders to a different spot each time we feed a bale, typically feeding on an area that needs some extra fertility. There are many different ways to feed hay, but this is what works for us on our farm. Unrolling round bales is a great practice, but we don’t have enough animals for that to be efficient. They would waste too much before eating the majority of the bale. We have rolled out smaller portions of a round bale, but that was time-consuming.
Learning More
There is always trial and error before you figure out what systems work on your farm. I hope this virtual tour of our farm’s watering and hay-feeding systems will help you find what will fit your situation.
The ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture publications linked below have information about infrastructure and equipment for different livestock enterprises. As always, our NCAT Livestock Specialists are available to answer your questions and provide you with additional resources. Please email or call us at askanag@ncat.org or 800-346-9140.
ATTRA Resources
Small-Scale Livestock Production
Sheep and Goats: Frequently Asked Questions
An Illustrated Guide to Sheep and Goat Production
Hogs: Pastured and Forested Production
Hooped Shelters for Hogs
Poultry: Equipment for Alternative Production
Intensive Grazing: One Farms Setup (video series: Nine Chapters)
Managed Grazing Tutorial
Photos by Margo Hale
Getting Started with Livestock
By Margo Hale, NCAT Southeast Regional Director, Armed to Farm Program Director, and Agriculture Specialist
My day begins with a hot cup of coffee and a quick check of our farm. What a thrill to find a new baby calf from our Belted Galloways, to watch the antics of our pig, to have my girls gather farm-fresh eggs, and to watch the goats grazing. Livestock bring life to the farm!
Then again, livestock can bring difficulty. The bull escaped; we need to return him to the pasture and fix the fence. The processor doesn’t have a slot for the pig, the price of chicken feed rises, and the goats get into mischief.
While I can’t imagine life without livestock, I recognize that they don’t fit on every farm or for every farm family. Let’s consider the benefits and some of the challenges of living with livestock.
Benefits of Livestock
Livestock can turn your over-ripe or excess vegetables into meat. On the Hale farm, goats and pigs take care of the discarded Halloween pumpkins. Photo: Margo Hale, NCAT.
On our farm, and yours, livestock turn pasture and browse into healthy meat. Pasture-raised hogs and poultry need other feed as well, but the meat and eggs produced on pasture are healthier for our family and community. Those grazing animals improve the fertility of our land and boost soil health. And during the garden season our livestock “recycle” excess or over-ripe vegetables, turning waste into meat or eggs. Farms that already have a customer base will find that adding farm-raised meat or eggs can really boost sales and bring in new customers.
There are also many intangible, but real, benefits, as we have learned. Livestock are fun to watch and interesting to raise. They’re valuable for teaching children to be responsible, observant, and curious. They teach kids how science and nature work and how food is grown. These life-long lessons were given to me as a child, and it is satisfying to pass them on to my children, as well.
Assessing Resources
For our family, livestock are a perfect fit. Are they for you?
Before getting started with any enterprise, it is important to consider the goals you have for your farm, family, and lifestyle. How will livestock help you meet your farm goals? Your farm goals, including financial goals, will impact the livestock species you choose, your scale of production, and marketing streams.
Chickens are easier to contain and need much less space than cattle, so they can be a good fit on small acreage. Photo: Robyn Metzger, NCAT.
Next, what are your available resources? Consider land, money, infrastructure, and time. Some enterprises lend themselves best to smaller acreages: poultry, rabbits, and bees take little space. Grazing livestock need more area so that you can protect soil and pastures and keep livestock healthy. If you have sufficient acreage to raise larger livestock, then the type of forages may influence your decisions. Woodlots are a good fit for hogs and goats, whereas farms with mostly grass pastures best suit sheep and cattle.
Another factor that influences your choice of enterprise is the money you have available to invest in livestock and infrastructure. You can start small with any enterprise, but some are easier and cheaper to contain, such as poultry and rabbits. Grazing livestock need a larger enclosure and are therefore more expensive to start. If there is existing infrastructure, that is very helpful. If not, you will need to budget funds for fence, water, and needed equipment. These up-front costs can be significant, but they are vital. You don’t want an angry phone call from your neighbor about your goats killing their fruit trees!
