The Water Table

#120 | One Good Idea: An Educational Clearinghouse for Farmers

• Jamie Duininck

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What began as a collaboration between several land-grant universities in the Mississippi River Basin has now grown to include farmers, non-profit organizations and businesses in the ag industry. Jenny Seifert, Watershed Outreach Specialist, joins us on this episode of The Water Table podcast to explain why One Good Idea is so important, and how farmer-to-farmer learning is crucial to agricultural water management.


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Jamie Duininck (00:00):

Welcome to the Water Table Podcast. Today I interviewed Jenny Seifert from the Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin - Madison Extension Office. She is the Watershed Outreach Specialist.

(00:13):

We're going to talk a lot about an initiative that she's involved with called One Good Idea. One Good Idea brings farmers together with ideas about watersheds, water quality, bioreactors, cover crops, edge of field practices, and much more. I hope you enjoy the episode.

(00:38):

Welcome to The Water Table Podcast. Today, I'm excited. I have a guest, Jenny Seifert. Jenny is the Watershed outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Extension Office, and they're doing a lot of different things and some really cool things that I've read about with an initiative called the One Good Idea. So we're going to talk about that, we'll talk about different things, but welcome to the podcast, Jenny.

Jenny Seifert (01:07):

Yeah, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

Jamie Duininck (01:09):

Good. Well, tell me a little bit about how you ended up in this position, working as an outreach specialist in water quality and water management in Wisconsin, and then we'll get into some questions.

Jenny Seifert (01:25):

Yeah, well, let me think of the short story. I am an example of what you can do with a German major. I got my start doing the humanities in undergrad in German, and I found my way to communications, with my first internship after undergrad. And then I found my way to the environment doing the Peace Corps. And then I did my graduate studies studying a combo of science communication and environmental studies at UW-Madison. And then from there, basically I ended up using my communications and outreach sort of background in water issues. So it's kind of a little bit of, not a completely direct path here, but here I am.

Jamie Duininck (02:14):

Yeah. So one of the big things that you guys are involved in is this One Good Idea project. And tell me a little bit, do you have any background, any family or anything in agriculture and in farming that helped you get connected to that?

Jenny Seifert (02:33):

Embarrassingly no, I'm not from a farming family. My husband is now faculty in agriculture and soils, but I can't say that he was the reason I got to this path. So in terms of farming, I come to it with an open mind and a beginner's mind. And so I've learned a lot. I've had really great partners that have taught me a lot. And so, I think what I bring is really that communications and behavior change perspective, and I bring that to the agriculture space.

Jamie Duininck (03:16):

So I saw, there's a lot of different organizations involved in the One Good Idea. Can you tell me how many and the types of organizations that are involved and why?

Jenny Seifert (03:28):

Yeah. Well, I could give you a little bit of a background, maybe the origin story if helpful, about One Good Idea. And so, One Good Idea started as a collaboration between several land-grant universities in the Mississippi River Basin. And so that was University of Wisconsin, obviously, which is where I am, Mississippi State University, University of Arkansas, University of Illinois, and University of Kentucky. And so we all teamed up, we were doing some work together on facilitating Farmer-to-Farmer learning around conservation practices, so on water conservation practices. So that's like cover crops, edge of field, et cetera.

(04:08):

And part of that endeavor was to create some sort of Farmer-to-Farmer online learning platform. And, just the short story of how we came up with One Good Idea is we brought together obviously our project team and then a team of farmers to help us think about what would this look like, what is needed, what is not replicating or not reinventing the wheel, et cetera. And so the idea of a clearinghouse of multimedia contents of videos and podcasts that are featuring farmers that are sharing their own experiences implementing conservation practices came out of that creative process.

(04:54):

It felt like something that didn't exist yet. We're not claiming to be the YouTube for it, because we don't have all the same fancy algorithms that YouTube has, but we are a place that farmers can go to to find information from other farmers about how they've been implementing these practices.

(05:11):

And the other important thing about that information is that it is vetted for, sort of evidence-based quality. And so obviously as its origins in the university world, we care about providing the best available evidence. And so we have a team of a combination of university experts in conservation as well as farmers with a lot of conservation experience who review all of our content and make sure it's evidence-based. And for us, evidence is both sort of the research, as well as a farmer's real-life experience, knowing that we don't know everything yet with science, but a farmer's real-life experience is just as important.

(05:55):

The other thing about the origin story, I want to say in terms of why is it called One Good Idea, that same sort of project team early on, this was before the pandemic, we had an in-person field day down in Mississippi, and the farmer that was hosting that field day, during the question and answer part of it, somebody asked him, I go to all of these conferences and field days and meetings and I get overwhelmed with information. How do you know what to try in your operation? And his response is, well, you just have to try that one good idea.

(06:31):

And that kind of hit a light bulb for us. That idea of there is a lot of information out there, and finding something to try that you think could work for you, is the vibe we're trying to give with One Good Idea is like, here's a bunch of experiences based on what your goals are, what you're trying to do. Hopefully you can find something that's going to be helpful to you.

