Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Northeast Pasture Consortium Annual Meeting Business Meeting Minutes, February 2, 2011 Ramada Conference Center & Inn, State College, PA Meeting was called to order by the Co-Chairs of the Public and Private Sector, Stephen Herbert and Clyde Bailey, respectively at 3:30 PM. Margaret Smith, Administrative Advisor for the Northeast Pasture Consortium, NEERA 1000 Project of the Northeast Agricultural Experiment Station Directors Association, addressed the members attending the meeting over speaker phone. She said the Consortium Executive Director, James Cropper, had submitted a proposal in September 2010 to renew the Consortium project for another 5 years, from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2016. This had been accepted, and time was of the essence for members to submit their Appendix E information to show the amount of research and extension support the Consortium project has. The project was to be formally approved as a renewed project at the next meeting of the Agricultural Experiment Station Directors on March 22-23, 2011. Therefore, there was some urgency in getting Appendix E's submitted before March 22. The election of a Private Sector member and a Public Sector member to the Northeast Pasture Consortium as members-at-large was the next order of business. Tom Akin, Agronomist and GLCI Coordinator, USDA-NRCS, at Amherst, MA was nominated and seconded to be the Public Sector member-at-large for 2011. Nominations were closed and he was unanimously elected to serve. The Private Sector had not been able to come up with a person to accept the nomination at the meeting as the ice and snow storm had kept their attendance low. A motion and a second to refer the nomination and election of the Private Sector member-at-large to the Executive Committee was received. Every-one voted in favor of the motion to refer the nomination and election of the Private Sector member-at-large to the Executive Committee. (Joe Hatton, beef and sheep producer, from Morgantown, WV, was nominated and elected by the Executive Committee, prior to their February 24 teleconference to be the Private Sector member-at-large.) Other business was the next order of business. There being no old business, new business was brought to the floor. A proposal to work on producing a new website for the Northeast Pasture Consortium was brought to the floor by Angus Johnson. The old website was not getting very many visitors. He thought the web address was not intuitive enough so people were not finding it. Ed Rayburn had checked into finding a domain that was not currently being used. The grazing guide domain was available. Sarah Goslee, ecologist, USDA-NRCS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit at University Park, PA, has webmaster experience and volunteered to work on the new website as a part of ARS outreach efforts. Clyde Bailey made a motion that the Executive Committee come up with a new name for the Consortium's website and purchase the domain by their February 24th teleconference. Bill Ireland, Private Sector member, seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The next new business was a letter of support from the Northeast Pasture Consortium to the New Department of Agriculture and the NY Governor's Office to support Pro-Dairy and integrated pest management (IPM) programs that are in jeopardy of being defunded or cut drastically. Karen Hoffman made the motion for the letter of support to be written by the Consortium and delivered by NY farmer members. Angus Johnson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. As the last order of business, James Cropper, Executive Director, thanked the outgoing Executive Committee members, Gabriel Clark, Private Sector Past Co-Chair, and Karen Hoffman, Public Sector Past Co-Chair, for their great efforts in assisting the Executive Committee over the past 4 years. He welcomed Tom Akin to the Executive Committee. Rachel Gilker was announced as the 2011-2012 Private Sector Co-Chair and Jill Ott was announced as the 2011-2012 Public Sector Co-Chair. There being no other business to come before the Northeast Pasture Consortium, the meeting was adjourned.

1. A request to renew the Northeast Pasture Consortium as a project of the Northeast Agricultural Experiment Station Directors Association for another 5 years commencing October 2011 was submitted to the Directors in March of 2010. They approved the request and asked for a proposal to renew. The proposal to renew was completed on August 31, 2010. Notification of approval for a 5-year extension by the Northeast Region was received on April 5, 2011. The new project number for the Northeast Pasture Consortium is NEERA1003. 2. Mr. Angus Johnson, Chairperson of the Stakeholder Action Committee, made two trips to Washington to meet with USDA people and congressional staffers and members. 3. Two newsletters were published, one in July and another in November of 2010, and distributed primarily as attachments to emails to all of the membership. 4. The 2011 Annual Meeting of the Consortium was held on February 1-2 at the Ramada Inn and Conference Center at State College, PA. It was held at the start of the PASA Sustainable Agriculture Conference that began on February 2 with workshops. Seventy people attended the annual meeting. Several people had to cancel at the last minute as snow and freezing rain fell on the eve and first day of the annual meeting. It was a challenge to some speakers as well, but with their dedication and some time adjustments or use of the speaker phone and long distance conferencing the program was able to continue without loss of content. 5. The proceedings of the 2011 annual meeting including power point slides and handouts and speaker biographical sketches are cued up to be put on the Consortium website, Northeast Grazing Guide, for post-meeting access. 6. The Northeast Grazing Guide website for the Consortium is in the midst of changing from the old site: http://www.umaine.edu/grazingguide/ to the new site: http://grazingguide.net/. Currently both sites can be accessed while the new site is being built. Richard Kersbergen, Extension Specialist of the University of Maine has been our long time webmaster and we thank him for his great efforts over the past several years. Sarah Goslee of Agricultural Research Service Research Unit at University Park, PA is our webmaster at the new site. 7. Angus Johnson headed up the effort to put a brochure together on the Northeast Pasture Consortium to introduce grass-based farmers around the Northeast to what the Consortium is and what it does. He felt it was time another brochure was put together to build more awareness among grass-based farmers in the Northeast that the Consortium exists to help them remain viable producers of food and fiber. The final proof was ready on March 21, 2011. The brochure will be available at Extension and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices around the Northeast. 