Having a way to deliver adequate quantities of water to your livestock is also imperative and can be tricky to figure out. In addition, livestock usually need supplementary feed. Poultry, rabbits, and hogs need grain, while grazing animals need hay in winter. Where can you source feed, for what price? Where can you store feed to keep it dry and protected from livestock and rodents? Feed goes into the budget, as all feed costs are paid before you get meat to sell.
Shelter may be an issue. In our moderate climate and with our choice of hardy cattle and goats, we rarely need shelter. However, baby goats born in a cold rain will suffer. If they get too chilled to nurse, they will die. Therefore, we need a plan for circumstances where the livestock do need shelter.
Local markets and processing may also influence your choice. Pasture-raised eggs are always popular, but what is the selling price for a dozen in your area? Can you make money selling at that price, given your feed cost? Similarly, meat enterprises may be feasible or not, depending on the local prices, processing, and feed costs. You will need to do some homework, investigating the local situation and plugging the numbers into a budget to see if the enterprise makes sense. The sample budgets in ATTRA’s Small Scale Livestock Production publication can serve as a starting point. Also see publications on the ATTRA livestock page about whatever enterprise you are considering. Know before you begin what you can produce and for what cost—this knowledge can help guide your choice of livestock enterprise and save your family from a costly mistake.
Time is a precious resource and your farm setup and the enterprises you choose must take this into consideration. Our family includes two children and two full-time, off-farm jobs; therefore, one of our goals is to have easy-to-manage enterprises that don’t take much time. That is important when we need to leave the farm; also, our farm sitter needs the chores to be low-stress and easy to complete. We accomplish that by being intentional in our enterprise selection, infrastructure setup, and our management. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by taking on more than you can easily manage in the time you have available.
In next week’s blog, I will share some of the strategies and infrastructure we use on our farm to save time and money. Stay tuned!
Learning More
No matter what livestock you choose, it is best to start small. Learn with a few animals so your mistakes—and you will make mistakes—won’t be as costly. Continuously monitor your enterprise and adjust as needed. Remember to keep your farm and family or lifestyle goals in mind. Is this livestock enterprise helping you meet those goals? For example, while our sheep were profitable, we found that we didn’t enjoy raising them and they took too much time. In contrast, my coworker, NCAT Livestock Specialist Linda Coffey, found that sheep worked better than meat goats on their farm. Their customers wanted lamb and the sheep made best use of the pastures. We sold our sheep, and Linda sold the meat goats. Both of us are happier.
There is much to learn about raising and marketing livestock. I would suggest finding a mentor who you can learn from and lean on for advice. Connecting with local producer or grazing groups is a great way to find a mentor. ATTRA has many resources (linked below), and our Livestock Specialists are available to answer questions and talk with you about these considerations. Linda and I will be discussing species specific considerations in an upcoming podcast. Send your questions to us at margoh@ncat.org and lindac@ncat.org.
ATTRA Resources
Getting Started with Livestock Podcast
Small Scale Livestock Production
ATTRA Livestock and Pasture resources
Livestock as a Tool: Improving Soil Health, Boosting Crops
Integrating Livestock and Crops
Managed Grazing Tutorial
Healthy Animals, Happy Farm
Working With Your Meat Processor
Project Promotes Solar Energy for Ag Land
The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) will launch an online information clearinghouse in 2021 to promote solar-energy development on agricultural lands while protecting — and even improving — those lands’ agricultural capacity.
NCAT was selected for a $1.6 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the Agri-Solar Clearinghouse (ASC), a national information hub and professional network that connects researchers, technology companies, solar developers, landowners, farmers and consumers.
“Federal energy planners estimate that utility-scale solar installations could cover almost 2 million acres of land in the United States by 2030,” said Stacie Peterson, Ph.D., director of NCAT’s energy programs.
