At the Public Sector Breakout, chaired by Mr. Rob DeClue, we addressed the need of getting out letters of support on several worthy programs and discipline areas. Below is the list of items needing letters of support:
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Pro-Dairy at Cornell University - to NY Dept. of Ag. and the Governor’s Office
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Integrated Pest Management
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Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative - to NE Congressional Delegation
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Grassland (Grazing) Specialists - primarily to NRCS
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Farmland Preservation/Grassland Reserve Program - to NE Congressional Delegation
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Grazing Lands studies - LGU Colleges of Agriculture
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Forage Agronomists - LGU Colleges of Agriculture and ARS
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Animal Nutritionists (continued pasture nutrition work) - LGU Colleges of Agriculture
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Applied Pasture Research - LGU Colleges of Agriculture; on-going effort needed with producer groups.
Items needing attention to keep the Northeast Pasture Consortium financially viable:
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Seek out grant opportunities - document Consortium’s ability to provide in-kind contributions.
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Additional funding sources from NRCS, NIFA, possibly from agribusinesses with a vested interest, such as Organic Valley.
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Garner Policymaker involvement and support
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Garner Consumer involvement and support
At the Private Sector Breakout Session, chaired by Dr. Rachel Gilker, much discussion was engendered by the list of pasture related research projects that was handed out. The private producers wanted the research project titles to be stated in more layman’s terms. Some titles were also too general so that almost any research work could be justified under that title whether or not the work was really targeting what needed to be done most, or was just a project of scientific curiosity.
In the outreach efforts of the Northeast Pasture Consortium, there was interest in updating the Consortium’s website. There was concern that our current site has not had many people using it. Perhaps there was a way to format it; to make it easier to navigate the website and more quickly find things of interest. The producers also wanted a new brochure published to use as outreach to pasture-based farmers so that they knew the Northeast Pasture Consortium existed. This brochure would tell them who we were and what we did, and give our website address. It would also be an invitation to join the Northeast Pasture Consortium so that our Private Sector membership could grow and gain new insights from these new members. A draft copy of the brochure was handed out at the Annual Meeting.