Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Business Meeting

1. Nominations for hosting: Shelby Gruss put in a motion for having the meeting in Tennessee. Dirk Philipp seconded. Renata Oakes indicated that timing might be important– early June was suggested as a better time due to the heat. Motion passed.
2. Nominations for secretary: Shelby Gruss was nominated by Marisol Berti. Dirk Philipp makes a motion in support, Renata Oakes seconds. Motion passes.
3. Peter Ballerstedt indicated that the first full week of June is the international rangeland congress in Adelaide, Australia. We will look into June dates that avoid the time conflict.
4. Renewal: Discussion about renewal of the NCCC31 (Ecophisiology Aspects of Forages Management) project.
   • Last Spring, an email was sent to official member about the interest in renewal.
   • The point person for renovation will be Bill Lamp. Bill Lamp also led the discussion about the renewal.
   • Project title: will remain the same.
   • Objectives: will remain the same, and we are currently not planning on changing the objectives.
   • What projects might group participants work on in the future? Word cloud indicates management (nutrient, variety, species choice) are most important themes. Integration of animals comes up as well, which can be challenging as the NCCC31 group has been traditionally kept separated from animals. Other important themes are ecosystem and resilience.

1. Management theme includes: prairie restoration, cover crops, soil health, winter hardiness for alfalfa.
2. Ecosystem theme includes: impact of climate, evaluation of animal health, beneficial biodiversity, GHG emissions. seems to agree with RFA.
3. Animal science theme includes: grazing, animal nutrition
4. Other: research, teaching, and extension: opportunity to create course and course materials.
5. The group agrees on the importance of continuing to integrate research, teaching, and extension.
6. Membership: USDA can join by contacting NCCC office directly. Extension educators are eligible case-by-case.

• Timeline
  1. 15 September: request renew committee
  2. Between 15 September – 15 October – upload issues and justification
  3. 15 October: upload the objectives. After this, everyone has to rejoin the system
  4. By December 1^st, proposal must be submitted
• Content questions and discussion
  1. Stakeholder involvement: input from the stakeholder is not in the language, but there is an expectation of stakeholder involvement.
  2. Each AES needs to define the objective you plan to wrk on/contribute to.
  3. Previous proposal: the group used to send their annual reports in advance (before the in-person annual meeting), but that was abandoned during the pandemic. There will be one template for all state reports in 30 days after the meeting so that the secretary has time to submit the final report.
  4. Discussion: How will we work together to identify new funding sources on research or teaching grants? Internship grant will be added. Expansion of RCAP to other grants. After RCAP ends, we will do some continuation (Picasso)? Juan suggested PFAS survey? Guojing suggested brainstorming for 30 min to get new ideas.
• Writing committee: we must establish it this year. Mark Sulc used to run this, and when leading the committee, he would always share its progress with the whole group setting the example for what we plan to continue doing. Current committee (lead by Bill Lamp) is composed by: Juan Romero, Amanda Grev, Shelby Gruss, Dirk Philipp, Marisol Berti.
• At renewal, the default is that we will continue as a coordinating committee. This will only change if we change the objectives to a point that will be interpreted by reviewers as better fit to a different group. Bill Lamp raised the question that we could/should include animals in Objective 2 (“physiological and ecological aspects…”). We need to search for other committees to see if there is any other committee that has overlap. There is one other committee with nutrient soil and one on forage production with a focus on animals). They are both active (#1181 and 1182).
• Peter asked for order. Picasso motions to end business meeting; Peter seconds, all say I. Motion passes.

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Farmer panel: Sustainable and resilient food production and education

Lynn Kortba (Harvest Hope Farm, Moorhead, MN). Website: https://www.harvesthopefarm.org/. Lynn Kortba talked about the start of the educational program run by her and her husband, both previously involved with education initiatives (she as a psychologist; her husband as a school administrator). They host children (K-12) over the summertime in various types of programs, where they care for animals and can choose and care for their own vegetables. The Harvest Hope Farm also cares for sheep used for scientific trials on human health – with a focus on Huntington’s Disease.

Noreen Thomas (Doubting Thomas Farm, Moorhead, MN). Website: https://doubtingthomasfarms.com/. During her presentation, Noreen talked about the evolution of the Thomas Farm – from conventional to organic production. She also talked about the various initiatives lead by the farm, including pulling together resources and products to get a better selling price. She also indicated there is a new generation of farmers starting their work in the state in MN and ND, who have little to no experience on day-to-day operations associated to running a farm business. Noreen has had a leadership role particularly among women, organizing meetings to put new-comers and experienced farmers in contact for mutual support.  

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Tuesday – August 13

8:00-8:30 USDA NIFA Diomedes Zamora (zoom)

8:30-9:00 Alex Wittenberg, NRCS, North Dakota

9:00-9:20 Marisol Berti, ND

9:20-9:40 David Hannaway, OR

9:40-10:00 Peter Ballerstedt, Grass Based Health (PA)

10:00-10:20 Alex Mammana, OH

10:40-11:00 Guojie Wang, PA

11:00-11:20 John Guretzky, NE

11:20-11:40 Amanda Grev, MD

11:40-12:00 Kim Cassida, MI