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.
