Americas Conservation Ag Movement

Cashing in on Conservation: How Local Retailers Can Connect Agronomy With Market Opportunity

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:17:04 GMT

Recent research from Trust In Food places ag retailers as a trusted source of conservation information for the average farmer because a majority of them (55%) have farm experience themselves.

It’s something Nutrien Ag Solutions sees play out in their business each day. With more than 1,900 retail locations globally, Nutrien Ag Solutions is a leading provider of both inputs and advice for farmers who are battling constant challenges, both from agronomic and external pressures.

“The trust in the relationships our crop consultants have with growers is key to implementing the best agronomic practices over time,” says Sally Flis, director, Sustainable Ag Programs, Nutrien Ag Solutions. “As the trusted adviser, they are working with our growers 365 days a year to find solutions, evaluate problems and look for new opportunities to drive their businesses.”

Nutrien Ag Solutions has been capitalizing on that trust by rolling out conservation programs that can net farmers added income in exchange for continued conservation agronomy practices and data-capture, specifically around nitrogen management. The retail leader is hoping the programs will leverage agronomic practices and data into bottom line incentives for farmers.

“Good agronomy is the base of all sustainability programs, making sure we have the best tools, practices and products selected at a field level to drive production efficiency and return to the grower is what drives the metrics we look at for sustainability programs,” Flis says. “Our programs are focused on nitrogen management, an agronomic fundamental that growers and our crop consultants are working on every season to optimize return.”

Conservation programs through Nutrien Ag Solutions can help farmers secure added income in exchange for conservation agronomy practices and data-capture.

(Nutrien Ag Solutions)

According to Flis, the programs are paying off at the farm gate in a variety of ways, including:

Improved data collection
Access to sustainable ag reports with compiled field-level and operational data
Education about new tools, technologies and products to drive efficiency on the acre

Program enrollees begin the enrollment process with a registration into Nutrien Ag Solutions’ proprietary digital platform, Agrible . The company says the software uses predictive agronomic forecasts and sustainability metrics generated from in-field data. Through a variety of value chain connections, such as Ardent Mills and Bunge, Flis says the company is using that data to shape downstream sustainability goals within the industry.

But, Nutrien Ag Solutions is backing up this technology by doing what they do best, Flis says.

“We have the Sustainable Ag Field team, our crop consultants on the ground and Waypoint Analytical as resources to help growers select practices, collect data and analyze progress,” she says. “The level of support we provide means that the majority of growers that enroll in our programs make it to completion and receive payments.”

Payments vary and are based on outcomes, specifically a reduction in applied nitrogen by a minimum of 5%. The program has a minimum payment of $2 per acre but can rise as much as $4.89 per acre for long-term, no-till corn and $4.47 per acre for conventional tillage corn. Cotton producers, on average, receive $3.84 per acre for long-term, no-till practices. The program is applicable for winter wheat, barley and sorghum as well.

Nutrien Ag Solutions provides support for growers enrolled in conservation programs to help ensure success in the partnership.

(Nutrien Ag Solutions)

For Nutrien Ag Solutions, conservation programs sprang from enhanced market opportunities available through the carbon space and a desire to ensure those opportunities were optimized for the farm gate. Flis says Nutrien Ag Solutions, with their trusted grower relationship, was the natural fit to make that connection stronger, and they are consistently looking for more programs that align with that mission.

“The programs were designed after a few years of experimenting in the carbon space and getting feedback from growers and our crop consultants,” Flis says. “We blended those findings into the Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes Program in the U.S. and Canada — shorter term agreements, carbon and other sustainable ag metrics calculated to meet grower and CPG needs, provide tools and products available to allow for continuous improvement, and pay growers for the outcomes from changes.”

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at americasconservationagmovement.com .

America’s Conservation Ag Movement Adds Nutrien Ag Solutions to Coalition Strengthening American Agriculture

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 13:40:59 GMT

This article is published as part of America’s Conservation Ag Movement , which supports farmers and ranchers in building profitable, resilient futures for their operations.

Since its beginning in 2018, America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM) has been dedicated to preserving the American farm family’s access to the tools, resources and education needed to grow the products that feed, clothe and power the world.

Today, ACAM welcomes Nutrien Ag Solutions , the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and services through a nationwide network of trusted retail locations, as the newest contributor in that coalition.

