Completed education project accomplishments include:
- An estimated 20,422 farmers were served directly through pasture walks, meetings, classes, workshops, one-on-one consultations, farm visits, etc., based on reported attendance at each event. (Some farmers may have attended more than one event.)
- 85 pasture walks, farm tours and demos occurred during the grazing season.
- 133 winter meetings, conferences or workshops were held.
- Tens of thousands of people were introduced to managed grazing through targeted print, television, radio and internet publicity.
Technical assistance projects were designed to develop, deliver and assist farmers with new and existing grazing plans. The completed projects reached more than 231 new graziers and created plans for those farmers totaling more than 12,128 acres of well-managed pasture.
In addition, more than 121 farmers received continued plan assistance on another 8,213 acres of pasture. This assistance helped to prevent more than 3,000 tons of soil erosion and 10,000 pounds of phosphorus runoff from entering Wisconsin’s precious streams, rivers and lakes.
Since 1999, the Wisconsin GLCI has allocated nearly $8 million from the federal and state budgets to expand the use of profitable, grazing-based livestock production systems that foster environmental stewardship. Each of these dollars has been matched with an additional $.40 in partner contributions. FG
—From Wisconsin Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative news release
