Location: Oklahoma and Central Plains Agricultural Research Center
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Enable climate-smart decision-making by developing science-based, region-specific information, tools and technologies for agricultural and natural resource managers, and provide assistance where possible to enhance adoption and implementation of the same. The work will be conducted as the Southern Plains USDA Climate Change Hub and will be coordinated with NRCS, FS, and other USDA and non-USDA organizations in accordance with guidance found in the USDA Climate Change Hubs Charter, and Terms of Reference.
Objective 2: Provide capacity to expand and enhance the hub’s climate-science, social-science, and economic-science resources and tools via enhanced collaboration with ARS research teams and other research partners to ensure impactful integration of ARS research outcomes from across the region into Hub outreach assets.
Approach
The climate hubs relate directly to the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Research National Program (NP216) Action Plan (2018-2022), Component 3. Achieving Agroecosystem Potential and these problem statements: Problem Statement 3a. Sustaining Intensified Production; Problem Statement 3b. Enhancing ecosystem services; and Problem Statement 3c. Enabling decision support for sustainability.
Progress Report
Developing partnerships with state and federal agencies is critical to achieving the Climate Hub’s mission. A new Director and Coordinator were hired in August 2022. Considerable effort was therefore invested in meeting with existing and new Climate Hub partners in the region to learn about ongoing research and extension initiatives, assess agricultural producer needs, and identify opportunities for cooperation in the areas of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Visits with scientists at El Reno, Woodward, and Stillwater, Oklahoma, Bushland and Lubbock, Texas, as well as Manhattan, Kansas, provided insights into ongoing research in the region. Other partners visited included administrators and faculty at Langston University, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, Texas AgriLife Amarillo, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M Kingsville Texas AgriLife San Angelo, and Texas AgriLife Lubbock, and the South-Central Climate Science Adaptation Center in Oklahoma. A number of these initial visits resulted in joint projects listed below.
Outreach to tribal partners was made possible through an agreement with Texas Natural Resources Conservation Service that allowed the Hub to recruit a detailee with expertise in the design and installation of rainwater harvest systems. This collaboration also involved the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Climate Resilience who provided funding for rainwater harvest projects with the Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, and the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. To date, funds have been awarded to each of these tribes and system installation is expected to occur soon. The detailee actively participated in outreach to the Quapaw, Kaw, Chickasaw, and Comanche Nations, and the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas. These activities involved attending tribal conferences, providing rainwater harvest system demonstrations, setting up a Climate Hub booth with a variety of handout materials, and liaising with other federal agency tribal programs. The Hub partnered with these agencies to hold workshops on drought, rainwater harvesting, and culturally significant native vegetation, for members of tribes in Oklahoma and Texas.
Outreach to historically underserved farmers and ranchers was made possible through a partnership with Langston University and Oklahoma State University. Two daylong workshops on ‘Sustainable Farming in a Changing Climate’ were held in the towns of Luther and Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Farmers and ranchers from Black communities of Oklahoma were the target audience. The program provided information on climate trends in Oklahoma, United States Department of Agriculture programs for small farmers by Farm Services Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service staff, and hands on demonstrations of rainwater harvesting, goat heath assessment, and vegetable gardening. Approximately 30 participants at each event completed surveys administered by university Extension partners. Survey data are currently being compiled and summarized. Results will help the Climate Hub design effective outreach programs to better serve historically underserved agricultural producers of the region.
Online outreach to agricultural producers in the region continued with weekly blog posts addressing current weather events and providing links to adaptation resources for farmers and ranchers and bi-monthly podcasts featuring interviews with regional partners including State Climatologists, National Weather Service staff, Extension partners, and research scientists among others. The Hub’s monthly e-newsletter was revamped at the beginning of 2023 to include more Hub-specific news and materials. A new column featuring climate change-related research conducted by Agricultural Research Service scientists in the region was initiated in an effort to better assist the agency in communicating its work to broader audiences. This last activity addresses Objective 2 of the Climate Hub’s project.
Climate Conversations with Oklahoma Conservation District Staff were conducted in partnership with Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts. This program consisted of providing a presentation covering regional climate trend data in relation to agriculture at regional Conservation District meetings in Hugo, Stillwater, Enid, Fort Cobb, and Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Approximately 216 participants completed pre and post presentation surveys. Preliminary analysis of these data indicates that, overall, there was a strong belief that climate change is impacting Oklahoma. Grassroots conservation was highly valued, and key challenges were identified in water management and grazing issues. The best ways to reach audiences varied slightly, but a combination of in person and remote appears best for this audience. Future conversations with producers will be needed to validate these findings. A full report is posted on the Climate Hub website. Results will be used by the Hub to refine its outreach efforts and liaise more effectively with diverse agricultural producer audiences of Oklahoma.
Climate literacy training workshops for elementary, middle school, and high school teachers were held in partnership with Asombro Institute for Science Education and BlueStem Agri-Learning Center. The role of technology and cattle heritage genetics in strengthening the resilience of ranching as well as current climate change science and agriculture were the topics of two daylong workshops. Teachers from across the state of Oklahoma attended and received training and materials on both topics. Lesson plans provided to participants were developed by our partners and were designed to meet the science standards for the State of Oklahoma education system. The goal of these lessons is to prepare students to become informed future decision-makers on matters pertaining to water, wildfire, agriculture, and climate change mitigation. Survey feedback received from teachers suggests that this was perhaps the most impactful activity of the Hub in 2023 with regards to its mission of increasing climate literacy in the region.