ACAM is a public-private partnership that brings together leading technical assistance and innovation through a farmer-led experience aimed at bridging the gap between the industry and farm-gate. Nutrien Ag Solutions joins other supporters in the coalition including Ducks Unlimited, American Farmland Trust, Syngenta, National Association of Conservation Districts, and Valent U.S.A.

“Nutrien is a strong on-the-ground resource to farmers nationwide,” says Andrew Lyon, America’s Conservation Ag Movement. “Their comprehensive agronomic expertise and commitment to sustainability through their industry-leading conservation programs will be a vital asset as we work to secure the future of America’s working farmlands.”

Nutrien Ag Solutions works side by side with farmers through its global retail network of local crop consultants, delivering agronomic expertise, digital tools and programs that help strengthen on-farm operations. By joining America’s Conservation Ag Movement, Nutrien Ag Solutions is expanding its efforts to share practical know-how and farmer-tested practices with a broader community. The company is dedicated to supporting strong yields today while safeguarding the land for future generations.

“We are proud to join ACAM and bring our deep retail network and agronomic expertise to this important coalition,” said Dr. Sally Flis, Senior Director of Agronomy, Environmental Health and Safety, Nutrien Ag Solutions. “Our goal is to help farmers adopt practices that improve soil health, protect water quality and strengthen long-term productivity, while demonstrating the positive role agriculture plays in addressing food security challenges. Joining ACAM strengthens our shared mission of advancing solutions that work for both growers and the environment.”

Each year, ACAM connects farmers and ranchers through on-the-ground farmer-led education and online community building bolstered by Farm Journal, Inc., the leader in outreach, business information and media for the agriculture market.

To learn more about America’s Conservation Ag Movement™ and its partners, visit www.americasconservationagmovement.com .

Aligning Inputs with People, Planet and Productivity

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 13:51:44 GMT

This article is published as part of America’s Conservation Ag Movement , which supports farmers and ranchers in building profitable, resilient futures for their operations.

As the challenges facing agriculture grow more complex – from climate variability to shifting market dynamics – growers are increasingly looking for crop inputs that help produce abundant, healthy crops while safeguarding the land they steward.

Valent U.S.A. recently unveiled a new tool to help growers ensure that the inputs they are using to protect their crops act like silver bullets rather than shotguns. Through the Sustainable Solutions Portfolio, Valent has centered 47 broad-spectrum products that make up convention biorational and botanical products that cover both conventional and organic agriculture.

Validated by a third-party, the Sustainable Solutions Criteria aligns the company’s products with Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations in 2000, specifically around impacts to people, planet and productivity.

“Our parent company, Sumitomo Chemical, was one of the first companies globally to partner with the UN to support the SDGs and we have embraced five of those for our businesses in the U.S.,” says Matt Plitt, President & CEO.

Doubling Down on Sustainability

In January, Tiffany Dean joined Valent as vice-president of sustainable solutions, a move aimed at further threading this focus throughout the business.

While Dean has a large focus for the organization, for her, it all begins on the farm, where she says the organization is hyper-focused.

“Growers want to do right by their farms, by their soil and by their ecosystem,” she says. “They also want to make sure they’re maximizing profitability and productivity at the end of the day.”

Listening to growers and the organization’s channel partners in the retail space is how the company keeps that focus.

Tiffany Dean leads Valent U.S.A.'s Sustainable Solutions Team, which focuses on grower support in driving their Sustainable Solutions portfolio innovation and implementation at the farm-gate.

(Provided by Valent U.S.A.)

“We are hyper-engaged with growers because we know that they have a lot of challenges and opportunities to address,” Dean says. “We want to make sure that the solutions that we have today and the solutions that we have tomorrow are going to bring them value, so they can maximize inputs and ensure that that soil is going to be productive today and tomorrow.”

Innovation Through Sustainability

Over the next decade, Dean expects that the company will roll 20 new products into the market, the result of an arduous decades-long process to develop and gain registration for new agriculture inputs.

She says that the company’s “North Star” in that process is also the same one they use for their entire business – sustainability.

“We want to bring products into the market that are going to be the most beneficial to the grower and to the environment,” she says, adding that the majority of those new products are going be around the company’s plant growth regulator platform, but will also include seed treatments and herbicides.

“We have much innovation, investment and excitement around the Sustainable Solutions Portfolio,” she says. “But we need to make sure that we are using the grower as the voice of how we drive our business moving forward.”

Betting On Sustainable Productivity

Valent’s Sustainable Solutions Criteria ends with productivity and Dean says it is not lost on her how critical it is right now for America’s working lands to be working both at peak capacity and peak efficiency. The team is working to ensure that products in the Portfolio are optimized as well.

