Wisconsin Graziers Identify Education and Research Needs: Native Grasses for Grazed Pastures.

Many Upper Midwestern beef and dairy farmers are adopting Management-intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG). Most of these farmers (graziers) sow non-native grasses and forbs and manage for low diversity plant assemblages. Growing interest in prairie restoration provides a unique opportunity to blend conservation efforts with agricultural production by integrating native tallgrass prairie species into grazed pastures.  Potential benefits of this approach have agronomic (improved forage quantity and seasonal distribution), ecological (increased genetic diversity and ecosystem function), and social (niche markets, promotion of farmers as land stewards) dimensions. We assessed grazier attitudes towards the use of native grasses in pastures with a written questionnaire that was reviewed by experts and pilot-tested on a small group of graziers. In March 2006, we mailed the questionnaire to 800 Wisconsin graziers. Thirty-five percent of respondents reported that they are interested in native grasses for pasture use. The most important predictor of farmer interest in native grasses was their perception of how native grasses affect the environment. Forty-five percent of farmers believe native grasses could result in better forage yields under adverse weather conditions and large percentages of farmers think there are environmental benefits to native grasses, including improved soil conditions (46%), environmental conditions (44%), and wildlife habitat (30%). However, the large majority of graziers stated that they are unfamiliar with the identification and establishment of native grasses and many consider longer establishment time (40%) and financial risk (64%) to be likely results of having native grasses. Our results show that environmental concerns are important to farmers. They also highlight the need to augment research on establishment and management of native grasses in grazing systems and to improve our understanding of how native grasses affect ecosystem services. Further efforts are needed to educate farmers about native grass identification, establishment techniques, and management issues.