Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The "Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference" provides a venue for American farmers to learn about available research, best production practices and technical assistance for organic hog production. The conference is a response to an unmet, rising market demand for locally produced organic pork, a lack of U.S. agricultural research on organic hog production and a limited number of swine veterinarians and professionals knowledgeable about the health and nutritional needs of organic hogs -- especially those that supplement much of their diet with forage. The conference will bring researchers from across the upper Midwest and U.S. together to share their relevant organic hog research with organic and transitioning farmers, researchers, and professionals working with this target audience. Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin produce much "natural pork" for antibiotic-free companies like Niman Ranch and are the best suited producers to transition to organic pork production to fill this growing local demand. The "Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference" will kick-start an academic and farmer-researcher interest in identifying challenges in organic hog production, create new research opportunities to help solve problems in U.S. organic hog production and provide information and resources to encourage organic expansion in the U.S. hog market.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
100%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
This project will bring researchers from across the upper Midwest and U.S. together to share their relevant organic hog research with organic farmers from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin through the Organic Hog Conference in early March 2019. This conference will kick-start an academic interest and farmer-researcher interest in identifying problems in organic hog production and new research opportunities and questions to help solve those problems in US organic hog production.• Develop or improve systems-based animal production, animal health, and pest management practices to improve animal productivity, health, and welfare while retaining or enhancing economic viability, including, but not limited to: grazing and pasture-based systems (including rotational grazing), integrated livestock crop systems, and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) confinement standards.• Develop and demonstrate educational tools for Cooperative Extension personnel and other professionals who advise producers on organic practices. Applications bringing end-users together with OREI-funded research, education, and extension teams are encouraged. Coordination of the development of online content with eXtension and the eOrganic Community of Practice.Objective 1. Assemble the Advisory planning team, set conference priorities, and select high-quality presenters to address learning goals at conference.Activity 1.1. Hire Planning Coordinator. Starting in the mid-summer of 2018, IOA will hire a coordinator for the conference.Activity 1.2. Assemble the Planning Team and set conference priorities. For the Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference, we will work with a planning team of 12 academic researchers from the Upper Midwest region, IOA organic farmers conducting on-farm research or proficient in organic hog farming, and service providers. This team will meet via teleconference and email beginning in mid- to late-summer, or as soon as award notifications are distributed, to begin to identify the research and learning priorities of the conference, plan the conference program, and recruit researchers, service providers, and farmers to participate.Objective 2. Solicit workshop and research proposals from academic faculty, students, farmers, and service providers throughout the Upper Midwest and nationwide.Activity 2.1. Distribute Call for Proposals. As soon as the Advisory Committee sets the conference research and learning priorities, the coordinator will circulate a call for proposals to academic researchers, graduate students, farmer researchers and service providers throughout the country. This will be followed up with targeted notices about the conference at the start of the fall semester to all academic departments within Midwest colleges of agriculture.Activity 2.2. Publicize the conference to the Upper Midwest academic research and farmer community. IOA will distribute press releases to the other organic and sustainable farm organizations throughout the Midwest as well as academic institutions and independent research organizations, like the Rodale Institute. Further publicity will be distributed in our fall electronic newsletters, at the Iowa State University Iowa Organic Conference in November 2018 and through IOA social media accounts.Activity 2.3. Select Workshop Presentations. By October 1, IOA will have received over 30 proposals for workshop presentations and by November 1, IOA with assistance from the planning team will select 15-20 proposals to be presented at the conference. Selected academic researchers will be asked to submit a 2-page research summary that will be used to compile a conference resource packet. By December, we will have confirmed all presenters, compiled the resource packet, and finalized the conference schedule.Objective 3. Publicize the Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference to the Midwest organic farming community to achieve an attendance of 150 conference attendees.Activity 3.1. Create a Conference Logo for event promotion. IOA will work with a graphic designer to create an event logo that will attract attention and recognition to the event during the five to six months of pre-event promotion.Activity 3.2. Send press releases, calendar items, and registration information to organic farming associations and partner organizations throughout the Midwest. IOA will distribute press releases to the other organic and sustainable farm organizations in the Midwest. Fliers will