The Importance of Social Support and Communities of Practice: Farmer Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities of Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems on Organically Managed Farms in the Northern U.S.

Abstract

Most U.S. farms today specialize in either crop or livestock production, failing to harness the potential economic and environmental benefits of integrated crop–livestock systems (ICLS). This specialization is particularly contradictory for organic operations, which aim to promote biodiversity and reduce reliance on outside sources of feed and fertility. This study investigated the challenges and opportunities experienced by farmers interested in integrating crops and livestock on organically managed farms in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Qualitative methods, including focus groups and interviews, generated four categories of challenges: farming norms, complexity of management, biophysical conditions, and financial costs, and four categories of opportunities: increasing support for ICLS, financial and labor advantages, biophysical improvements, and animal welfare. Discussion of the data analysis demonstrates how most of the challenges of ICLS are mitigated by opportunities. For instance, increasing support for ICLS means there are growing communities of practice in which farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange and peer support overcome obstacles to success in these systems. Unmitigated challenges that are beyond the control of farmers include regional infrastructure, financing and insurance, and long time horizon for returns. These three unmitigated challenges may require interventions such as policy support, economic incentives and social infrastructure to enable successful farm transitions to ICLS in this region.

The German Permaculture Community from a Community of Practice Perspective

“…CoPs are a prominent concept to describe the social and cultural dimensions of innovation and knowledge creation [31]. They are promoted for their ability to support the creation of a shared meaning and collective identity as well as to facilitate social learning processes and the shaping of social practices [23,24,[31][32][33][34].…”

Nutrient Cycling in Organic Field Crops in Canada and the United States

“…A typical rotation on a US Midwest organic grain farms is maize–soybean–oat ( Avena sativa L.)–alfalfa (Delate et al, 2013), which would have the greatest applicability in an integrated crop‐livestock system, where animal feed and bedding could be derived from the hay and small grain crops in the rotation. However, the feasibility of an organic grain farm incorporating livestock can be limited by labor and economic constraints of mixed crop and livestock operations, even though certified organic regulations emphasize the use of on‐farm sources of fertility (Hayden et al, 2018; USDA AMS NOP, 2019).…”

Yield, nutritional quality, and fatty acid content of organic winter rye (Secale cereale) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) forages under cattle (Bos taurus) grazing conditions

“…The herd was part of a crossbreeding program established in 2000, as described by Heins et al [16]. A sociological component of the current study detailed specific obstacles related to integrating crops and livestock as identified by producers over the course of the project, and reported increasing support for integrated crop-livestock systems resulting in growing communities of practice in which farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange and peer support overcome obstacles to success in these systems [17].…”