Jamie Duininck (06:53):

Yeah, I'm glad you said that, because as I was reading and looking at the website, one of the things that struck me as the correlation between what you're doing and what we do here on the Water Table is, there isn't one idea, there isn't one solution to what's happening. There's so many different variables, whether you're in Iowa or Mississippi or Kentucky, there's topography, there's different cover crops, there's different... Cover crops are way more of a challenge in Minnesota than they are in Mississippi just because of the seasonality and when crops come out and things like that.

(07:34):

So all the edge-of-field practices that can be implemented, and some work better in some areas than others. But, on your website It's pretty easy to tell the different things that are out there that you have videos on that describe what you're doing and the success of that, whether it is water quality and practices, edge-of-field practices, bioreactors, just to name a few.

(08:03):

And so that was neat for me to see because that's kind of what we've done here for going on 120 episodes of the Water Table, it's just interviewing different people that have a solution but not the solution. And if we add all these together, we can see some real change, real positive change in all watersheds, not just the Mississippi River Basin. So it's exciting.

(08:32):

I also wanted to just share, I like the idea of how it's set up with the videos. They're pretty easy to, oh, something's top of mind today. I can go click on that. Wetlands was the one I looked at this morning, and just see what has been done. And again, for me, it wasn't a solution, but it gave me more ideas to ask other questions. So well done with that. And...

Jenny Seifert (09:00):

Yeah, one thing I wanted to mention too is all of these videos and podcasts, we essentially crowdsource them. They are from either farmers themselves, directly, there are several farmers out there that have their YouTube channels and are sharing what they're doing on their operations, which is really great. Many of them have pretty significant followers or followings.

(09:23):

And then we also have content from land-grant universities like mine and others, because they're also producing this kind of content. And then there's also our third category of everybody else, like NRCS, nonprofits, basically a variety of organizations that work directly with farmers on implementing conservation practices, and produce this kind of content. And so I know that one of your questions earlier was sort of who is represented and it's really a variety of different sources that are represented in the clearinghouse.

Jamie Duininck (09:56):

You mentioned the land-grant universities' involvement, and you also have something called a mini-grant program. I didn't really look into that, but can you explain what that is and how it works?

Jenny Seifert (10:07):

That is a new program for us, and it's really an opportunity to help producers both try a new practice, specifically edge-of-field practice on their operations, and then share what they have done and what they've learned with other producers by creating a video or podcast based on that project. And we were able to do this because of some, I just want to shout out to the funders who enabled us to do this, but we have some funding from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture and Wellin Family Foundation to be able to do this.

(10:46):

But the goal of the mini-grant program really is to help encourage more farmers to implement edge-of-field practices on their operations. And so, by providing some financial and technical support to these farmers to do these practices as well as to help them share what they've done with other farmers, is sort of the approach that we've taken with it.

(11:11):

And we were able to fund seven projects around the Mississippi River Basin, and mostly they're all in the upper part of the basin. And I should also make clear that even though originally one good idea was focused on the Mississippi River Basin, we aren't exclusive to other areas of the country. We are trying to spread nationally as well.

(11:32):

But yeah, so this mini-grant program is really, I've just have been starting to do some site visits with the teams that are putting these practices in, and it's been really exciting to see what they've been doing. These producers are really, really passionate about what they're doing on their land, and so it's really exciting to see the care that they're taking and thinking about how can they both improve their operation but also improve the water quality and the environment around it.

Jamie Duininck (12:04):

Yeah. So what kind of dollar level is usually considered a mini-grant?

Jenny Seifert (12:10):

Yeah, well, I guess I don't really have a huge point of comparison, but we were giving out $8,000 to each team. And when I say team, it's a team of a farmer and a farm advisor that are doing these projects.

Jamie Duininck (12:21):

Sure. And how long are those usually those practices then? How long do they continue? Is it indefinitely, or is it something they try and they can then put that back into production if they want to, or is there any rules around that?

Jenny Seifert (12:41):

Well, the rule was that it is an edge-of-field practice. So in theory, I guess it's a practice they put there for a while.

(12:50):

So for just some examples, we have one farmer who did a bioreactor. We have another farmer who's doing a variety of, sort of transitioning marginal land into different types of habitat, perennial crops. Another... Farmers who are just improving the area around the waterways on their land.

(13:17):

So they're all practices that should last for years unless they take it out of, put it back into production. But it's basically taking lands that maybe once we're in production or we're not performing that well, and putting it into a use that is sort of improving the water and sort of the other natural benefits around it.

Jamie Duininck (13:44):

Sure, sure. And I'm sure some of those can be attached to other grant programs, so it really can... $8,000 is really significant from the standpoint of some of these programs. Many of them provide 25% or 50% of the cost, and so to add another, they might be able to get the entire cost of something paid for, and then to see the water quality benefits or the other benefits that come along with that.

