“Living On The Land”

A “Sustainable” Course For Small-

Acreage Landowners!”

Small Acreage Success StoriesLiving on the Land Workshop

Bozeman, MontanaJuly 22 - 24, 2008

Dr. Kevin M. Laughlin, Boise, ID

What you’ll learn today

Embrace a “Tool Box” as a visual representation of what participants can accomplish at LOL Workshop.Gain an understanding the “Success Story” of one LOL graduate…Mary Rohlfing & Morning Owl Farm (enterprises) in Boise, Idaho. Introduce and gain appreciation for “Systems Thinking” required for success in a small-acreage enterprise.

What you’ll learn today

Relate to support systems, cultural practices (equipment, animal manures, composting, weeds and pest management, etc) community networks, and marketing efforts key to the “Success Story”. Gain awareness about “Other Successful Outcomes” (land stewardship, wildlife, real estate, market gardening, animal, value added, and pastures as enterprises) associated with the Idaho Living on the Land program 2002-2008.

What you’ll learn today

Reference tools highlighted, success story web sites, and other selected info.Have fun in a community learning environment!

Treasure ValleySouthwestern Idaho

                                

        

                                     

   

Treasure

Valley

As Treasure Valley urbanizes, agricultural educators adapt03:31 PM MDT on Monday,

September 18, 2006Associated Press

NAMPA -- A generation ago, students in the fast-growing Boise metropolitan area learned how to build a barn, feed a cow and mend a fence. But nowadays, as the Treasure Valley grows, agriculture education is giving way to urban-oriented classes.

Many schools, like Columbia High in Nampa, are teaching classes like golf course maintenance and floral design in the agriculture programs. Courses more suited for suburban sprawl than sprawling ranges.

But some teachers say as they adapt they teach children about the social effects of disappearing farms.

One teacher at Middleton High School says he tell children that it's a shame to "cover the land with cement parking lots."

Subdivisions Sprawl Into Idaho FarmlandsIdaho | Land Use

24 June 2005 - 8:00am How agriculture is changing in Idaho's Treasure Valley region where farms are giving way to new surburban development."The valley's transformation is bittersweet for longtime residents who now enjoy the increased cultural, entertainment and shopping opportunities as well as more jobs and housing that come with a growing population and booming development. But many also mourn the loss of open space, empty roads and solitude unique to rural and agricultural areas. Farmers face similar contradictions. "

Treasure ValleyThe biggest group of newcomers to

the Treasure Valley hails from ... Idaho

By: Kathleen Kreller and Cynthia SewellPublication: Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID)

Published: 02/18/2007

Coffee-shop talk, Internet bloggers and letters to the editors blame "McMansions," traffic snarls and urban sprawl on Californians moving to

Idaho. But the "Californication" of the Treasure Valley, the region in southwestern Idaho which

includes the five-county Boise Metropolitan Area, should more accurately be pinned on

people from ... Idaho. The region, which contains both urban and rural areas, is different

things to different people. While many rural Idahoans move to the Treasure Valley for jobs and an urban lifestyle, many out-of-staters are

escaping big-city headaches.

The Land Trust of the Treasure Valley’s mission is to

create opportunities for conserving the natural,

scenic, recreational, historic and agricultural values of

southwestern Idaho’s open spaces through collaborative efforts for current and future

generations.

Emerging Issue: Growth

An 18 week program for people interested in becoming

better stewards of the land!

Living on the Land

To enrich education through diversity the University of Idaho is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and educational institution, University of Idaho,

Oregon State University, Rutgers University, Western SARE, 50 + partners and U. S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating.