8. The letter of support written in 2010 for a OARDC NIFA planning grant proposal entitled Environmental Sustainability of Organic Farming Systems: On-Farm, Experimental, and Watershed Assessments submitted by ARS North Appalachian Experimental Watershed at Coshocton, OH bore fruit. The grant proposal was approved and James Cropper, Executive Director of the NEPC, participated in the planning meeting held October 26-27, 2010. 9. USDA planning grant proposal submitted by Dr. Andre Brito of the University of New Hampshire (NIFA/USDA Grant #2010-01932, Research And Extension Needs Assessment Of The Organic Dairy Industry In The Northeast) was funded. The Consortium had written a letter of support in 2010 for this proposal at Andre's request. 10. Sent out an email alert on May 17 to all Northeast Pasture Consortium members on "NIFA Seeking Public Comment on Fiscal Year 2011 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative". The National Institute on Food and Agriculture held a public hearing in Washington DC on June 2, 2010 to hear comments from the public for the 2011 fiscal year on how they should proceed with developing the Initiative. 11. Sent out an email alert on June 3, 2010 to all Northeast Pasture Consortium members on "2010 Organic Transitions (ORG) RFA released Friday May 21". This announced the request for applications for proposals that support the development and implementation of research, extension and higher education programs to improve the competitiveness of organic livestock and crop producers, as well as those who are adopting organic practices. Focus in 2010 was on environmental services provided by organic farming systems that support soil conservation and contribute to climate change mitigation. 12. Sent out an email alert to NEPC member NRCS and Extension specialists on June 4, 2010 about a Penn State workshop "Reading the Farm- A Workshop for Agricultural Educators" to be held in August 2010. 13. Sent out an email alert on June 10, 2010 to all Northeast Pasture Consortium members on "Final Rules of Significance for the NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program". 14. Email alert on July 19, 2010 to the Northeast Pasture Consortium Stakeholders Action Committee about a sign-on letter with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition asking Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to not cut EQIP funding or the Farmland Conservation Easement program funds to pay for programs in the Child Nutrition Act. 15. Dianne Odland of Agricultural Research Service in Washington, DC contacted James Cropper, Executive Director, to set up a news article update protocol of current research being done by ARS that address Northeast Pasture Consortium research needs. ARS information staff person, Donald Comis, sends updates as news article of interest to the Consortium come on-line. These are passed along in a timely fashion either in the Consortium's newsletter or as email alerts. 16. Teleconferences are held monthly by the Executive Committee to plan the next annual meeting and address other issues that come up during the year, such as the assault on raw milk sales occurring in MA and elsewhere in the US, and other actions required to guide pasture-based agriculture in a manner most suitable for the Northeast US. 17. Raw milk support letter was prepared by Dr. Rachel Gilker, Private Sector member of the Consortium's Executive Committee. This was reviewed by the full committee and handed out at the 2011 Annual Meeting. This is to be distributed to concerned citizens, legislators, and to regulatory agencies that oversee milk safety standards. 18. Letter sent in March 2011 to Ohioan US Congress members by the Executive Director to rally support to reinstate the budget for the ARS North Appalachian Experimental Watershed at Coshocton, OH. President Obama's 2012 Budget for USDA has slated it for closure in October. 19. An email alert from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition was forwarded in August, 2010 to the Stakeholder Committee on "A Level Playing Field for Farmers and Ranchers". A hearing by the the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock was being held to review new USDA proposed rules to restore competition and contract fairness in livestock and poultry markets. 20. Sent out news alert to all Consortium members to assist the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's efforts to get support for the Tester amendment to the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) bill so that small vendors and farmers are not barred from selling produce, milk, and meat locally or over-regulated to the point that they are effectively barred from doing so. 21. Sent out 2 email alerts to the Consortium's private sector farmers from the National Coalition of Sustainable Agriculture concerning legislative debate on Food Safety Senate Bill 510 that was to occur starting November 17, 2010 and sending in comments on USDAs Proposed Rule for the Packers & Stockyards Act by November 22, 2010. 22. Sent letter of support from the Consortium to Dr. Andre Brito on a NE SARE research proposal Improving Net Profit of Organic Dairies in the Northeast Through Reduced Grain Inputs. 23. New letter of support sent on January 24, 2011 to Dr. Diane Van Hekken of Wyndmoor, PA ARS Research Unit research project proposal for an OREI grant entitled Impact of Seasonal Changes in Animal Feed on the Biologically Active Compounds in Milk from Organic Dairy Herds that address Consortium private-sector member research priorities. 24. Support letter to Andre Brito on February 8, 2011 supporting his proposal for an OREI grant from NIFA entitled Assisting Organic Dairy Producers to Meet the Demands of New and Emerging Milk Markets. 25. Rachel Gilker and Dr. Ed Rayburn, Executive Committee members, attended and participated in the March 15-17, 2011 ARS National Program 215: Rangeland, Pasture, and Forages Customer workshop hosted by Dr. Evert Byington in Denver, CO. The workshop was used to gather customer input into what research needs to be addressed on grazing lands and forage cropland for the next 5 years by ARS.

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