This readme.txt file was generated on by G. DiGiacomo and altered by the DRUM data curator Recommended citation for the data: Meier, E., Jewett, J., DiGiacomo, G., Paine, L., & Fenn, A. (2025). "Match Made In Heaven" Integrated Crop and Livestock Farmers Survey, North Central U.S., 2023-2024 [Data set]. Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM). https://doi.org/10.13020/Y5KA-4C47 ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- 1. Title of Dataset: "Match Made In Heaven" Integrated Crop and Livestock Farmers Survey, North Central U.S., 2023-2024 2. Author Information Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Erin Meier Institution: Green Lands, Blue Waters/Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Address: 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Buford Cir, St Paul, MN 55108 Email: tegtm003@umn.edu ORCID: 0000-0002-2317-2476 Co-investigator Contact Information (PRIMARY CONTACT FOR THE DATA) Name: Jane Jewett Institution: University of Minnesota Address: 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Buford Cir, Saint Paul, MN 55108 Email: jewet006@umn.edu ORCID: Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Gigi DiGiacomo Institution: University of Minnesota Dept. of Applied Economics Address: 146H Ruttan Hall, 1994 Buford Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108 Email: gigid@umn.edu ORCID: 0000-0003-0301-7361 Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Laura Paine Institution: Independent consultant Email: lkpaine@gmail.com ORCID: Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Amy Fenn Institution: Crawford Stewardship Council Address: PO Box 284, Gays Mills, Wisconsin 54628 Email: fennsfolly@gmail.com ORCID: 3. Date published or finalized for release: September 12, 2024 4. Date of data collection: 20230101 - 20240105 5. Geographic location of data collection: The majority of responses were from North Central, U.S. (Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin). We did have responses from 25 states, usually just one or two per state outside of these states. 6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: The project was coordinated by the Midwest Perennial Forage Working Group (MPFWG) of Green Lands Blue Waters. All work was funded by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program (grant #3002-11029-00098541). This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 Am 3 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number LNC21-453. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 7. Overview of the data (abstract): This survey is part of the Match Made in Heaven (MMIH) project that seeks to foster re-integration of livestock and grain production systems in the North Central, U.S. Region by generating information on producer production practices, attitudes, and goals. One of the project deliverables was qualitative results from this producer survey which will be used to help guide the development of educational programming and other activities aimed at promoting environmental, economic, and social benefits of integrated livestock and crop systems in the North Central, U.S. Region. Primary data from the integrated crop and livestock survey are available here. Data were generated by a 60-question survey fielded in 2023-2024 to crop and livestock producers by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC) using online Qualtrics software and paper questionnaires. Survey results were compiled by the University of Minnesota using Qualtrics software and downloaded into Microsoft Excel for de-identification, cleaning and further analysis. All data was cleaned to remove responses that were less than 90% complete yielding a total of 560 responses. The survey was designed to gather demographic information from all respondents and to allow specific, in-depth questions for different sub-groups of farmers, such as those currently producing "crops only," "livestock only," or "crops + livestock." "Livestock only" farmers were asked about their grazing management and their interest in and attitudes toward partnering with crop farmers to graze cover crops, crop aftermath or rent land for pasture. Likewise, "crop only" farmers were asked about their interest in and attitudes toward incorporating livestock enterprises into their operations, allowing livestock farmers to graze cover crops or crop aftermath, or incorporating harvested forage crops into their crop rotations. Both groups were asked about incentives, market and processing availability, and policies related to adoption of these practices. -------------------------- SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: The Green Lands, Blue Waters website [https://greenlandsbluewaters.org/] hosts a variety of data and summaries from the "Match Made in Heaven" project [https://greenlandsbluewaters.org/match-made-in-heaven-livestock-crops/#survey]. 