Research and education partnerships with land grant universities resulted in the submission of letters of intent and full grant proposals to the Extension-Climate Hubs Partnership and the Sustainable Agricultural Systems programs of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Seven of the nine letters of intent submitted were invited for full proposal submission. Hub staff worked with university partners in the development of such proposals. These seek funding for projects addressing diverse needs in the areas of climate literacy, adaptation strategies associated with Ogallala aquifer depletion, decision support tool assessment, barriers to adoption of methane mitigation strategies in cow-calf systems, drought adaptation on tribal lands, and climate-smart agricultural practice validation. Two Climate Hub-Extension Partnership proposals submitted in 2022 were funded. The Southern Plains and Northern Plains Hubs are taking an active role in one of the two projects (led by Texas A&M University) which will train the next generation of conservation professionals in climate smart agriculture.
A research partnership with the Long Term Agroecosystems network will create opportunities for Hub staff to collaborate with the network’s grazinglands working group scientists to synthesize and translate the network’s research findings. The Hub provided funding to hire two Climate Hub Fellows through cooperative agreements with Kansas State University, and Oklahoma State University who will work on synthesizing current knowledge about the impact of grazing land management on soil organic carbon and nitrogen cycling. The goal of this initiative is to provide partner agencies and region-wide stakeholders the most recent science about climate mitigation potential of livestock grazing management on rangelands and pasturelands of the United States.
Modeling climate vulnerabilities of beef and wheat production in the southern great plains will be the research focus of a Climate Hub Fellow funded through a cooperative agreement with Texas A&M Kingsville. This project will apply systems thinking to build a system dynamics model that will assess the climate vulnerabilities of two key Southern Plains commodities and develop a tool to examine the expected impacts of a variety of climate adaptation strategies. This project seeks to build on (and update) the highly cited 2017 Hub report titled ‘Resilient Southern Plains Agriculture and Forestry in a Varying and Changing Climate’ which summarized assessments of regional experts regarding the climate vulnerabilities of the main agricultural commodities of the region.
Climate Adaptation Strategies for the Beef Industry in the Great Plains and Western U.S. was the topic of a symposium organized by the Hub at this year’s American Society of Animal Science annual meeting in Albuquerque. The Southern Plains Climate Hub partnered with the Southwest Climate Hub, the Sustainable Southwest Beef Coordinated Agriculture Project, and Western Section of the Society of Animal Science to hold this event. The Hub convened researchers from the Agricultural Research Service and several Plains and Western Land Grant Universities to discuss tools currently available in the region to cope with current and anticipated changes in weather patterns associated with climate change. Topics ranging from climate vulnerability assessments of beef production and its supply chains to cattle genetics and climate-smart senor systems for precision livestock farming were covered by experts in each area. A paper synthesizing presentation key points will be developed this fall.
Accomplishments
Review Publications
Duni, D.M., McIntosh, M.M., Nyamuryekung'E, S., Cibils, A.F., Duniway, M.C., Estell, R.E., Spiegal, S.A., Gonzalez, A.L., Gedefaw, M.G., Redd, M., Paulin, R., Steele, C.M., Utsumi, S.A., Perea, A.R. 2023. Foraging behavior of Raramuri Criollo vs. Angus cattle grazing California Chaparral and Colorado Plateau shrublands. Journal of Arid Environments. 213. Article 104975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2023.104975.
Spiegal, S.A., Estell, R.E., Cibils, A., Armstrong, E., Blanco, L., Bestelmeyer, B.T. 2023. Can heritage Criollo cattle promote sustainability in a changing world? Journal of Arid Environments. 216. Article 104980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2023.104980.
Cibils, A.F., Estell, R.E., Spiegal, S.A., Nuamuryekung'E, S., Mcintosh, M.M., Duni, D.M., Herrera-Conegliano, O.A., Rodriguez Almeida, F.A., Roacho, E.O., Blanco, L.J., Duniway, M.C., Utsumi, S.A., Gonzalez, A.L. 2022. Adapting to climate change on desert rangelands: A multi-site comparison of grazing behavior plasticity of heritage and improved beef cattle. Journal of Arid Environments. 209. Article 104886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2022.104886.
Torell, G.L., Torell, L.A., Enyinnaya, J., Spiegal, S.A., Estell, R.E., Cibils, A.F., Anderson, D.M., Gonzalez, A.L. 2023. Economics of Raramuri Criollo and British crossbred cattle production in the Chihuahuan desert: Effects of foraging distribution and finishing strategy. Journal of Arid Environments. 211. Article 104922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2022.104922.
McIntosh, M.M., Spiegal, S.A., McIntosh, S.Z., Sanchez, C.J., Estell, R.E., Steele, C.M., Elias, E.H., Bailey, D.W., Brown, J.R., Cibils, A.F. 2023. Matching beef cattle breeds to the environment for desired outcomes in a changing climate: A systematic review. Journal of Arid Environments. 211. Article 104905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2022.104905.
Roacho, E.O., Rodriguez, A.F., Utsumi, S.A., Fredrickson, E.L., Bezanilla Enriquez, G.A., Estell, R.E., Gonzalez, A.L., Cibils, A.F. 2023. Foraging behavior of Raramuri Criollo vs. commercial crossbred cows on rangelands of the southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Journal of Arid Environments. 212. Article 104943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2023.104943.