“Input costs are under an extreme amount of pressure right now, and so we want to make sure that growers are maximizing those input costs and gaining the benefit of everything that they are purchasing,” she says. “Through our biorational, our biological and our conventional portfolio we’re able to bring products that allows the grower to maximize their productivity while also not sacrificing the environmental aspects as well.”

In the short term, Dean says she is focused on listening so that she can build strategy for innovation that takes all of these factors into account for conservation at the farm-gate.

“We need to continue engaging with our customers and our partners to understand what is needed from growers, what’s needed from the value chain, and what’s needed at the end of the day to make sure that producers are continuing to maximize their productivity and profitability and are able to use our products to benefit them in many ways possible,” she says.

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at americasconservationagmovement.com .

Choose Your Own Adventure: Online Tool Makes It Easier To Find Conservation Programs

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:40:54 GMT

Due to the growing number of climate-smart programs that are available to growers, it can be hard to navigate. That’s just what the Conservation Connector was intended to change.

Developed by The Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and its partners (The Nature Conservancy, Houston Engineering and OpenTeam), the Conservation Connector is an online directory that allows users to easily view and sort through the programs relevant to them in one place.

“There’s a huge growth in the number of program offerings out there to help farmers put conservation practices to work on the ground. It’s a little bit confusing for folks, because people don’t necessarily have any single place where they can go to find out what’s really available to them - other than just a generic Google search,” says Dave Gustafson, CTIC conservation connector project director. “The Connector is intended to be a very quick and easy-to-use tool right now that focuses on farmers to find all the programs and providers that are relevant for their location, for their commodities of interest, and for the practices and incentive types that are of interest to them.”

When using the Conservation Connector, growers and their advisers can filter the database by state, county, commodity, practice and incentive type.

(Conservation Technology Information Center)

The Conservation Connector can be found at connector.ag . Gustafson says the programs on the platform have been preloaded by CTIC staff, but there are plans to shift that in the future toward a self-registry process.

“We did our best to get very accurate information, and in many cases, the data resulted from a one-on-one interview between our intern and the program administrator. However, our process going forward is to request that all of those program administrators and service providers do regular quarterly updates to their information.”

And while the majority of programs currently on the platform are located in the upper Midwest, each U.S. state is represented - as well as Puerto Rico. That list will be expanding in the months ahead to also include more livestock offerings.

“We have been in conversation with a number of different partners, such as dairy and other commodity groups, to help make sure our directories are as accurate as possible,” Gustafson says. “The kinds of different conservation offerings that will be available in the connector will broaden significantly over time.”

The team plans to officially launch the farmer-facing side of The Connector sometime toward the end of August. For more detailed information on how to use the directory, check out the CTIC YouTube page .

Ducks Unlimited and National Sorghum Producers Pair Up to Promote Water-Smart Agriculture

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:54:33 GMT

Ducks Unlimited (DU) and National Sorghum Producers (NSP) have announced a partnership to focus efforts on water savings and market innovation. The goal is to support growers and rural communities in water efficiency efforts that:

expand waterfowl habitat
recharge below-ground aquifers
support new value-added opportunities around ‘water-smart’ commodities

“If there’s one thing that ducks and agriculture both need it’s water,” says Adam Putnam, DU CEO. “DU and NSP have a shared interest in conserving America’s precious water resources, and our collaboration will enable us to achieve success that wouldn’t be possible alone. Together, we’ll promote voluntary, water-smart agriculture practices, and we look forward to finding new, innovative methods of leveraging our natural resources for the benefit of waterfowl, other wildlife, producers, and communities.”

“National Sorghum Producers has long championed innovative, sustainable practices that enhance agricultural productivity while preserving our vital natural resources,” says Tim Lust, NSP CEO. “Sorghum, known as The Resource Conserving Crop, serves as a water-sipping alternative to more thirsty crops, making it indispensable in water-stressed regions. This partnership with Ducks Unlimited further solidifies our dedication to foster water-efficient solutions that enhance both crop productivity and the protection of precious water resources.”

“In many regions like the Great Plains, water resources are becoming more finite and presenting challenges to wildlife, agriculture, and the industries they support,” says Billy Gascoigne, DU director of agriculture and strategic partnerships. “The need to leverage resources, expertise, and market innovation is greater now than ever. This partnership looks to do just that.”

