Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Southern SARE Stories and Accomplishments

Southern SARE provides farmers, ranchers, and communities with financial backing to sustainable and innovative projects throughout the Southern regions. Southern SARE bridges the gap between farmers and buyers by funding a range of projects that improve farmers' ability to process, market, and deliver their products locally.
For example, Jonny Harris received grant money for crop cover research on his farm in Screvens, GA. "Georgia's soils are sandy and low in organic matter, which means they do a bad job in holding water and plant nutrients. In the trials, his soil's water- holding capacity has increased 15-20%, and soil organic matter has increased as much as 1%." In his trials, he planted 45 acre combinations of ryegrass, triticale, and crimson clover, followed by a cotton crop. As a result of planting a cover crop of ryegrass, his cotton yields amounted to 1,600 pounds of lint per acre. In comparison, he only had 1,100 pounds of lint per acre without the cover crop. Thanks to Southern SARE,  Jonny Harris found that forage cover crops improve soil health and provide high- quality hay for livestock.
To read more Southern SARE stories, use the following link to read 2013/2014 Report from the Field:
file:///C:/Users/Mina%20Rismani/Downloads/2013.2014_SARE_Report_from_the_Field.pdf

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