Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

2015 Northeast Pasture Consortium Annual Conference & Meeting Minutes, held at the Waterfront Place Hotel & Conference Center in Morgantown, WV, March 11-12, 2015 A small but enthusiastic membership turned out for the 2015 Northeast Pasture Consortium Conference that was held at the well-appointed and service-oriented Waterfront Place Conference Center in Morgantown, West Virginia. Our conference numbers were down dramatically this year (43 attendees), in large part due to agency travel funds being severely curtailed for Extension and Natural Resources Conservation Service. Yet, the program itself was very well received by those people that did attend. Our thanks goes to the Pennsylvania Grazing Coalition who funded two Pennsylvania pasture-based farmers to attend our Conference and the University of Vermont Pasture Network that paid the hotel room rentals for other farmer members in attendance with grant money from a NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant Program. Without these funds, we would not have been able to pay all the bills with just the registration fees. We were also heartened by the attendance of Mr. Michael Morris, West Virginia Farm Bureau. He was very much interested in the findings of the literature review of riparian grazing effects on water quality, our first technical session. The Conference offered 10.5 continuing education credits to Certified Crop Advisors and Certified Forage and Grassland Professionals from ASA-CSSA-SSSA and the American Forage and Grassland Council respectively. After Jim Cropper, Executive Director, welcomed all the attendees at the opening session and gave them a brief overview of what was to take place over the two-day conference, a round-the-table self-introduction by each of the attendees was given. The conference technical sessions covered a range of timely and important topics, and were very well received. (For details, see conference summary and meeting minutes file that is attached to this reporting site.) After the conference technical sessions, a brief Business Meeting was held. Ms. Jennifer Colby, Program Coordinator of the Vermont Pasture Network, University of Vermont, was nominated and unanimously elected to be our new Public Sector Member-at-Large for 2015-2016. Mr. Richard Swartzentruber, Swartzentruber Homestead, Greenwood, DE, was nominated and unanimously elected as our new Private Sector Member-at-Large. Jim Cropper was charged with sending letter to all US representatives and Senators in the Northeast Region and Jason Weller, Chief of NRCS introducing them to the Northeast Pasture Consortium and telling them about our work. Jim Cropper was also charged with writing a letter specifically to Glenn Thompson, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Conservation & Forestry of House Agriculture Committee, introducing the Northeast Pasture Consortium to him and providing him information on our function of promoting pasture-based farming and our connection to the Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit at University Park, PA that is in his home district. Diane Schivera asked that she be sent a copy of the letter. Jim Cropper also volunteered to draft a resolution to be sent to the House Agriculture Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee to document the need for the Conservation of Private Grazing Lands program of NRCS to be funded for the first time since its authorization in 1996. For some time, funding of grazing lands technical assistance came out of the Conservation Operations program. However, this has been discontinued and as the appropriations continue to dwindle for Conservation Operations, it is unlikely that funds will be set aside expressly for grazing lands assistance under this program. Joe Hatton asked that a copy of the resolution be sent to him. The Farmer Survey questionnaire sent out earlier in the year to all farmer members was briefly discussed. The deadline extension for sending in the questionnaires is April 1. It was estimated that it would take 10 days to analyze the input received from pasture-based farmers around the Northeast. A conference call for Private Producers to discuss the results was scheduled for April 10. Susan Parry, USDA-NRCS, Harrisburg, PA and Executive Committee member, is the contact person for this survey. Jim Cropper thanked Joe Hatton and Tom Akin for their service on the Executive Committee of the Northeast Pasture Consortium over the past four years. He further thanked Joe Hatton for his help in setting up the Conference at the Waterfront Place Hotel and Convention Center this year. The Waterfront Place was a great venue for this year's conference. Jim Cropper asked for approval to adjourn the business meeting. It was approved and the business meeting was adjourned and the Conference ended.