be distributed at winter organic farmer conferences across the Upper Midwest. Continued publicity about the conference will be distributed through IOA's weekly e-news, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.Activity 3.3. Activate on-line and paper pre-registration to the event. Starting in early January 2019, online registration for the Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference will be live on the IOA website. Paper registrations will be disseminated at organic farm conferences throughout the winter. Registrations will be stimulated by an early bird registration deadline the first week of February, and pre-registrations will close the first week of March (accepting online walk-in registrations at the event). All presenters will be registered by the end of January. Starting in mid-January conference registrations will be tracked on a weekly basis and shared with the planning committee so that the event promotion continues up until the event.Objective 4. Create multiple scenarios for information exchange among farmers, researchers, students, and service providers at the Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference.Activity 4.1. Compile Conference Resource Packet for the event. In February, final coordination for the conference will be completed including printing of the conference resource packet. The resources and research included will be posted to the IOA website prior to the event and will be available for all conference attendees.Activity 4.2. Coordinate multiple methods organic hog research and production information will be shared with the organic farming community. The conference will include half-day intensive sessions and 90-minute sessions focusing on specific topic in-depth. The conference coordinator will organize information exchange into multiple formats including half-day intensive sessions, 90-minute sessions focusing on specific topics in detail, and an open session for research needs identification from farmers and information exchange with researchers. Select presentations will be video recorded for posting to YouTube or e-organic following the event.Objective 5. Measure the Outcomes and Learning Objectives of the Upper Midwest Organic Hog Conference.Activity 5.1. Presentation evaluations will measure the information gained from all workshops. After each workshop session, participants will complete a session evaluation to measure information learned--by both organic farmers as well as researchers gaining new research priority information.Activity 5.2. Overall Conference Evaluations will be disseminated following the event. Participants will be asked to complete a comprehensive evaluation of the whole conference measuring effectiveness of the meeting, information gleaned, and likelihood that the information learned will result in a change of action.Activity 5.3. At the end of the project year, follow-up evaluations will be distributed to all participants to measure changes in behavior. Four months following the conference, participants will be asked to complete a follow-up survey to measure what information gained at the conference resulted in a change of behavior on the farmer or a change in research priorities in an academic setting.
Project Methods
Efforts. IOA will use the same planning methods used to effectively organize IOA on-farm field days, workshops, and webinar series, which often highlights the applicability of on-going academic organic research with real-farm situations. This methodology includes working with an advisory planning team of event stakeholders, sending out timely requests for proposals, organizing pre-event materials in a timely manner, and following up with evaluation materials to measure the outcomes of the event. A coordinator will be hired to facilitate the coordination of the conference and the advisory committee meetings. All outreach, conference, and registration materials will be provided electronically and distributed through the communication networks of the planning team members. Information about the conference will be included in the IOA electronic newsletters and at IOA trade show booths at the various Upper Midwest conferences ahead of the event. Save the date cards will be distributed to farmers and agricultural professionals at agricultural fairs during the summer and fall. A call for proposals will be distributed to all Upper Midwest animal science academic departments of agriculture five months prior to the event as well as to any institution that has conducted pastured or organic swine research in the past five years. Three months prior to the event, the proposals to be included in the conference will be selected and presenters will be scheduled. Two months prior to the event, the final conference schedule will be posted on the IOA website and all researchers will be registered for the event. A week before the event, the conference program and presenter contacts will be printed for distribution at the event. The electronic version of the program will also be posted to the IOA website at this time.Evaluation. Activity 5.1. Presentation evaluations will measure the information gained from all workshops. After each workshop session, participants will complete a session evaluation to measure information learned--by both organic farmers as well as researchers gaining new research priority information.Activity 5.2. Overall Conference Evaluations will be disseminated following the event. Participants will be asked to complete a comprehensive evaluation of the whole conference measuring effectiveness of the meeting, information gleaned, and likelihood that the information learned will result in a change of action.Activity 5.3. At the end of the project year, follow-up evaluations will be distributed to all participants to measure changes in behavior. Four months following the conference, participants will be asked to complete a follow-up survey to measure what information gained at the conference resulted in a change of behavior on the farmer or a change in research priorities in an academic setting.