NE-1041 Environment Impacts of Equine Operations Collaboration
First Meeting: October 10-11, 2009
Welcome
 Karyn Malinowski, Director of Rutgers Equine Science Center
o Equine Science Center – only science based research center in NJ dedicated to the study
of horses
 Ryders Lane Farm – demonstration of working horse farm, showcases best
environmental management practices
 Website: http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/
 Brad Hillman Director of NJ Agriculture Experiment Station &
o Administrative Advisor of NE-1041 Regional Project
o NJ Agriculture Experiment Station: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/
Objectives of Projected Project
 View PowerPoint slides for specific details
1. Better quantify feeding, management, and stored manure characteristics on horse farms in
order to determine effects on soil, water, and air
 Are we overfeeding nutrients? If so, what are the effects on soil, water, etc?
2. Evaluate existing data and conduct research to better quantify environmental impacts soil
related to equine operations.
3. Evaluate existing data and conduct research to better quantify environmental impacts on water
quality measures related to equine operations.
4. Evaluate existing data and conduct research to better quantify environmental impacts on air
quality related to equine operations.
5. Integrate knowledge gained from the data into a system model to help improve best
management practices on equine operations.
 Currently do not have a model, in the process of finding one. Within the model, want to
develop management system.
Individual State Status/Projects
Rebecca Bott – S. Dakota State University
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Email: Rebecca.bot@sdstate.edu
College website:
http://www3.sdstate.edu/Academics/CollegeOfAgricultureAndBiologicalSciences/AnimalandRan
geScience/
Duties: 54% teaching, 40% extension, 6% research
Teaching – seeking to develop an Equine Major because there is such a strong interest. More
students involved in horses than in Range Major
o IDEA - Distant Learning – opportunity to gain support on creating a major
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270 in Animal Science Department
 50% Beef
 40% Equine
 Lamb & Swine are next biggest
o Also have a different department for Dairy
Equine Management Minor – total courses of 14, with 70 UG students. Range of education from
breeding and foaling to training, shoeing, driving, etc. Second largest interest wrt to species,
after beef cattle
Horse Herd – 60+ horses, including 7 breeding mares, 2 stallions, a large herd of riding gelding
and mares, and young stock
Extension – efforts working with youth groups on horsemanship projects. Co-Chair of SD small
acreage programming committee. Several small acreage in SD own 1 or more horses and have a
desire to learn more about land management, health, nutrition and the in’s and out’s of
successful equine operations.
Research – currently there isn’t any.
Collaboration – looking for new ideas of how their efforts as SD can help in your respective
programs.
Daniel Gimenez, Rutgers University, Department of Environment Sciences and Plant Diagnostic and
Soil Testing Labs, NJAES – Evaluating Environmental Impact of Horse Manure on Soil Quality
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Email: gimenez@envsci.rutgers.edu
College website: http://envsci.rutgers.edu/site/index.shtml
Purpose: view effect of horse manure on water quality
Three Objectives
o Better quantify feeding, management, and stored manure characteristics
o Evaluate existing data and conduct research to better quantify impacts on soil, water
quality, and air quality
o Integrate knowledge gained from the data into a system model to help improve best
management practices on equine operation
How samples were monitored
o Monitored physical and chemically changes in soil – sample taken one a year
o Began in 2007
o Monitored movement of water & transport of chemicals and energy through soil at the
plot scale – linked to modeling effort
o Need to use the same efforts to take water and air quality
Location
o Ryders Lane Equine Science Center farm (corn and pasture)
 More sandy soil, slope terrain
o Snyder Research and Extension farm (corn)
 More clay soil, flat terrain
Three types of test performed: fresh manure, composed manure, and control
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Measuring –
o Chemical Properties – pH, texture, CEC (cation exchange capacity), nutrients (P, K, Ca,
Mg, Cu, Mn, Zn, B, Fe), quality of organic matter in aggregates of various size (doesn’t
cost – Dr. Honsheng Liu)
 Organic Matter is being tested in Beijing
 Knowing how much organic matter is present – need to know whether it can be
decomposed in one year or it can last for longer period of time
 By end of year will have results showing different fractions of organic matter