1. Two newsletters were published, one in September 2014 and another in January 2015, and distributed primarily as attachments to emails to all of the membership. These keep the members informed about the annual conference and new developments in pasturing livestock. 2. The 2015 Annual Conference and Meeting of the Consortium was held on March 11-12 at the Waterfront Place Hotel & Conference Center in Morgantown, WV. Forty-three people attended the conference. Six poster papers were presented. Travel restrictions at the universities and USDA-NRCS hurt our attendance considerably. We worked in tandem with the Appalachian Grazing Conference that followed our conference. Both programs were well received. 3. The proceedings of the 2015 annual conference and meeting including power point presentations and handouts, poster paper abstracts, and speaker biographical sketches are cued up to be put on the Consortium website, Northeast Grazing Guide, for post-meeting access. 4. The Northeast Grazing Guide website for the Consortium is at: http://grazingguide.net/. Sarah Goslee of the Agricultural Research Service Research Unit at University Park, PA is our web master. It is continually updated as new material arrives. 5. The NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant received in late 2013 by the University of Vermont Pasture Network paid farmer members hotel room expenses. This along with registration fees allowed the Consortium to hold its annual conference this year. The Pennsylvania Grazing Lands Coalition paid for two of their farmer members to attend this year. Especially with the low turnout this year, these funds were vital to cover all our expenses for holding the conference. We continue to look for new funding sources in a very competitive environment. 6. Jim Cropper, Executive director, participated in the Nutrient Management Expert Panel of the Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Work Group via teleconferencing and Share Point during 2014-2015. Provided input on pasture nutrient management issues to support realistic modeling of nitrogen and phosphorus runoff to the Bay from the pasture landuse. Also did a literature review and synthesis of variable rate applications of phosphorus on fields to reduce soil test phosphorus in areas of the field that test well above optimum for a crop response. 7. Jim Cropper, Executive director, also participated via speaker phone with the Chesapeake Bay Ag. Workgroup and its Agriculture Land Use Loading Rates Subgroup at several teleconferences held throughout the past year to provide input on how to improve estimates on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment losses for the pasture landuse and upgrade the Bay Model to increase its precision in modeling conservation practices effects in reducing sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen loads to Bay waters. 8. Jim Cropper has also been involved with another Chesapeake Bay Program subgroup, the Agricultural Modeling Subcommittee's Pasture Subgroup. Here there has been controversy about the impact livestock have on stream corridors. There is a strong movement towards excluding all livestock from water courses in the Bay Watershed. Yet, there is strong evidence that this is not always true depending on pasture configuration about the stream. A narrow stream corridor pasture forces livestock to be always close, but pastures that have upland areas in them as well as a stream corridor, time spent in the stream is only about 2% of the total occupancy time. Exclusionary fencing would be a costly program for which there is no evidence that there is a favorable benefit to cost ratio. Most evidence points to a reduction in sediment and phosphorus (sometimes) and very little to no improvement in nitrogen losses. Pastures ARE grassed buffers, but the perception is that they are not. Also, loafing areas and unpaved, somewhat grassed feedlots are often viewed as being pastures. Hay bunks and other feeding facilities are often adjacent to streams creating point source pollution but attributed to the pasture landuse which they are not. Livestock confined in these areas get nearly 100 percent of their daily intake from stored forages and feedstuffs. 9. Teleconferences are held monthly by the Executive Committee to plan the next annual conference and meeting and address other issues that come up during the year. 10. The Northeast Pasture Consortium Executive Committee conducted a Survey Monkey Farmer Survey that asked ten questions of pasture-based farmers for their insight on issues of pasture management that they need technical assistance, education, or more research on to solve problems that they are having with pasturing livestock. We are currently evaluating the 71 responses received and will use this information to develop conference agendas to address those problems or issues that they have. If it is a research need, we will ask for research by the appropriate researchers, or if it is an educational or technical assistance issue see that Extension and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are involved. 11. Continuing education credit (CEU) requests were sent to the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and the American Forage & Grassland Council (AFGC) for certified crop advisors and certified forage and grassland professionals, respectively, for the 2015 Annual Northeast Pasture Consortium Conference and Meeting. 10.5 CEU's were approved prior to the conference. Certified crop advisors and grassland professionals in attendance were able to get CEU's by signing their names to a sign-in sheet for each session granted CEU's. The completed sign-in sheets were sent to ASA and AFGC after the Conference. 12. Revised and updated research need priorities at the 2015 Northeast Pasture Consortium Annual Conference and Meeting. We used a different format this year by asking each registrant to choose, from a list of research and demonstration needs, two topics that they would like to discuss with others at concurrent planning sessions in the morning of the second day of the conference. Private sector and public sector members intermingled for the first time. Everyone agreed this new format was a much better approach to determining new directions in research and demonstration work. See the minutes of the conference for the outcomes of those sessions.

