Renew America Success Stories

The Chesapeake Farms Project

Description

The Chesapeake Farms Project is a five-year program that conducts research and offers demonstrations and educational projects comparing sustainable farming approaches, and evaluating the respective impacts of these approaches on the economy, water quality and on local wildlife.

The Chesapeake Farms Project was developed partly in response to a rapidly increasing world population, combined with expanding environmental pressures, that place extreme pressure on farmers worldwide to improve their farming operations. Farmers are faced with the challenge of developing farming methods that better protect the land, improve food quality and increase crop yield. Sustainable agriculture provides farmers with powerful tools to meet those challenges.

Aided by an advisory panel of farmers, the Chesapeake Farms Project is comparing four different crop rotation systems along with tillage, fertility and pest management programs that represent realistic production choices for farmers in the mid-Atlantic region.

The developers of the project intend to identify crop rotation systems that aid in pest control and provide fertility and soil-quality benefits without damaging water quality or local wildlife habitat. In addition to crop rotation, the program will examine ways to increase efficiency and yield with benign technologies.

One such technology is "precision farming." Precision farming uses a cluster of Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), originally deployed by the Defense Department as a missile guidance system, to help a farmer determine the inputs that would be most beneficial to his or her crop at precise locations.

Raymond Forney, Project Manager of the Chesapeake Farm Project, explains that on-board computers can tell a farmer the average yield and moisture content of the corn a combine is harvesting. "You combine that with GPS, which tells you exactly where you are at any given instance, and you have an incredibly accurate record of yield for specific places in your field."

The project is managed by Practical Research on Sustainable Practices and Economic Return (PROSPER). Founded by DuPont, PROSPER is an alliance among farmers, industry, nonprofit, academic and government organizations to promote sustainable agricultural practices.

Program Highlights

Cropping Systems

The Chesapeake Farms Project employs four different crop rotation methods to determine their respective effects on soil quality, plants and insects.

• System A. Designed for maximum economic production and minimum management of labor inputs, this system employs continuous planting of corn with a winter cereal cover crop planted for excess nitrate management. This system uses a preprogrammed approach to tillage, fertility and pest control.
• System B. The system employs a two-year rotation of corn and soybeans. The block is split so that both crops are present each summer. This system uses a preprogrammed approach to tillage, fertility and pest control.
• System C. This system employs a two-year rotation of corn, wheat and soybeans. This system uses scouting, diagnostics and a "precision farming" approach to tillage, fertility and pest control.
• System D. Designed for minimum environmental impact, this system employs a three-year rotation of corn, rye cover crop, soybeans, wheat and legume cover crop and uses mechanical weed control methods and a minimum reliance on chemical inputs. The goal of this system is the elimination of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and pollution prevention by eliminating traditional pollution sources. Nutrients are supplied from biological sources (cover crops and manure) and pest control is achieved through biodiversity.

Watershed Management

In this analysis, four different cropping systems are located side-by-side, each occupying a ten-acre block and forming a discrete watershed. Run-off water, soil, nutrients and pesticides are monitored to determine the various systems' relative impacts on watershed quality.

Vital Statistics

Program Management/Partnerships: The Chesapeake Farm Project is managed by Practical Research on Sustainable Practices and Economic Return (PROSPER). PROSPER is a nonprofit organization that has developed partnerships with the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Rodale Institute, DuPont Agricultural Products, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Cornell University, University of Maryland, University of Delaware and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Budget: The latest figures are available by contacting the program.

Community Served: Farmers in the mid-Atlantic region.

Measures of Success:

Planning and organizing for the project began in 1990, and implementation began with the 1993 cropping season.

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Success stories designed by Mark Nowak

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