and how much
 Sampled at two different depths
o Physical Properties – infiltration rates (suction infiltrometer), water content measured
continuously (hourly since 2007, recently increased time to test every 5 minutes) and
leachate at 0.6m
 Leachate - Below the surface has suction plates so are able to analyze for
different chemicals
Results
o As an average, fresh manures retains more water for Corn
 To figure if it is true or not, need to break info down by seasons
o As an average fresh manure also retain more water for pasture
Future Plans
o Expect to complete evaluation of experimental sites in a few years and develop final
report with recommendations
 Model of the system should be outcome of efforts so that it can be used in
other parts of the country
 Idea is to extend testing– right now only a few soil samples are tested
o Sites have potential for related studies such as transport of specific substance or
microorganisms
o Important to keep the sites active to answer more fundamental questions related to
carbon sequestration and quality
 Important as a practice to mitigate climate change
o Can create similar experiments in other parts of the country
 Not very expensive, except for the land
 Able to help in development
 Need a model
 Minnesota, Kirk Spoks, modeling of soil – good person to bring on bored
 Krishona will contact to see if interested in joining the project
o NRS is very interested in soil
 Possibilities for state and national CRG
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Stephen Komar, Rutgers University, Equine Manure Storage Methods Effect on Surface Water
Contamination & Physical and Chemical Properties
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Email: skomar@njaes.rutgers.edu
Bedding Study
o Evaluated how bedding materials impact the physical and chemical properties of equine
stall waste and to evaluate the impacts bedding materials have on chemical properties
of composted stall waste
o 21 day total
o Average cost per bedding material was taken from a variety of retailers nation wide
 Straw: $4/30 lb
 Strufex: $7.03/30 lb
 Wood Pellets: $7.32/30 lb
Composting Study
o Evaluated waste (taken from Bedding Study) to determine the influence bedding
material had on the chemical and physical properties of composting equine stall waste
Equine Manure Storage Methods Effects
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All the manure generated from the equine industry can fill Giant Stadium in 1.5 yrs
Purpose: focused on composting as a manure management strategy – to reduce volume &
increase nutrients
Material/Methods
o Three treatments – static pile, turned compost (1x wkly), covered compost (turned 1x
wkly + water)
o RCB design
o Budget: $5,000
o Total time: 110 days
o Used kiddie pools, and had 9 samples in which some were covered
o Temperature was taken ~10 min
o Slight slope in order to have water collections
o Covered piles were obtained in optimal conditions for composting
 Also added water to covered pile – once a week, when turned
Results
o Submitted for publishing to the American Society of Agriculture & Engineering
o Physical Analysis
 Bulk density, dry matter mass, volume
o Chemical Analysis
 Available P – significantly more after study
 Shows able to improve the value
 Available K
 Available N – increase in final
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Total P in runoff – drastic decrease in final
 Static pile – develop a crust over top of soil resulting that a lot of water
was coming off the pile itself.
o Bacteriological
 E.Coli
o Pile Mass – significantly more after study
o Results showed that a simple thing like covering will show that dramatic improvement
of water quality. Also able to see the difference in the water sample – a drastic color
difference between uncovered and covered piles.
o Able to be done at low budget, and be successful
Concerns
o Management takes time
o Need a larger budget
o Still need to control where manure is spread
o Off-site removal may still be the best option for many small farms
Future
o Potential for stacking projects on top of one another
o Uniformity – able to compare results better
o Next steps: add bedding in experiment
o Focus is to provide horse people with portable, quick efficient manure/compose
Carey Williams, Rutgers University, Overview of Ryders Lane Equine Science Center Demonstration
Farm
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Email: cwilliams@aesop.rutgers.edu
Duties: oversaw project and assisted with pasture section
Handed out layout of demonstration farm: Best Management Practice Demonstration Horse
Farm at Rutgers University, G.H. Cook Campus
Farm size: 30 acres
Reason for renovation is because the farms had a lot of problems. Agents would bring people to
the farm as an example of what not to do.