“We recognize the importance of proactive water management to maintain sustainable farming landscapes,” says Matt Durler, NSP managing director of climate-smart sorghum. “This collaboration is a commitment to balance water-wise farming with environmental stewardship and ensure communities that rely on agriculture and waterfowl habitats will flourish for generations to come.”

From The Ground-Up: Syngenta Updates ESG Goals To Support Farmers

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 15:36:58 GMT

Syngenta is charting a new path forward for its global environmental goals, starting from the ground-up, both metaphorically and pragmatically for the organization. The path is outlined in the release of new Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Data (“ ESG”) achievements and sustainability strategy .

Reporting significant gains in their current ESG programs, Syngenta’s 2023 report highlights $244 million USD invested in sustainable agriculture breakthroughs, putting them 78% of the way toward their cumulative $2 billion target by 2025.

Soil Health As A Springboard

Going forward, the company is betting on a new soil health focus to help them reach the milestone goal.

“In the face of climate change, prioritizing soil health is the first line of defense,” says Matt Wallenstein, chief soil scientist at Syngenta Group.

According to Wallenstein, leveraging soil health has benefits that cut across crop sectors and regions.

“On a global scale, we know a warming climate accelerates soil decomposition, and the release of carbon into the atmosphere, and more frequent droughts and floods can cause soil erosion, leading to reduced productivity and land value over time.”

“A principle I often share is that healthy soil with good water infiltration and retention can make the difference between a failed or healthy crop,” he says.

Therefore, he says that farmers who focus on soil health can reap those benefits and avoid the consequences.

Wallenstein believes that soil health is “more important than ever for productivity, profitability, and sustainability” for farmers. To that end, Syngenta is rolling out new partnerships, collaborations, and programs aimed at:

· providing tools to the retail system

· informing their R&D platform

· bringing new opportunities for soil health to farmers for on-the-ground implementation

Pragmatically, Wallenstein says these goals look like equipping the company’s agronomists with cutting-edge practical soil health knowledge so that they can bridge the gap with customers. In turn, that feedback will help inform the company’s future innovation pipeline.

“Using a robust system for feeding those farmer insights directly into our R&D pipeline, we can accelerate the delivery of impactful and novel solutions to those on the front line of production,” says Wallenstein.

Seed and Soil

The soil health focus is permeating through all aspects of Syngenta’s operations, including its seed production, which Wallenstein says has its own target of 85% produced through regenerative practices by 2030.

“We are walking the talk by supporting our contract seed producers in adopting these practices through technical assistance and access to our cutting-edge enabling technology, such as biostimulants, and implementing these practices across our own seed production farms,” he says. “Not only is this transition good for the planet, but it will help us ensure our ability to deliver consistently high-quality seeds to farmers for years to come.”

Data-Driven Decisions

Research projects, such as one with Michigan State University at their W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, are already underway, developing tools that can help growers understand, test, monitor, and measure long-term soil health benefits, bringing data that can help influence conservation adoption and operational management decisions.

“In this project, we are quantifying robust, causal linkages between soil health indicators and agronomic and environmental outcomes,” Wallenstein says. “We are testing soil health indicators across a range of soil types and climatic conditions using long-term trials across the Midwest.”

“In the future, we want to offer farmers data that will help them reach both long-term soil health goals and short-term commercial success.”

Longer-Lens For Potential Return On Investment

While the reporting goals and plans paint an aggressive soil health goal for Syngenta, Wallenstein says soil health adoption is not without challenges. But, he says, the company is committed to partnering with growers to find solutions for those hurdles.

“There is ample scientific evidence that adopting practices like conservation tillage, cover crops, and diverse rotations can lead to potential increased yields, yield stability, and better efficiency in most places, and adoption may lead to a strong potential return on investment for growers and landowners over the long run,” Wallenstein says. “But many technical and financial barriers stand in the way, making it easier said than done.”

“In some situations, there can be a transition period of yield drag before realizing the benefits–a tough pill to swallow,” he adds. “On the research side, we are seeking to unravel the mechanisms that drive this delayed response so that we can develop solutions to avoid it. This research is in close collaboration with leading growers, where we both learn from each other.”

With its march toward a more resilient future, Syngenta is aiming to equip farmers with the tools they need.

“As we develop solutions that will enable farmers to adopt and sustain soil health practices, we’re working closely with them to help achieve the best outcomes by building long-term partnerships, trust, and transparency.”

