Work has begun on 30 new projects funded by competitive
grants offered by the Leopold Center’s three research
initiatives.
The new projects range from listening sessions to gather
farmer input for the next Farm Bill to analysis of risks
associated with various niche markets, to improved
breeding for forage and biomass crops. First-year cost
of the projects, some of which are multi-year efforts,
is more than $555,000.
The projects were selected in a competitive process that
began in July 2005, conducted by the Leopold Center’s
initiatives in Marketing and Food Systems, Policy and
Ecology. Proposals received rigorous peer reviews and
scrutiny by the Center’s 17-member advisory board as
well as Center staff.
The Marketing and Food Systems Initiative will fund 13
new projects, with several designed to help farmers
acquire the skills and information needed to start new
enterprises. Initiative leader Rich Pirog said: “These
projects will give farmers solid information about the
costs and risks associated with various niche markets,
as well as tools to assess and develop these
enterprises.”
One project will focus on transaction costs – the costs
in a business that are associated with transportation,
warehousing, processing orders and customer service.
According to some national estimates, transaction costs
can range from 4 to 30 percent of sales. The new project
will include case studies to illustrate transaction
costs associated with niche dairy, meat and produce
businesses.
Other grants will be used for a feasibility study for a
mobile, on-farm processing unit for freezing produce, a
two-year project to connect midsize producers with
retail and foodservice distributors, and support for
food and farm incubators at Marshalltown Community
College.
The Ecology Initiative also will fund 13 new projects,
including projects that emphasize grasslands management
for forage quality for grazing as well as bird wildlife
management.
“We want to identify and demonstrate opportunities to
create viable farm enterprises that mix perennial and
annual agricultural systems,” said Ecology Initiative
leader Jeri Neal. “These kinds of systems can benefit
both the farmer and the environment, but they require a
different mix of management skills and resources.”
Neal says that there are numerous opportunities in the
state to support transitions to these kinds of systems,
for example, one new project will look at a more
economical way for small and midsize cattle feeders to
use co-products from ethanol production plants. The
researchers are investigating several methods to make
pellets from distillers grains. Pellets are more easily
transported and stored than wet distillers grains. The
project includes feeding trials and farmer cooperators.
Other projects look more closely at the science behind
practice, and include breeding for improved forage and
biomass crops, tailoring a soil quality index for
horticulture food crops, and learning more about the
N-uptake abilities of native grasses.
Four grants in the Policy Initiative focus on federal
farm programs. The Iowa Farmers Union and Women, Food
and Agriculture Network used grants to conduct listening
sessions around Iowa in February and March 2006. Reports
from the meetings will be shared with policy makers and
various government agency personnel as the 2007 Farm
Bill is developed.
The Beginning Farmer Center and Center for Rural Affairs
received a two-year grant to analyze the impact of the
farm bill on beginning and midsize farms. The fourth
grant includes a survey of the top-tier Iowa farmers
enrolled in the Conservation Security Program and the
program’s impact on land stewardship practices.