The farm was developed into a self-guided tour
Eight best management practice are shown throughout the farm
o Manure Strategies
o Composting Manure
o Rotational Grazing Systems
o Forage Plot Area
 Replicates as 7 different types of grasses to use for results
o Comprehension Nutrient Management Plan
o Back paddock drainage system – in development
o Construction of Under drain/Infiltration Trench
o Construction of a Infiltration swale
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Total cost: ~$500K
o Received funding from a variety of sources in CRG grant (state)
Christopher Obropta, Rutgers University, Extension Specialist in Water Resources
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Email: obropta@envsci.rutgers.edu
Website: www.water.rutgers.edu
Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) Water Resources Program was created to help provide
solutions to NJ water resources problems.
Project 1: Water Resources Programs
o Purpose: to investigate the removal rates in a bioretention basin for different pollutants
o Research focused on the bioretention basin’s reduction rate of bacteria (specifically
fecal coli form)
o Used a bench scale study of a bioretention basin, stimulated 14 storms with runoff that
varied in concentration of fecal coli (ranged from 237 million CFU/100 mL to 23.7 million
CFU/100 mL)
Project #2: Bioenvironmental Engineering Senior Design
o Purpose: for 2004 senior design students to explore different possibilities for best
management practices at the equine science center
o One of the designs was a bioretention system through two paddocks to reduce storm
water
o Another was an under drain system for one of the horse paddocks to capture roof top
runoff. Prevented the runoff from being contaminated with bacteria and prevented the
paddock from being a hazard to the horses after a rain storm due to the muddy
conditions.
EPA/NJDEP Grant
o Storm water BMP Evaluation at the Equine Science Center
o Total: 130K
o Took senior designs and bioretention project to create project – Bioretention Swale
 Had issues at first, and took two years to build. Design was reconstructed due to
cost increase.
Pending Research
o Monitoring the storm water runoff entering and exiting the bioretention swale
 Two Teledyne Isco auto-Samplers record the elevation of the run-off in the
swale during each storm and collects samples of the runoff every ½ hour
o Develop monitoring program for rain garden at the paddock
o Watershed studies – determine pollutant runoff coefficients for equine land uses;
determine the water quality impacts from horse farms, both individual farms and
collectively
o Adapting urban storm water best management practices for small horse farms in a costeffective manner
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Developing programs to encourage equine operations to adopt management practices
to better manage water quality
 Program associate goes out with farmer to fill assessment, and guides them
where to begin
Nicole Fiorellino, University of Maryland, NIIMS Environmental Impact of Horse Farms
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Works with Amy Burk (amyburk@umd.edu)
College website: http://ansc.umd.edu/index.cfm
Handed out summary of UMD current status: NIIMS Environmental Impact of Horse Farms –
Maryland State Report and summary of research: Characterizing the Use of Environmentally
Friendly Horse Pasture Management Practice in Maryland
Maryland has a statewide concern for water quality
Three Main Projects
o Mailed Survey
 Results showed that farmers understood the knowledge, but when visited farms
saw that they weren’t being practiced
 Included a postcard with survey to voluntarily give address for a field study
(below)
 Institutional approval
 Publish in Journal Soil Water Conservation
o Field Study
 Goal is to visit 50-60 farms located throughout the state and asses BMP use and
what pastures look like
 To date, have visited 30 farms and learned that the majority are not caring for
their pastures correctly
 Soil test is taken at each site – offered the results free of charge as a thank you
 Put together an information package of who they can contact with questions
o Rotational Grazing Site
 Purpose: to teach farmers techniques
 Size: 5.5 acres
 Research – looking at pasture system itself
 Vegetation cover
 Forage mass
 Animal Behavior – have gps units on horses (24hrs)
o 60% on pasture
o 40% in sacrifice lot – for water, etc
Lacking
o Collaboration among people from different sates
o Enough collaboration within the state, but not enough to gain funding
