This grant will create an interdisciplinary issue team to look at grazing and animal management practices used at the 2,000-acre McNay Research Farm in south-central Iowa. The team, modeled after the Animal Management Issue Team that the Leopold Center supported from 1998-2002, will design a long-term adaptive grazing plan for the farm that is based on findings from Leopold Center-supported grazing research, also soil quality and diverse plantings. A holistic management component will be added to the Greenhorn and Certified Graziers Program offered in the region. Team members will include five Iowa cow-calf producers and representatives from several ISU academic departments, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Jim Russell is a professor in the ISU Department of Animal Science. He was raised on a mixed livestock farm near Wilmot, Wisconsin. He obtained his B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in meat and animal science and dairy science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been an ISU faculty member for 30 years with a research and teaching appointment.
Email: jrussell@iastate.edu
Diane Debinski, ISU Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
Patrick Gunn, Dan Morrical and Jim Reecy, ISU Animal Science
Mark Honeyman, ISU Research and Demonstration Farms
Lee Schulz, ISU Economics
Joe Sellers, ISU Extension and Outreach