Growers Who Rely Upon Cover Crops Say Diversity is Key to Maximum Soil Health Benefit

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 16:57:22 GMT

This article was written by Jamie Sears Rawlings with Trust In Food.

Eighty percent of U.S. growers who participated in the 2022-23 National Cover Crop Survey report that they used cover crops on their farms. That number overwhelms the national average (only 7.5 percent of U.S. farms in the 2017 Census), but it’s enough to signal that adoption of cover crops is rising.

For these new adopters, however, the learning curve is coming with some challenges along the way.

What if one cover crop works one year and not the next? How do you know when to terminate? Does planting green make sense?

Cover Crop Options Available For Every Farm

According to Indiana producers who shared their practices at a Aug. 17 field day: cover diversity and experimentation are essential to cater mixes to each unique operation.

Indiana farmer Aaron Krueger told the almost 80 people in attendance that his soil health and organic material has grown as his cover crop diversity has grown. (Left: Aaron and Ronald Krueger of Krueger Farms in Owensville, Ind.)

“Wheat is a good starter program for a cover crop, but it likes to put on roots when it flowers, which is problematic,” Krueger said. “My advice is to look beyond just wheat into rye and a mixture.”

Like most growers, Krueger says he experiments with his cover crop mix, but mostly chooses to stay with a grass, legume, and brassica trident. His preferred mix ahead of corn includes four total legumes because they are easy to plant into, making it easy to plant into green, which is important on his farm.

Peas as his main legume, Krueger says, work well because peas produce a lot of biomass that is easily digestible.

Slow-Release Nutrients Feed Soil

Krueger was joined by fellow Indiana grower Cameron Mills, owner of Mills Family Farms. His cover crop mixture, he told the group, is designed intentionally to release nutrients that feed his soil throughout the growing season.

“Our cover crops have different carbon/nitrogen ratios and I want to make sure I have a slow-release of those nutrients over time,” Mills said. Using this method, he said, has allowed him to reduce his nitrogen use for the year to only 120 units. “Our goal with cover crops is to feed our biology,” he added.

Travis Gogel, Southwest Indiana Soil Scientist with USDA-NRCS, was on-hand at the event and shared that cover crops are integral, no matter the time in the growing season.

“Soil cover begins at harvest time,” said Gogel. “One of the things we are looking for as an NRCS planner is that we don’t want to see any bare soil in the fields at any point in the season.”

This consistent cover cropping is the method that Krueger uses, and he said it has provided him many benefits.

“Since we’ve started using more peas and vetch in our cover crop mix, we’ve been weaning our nitrogen use back,” he says. “And we aren’t using as many herbicides and fungicides because keeping your soil covered helps to suppress disease.”

Be Open To Experimentation

Mills cautioned that experimentation is equally as critical when cover cropping.

“Every year it’s different,” he said. “If you are waiting for your cover crops to get to the same biomass every year, you might be in trouble.”

After several years of consistent cover cropping, both Mills and Krueger believe in the practice’s benefits for soil health, building resilience and boosting profitability.

“Everyone can do it,” Mills said. “You just have to figure out your program.”

Krueger Farms hosted the field day in partnership with America’s Conservation Ag Movement, which works with innovative producers to share real-field results of agronomic practices that optimize soil health, improve water infiltration and storage, reduce inputs and other benefits that boost yields and ROI. Learn more by visiting www.americasconservationagmovement.com.

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Act Now to Access Conservation Funding Through the Inflation Reduction Act

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 20:20:22 GMT

Even though its name doesn’t reflect it, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most significant climate legislation ever enacted.

The overall $770-billion package includes more than $19 billion to support USDA conservation programs through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Starting in 2023 and extending through 2026, the IRA provides:

• $8.45 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program

• $4.95 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program

• $3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program

• $1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

• $1 billion for the Conservation Technical Assistance Program

If you’ve been thinking about making the transition to climate-smart agriculture, the IRA’s financial assistance for on-farm conservation practices could be just the boost you need. But the money won’t last forever. Most of the IRA’s conservation funding drops sharply after 2026.

That means you should act sooner rather than later if you’re interested in accessing these conservation funds, says Quint Shambaugh, a Pinion principal and leader in water management and land services. He urges these steps to get started:

1. Identify the resource concerns on your farm. Take an inventory and think through your operation’s conservation issues. Possible NRCS projects can address soil health, erosion, nitrogen runoff, water quality, animal quality and health, proper facilities and energy and irrigation efficiency.