o Hoping to acquire 60 acres to replicate the current 5.5 acre Rotation Grazing Site
 Overstocking vs. understocking
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Beth Horsy, wrote a grant – 4 equine planners – go out to farms and give
recommendations on what to do to in order to build what they need
Betsy Greene, University of Vermont
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Email: betsy.greene@uvm.com
College website: http://asci.uvm.edu/equine/
Two pamphlets were handed out to describe detail of projects
o Greener pastures
o Stable Footing for your Horse: Practical strategies for high traffic area renovation
 Provides resources that gets people to be doing things for the research
 Used very creative with funding methods
Current Status: extension program – no research, but intention for research
Purpose: to help horse farmers and convince them that they are able to change thing to better
their farms
Decided to make pamphlet instead of posting on a website because if it were to be made public
would not be able to fund future projects
Krishona Martinson, University of Minnesota
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Email: krishona@umn.edu
Website: http://www.extension.umn.edu/horse/
o Has basic pasture managing fact sheets
Duties: 70% extension, 30% research, 2months teach
Current status: have not had a lot pasture research this year
Research collaboration: UMN has lot of opportunity close to campus to collaborate on projects
such composting, fertilizing, and nutrition
UMN has a variety of sources that will benefit collaborations:
o Great source for funding – $500K genomics grant – integrate extension into research
o New Equine programs – enews letter is sent monthly to horse owners
o Webinars – w/ Michigan State University
o Podcast
o Have plots that were just established – able to use a variety of ways
 Total: 1 Acre, individual plots are 10x12
Ann Winker, Penn State
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Email: aswinker@psu.edu
Website: http://www.das.psu.edu/research-extension/equine
Duties: 80% extension, 20% teaching
Handed out flyer: How green is your Farm?
o PA Equine Council Annual Meeting & Equine Issues Forum
o November 6-8, 2009
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Objectives
o Equine Nutrient and Sediment Management System - working with field test farms,
tested 23 farms, nutrient management plan
o Educate equine operators of the need to address nutrient and sediment issues and that
there are resources available to create management systems
o With the creation of this management system, staff from conservation districts, NRCS
and extension will realize the value or working with equine operations
Results - second visit to farms after changes were made
o Nitrogen was down by ~30%
o Higher % over NRC
o 13 -14% of P feed per horse, dairy was 2.7 – 75 kg
o Convinced people to feed more hay and less grain because it will decrease metabolic
health issues drastically
Equine Nutrient & Sediment Management Field Survey
o Purpose: to investigate pasture sediment loss using tools – NRCS RUSLE2, pasture
condition scoring, farm nutrient balancing, and p-indexing
 Found out RUSLE2 didn’t work
o Developed additional tools in order to evaluate the possible environmental impact
 Currently working on strategies to mitigate this impact
o Conducted regional education programs and demonstrations for the staff from
conservation districts, NRCS, extension and equine owners
Future plans
o Currently coming up with a Penn grazing score sheet because what visual results were
matching written results
Evaluation of Environment Results
o Proper management of nearly 1.17 mil pounds of nitrogen and 334, 248 pounds of P2O5
from entering the bay or its tributaries
Jennifer Weld, Penn State
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Email: jlw23@psu.edu
Department website: http://cropsoil.psu.edu/
Focus: nutrient management
Natalie Trottier, Michigan State, Department of Animal Science
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Email: trottier@msu.edu
Duties: 75% research, 25% teaching
Background: protein nutrition and metabolism of monogastric animals (pigs and horses)
Research Interest : mechanisms of protein utilization in horses and pigs from genes to manure
Michigan’s Equine Facilities
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Approximately 60 hears, Arabian breed – one of the few Arabian breeding programs in
the country – number will reduce due to budget cuts, the draft horse program is about
to disappear
