FIELD OFFICE TECHNICAL GUIDE

Section V Conservation Effects

Procedural References

Case Studies

Case studies are highly recommended as planning and public information tools. A "case study" is quantitative and qualitative information from a real situation describing before and after treatment resource conditions.

There are no required formats that must be followed when developing case studies. Conservation effects information can come from a variety of sources such as university research, conservation field trials, and the expert knowledge of experienced planners within and outside of our agency as well as from other case studies.

A case study is one example of how a recommended conservation treatment, such as a change in management, practice or system installed, actually worked out to meet cooperator objectives and effectively treated resource problems.

Results

Case studies provide a means to share conservation planning results. They are intended to be a relatively quick and practical means of providing potential cooperators in comparable resource situations with a vision of the way their current situation might be modified to achieve a desired resource condition. They are not intended to be definitive analyses of resource treatments which scientifically determine complete cause and effect relationships.

Thus, case studies to evaluate the effects of conservation should contain neither the degree of detail nor the rigor of analysis used in university or research case studies. They should, however, be more insightful than casual observation and help gain a better understanding of the ecological and economic implications of change from current production systems to new systems based on conservation treatments.

"Before and after treatment" information allows for estimating change. The expected focus of case studies should be on the results or outcomes of treatment, because exact cause and effect relationships between treatment inputs and conservation outputs (results) are difficult, and in some cases impossible to identify.

End Products

• Brief information brochures containing highlights of the resource problems addressed, applied treatments, experienced effects, farmer satisfaction, etc.
• Brief one-page information sheets, modeled after fact sheets;
• Training materials for instructing field professionals in planning and use of technical information;
• Local news and farm magazine articles; and;
• Case study farms can be the focus of Soil and Water Conservation District tours, Neighbor-to- Neighbor stops, and training exercises.

All of these products and uses could be part of public information campaigns and training to illustrate effective ways to evaluate and treat resource problems.

Case Study Development and Use

Most case studies should be a record of what happened under certain stated conditions when conservation treatments were applied. A case study need not be approached as a complex research effort requiring explicit hypotheses, and statistical tests.

Planners should begin by thinking about the resource base in their area (county resource and land use situations) and direct case study efforts to situations where the needs and opportunities are greatest.

Once the dominant resource settings for your county are identified, then priorities can be established for developing case studies. It is anticipated that most field offices have 3 to 4 dominant resource situations and perhaps a comparable number of dominant treatment systems.

The key to success with case studies is to select resource situations with a broad applicability based on major resource concerns on soil mapping units and in resource use situations that represent a significant portion of the resource users in a county.

Farmer Selection

Studies show that a farmer's most respected source of information about new crops, practices, and technologies is other farmers. If you can cite results obtained on the farm of a respected local resident, you will have satisfied one of the key concerns of most farmers.

Selecting an "early adopter" farmer rather than a "late majority" or "laggard", will have an easier job of convincing other farmers to accept the results (Figure 1). For new and untested technology, an innovator is probably the best prospect for a case study.

Information and Data Collection

A case study can be conducted as part of ongoing conservation planning work. Additionally, follow-up needed after the conservation plan has been implemented, will serve to verify or reject planning expectations and the results that the decision maker hoped to achieve.

Planning notes from an existing conservation plan might contain all or most of the information needed to produce a good case study. Information in a case study should include data on the kinds, amounts, and timing of actions taken to implement conservation treatments.

Typically, a case study will attempt to measure the level of inputs and outputs associated with a particular conservation practice or system. Important records may include farming operations undertaken, type of equipment used, dates of operations, number of operations to complete work, and the kinds and amounts of inputs such as seed, fertilizer, pesticides, tractor hours, fuel consumption and labor required.

The degree of detail and selection of input and output factors to collect data for, should be guided by common sense and professional judgment. Several methods for organization and development may be used and a minimum of data requirements must be met to help other farmers understand the consequences of their choice.

1. be specific for a conservation practice or system;
2. attempt to hold all variables not related to the conservation treatment constant (this requires careful farmer selection and consultation during implementation to avoid changes in varieties, fertilizer, etc.)
3. include the kinds, amounts and timing of treatment actions; and
4. identify the physical and biological effects associated with those actions.

   To the extent that treatment significantly affects yields, erosion rates, and other observable indicators related to the resources of concern, such data should also be recorded. Any significant changes in operational and managerial conditions and decisions may also be noted.

