Farms: The Arkansas Discovery Farms Program

http://www.extension.org/67638/ Many states conduct water quality monitoring projects and within the past decade, sub-watershed and whole farm water quality monitoring has gained more traction as a preferred method to understand runoff and nutrient loading behavior. The one aspect of these projects that has evolved is the level of partnering. Partnering not just with technical and academic groups but fully partnering and involving the landowner or resource manager. The Discovery Farms model is a great example of a fully partnered, adaptive management water quality monitoring project that began in Wisconsin and has grown to formally include North Dakota, Minnesota and Arkansas. The main objective of the Discovery Farms projects is to fully engage producers in the identification and if necessary the reduction of nutrient and sediment losses from a variety of agriculture farming systems by collecting runoff data from real, working farms. The program is founded on the belief that farmers who are engaged, educated and empowered with actual on-farm information will use the data to address water quality concerns. The concept has demonstrated successes and is gaining interest around the country from producers and their commodity organizations.