Bishopp, Troy. 2014-2015. The Grass Whisperer Website. At: http://www.thegrasswhisperer.com/. Click on writings and then click on hotlinks to web pages listed under writings to see numerous articles on grazing management. Bowdridge, S.A., A.M. Zajac, D.R. Notter. 2015. St. Croix sheep produce a rapid and greater cellular immune response contributing to reduced establishment of Haemonchus contortus. Vet. Parasitol. 208:204-210. Jacobs, J.R., S.P Greiner, S.A. Bowdridge. 2015. Serum interleukin-4 (IL-4) production is associated with lower fecal egg count in parasite-resistant sheep. Vet. Parasitol. 211:102-105. MacKinnon, K.M., S.A. Bowdridge, I. Kanevsky-Mullarky, A.M. Zajac, D.R. Notter. 2015. Gene expression profiles of hair and wool sheep reveal importance of Th2 immune mechanisms for increased resistance to Haemonchus contortus. J. Anim. Sci. 93:2074-2082. De Wolf, B.M., A.M. Zajac, K.A. Hoffer, B.L. Sartini, S. Bowdridge, T. LaRoith, K.H. Petersson. 2014. The effect of vitamin E supplementation on an experimental Haemonchus contortus infection. Vet. Parasitol. 205: 140-149 Alber, N., Brink, G.E. 2014. Above- and below-ground grass growth responds to grazing management. University of Wisconsin Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems Experiment Station Bulletins. Research Brief No. 91. Alber, N.B., Brink, G.E., Jackson, R.D. 2014. Temperate grass response to extent and timing of grazing. Canadian Journal of Plant Science. 94:827-833. Brink, G.E., Soder, K.J. 2015. Cool-season grass sward structure influences intake of grazing cattle. American Forage and Grassland Council Conference Proceedings [CD-ROM]. Number 16. St. Louis, MO: American Forage and Grassland Council. Coblentz, W.K., Brink, G.E., Hoffman, P.C., Esser, N.M., Bertram, M.G. 2014. Fall-grown oat to extend the fall grazing season for replacement dairy heifers. Journal of Dairy Science. 97:1645-1660. 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Gilker, R. and K. Voth. 2014-2015. On Pasture Website. Published weekly. At: OnPasture.com Livestock for Landscapes, 6850 W CR 24, Loveland, Colorado 80538. R. Gilker is a Northeast Pasture Consortium member from NY. Toledo, D.N., Sanderson, M.A., Herrick, J.E., Goslee, S.C. 2014. An integrated approach to grazingland ecological assessments and management interpretations. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 69(4):110A-114A. Hunt, S.R., MacAdam, J.W., Griggs, T.C. 2014. Lignification and Tannin Localization During the Development of Birdsfoot Trefoil Stems. Crop Sci. 54(4):1876-1886. Bailey, B. L., Griggs, T. C., Rayburn, E. B., Krause, K. M. 2014. Beef heifer growth and reproductive performance following two levels of pasture allowance during the fall grazing period. Journal of Animal Science. 92(8):3659-3669 Grabber, J., Min, D., Riday, H., Griggs, T.C., MacAdam, J.W., Cassida, K., Coblentz, W.K. 2014. 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