{"id":101,"date":"2019-03-28T17:02:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T17:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/the-pace-project-embracing-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2019-04-09T02:01:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T02:01:22","slug":"the-pace-project-embracing-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/the-pace-project-embracing-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PACE Project: Embracing Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sustainability is a central theme of NCTC\u2019s agricultural programs, and Science <\/span>division chair Lisa Bellows says it\u2019s a crucial issue facing the next generation of farmers and ranchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSustainable farming is very different than the traditional model,\u201d Bellows <\/span>explains. \u201cWe really need to adopt an <\/span>approach of allowing our land to tell us what to do instead of us telling the land what to do.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Bellows, many traditional <\/span>practices in the agricultural industry are counterintuitive and actually create more problems. For instance, there\u2019s the practice of supplementing feed during a drought.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a drought turns the land into a desert and the cows start starving, farmers will bring in a bunch of feed to give them,\u201d she says. \u201cBut, they\u2019re still taxing the land and spending money on supplementation \u2026 and all the while, the land doesn\u2019t have <\/span>a chance to recover.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With sustainability in mind, NCTC\u2019s Farm & Ranch Management program has made some logistical changes this semester, moving some of its lifestock \u2014 including a herd of 25 registered Red Angus cows \u2014 from a 106-acre property located 20 minutes east of Gainesville to the department\u2019s hub of sustainable land management, the PACE Project, located just south of Gainesville High School and a half-mile from NCTC\u2019s Gainesville campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

PACE stands for Promoting Agriculture and Conservation Education and the PACE Project represents a partnership between NCTC and the Gainesville Independent School District, with the college leasing the land from the GISD, and holistically managing it. Another collaborator in the PACE project is the Dixon Water Foundation, a nonprofit organization that manages five working ranches spread across North Central and South Texas, applying sustainable land management practices to restore plant diversity, promote healthy watershed conditions and maintain thriving wildlife habitats.<\/span><\/p>\n

A primary habitat management technique of PACE, for instance, is holistic planned grazing, a practice designed to mimic the historic grazing of large herds for short periods of time, followed by a long recovery period. Livestock are grouped together to graze in small paddocks on a rotational basis, resulting in high stock density for brief periods of time. As the livestock walk, graze and deposit manure and urine, the soil is stimulated to cycle minerals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, vegetation monitoring is used to adjust grazing management plans, and goats might be employed to help reduce woody and invasive plant species.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s ever-changing,\u201d Bellows says. \u201cLike we just bought our sixth group of show goats from a county show, and we\u2019re using them for brush suppression.\u00a0 We\u2019ll keep them there through October \u2014 while the trees have leaves. Once the trees lose their leaves, we won\u2019t need them and we\u2019ll sell them \u2014 or butcher them. This past fall, we had some of our goats processed and sold out of goat meat in less than two hours.\u201d\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The PACE property spans 165 acres \u2014 75 acres of wooded areas and 90 acres of prairie \u2014 and Bellows says the program also employs another 53 acres on campus, plus a 40-acre hayfield. These facilities enhance classroom instruction with hands-on educational experiences applicable to the management of farms, ranches and other agricultural businesses. The department offers both a two-semester Agriculture Management Certificate and a four-semester Associate of Applied Sciences in Farm and Ranch Management, with sustainable agriculture coursework that includes animal science, beef cattle production, pasture management, livestock business, wildlife management, sustainability, basic shop classes, and animal nutrition.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sustainability is a central theme of NCTC\u2019s agricultural programs, and Science division chair Lisa Bellows says it\u2019s a crucial issue facing the next generation of farmers and ranchers. \u201cSustainable farming is very different than the traditional model,\u201d Bellows explains. \u201cWe really need to adopt an approach of allowing our land to tell us what to… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1],"tags":[],"article_type":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture-and-horticulture","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nctc.mycareerfocus.org\/spring-2019-volume-4-issue-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}