o Two barns – one dedicated to research with 10 stalls (14x14)
o Equine management, riding and research program
 Welfare and behavior
 Exercise
 Adult extension
 Teach and breeding
 Collaboration with equine vet research faculty
Work Accomplished
o Nitrogen excretion and metabolism response to dietary protein intake in horses
 Focused on a concentrate feeding and kept horses at same amount of hay, drew
really good prediction that was coming from concentrate feeding
 Paper was rejected, currently working to resubmit it
 Result: excretion of nitrogen is mostly from urine
o Differential amino acid transporter abundance in the equine small and large intestine
 Purpose: to demonstrate that horse is equipped with AA transports of similar
capacity to that of small intestine, indicating the ability of hindgut to absorb
AA’s
 Used the pig model to study effect of fiber feeding on gene expression of AA
transport in hindgut
o Nitrogen utilization of grass and legume forages in Arabian geldings
o Protein digestibility of grass hay (orchard) to alfalfa hay at different harvesting times
(June, July, Aug)
 Purpose: to demonstrated that protein utilization of grass hay alone is sufficient
horse at maintenance
Proposal – Animal Agriculture Initiative – to show the impact of horse protein feeding practices
on the environment
o It is estimated that in MI alone, non-pastured horses (89900) receive an average of 1050
grams of protein per day, which corresponds to 150% of the horse protein needed and
1.578 metric tons N lost to the environment annually
o Educate horse owners on how to best match feed characteristics with the horse
physiological and protein requirement is lagging behind other livestock industries
o Critical deficits remain on fundamental understanding of forage feed protein utilization
in equines
Jill Stowe, University Kentucky
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Email: jill.stowe@uky.edu
Website: http://www.ca.uky.edu/agecon/
Duties: 60% research, 40% teaching
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Dept of Agriculture Economics – Equine Initiative
Current College Status
o New UG degree in equine science and management
o 80+ students prior to approval
o Not much research done related to environmental matters
Current projects
o Emily Plant – in marketing dept researching Carcass Disposal to determine environment
impact of six predominant methods of carcass disposal and how markets can encourage
more environmental sounds methods of disposal
o Steve Workman, Bob Coleman –
 received funding (US EPA & KY Div of Water) in ~2004, completed project in
2007
 Mud, Horses, Clean Water – BMP Demonstration Project for Suburban Horse
Owners
 Installed geotextile & crushed stone pads in high traffic areas
 Installed manure compositing units
 Installed managed stream crossing to limit animal access to water
Previous economic operations
o Can’t find any related to equine, because not nearly as populated as livestock
o Major Concern - spills, leakage of store waste, air pollution, spreading of manure
o Concerned with regulatory policies – optimal spatial organization (size of operation by #
of anima units and or # of farms within a given area)
o Optimal – maximizing social welfare (producer net benefit + consumer net benefits +/externalities)
 Rainfall Capacity
 Tax on externalities
 Scale regulation – Direct – min max facility size, indirect – per acre limit
Questions
o What issues btw equine and other livestock operation are similar?
o What issues are unique to the equine industry in terms of environmental concerns?
 Is water more or less toxic/beneficial?
 Are equine operation are often situated more closely to suburban and urban
areas?
 What type of incentives would convince an owner to undertake some cost to
improve the problem – subsidies/taxes?
Environmental Economist job
o Valuation – human welfare measure of operation
o Policy – regulation, incentives, benefits transfers
o Are BMPs cost effective – worth implementing, how to encourage
For economic analysis
o What are the pollutants of concern? Concentrations? How are they measured?
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o What are environmental impacts of run, etc, on health recreation, disease?
Suggestions
o BMPs are usually not scientifically based
o Worth the money – need to look at different angles to convince
 Incentivize individually, so that they see others are doing it
o Completed work on how people have made decisions based on impulse, if survey
component, look at how horse owners make their decisions.
