Sustainable farming practices in Kewaunee, Door counties help water and environment, study says

LUXEMBURG - Peninsula Pride Farms has advocated since its founding in 2016 for its members in Kewaunee and Southern Door counties to implement farming practices that help improve their sustainability, the surrounding environment and ground and surface water quality. Now, the organization says a new study shows those practices are working.

The study, conducted by midwestern civil engineering consulting firm Houston Engineering, Inc., collected and analyzed data after four years of the five-year Peninsula Pride Farms Sustainability Project. Eleven farms that manage more than 34,000 acres and 40,000 head of dairy cattle in Door and Kewaunee counties are taking part in the project, which will conclude next year.

The results of the project "demonstrates continuous improvement in sustainability and water quality among this group of farmers in Door and Kewaunee counties," a press release from Peninsula Pride Farms said.

Among the key findings were:

• Participating farms on average use two or more conservation practices in each of their fields that were analyzed. The most used sustainable farming practices included reduced tillage, cover crops, no-till crops and grassed waterways.
• 91% of the reported acreage mitigated the risk of excessive nitrogen leaching into the subsurface of the land, directly affecting groundwater quality that has long been a major issue in Kewaunee County. PPF board member Paul Cornette, who co-owns Cornette Dairy in Luxemburg, said to the Advocate that the downturn in nitrates could come from several different practices, including the use of cover crops or fertilizer capsules that don't break down as easily and release nitrogen as quickly as other fertilizers.
• The average rate of soil erosion for corn grain over the four-year project period was 0.97 tons per acre per year, significantly lower than the state benchmark of 3.5 tons per acre per year.
• The group’s energy use was 209,632 BTUs per ton for corn silage, 33% better than the national figure.

Those results are important to show PPF members, and the public, that their efforts are making a difference, Cornette said.

"When Peninsula Pride Farms was formed, it was with the understanding that we needed to communicate what was going on," Cornette said to the Advocate. "We also know we needed a study to see how we were doing."

These efforts are part of multi-year sustainability projects led by Farmers for Sustainable Food , a Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization that supports nine farmer-led watershed conservation groups such as PPF. Cornette also serves a president of Farmers for Sustainable Food.

Another FSF member group took part in the sustainability project. Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance completed its fifth and final year of the project, with 15 farms in Lafayette County that manage more than 40,000 acres involved. Their key findings from their results, announced simultaneously with the PPF results, were reported to be similar.

• Like with PPF, participating farms on average use two or more conservation practices in their fields, using contouring and strip-cropping along with cover crops, reduced tillage and no-till.
• 83% of the reported acreage mitigated the risk of excessive nitrogen leaching into the subsurface.
• The average rate of soil erosion for corn grain over the five years was 1.7 tons per acre per year, about half of the state benchmark.
• And the group’s energy use was 145,575 BTUs per ton for corn silage, measured 53% better than the national figure.

A press release from Farmers for Sustainable Food said practices examined in the study will continue with the farms' commitment to FSF's Climate-Smart program. It uses data to help farmers make decisions on the use of conservation practices and potentially create added value for the food they produced. Participating farmers also receive financial stipends of between $1,500 and $9,000 based on their level of participation.

Cornette said the main thing the public can take away from the study is that Peninsula Pride Farms members are "still as committed as ever to where we can invest our capital in conservation."

He said it also shows they're working to be good neighbors in their communities for the long term. Cornette's family has owned and run the farm since his father started it in 1972, and it currently has about 360 milking cows and grows their own forages, hay, silage and most of their own corn, along with a little wheat and soybean, on about 1,000 acres.

"We care about our natural resources just as much as anyone in the neighborhood," he said. "We're definitely part of the community. Our neighbors aren't just neighbors but friends and family, and we want to be able to pass down what we have."

For more information on Peninsula Pride Farms and its sustainability efforts, visit peninsulapridefarms.org . For more about Farmers for Sustainable Food, visit farmersforsustainablefood.com .

C ontact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Sustainable farming practices in Kewaunee, Door counties help water and environment, study says