IDEAS Crop and Livestock Integration Project

Specialization of livestock and crop production has led to rapid gains in farm productivity, efficiency, and the supply of abundant affordable food. However, the long-term sustainability of specialized farming systems has come under increased scrutiny. Concerns include challenges with declining soil health, reduced resilience to extreme weather, nutrient losses into ground and surface waters, loss of biodiversity and habitat, and growing societal pressure to reduce the water and greenhouse gas footprint from agriculture.

A growing number of farmers are interested in reintegration of livestock into cropping systems but need better research-based information to guide their decisions.

In this project we collected on-farm data from 31 farms that utilize a range of approaches to crop-livestock integration. Through on-farm sampling and interviews we are quantifying the environmental and economic outcomes associated with these different approaches.

The 31 farms in the study included 86 focus fields spread across eight different Ohio counties (Wayne, Holmes, Ashland, Stark, Mercer, Shelby, Darke, and Auglaize counties). Through data review meetings, one-on-one interviews and discussions, and public field days, we are working with area farmers to identify the most promising crop-livestock management systems that can balance economic and environmental objectives.

We expect continued societal concerns about sustainability and growing shortages and rising prices for crop production inputs (especially fertilizer) will lead to policy and market shifts that will incentivize greater crop-livestock integration. We want to help farmers prepare for that future. Based on our research and interactions with farmers, we will develop extension materials and recommendations to help with future decision making.

Project Objectives

• Quantify the diverse environmental outcomes associated with each approach to livestock-crop integration under working farm conditions
• Identify the economic performance and other factors that influence the adoption of each approach on representative regional livestock and cash grain farms
• Develop whole farm models to quantify the environmental and socioeconomic tradeoffs and synergies associated with each approach to livestock-crop integration
• Use a participatory on-farm approach throughout to better inform the research and guide the development of relevant and impactful extension/outreach outputs 

Key Project Outcomes

Data analysis continues on this study, but below are a few key findings so far.  

• Several key soil health characteristics improved with manure use and even more so with the use of perennial crops as part of the crop rotation. 

• The use of perennials and/or manure were the most influential factors improving soil biological health measures even when controlling for variation in other factors such as tillage, use of cover crops, or manure application rates. 

• Read more about our soil health findings here. 

• Manure application rates varied from 3,500 to 20,000 gallons per acre for slurry manure and from 3 to 30 tons per acre for solid manure. Nutrient content varied depending on storage type. 

• Most available benchmark values for estimated manure nutrient content were overestimated compared to the average values we saw in this study. More information pending. 

• Farmers identified several key obstacles to using manure and perennials. In light of our study results, addressing common obstacles when possible could improve soil health in Ohio. Our team will also share suggestions and ideas from our farmer participant in the coming months. 

This work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), Inter-Disciplinary Engagement in Animal Systems (IDEAS) grant program, grant no. 2021-68014-34142, “Comparing the Environmental Tradeoffs and Synergies of Alternative Modes of Integrating Livestock into Cash Grain Cropping Systems.”