“Under traditional solar development, these lands could be taken over for energy-only production and this could lead to negative impacts on food production,” Peterson said. “However, there is tremendous opportunity for low-impact solar development that is complementary with sustainable agriculture, increasing pollinator habitat, improving soil health, and promoting native species, all while diversifying revenue streams for both agricultural and solar operations.”
“NCAT’s decades of experience in sustainable energy and agriculture will enable the group to work as an honest broker of co-location information,” said Peterson.
“Together, with our incredible network of partners, we hope to help promote the co-location of solar and agriculture in a way that is beneficial to both throughout the United States and territories.”
National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers Jordan Macknick and Paul Torcelini along with UMass professor Stephen Herbert survey the test plot at the UMass Crop Animal Research and Education Center in South Deerfield, MA.
— Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 53126
ASC will showcase and develop practical, affordable solar-energy solutions through research, success stories, case studies, and multi-media outreach. The project will also connect participants through an online forum, mailing list, workshops and farm tours to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges and mentoring.
ASC also will have databases that help locate financial and technical assistance, as well as identify best practices, explain regulatory issues and provide policy information.
The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) of the U.S. Department of Energy will provide a three-year, $1.6 million cooperative agreement to help fund the project. The total budget of the project for three years is $2,030,000.
NCAT has a number of partners in the project, including Argonne National Laboratory, Bozeman Green Build, Breezy Point Energy, Center for Rural Affairs, Fresh Energy Center for Pollinators in Energy, George Washington University, Helical Solar Solutions, Montana Renewable Energy Association, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Renewable Northwest, Ridge to Reefs, Seeta Sistla, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Virginia Working Landscapes, and Wexus Technologies.
ASC is expected go live in the summer of 2021.
The SETO program provided a total of $130 million in fiscal year 2020 for projects that improve the affordability, reliability, and value of solar technologies on the U.S. power grid.
NCAT’s project is one of four that focus on siting solar-energy systems in agricultural settings. The four projects were funded at a total of $7 million. Their aim is to help farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural enterprises gain value from solar technologies while keeping land available for agricultural purposes.
NCAT is a national nonprofit, founded in 1976, with a mission of helping people build resilient communities through local and sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen self-reliance, and protect natural resources.
It is headquartered in Butte, Mont., and has five regional offices around the country.
NCAT’s team of 35 sustainable agriculture specialists and energy engineers, along with its partners, will develop the clearinghouse. NCAT will develop alternate funding streams to ensure ASC will continue after the three-year funding period.
Exploring the Garden for Beneficial Insects!
By Jamie Fanous, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist
Like many, during these challenging times, I’ve turned to home gardening! I’ve used gardening as an opportunity to reconnect with nature and clear my head, all while staying close to home during the quarantine.
Interested in home gardening? Need to build a raised garden bed frame? Check out this amazing video on the NCAT Youtube page with Jeremy Prater!
I’ve also maintained a variety of beautiful native plants such as ceanothus or California Lilacs, which serve as a valuable habitat for beneficial insects! Having various native plants, flowers, and herbs has been instrumental for the garden particularly for pest suppression and pollination. Insects like native bees, honeybees, butterflies, ladybird beetles, lacewings, and spiders are vibrant additions to the garden which have encouraged the fruits and vegetables to flourish and reduce pressure from damaging pests like aphids.
Interested in more information on Beneficial Insects? See this ATTRA Publication: A Pictorial Guide to Hedgerow Plants for Beneficial Insects
It has been an exciting journey tending to the garden and I look forward to continuing it. The fall is just around the corner which means new vegetables to grow and new beneficial insects to discover!
Relevant Resources:
Build a Basic Wooden Raised-Garden Bed Frame – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScuK2Ktp2FA
A Pictorial Guide to Hedgerow Plants for Beneficial Insects – https://attra.ncat.org/product/a-pictorial-guide-to-hedgerow-plants-for-beneficial-insects/
Beneficial Insects You Want in your Garden – California Gardening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkMaZqfHMHc
CNN Article about Mental Health & Gardening – https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/03/health/how-to-start-gardening-coronavirus-wellness/index.html