Title: Carl Fredericks Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1986-1997 (bulk 1988-1992)

Creator:

• Fredericks, Carl, 1961-

Call Number: Mss 1211; PH 7084

Quantity: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box), and 1 photograph and 48 transparencies (1 folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTIONS MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, 1986-1997 (bulk 1988-1992), of Carl Fredericks, coordinator of the Southern Wisconsin Farmers Research Network (SWFRN), a network of farmers engaged in on-farm research, and its successor, GrassWorks, a statewide grazing association. SWFRN was supported by the Sustainable Agriculture Program of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) from 1988-1992. Also included is a small amount of material relating to another grazing organization, Ocooch Graziers, and other grazing resources from Kickapoo Organic Resources Network (KORN).

Note:

Forms part of the Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Collection.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01211

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Carl Fredericks was born in 1961 in Delhi, New York. He graduated with a B.A. in geography from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1983, and completed a M.S. in Land Resources at the Institute for Environmental Studies (now known as the Nelson Institute) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. While a graduate student in Madison, he worked at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) writing agricultural impact statements. In 1987 he worked as a research associate in Nebraska for the Small Farm Resources Project, which was sponsored by the Center for Rural Affairs.

From 1988 to 1992, he served as coordinator of the Southern Wisconsin Farmers Research Network (SWFRN), a network of farmers, established in 1986, engaged in on-farm research and originally supported by the Wisconsin Rural Development Center (WRDC). In the initial two years of the project (1986-1987), farmers conducted research related to crop production on five farms. In 1988, the organization received a Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Sustainable Agriculture Program demonstration grant, which enabled it to expand research to ten farms in southwest Wisconsin. Research concerned controlled grazing, mechanical weed control, and profitable crop rotations. SWFRN disseminated results at workshops, farm tours, and field days.

After the DATCP Sustainable Agriculture Program ended in 1992, SWFRN transitioned into a statewide grazing organization known as GrassWorks, which focuses on education for both farmers and consumers. Fredericks served as coordinator of the new organization from 1993-2000, and organized the Wisconsin Grazing Conference. He currently operates Grass Mapping Enterprises (2001-present), a business in which he compiles data collected from various on-farm research projects and often serves as project manager for research grants and educational initiatives related to grazing practices. Fredericks and his wife Becky Rehl also operate Cold Valley Farm, where they raise registered Jacob sheep.

The papers primarily document Fredericks's role as coordinator of the Southern Wisconsin Farmers Research Network (SWFRN), which sought to ensure that farmers had an equal voice in on-farm research, alongside university faculty and staff and extension agents, as well as creating a forum for farmers engaged in research to communicate with one another. Board minutes concerning SWFRN's transition to GrassWorks, a statewide grazing education organization, are included, but the papers do not include Fredericks's tenure at GrassWorks, apart from a grazing conference program. Also included are materials from SWFRN's beginnings as a program within the Wisconsin Rural Development Center (WRDC), as well as materials related to grazing from two other organizations, Ocooch Graziers and Kickapoo Organic Resources Network (KORN).

Margaret Krome Papers (Mss 1192)

Acquisition Information

Presented by Carl Fredericks, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, October 25, 2017. Accession Number: M2018-054

Processing Information

Processed by Julia Wong, May 2018.

Mss 1211	Southern Wisconsin Farmers Research Network (SWFRN)
Box   1 Folder   1	By-laws, 1988
Box   1 Folder   2	Board of Directors meetings, transition to GrassWorks, 1992-1994
Box   1 Folder   3	Correspondence, 1988-1992
	Events
Box   1 Folder   4	Attendee sign-in sheets, 1988-1992
PH 7084 Folder   1	Transparencies, 1988-1992
Mss 1211 Box   1 Folder   5	Fact sheets, 1988-1992
	Grant files, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
Box   1 Folder   6	Application, contracts, 1990-1991
Box   1 Folder   7	Cates, Dick, files, 1987
Box   1 Folder   8	Quarterly reports, 1988-1993
Box   1 Folder   9	Final reports, 1988-1992
Box   1 Folder   10	Grazing conferences, 1993-1994, 1997
Box   1 Folder   11	News clippings, 1988-1992, undated
Box   1 Folder   12	Press releases and meeting notices, 1988-1992
	Research data
Box   1 Folder   13	General, 1988-1994
Box   1 Folder   14	Cannell, Mike and Charlotte, 1988-1997
PH 7084 Folder   1	Pasture walk: photograph, 1989
Mss 1211 Box   1 Folder   15	Forseth, Tom, 1988-1992
Box   1 Folder   16	Garvoille, Vince and Barb, 1988-1991
Box   1 Folder   17	Heisner, Jim and Jane, 1990
Box   1 Folder   18	Patenaude, Dan and Jeanne, 1987-1991 Note: Includes issues of The Grazing News, Patenaude's promotional newsletter for an electric fencing system.
Box   1 Folder   19	Pulvermacher, Carl and Cathy, 1987-1992
Box   1 Folder   20	Swenson, Dean, 1988-1992
Box   1 Folder   21	Swenson, Paul, 1991-1992
Box   1 Folder   22	Speakers bureau, 1992-1993
	Wisconsin Rural Development Center (WRDC)
Box   1 Folder   23	General, 1986-1989 Note: Includes a two-year (1986-1987) case history of SWFRN by Margaret Krome, June 1988.
Box   1 Folder   24	Newsletters, 1984-1987
Box   1 Folder   25	Kickapoo Organic Resources Network (KORN), 1992, 1994
	Ocooch Graziers
Box   1 Folder   26	Membership directory, 1993
Box   1 Folder   27	Publications, 1991-circa 1992 Note: Includes "Intensive Grazing Dairy Cows: One Farmer's Experience," by Jim Brown, 1991, and "Ocooch Graziers: A collection of snippets and pieces collected from various and sundry places to help us better understand the idea of grass management relative to its use in Intensive Rotational Grazing," 1992?