(14:17):

Tell me a little bit about what do you feel in your role and what you get to see? What's the most rewarding thing that you see from farmers doing or anything, I guess I shouldn't label that.

Jenny Seifert (14:34):

One of the things that excites me most about what I do is when I hear farmers speak about the value of these opportunities to learn from other farmers, a lot of the work that I do in my role is really about that facilitating peer learning between farmers. And I think that when I hear farmers say they got value out of a peer learning opportunity, whether it's a video they saw in One Good Idea, or we have, through One Good Idea, we're also doing this virtual meetup series called Good Idea Shop Talks, which is essentially an opportunity for farmers to get together and talk shop about a conservation practice or a soil/water conservation issue they're having on their operation and try to come up with solutions together.

(15:25):

We use, if you've heard of a hackathon from the computer programming world, it's where a computer programmer brings a coding problem to a bunch of coders and they try to solve it together.

(15:35):

And so similarly, we have a producer bring a challenge that they're experiencing on their operation to the group, and they try to hack it together. When I hear feedback about how valuable it was for them to hear from other farmers, and they're hearing from farmers that are not in their state. So I think there's a lot of importance in farmers learning from other farmers who are in their local areas. We know that climate and soil obviously make a difference. But I think there's also a lot of value for farmers to hear from other farmers in other states and other areas about what they're doing.

(16:10):

Because sometimes farmers who are doing these practices can be black sheep in their communities, and they don't have peers around them to really troubleshoot challenges with. And so being able to learn from farmers in other places, I think, can really valuable. So I think hearing that kind of feedback is what excites me the most about what I do.

Jamie Duininck (16:29):

Yeah, and I think what I saw, and I think what is similar to what we do here on The Water Table is not every practice. You have a many practices there. Not every practice works for every farmer, but one or two or three of them should work for every farmer, pick and choose.

(16:50):

Again, it depends on location and depends on many different factors. But if we're about water quality, which I think so many of us are about taking care of the land, taking care of the water, the farmer is too, why not add some of these practices, whether it's no-till. Some of that locally here have some farmers that I'm friends with that have been no-tilling for 25 years and it works really well.

(17:22):

Neighbors right next door don't do it, and there's a lot of reasons why that is, but they do other things and so they're trying different things, and I think our job at The Water Table and what you're doing at One Good Idea is to just keep putting opportunities in front of people to learn and to see, well, this could work. Or I like hearing his story, but that won't work here, but I could do this instead. I think it opens up the mind to being creative about what the opportunities are. And so I also wanted to just share is The Water Table would love to connect with you guys in any way we can, whether it's any field days, or anything that can be shared or links back and forth on some of our episodes that are very relatable to what you're doing.

Jenny Seifert (18:12):

Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, we'd love that.

Jamie Duininck (18:16):

You talked a little bit about one other question I was thinking about, but about some of the states you're focused on, but is it really the Mississippi River Basin or is there more specific states that, for a certain reason that you're focused on?

Jenny Seifert (18:30):

Yeah, no, I would say that we're state agnostic. I mean, most of our content currently comes from states within the Mississippi River Basin, but again, that was just sort of because of our funding origins, we're focused on that region. But we aren't exclusive to that area. We are getting more and more content from other places in the country.

(18:48):

We have some content from the Pacific Northwest. We have some content from the mid-Atlantic now. We are welcoming of content from any geographic region, that our only sort of criteria, are really our three, it has to sort of meet our three criteria, one being that it is featuring a farmer sharing their experience. Again, that's key to One Good Idea is farmers sharing their experiences. Again, that evidence-based element is another piece of criteria that's really important, needs to be based in, again, either research or solid sort of real-life experience from a farmer.

(19:26):

And then the last feature, which I haven't talked about yet, is we're really trying to provide information that's practical in nature. I think a lot of farmers that we are really trying to reach through one idea are the kind of farmer that might be maybe at the threshold of trying something new on their operation. To some extent, there's going to be farmers that have been doing this for years and are just looking for ideas and how to troubleshoot challenges.

(19:51):

But we're also trying to be welcoming to the farmer who is just thinking about cover crops or just thinking about no-till and are looking to try something small and they're looking for ideas, but they're also looking for that proof that it's going to make a difference, and that sort of practical information of how they can make it work. And so really information or content that's sort of providing that really practical perspective is sort of another key element of what you can find in One Good Idea.

Jamie Duininck (20:24):

Sure. Sure. Great. Well, I'm excited that we are able to connect on The Water Table and that I was able to find you through our team here because I think there is opportunities to collaborate and for us to share content and maybe even some field day type work-together. But that's what it's all about and what One Good Idea is is getting the idea out, and here is a good idea, but you don't have access to it unless we provide it. So we're going to try to do that.

(20:58):

Thank you for spending the time with me here on The Water Table, and we will definitely share this with our viewers so they can have access to what you're doing.

Jenny Seifert (21:08):

Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. It's been great to be here.

Jamie Duininck (21:11):

Thank you.


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