Living n the Land*Stewardship for Small Acreages

Authors: Susan Donaldson, UNCE; Holly George, UCCE; Bob Hamblen, CSUCE; Melody Hefner, UNCE; Susie Kocher, UCCE;

David Martin, MT DNRC; Bruce Miller, USU; Rhonda Miller, USU; Hudson Minshew, OSUES; Douglas Stienbarger, WSUCE; Sherman Swanson, UNR; Cinda Williams, UICES; Wendy

Williams, MT NRCS

Funded by a grant from the Western RegionSustainable Agriculture Research and Education

ProgramCopyright 2001, University of Nevada Cooperative

Extension/WSARE

To order Contact: Sue Donaldson, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, P.O. Box 11130, Reno, NV 89520

(775) 784-4848 (phone) (775) 784-4881 (fax)

LOTL Idaho Objectives

Participants will:

1. Identify the role land-use has in shaping the physical and social interactions in their community.

2. Inventory own land resources and those land changes that occurred in their community the last 5 years.

3. Understand renewable and nonrenewable soil, water, plant, and animal resources.

4. Debate sustainability issues.5. Explore how their choices have affected land use,

lifestyle, and the environment.

LOTL Idaho Objectives

Participants will:

6. Raise skill levels in five basic core competency areas. 7. Increase understanding and technical expertise

related to managing their small acreage. 8. ID Best Management Practices, to implement on their

acreages.9. Complete LOTL stewardship activities (soil, water &

forage tests) developed for the course.10. Learn, plan, and act on stewardship knowledge in

their community!

Applying a “systems” approachSystem: a group of interacting, System: a group of interacting, interdependent elements that function interdependent elements that function together as a complex unified wholetogether as a complex unified whole

www.unesco.org

04/18/23 14

A “systems thinker”:

Seeks to understand the "big picture”

Observes how elements within systems change over time, generating patterns and trends

How Do You Define

Success?

LIVING ON THE LANDSTEWARDSHIP FOR SMALL

ACERAGES

SUCCESS WITH CSA, DUCKS & A FARM STAND

•Mary Rohlfing is the owner and farmer of a bustling 8-acre farm located at the base of the Boise Foothills. •After four years, Rohlfing says she is not so much growing produce or raising critters, but creating soil.

MORNING OWL PRODUCT

48 member CSA – VEGGIES, HERBSFARM STAND – LOCAL FOODSDUCK EGGS; TURKEYSVALUE ADDED PRODUCTSCOMMUNITYCONVIENIENCENETWORKING FAMILY

Keys to Success: Support NetworksFormal & Informal

Support Networks Formal: • Rural Roots (Board Member) 2004 – 2008; • Idaho’s Bounty Joined 2008; • Mary hosts Zamzow’s Radio Program 2 x

per month; “They also give me an employee discount!”

• Farm Bureau provides my insurance; • Grasmick Produce supplies Farm Stand;• I use Craig’s List to buy straw and have

sold ducks on it a couple of times.

Keys to Success: Support NetworksFormal & Informal

Support Networks In-formal: Boise Co-Op; Capital City Public Market; Democratic Party; 30 years of being a good neighbor; Healthwise a local non-profit; I speak at their wellness lunches annually and they have 213 people. This is a Thirty three year old organization…it is one of 15 top small workplaces in the country (Wall street journal) in 2008.

Keys to Success: Getting Started!

Keys to Success: Family & Friends!

Keys to Success: Use “GAP” Good Agricultural Practices

Keys to Success: Marketing

Keys to Success: Support Networks, APPRENTICES…SARE…LOL

9 Apprentices…Western Farmer/Rancher SARE Grant 3 years – Ducks…$15,000.00. Success related to Teaching Cultivating Success & Living on the Land in the Treasure Valley (2005-2008 LOL; Cultivating Success 2006, 2007& Fall 2008).

OBSERVATIONS

Mary has been successful because she has been eclectic in designing and taking on various enterprises to make her farm successful. She has tried or considered 20 + enterprises to make work on her farm…she is not afraid to change and be responsive to individual, circumstances and the market.

Do

ReflectApply

Experiential Learning Model

1EXPERIENCE

the activity;perform, do it

2SHAREthe results,

reactions, and observations

publicly

3PROCESSby discussing, locking at the experience;

analyze, reflect

4GENERALIZE

to connect theexperience to

real worldexamples

5APPLY

what was learnedto a similar or

different situation;practice

OBSERVATIONS

Mary has multiple tools in her tool box that come from the traditional farming community (Farm Bureau, Grasmick Produce),

emerging technologies (Craig’s list, the internet, a

web site, e-mail) a community of lifelong learners, formal networks (Rural Roots, Idaho’s

Bounty, Local Harvest, Idaho Preferred) and informal networks of friends she has made over 30 years in the valley.