3. Was data derived from another source? No, this is primary data. 4. Terms of Use: Data Repository for the U of Minnesota (DRUM) By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. https://conservancy.umn.edu/pages/policies/#drum-terms-of-use --------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW --------------------- 1. File List A. Filename: ZIPs_MMIH Survey Data for DRUM.csv Short description: Survey data responses from 560 crop and livestock producers throughout the North Central, U.S. regarding their use of and interest in integrated crop + livestock production systems. B. Filename: MMIH_Codebook.csv Short description: Codebook for "ZIPs_MMIH Survey Data for DRUM.csv" describing and defining variables C. Filename: MMIH_survey_111422.pdf Short description: Blank copy of the survey that was used for the "Match Made in Heaven" study 2. Relationship between files: Dataset and related documentation -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: A 60-question survey questionnaire was developed using the Tailored Design Method by the Match Made In Heaven project team in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Survey Center (UWSC). The survey questionnaire was designed and fielded by UWSC using Qualtrics software and structured primarily for online deployment. The survey was also formatted and made available to partner organizations in paper form for distribution at farm events and via direct mail. The UWSC met with the project team to advise on outreach strategies to maximize the response rate. Each project partner conducted outreach and distribution of the survey among their members and audiences. Survey promotion was a collaborative effort among the project's 100+ partners. All partners were given access to an online “survey promotion toolkit” that contained: a press release, a template for an email campaign, a variety of professionally designed advertisements for print/digital (postcards, flyers, social media posts), a variety of images and text blurbs that could be added to any newsletter, individual PPT slides that could be dropped into any presentation, a full PPT slide deck with recorded presentation, a professionally printable educational infographic handout with a QR link to the survey, a PDF version of the survey that could be printed & returned by mail, and a template for a ’networking’ email that could be used to recruit additional partners to the project effort. $1000 stipends were available to offset costs of promotion if needed but few partners requested the stipend. Partners used the toolkit materials to promote at conferences, workshops, and on-farm events throughout the 6 states, as well as in newsletters and social media. Only about 25% of partners recorded data on their outreach numbers, but that data showed that the survey promotion reached over 60k farmers. Most promotion was virtual but a particular hands-on effort was made by MN Extension Cow-Calf Days (CCD) who put paper copies directly into the hands of event attendees, set aside event time for attendees to complete the survey, and then batch collected/returned them. This effort yielded the greatest return: ~180 of total responses came from the series of MN Extension CCD events. 2. Methods for processing the data: The University of Wisconsin Survey Center extracted survey response data from Qualtrics and provided a raw data file to the project team in CSV format, which was then transmitted to a Google Sheets file. A total of 854 survey responses in the raw data was reduced to 553 usable responses. Deleted responses included those that were submitted during the survey instrument testing period, those that showed completion of <90% of the survey, and those from duplicate IP addresses indicating bot responses. ZIP code and demographic information were collected; including gross farm income in four ranges from <$25,000 to >$1,000,000, percentage of household income from off-farm sources, number of years farming, highest level of education completed, age, and gender. No other personal identifiable information was collected. Data were anonymized according to the protocol described in our IRB submission: “No geographic unit with fewer than five farms will be shown in data or mapping. If there are fewer than five farms responding in a ZIP code, adjacent ZIP code areas will be combined until there are at least five farms included in a geographic unit.” This level of anonymization follows the USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) practice of reporting the Agricultural Census: a category is reported only when there are at least five farms included in the data for that category. 3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: Qualtrics and Microsoft Excel 4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: N/A 5. Environmental/experimental conditions: N/A 6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: The survey questionnaire was reviewed for quality assurance and questionnaire logic using built-in Qualtrics software tools. Collected data was validated by reviewing for and removing all test responses, duplicate responses, and those responses with less than a 90% survey completion rate. 7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: see author list ----------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: ZIPs_MMIH Survey Data for DRUM.csv ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: 294 2. Number of cases/rows: 560 3. Missing data codes: Code/symbol NA Definition No answer or does not apply 4. Variable List See file: MMIH_Codebook.csv