MARSHFIELD – Lining the unpaved road leading to the Cavern Point Farm just outside Marshfield, empty fields stand at the ready for spring planting, the quiet of the rural landscape broken by the occasional lowing of cattle grazing in the pasture just beyond the barn.
On the far side of that pasture, marked by a line of trees, lies the Little Eau Pleine River, just one of hundreds of the Wisconsin River’s tributaries. And what flows into the Big Eau Pleine eventually makes its way into the state’s largest waterway, including runoff from fields and farms.
“That contributes about 500,000 to 750,000 pounds of phosphorus to the Wisconsin River a year,” said Kirstie Heindenreich, a conservationist with Marathon County. “About a third of all the phosphorus in the Wisconsin River is coming from our area.”
Too much phosphorus can lead to algae blooms, among other environmental impacts. Those, in turn, can choke out aquatic life, including fish; and turn beaches into unusable seas of green – both of which can hit tourism and other industries.
Cutting those discharges as much as possible, while also maintaining and improving soil health, are at the heart of Jason Cavadini’s Cavern Point Farm. He and his wife, Jocelyn, run their grass-fed Angus beef operation along with their four children.
They’re also part of the Eau Pleine Partnership for Integrated Conservation, or EPPIC, a Producer-Led Watershed Protection Group, funded by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection (DATCP).
Gov. Tony Evers was at Cavern Point on April 16 to see the work they’re doing after EPPIC was awarded a $26,000 grant earlier this year. Since 2015, DATCP has given more than $7.2 million to 52 different groups across the state. The money goes toward conservation education, research and gathering data, among other efforts. In the coming budget, Evers is requesting $2.5 million for producer-led groups in the state.
EPPIC is made up of a diverse group of farmers, from small farms like the Cavadini’s to orchards and large dairy farms that milk thousands of cows.
At Cavern Point, the cow-calf pairs are exclusively grass-fed.
“We plant diverse cover-crops in (the pasture),” Cavadini explained to Evers as they toured the farm. Those crops mature at different times, taking them through the summer. In winter, the cows eat baled grass.
Because the fields never get tilled, the cover crops are able to develop deep root systems that hold soil in place. They’re also better able to filter rainwater before it reaches waterways.
“When conservationists see cover crops like this we’re practically foaming at the mouth,” Heindenreich said. “If we have cover like this on all the soils (throughout the area), this group probably wouldn’t even need to exist because we’d … have perfectly clear water.”
When Cavadini first started, he said there weren’t many other farms like his in the area.
“We started converting pasture, and it raised a lot of questions in the neighborhood, ‘How can you be taking such valuable land and making it into pasture?’” he said. “Just to have peer groups like this, to learn these practices from has been very impactful.”
Those practices are also in place at larger farms in Central Wisconsin, including Miltrim Farms in Athens. There, owner David Trimner said they have about 3,000 cows in the largest automated dairy in Wisconsin. To feed those cows, they grow crops on 5,200 acres.
They use a haylage mix on part, which stays on the field for three or four years, which Trimner said creates its own cover crop. They also grow corn for silage.
“We work using no-till, and then cover crops after we harvest to keep that cover on the field all year long,” he said.
They’ve dedicated about 10 acres to a pollinator field, and they’ve also got about 100 acres of grass buffers, which Trimner said cuts his phosphorus runoff by about half.
Those few acres can also have a huge impact on a farm’s bottom line, said John Strauser, University of Wisconsin grassland and perennial ag outreach specialist.
“If you eliminate those acres that have low performance … then that farmer has an increase in (profit) margin,” he said.
“There's the love story of impacting the landscape for the sake of the environment and clean water, but you have this overlapping goal being achieved, where you're solidifying the economics of that farmstead by recognizing where we can increase productivity and profitability.”
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