 Ex. Why choose this hay over other?
Michael Westendorf
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Email: westendorf@aesop.rutgers.edu
Ongoing projects
o Horse Manure analysis by NIRS (Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy)
 Collected over 100 dry samples from NJ farms including RU animals
 Analyzed wet chemistry at DairyOne lab in Ithaca, NY
 Tested Dry Matter, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, neutral
Detergent, Gross Energy
 Analyzed by NIRS using SpectraStar 2400 at RU and at DairyOne Lab – used
Fossamatic NIRS analyzer
 Prediction equations were developed and are currently being fine-tuned to be
use in the SpectraStar 2400 at RU
o Effect of diet on nutrient excretion
 Evaluate phosphorus feeding programs in equine diets to determine effects on
manure nutrient content and stall air quality
 Horses were kept in for 16hr, out for 8hrs
 Evaluate different bedding materials including STREUfex, wood shavings, wood
composites, for stability as bedding, cost storage, and composting characteristic,
stall and storage air quality
 2 levels of phosphorous were fed to 8 horses (4 per treatment)
Future Plans
o Finish validating NIR for N, P, gross Energy and NDF
o Complete a field demonstration project to encourage horse farmers to use manure
nutrient values to determine spreading treatment for crop nutrient uptake
o Complete a research using Nitrogen instead of Phosphorous to determine nutrient
extension
o Compare excretion on different phosphorous supplement
o Prepare education material for NJ farmers about feeding management
o Recently received a Conservation Incentive Grant to help validate a feeding
management program for use by the USDA-NRCS
Additional sources provided in folder:
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Equine Nutrient M References
Literature Review on the Environmental Impacts of Equine Operations
Agricultural Waster Management Practices – A guide for NJ livestock farms
Breakout groups
Pasture Management
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Carey, Betsy, Kirshona, Ann
Paper planning to develop: “Horse Pasture Interaction for a Healthy Environment: a review”
o Tailored to environment aspect
o Suggested journals: JEVS
o Intro: build the problem, issues
o Lots of fact sheets and regulations made without the science
 Animal units and stocking density
o Existing Research: compiling list, need assistant
 Look in other species, but focus on the horse
o Future Research Directions: Where the holes are, where do we think we need to go. Put
out there so that other researchers can use the resources
o Not an agronomy review, don’t need to tell people how to control weeds, toxic plants,
etc – not pasture management.
Manure Production, storage, and disposal management
 Nathalie, Mike, Jen, Nicole, Rebecca
 7 Areas of interest - Purpose of review is to highlight the gaps that are missing
1. Nutrient Utilization, N & P (need to design separate experiments to track the two)
a. Digestive processes
b. Availability-Bioavailability
c. Metabolic processes
d. Excretion
2. Feeding and overfeeding of nutrients in relation to NRC (National Research Council – Nutrients
requirements for each species)
a. Economics assessment
b. Prediction equations
3. Feeding management – can be put into pasture or put with 4&5
a. Feeders/sacrifice areas – possibly add with 3&4
b. Forage quality
c. Pasture quality
4. Bedding Management
a. Bedding Type
5. Manure Storage – can be combined with Water & Soil quality
a. Beneficial use
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b. Other soil amendments
6. Disposal Options – can be combined with Water & Soil quality
a. Spreading
b. Beneficial use
c. Biogas
7. Re-Purposing – what can we make manure into?
Water quality and horse manure waste; Soil Quality and Management
 Stephen, Jill, Chris – Grad Student, Dan, Karyn
 Papers planning to develop
1. “Water Quality Impacts of Horse Farms: A Review”
a. Test soil, surface water, and atmosphere
b. Water shed as a source (farm) look at how it moves
i. Storm water runoff – overland flow
ii. Infiltration into subsurface flow
iii. Deep infiltration into underlying aquifers
iv. How do we measure?