OBSERVATIONS

Mary is a Leader; she contributes to the board of Rural Roots, teaches Cultivating Success and LOL and volunteers within the community.She is Service Provider, serving lower and upper middle class clientele with disposable income. She shows genuine and Authentic interest in her customer’s, their lives…”so what will you do for the fourth” or “Come over here and get a hug!”

OBSERVATIONS

Mary is Intentional about cultivating customers and asked all new customers for their e-mail address during the observation period.Mary is a Practical Steward of the land and uses the best practices to grow “SOIL”, product, nurture animals, and cultivate community.

 

Other Successes with…

LIVING ON THE LANDSTEWARDSHIP FOR SMALL

ACERAGES

Living On The Land: A “Sustainable” Course For Land Stewardship & Wildlife!

Living On The Land: A “Sustainable” Course For Real Estate Professionals!

A NETWORK For: Farm Stands & Beekeeping

SpyGlass GardensLocal ProduceCo-Op SalesVeggiesFruitsFlowersPumpkin PatchClasses

A Resource to Manage A Few Acres, Pasture for 2 horses, and a steer just for the family.

Developed By:Jonathan Demcak, Moriah Farms Ron Kelley, Kelley OrchardsToby Green, Nutra-Vet Nutritionals, Kevin Laughlin, U of I Extension

Marketing Your Farm Produce

Ways & Means to a Sustainable Enterprise!

A Network For: Organic Growers, CSAs & Farmers Market Members!

175 CSA MembersTwo FarmsInternsFarmers MarketEggs, Chickens & Cherries

A Network With: Old Family Businesses Reborn

75 Year Old Greenhouse Two SitesNurseryFarmers Market on Tuesday w/ Entertainment Geothermal Heat

You need a tool box that fits your ideas & community. It will be different and unique…LOL can help you help others find success!

What LOL graduates say

Sustainable Living …I just have a better handle on managing my place, we grow our own food, share time with my family. Now I know what I don’t know and where to find it…..in the resource set that LOL provides…even six years later.

Knowledge ChangeKnowledge Change

New local foods networks of people.New life and enterprise skills gained. Demonstrated and participated in exemplary land stewardship approaches.

Behavioral ChangeBehavioral Change

Improved fertilization, irrigation and weed management practicesIncreased well & septic system careImproved grazing managementSystems thinking by LOL Alumni related to land management, family and communities.

Economic ChangeEconomic Change

More precise use of resources for fertilization, chemical weed control and livestock feeding. Increased produce sales at Farmers Market, on-farm and value- added products (doggie cookies)

Environmental ChangeEnvironmental Change

Improved water quality due to:Less fertilizer and chemical run offImproved erosion control

Improved soil fertility practicesReduce spread of weeds (noxious & “obnoxious”)

Social, Civic ChangeSocial, Civic Change

Adoption of sustainable agricultural practicesIncreased production & consumption of local produce and productsNeighborhood weed management approaches adopted around Alumni sites.

Don’t panic!It is not unusual to modify your goals and ideas of SUCCESS as this workshop proceeds…

UNCE, Reno, NV

Summary…

1.There are successes in every community Have A Clear Purpose for your LOL program.

2.Use Available Resources (Western SARE, ATTRA, NRCS, CES, Environmental & Industry Developed Products).

3.Create a Community of Learners; Network

4.Gain appreciation for the “Systems Thinking” required for success in a small-acreage enterprise.

Summary…

5. Support Systems, Cultural practices community networks, and marketing efforts key to “Success Stories”.

6. LOTS of ways to Success (land stewardship, wildlife, real estate, market gardening, animal, value added, and pastures as enterprises) with Living on the Land program.

You’re on the road to ….

…Living on the Land