University of Wyoming – Extension Foundation

Project Progress

Our I-Three Corps project is on schedule, YEAH!!! Our team, six members from three states, have been diligently working on the project and nearing completion. To date, our team has finalized the evaluation method and questions for the project, identified two producers (Montana and Nebraska) and two citizen scientists (Montana) to interview and video for the project, completed the filming, drafted two fact sheets and one other blog post. We are excited with the progress especially since we had difficulties finding producers willing to film and experienced scheduling conflicts.

Recent Progress

The film crew spent an awesome day interviewing and filming the final producer for the projects. We met with Greg Schlemmer outside of Fromberg, Montana, to tour and understand his no till farming practice under sprinkler and furrow irrigation. This was an incredible experience and opportunity to see a producer adapting his management strategies to rather arid growing conditions. Greg farms around 3,500 feet elevation with an annual precipitation of 11 inches with clay soils. The farm has access to a constant water supply out of the Clark’s Fork River, which they can irrigate from around April until freeze, which is normally the end of October.

Greg has been able to increase his organic matter from 2% to 3.5% while still growing his standard crop rotation of silage corn, sugar beets, and barley. The increase in organic matter is supported through the normal crops as well as companion cropping soybean with the corn and planting a cover crop after barley. The operation has been cultivated for three years under no till practices and has already experienced many benefits from this new management style, such as: decreasing fertilizer inputs, decreasing fuel usage by two-thirds, increasing yields and sugar content in sugar beets, almost eliminating soil erosion, less stress to plants during hot periods due to increased soil moisture, and other benefits.

Corn field at Greg Schlemmer’s farm near Fromberg, MT. Photo Credit. David Keto

Why Is This Important

Greg captured it best. If no till were not economical for his operation then he would not do it. Soil conservation methods are gaining acceptance in the Midwest but have not taken hold in western states due to the difference in climate, crops/market, and other reasons. Highlighting a no till operation in an arid climate with similar crops will stimulate more interest in the practices, especially if it is economical.

Is no till for every operation? The general consensus is “No”, especially for an operation with furrow irrigation. However, Greg’s operation indicates that no till can even work with furrow irrigation. Learning from early adopters that are pushing the knowledge of what is possible can assist agriculture communities to be more competitive, more economically stable, and increase overall operation and community resiliency.

What a great experience!!

Image 1. Corn field at Greg Schlemmer’s farm near Fromberg, MT. Photo Credit. David Keto

Image 2. No-till sugar beets in furrowed irrigated field at Greg Schlemmer’s farm near Fromberg, MT. Photo Credit. David Keto

My iThree Corps project is Rethink Your Drink, an evidence-based program designed to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake. The program includes both an educational component and environmental change strategies, since research shows that addressing multiple levels of influence increases program effectiveness. (Check out the Social Ecological Model!) So instead of simply educating people to drink less SSBs, we also change the environment to make it easy to do so.

infused water — Infused water is a healthy alternative to SSBs!

The educational component is pretty straightforward and easy to accomplish. I teach the Rethink Your Drink lesson to children and adults through my community partners. But the environmental component has been more challenging, so I wanted to share what I’ve learned throughout my efforts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends several organizational, community, and public policy level strategies to decrease SSBs, such as ensuring ready access to potable drinking water and limiting access to SSBs. The strategy that I decided to focus on is promoting access to and consumption of more healthful alternatives to SSBs through improving drinks offered in vending machines.

Luckily, I found a great community partner to team up with. I mentioned the project to coordinator of the county wellness program and she was interested in improving vending machines in the county offices. It fits well with the goals of her wellness program. So, together we started working on our vending machine project!

While I was working on my project, I got some valuable advice at the National eXtension Conference as a part of the i-Three Corps track. One of the key informants with expertise in community development discussed different levels of community buy-in necessary for implementing change. This was a great reminder to get input from employees (or a committee representing the employees) before implementing changes to the vending machines.

We decided to bring the project to the county wellness committee in order to get employee input. The committee felt that a gradual approach to changing the vending machines would go over best with the employees. So, we decided to leave some SSBs in the machine but replace most of them with healthier beverages. One of the committee members offered to contact Pepsi and Coke to find out what our options were for healthier beverages.

The project really took off from there. At our next meeting, committee members shared their findings: lists of vending machine options from Pepsi and Coke, a list of beverage options that meet the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) standards, and information about specific drinks to consider. NANA recommends holding taste tests and having employees vote for their favorite options to increase employee buy-in. With an employee appreciation picnic coming up, we decided that this was the perfect time to taste-test healthy options. The wellness coordinator also sent out a survey to all county employees to get their input on types of drinks they would like. The results are in, and the new vending machine options should be available next month!