c. Source of contaminant, need to look at density of horses – paper 1
i. Manure storage areas
ii. Pasture
iii. Paddock
iv. Impervious surfaces (roofs of barns or indoor riding rings or parking jobs)
v. Horse bathing area
2. “Agricultural Management Practices for Horse Farms: A Review”
 Review of different types of practices and their effectiveness
3. “Willingness to Pay Evaluation for Horse Farms to Adopt Environmental practices”
d. Cost
e. Legal
f. Show Facts - information
g. Questionnaire
i. All states involved to respective states’ equine mailing list
ii. Can do multiple surveys – ones with solely questions other with information and
compares results. How much has education program changed behavior over
time? Make it so that it is catered towards them, “this will help your
environment, your horse, etc”
4. “Dan’s Systems Model” – Tentative
Future Plans
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Look into having a meeting at either ASAS in Denver next year or Ag Econ conference
o ASA - July 11 – 15, 2010
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 Betsy cannot go
o Ag Econ July 25 – 27, 2010
o Have meeting in Kentucky, in September 2010
 Contact: Jill Stowe
 Week after October 10, 2010
o Have the meeting in Minnesota – new equine center, any time of the year
 Contact: Krishona Martinson
 Summer 2010 – August before school starts, can be during the week
 Several horse farms within a 60 mile radius between the university
 Minnesota – Can ask if there are funds to cover future meeting
Reviews – target to have them finished by next year, July 11-15
Meeting Expenses
o Regional project – Rutgers gives $5K for multistate project
 This is because RU doesn’t have enough multi-state projects
o Make sure university knows you are participating in a multi-state project for
bookkeeping purposes
o Michael will ask Bill to send letter to each participants department
Research Collaboration - Four areas for reports – Literature Review
1. Horse Pasture Interaction … - Due 1st of month
a. Betsy – Summary of Facts Sheets
b. Steve – when needed
c. Carey –Lit list/Research, Lead
d. Rebecca
e. Ann
f. Nicole/Amy
g. Jill – Economics
h. Krishona
2. Diet Processes and Management a. Mike
b. Nicole/Amy
c. Nathalie - Lead
d. Mike Harbon – PSU grad
e. Jill - ?
3. Manure Storage and Disposal
a. Stephen
b. Mike - Lead
c. Rebecca
d. Jill - ?
e. Ann
f. Krishona
4. Water and Soil Quality
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a. Chris
b. Steve - Lead
c. Betsy – when needed
d. Rebecca
e. Jill – Econ
f. Nicole
g. Jon Weld – PSU
h. Dan
5. Survey
a. Jill
6. Assessment – make a collective survey that is able to use nationally
a. Nicole is going to talk to Amy
Submit an abstract wrt to the group for national conference
i. Introduction
ii. Needs Assessment – 5 issues for follow up
iii. 15 people
iv. 8 states
v. Administrative Approval
vi. Literature Review
vii. Funding Cross-Country Collaboration on projects
Nathalie – Air quality testing – have chambers to do testing
o Designed to be able to put any time of livestock
o Probably 6 or 8 chambers
o Wendy P
Areas interested in research
o BMPs
o Effectiveness, Science
o Human – Profit Interaction
 Motive
o Diet Processes
o Outreach
How are we staying connected?
o Stagger reviews
o By November 15, each of the group leaders will come up with an outline, and who will
be responsible with what areas
o Conference Calls – Rutgers will take the lead in figuring out what telecommunication
connection they will use
 Skype - http://www.skype.com/
 Elluminate - http://www.elluminate.com/
 Set up Chat Rooms
o Send information to group leader
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
Funding – need to be aware of deadlines
o CIG – Conservation Innovation Grants
o NIFA – National Institute of Food & Agriculture
 AFRI – Ag Food Research Initiative
 Environment and Natural Resources Programs
 New & Beginning Farmer
o USADA – WQ-406 (Water Quality)
o NERA – Northeast
 10K planning grant
o EPA
o NFWF – National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
o NRCS – helps to fund things for environmental programs
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