FARMING SYSTEMS
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute- East Troy, Wisconsin
Our Farm
We rent and steward 1,000 acres from 7 landowners. The goal is to research and demonstrate the complex issues around land preservation, stewardship and tenure from a holistic perspective. Rental agreement, marketing agreements, lease-hold improvements and the balance of nutrient removal rates to economic benefit are all parts of the same system that must be sustainable.
Quinney Farm
Located between Delavan and Elkhorn, the Quinney farm is a typical 160 acre retired dairy farm. The owners wish to spare the farm from development and honor the soil that fed their family for over 150 years. Working with several departments in the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural Life Sciences, we have "linked" the farm to others in the community to ensure a sustainable restoritive farm. That is an economic enterprise that builds rathar than depletes soils.
Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trials (WISCT)
In the fall of 1988, a group consisting of faculty from the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural Life Sciences, agents from the Wisconsin Extension Service, agronomist from the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, and farmers came together to design WICST. The overall objective of the trial was to compare alternative production strategies with the performance criteria of productivity, profitability, and environmental impact. Concomitant with this technical objective was the decision to develop the trial in a "Learning Center" environment, where all the members of the community could learn about agroecology / production agriculture and where the two can meet.
Resources
Farming Systems links, publications and manuals.
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is a public, non-profit institute for education and research in sustainable agriculture, which admits students of any race, color and national or ethnic origin.