Types of Case Studies

1. a comparison of the "before and after treatment" conditions on a single farm;
2. a comparison of two separate, but comparable resource and land use situations on different farms or even on the same farm, i.e., one site "with and one without treatment"; or
3. a simple recording of the results a farmer experiences "with treatment" on a single site regardless of the "before" treatment conditions.

   The first and second alternatives mentioned above require that data be collected for both the "before treatment" or benchmark situation (without treatment) and the "after treatment" (with treatment) condition arising from the conservation option adopted.

   The last alternative represents the simplest, easiest approach, but inherently has the greatest risk for misunderstanding cause and effect relationships because it focuses on "with treatment" conditions only. Interpreting specific changes attributable to conservation treatments with this method is not as valid as the other two approaches.

Conservation Effects vs Impacts

The difference between "before and after treatment" or "with vs without treatment" input/output conditions represents change. This change may be all or in part due to the conservation treatment. Change attributable to recommended conservation treatment is defined as the conservation impact.

Conservation effects represent the quantitative and qualitative descriptive characteristics of the treatment outcomes. They are the overall results which provide a general view of the treatment and its effectiveness. The effects show what a practice or system looks like, its characteristics and results, and represent the general expectations achievable elsewhere if the resource conditions are relatively similar.

The effects of a conservation option can be relied upon by the planner for depicting the expected response to treatment for a given conservation option and resource situation. The conservation effects and associated impacts provide an abundance of information for new clients to begin evaluating the appropriateness of the case study to their specific situation and then build their own conservation plans.

Information Display

The examples should show the kinds, amount and timing of actions undertaken by the case study farmer in the "before treatment" or benchmark condition. It should also shows the effects and impacts of those actions.

Care and good judgment must be used in deciding whether to use the participating farmer's name when presenting results to others. Ideally, the case study farmer would consent to the public use of the results. However, if confidentiality is a concern, case study information can be presented carefully without reference to the particular cooperating farmer.

Multi-year Rotations

Information from each of the years of a multi-year rotation must be collected and kept separate. If a multi-year rotation is the conservation option that is being evaluated, and comparison with a continuous crop benchmark condition is desired, then some summarizing and averaging over those years to make comparisons will be needed.

Its important to remember that information must be collected regarding the kinds, amounts and timing of actions and the resulting effects for each year of the treatment rotation that is different from the benchmark or "before treatment" condition.

Potential Problems with Case Studies

Attributing change to a conservation treatment is potentially the most complex and uncertain aspect of NRCS case studies. Researchers do not like to predict results based on only one example. In fact, this is a weakness of using the case study approach to predict the effects and impacts of conservation work.

1. Variability in weather, e.g., unusually low rainfall during the growing season could cause yields to be lower than the levels expected when you planned the conservation system.
2. Changes in management such as a change in varieties planted, fertilizer used or as a result of lessons learned during implementation, e.g., modifying tillage depth or timing;
3. Measurement errors with respect to inputs or outputs;
4. Some other factor might change between before and after treatment observations, e.g., biological or chemical changes in the soil which might solely be a function of time and be unrelated to the treatment, i.e., increasing salinity; and
5. Significant statistical variation with respect to yields or any other measurable outcome can occur which may or may not be related to the treatment.

   Paying close attention to details, objectivity in planning and collecting "after treatment" data, and experience in conducting such studies will help minimize errors. In addition, data collected over several years will tend to minimize the impact of low or high responses to treatment. Finally, it is important to inform subsequent farmers that these results were achieved on one of their neighbor's farms and that comparable changes cannot be guaranteed. The exact magnitude of change most likely will be different, but should fall within some reasonable proximity to the case study results.

Conducting case studies should not require significant efforts beyond normal conservation planning activities. Properly structured, they will provide additional insights on actual results from conservation treatments experienced by producers in the area.

Benefits

These insights will improve the field office knowledge about the outcomes of experienced farmers. Field office staffs will be able to express recommendations for treatment in a more credible manner because of greater "product" knowledge and understanding. Farmers will recognize this expertise and effectiveness within the field office will increase accordingly.

"Professional selling skills" and other conservation marketing concepts to identify and target priority resource problems and potential cooperators will be easier to apply.

Case studies will also help build a permanent record of treatment results that are very useful for selling conservation and that won't disappear as employee retirements and transfers occur. They should also serve technology transfer purposes when shared between field offices and with other interested parties. The information contained in a case study enables planners with various levels of experience to have access to the knowledge of the best.

Finally, going through the process of developing and evaluating a case study is an excellent training exercise for new employees to refine their knowledge of planning and to enhance measurement skills and use of the predictive models.