2. Engage with your local NRCS. Share your findings and discuss with NRCS personnel how to address your resource concerns or what programs fit your needs.

3. Collaborate. Listen to NRCS suggestions. See if they have other ideas. Don’t forget to share with them your production practices and your goals for your farm.

4. Analyze what NRCS recommends and whether you can execute it. Can you perform a recommended conservation practice for the length of time prescribed? If you can’t commit to a project that will extend for years, even decades, don’t sign up for it because you will have to return the money if you don’t follow through. Also analyze whether you can afford implementing that conservation practice. Remember, this funding works under a cost-share model. You’ll have out-of-pocket costs to implement the project. NRSC will estimate expenses and fund you the money, but you will have to pay a contractor or vendor to put the practice or program into action.

5. Make sure you can implement your plan by 2026. NRCS offers a big pool of funds. With cost-share, additional projects will get funded. There could be hundreds of projects submitted, which means there could be a wait. But remember, IRA funding to NRCS rises sharply over the next three years. If your project doesn’t get funded this year, it could get accepted in 2024, 2025 or 2026. After 2026, conservation funding will return to former levels. So, if you have a conservation project that could benefit from NCRS funding, now’s the time to submit it.

Kala Jenkins’s insights have helped position agribusinesses for both survival and success – from agricultural lending, cash flow strategies and debt optimization to grain marketing, risk management and legacy building. A manager with Pinion (formerly KCoe), she is a proactive catalyst for agribusiness success – enabling growth, optimization and expansion.

Drought Mitigation Strategies For Operational Resilience

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 17:06:20 GMT

Throughout the Midwest drought conditions are putting strain on yield potential early this year. From stories of rootless corn on the Western plains to stands in the Eastern plains that are slow to take or emerging unevenly, widespread concern is driving commodity prices up in anticipation of a down year. And it doesn’t look like there’s much relief in sight.

But some stands are thriving. The difference is locking in subsoil moisture using a slate of practices that include continuous covers and no-till planting, for starters.

I just represented America’s Conservation Ag Movement at the TopSoil Summit near Riverside, Iowa, and while the eastern part of the state hasn’t had the prolonged drought as they’re seeing in the western half, there is still considerable dryness, and it’s on everyone’s mind.

Continuum Ag Regenerative System
The conference was hosted by 7th-generation farmer Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag, and his father, Brian, who has been no-tilling since 1978 and using cover crops since 2013. What we saw in the soil pit on their farm should be confirmation for farmers: Once we dug about 3 to 4 inches, we found wet, dark soil, and corn roots reached down 2-3 feet. That kind of performance is the result of years of incremental changes that built a regenerative system that preserves the soil’s natural microbiology and activity. The proof of how it works is in the numbers.

Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag, uses regenerative soil health practices on Hora Farm to achieve consistent yields.
Data from Hora’s farm show that the yields on his farm are higher than the county averages, but more importantly, they fluctuate very little compared to average county fluctuations. The regenerative practices he’s built into his operation have made his soil less susceptible to weather extremes and provided more resilience to wind, rain, drought and pest pressures.

The ability to hold and store water has never been more important for the American producer as weather becomes more unpredictable and severe. And as plants stress under the extremes, they’ll be more prone to disease and insect pests. Healthy plants keep input costs low on Hora’s farm and others that invest in healthy soils.

It’s not too late to start building resilience into operations. It starts with a plan. This year’s TopSoil Summit focused on how producers can monetize soil health in a data-connected supply chain. As demand for sustainable produce grows, farmers who are out front with their practices will reap the biggest rewards, and there’s money to be made beyond bigger and more stable yields.

About the Author: Jimmy Emmons leads Trust In Food’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Connected Ag Project, America’s Conservation Ag Movement and Trust In Beef, coalition-driven conservation programs developed to accelerate the adoption of conservation agriculture at scale.

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Dust Storms Shouldn’t Happen in the Corn Belt

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 15:38:41 GMT

By Don Reicosky, David Brandt, Randall Reeder and Rattan Lal

Could the catastrophic dust storm along I-55 in Illinois have been prevented? Yes! If the farmland had been in continuous no-till with cover crops there would have been no dust. No wrecks. No deaths. No injuries. No drivers upset because the main highway from Chicago to St. Louis was shut down for almost 24 hours. The tragedy of the infamous Dust Bowl era of 1930s was repeated on I-55 in the heart of the U.S. Corn Belt.

Dust storms are major problems in the Great Plains and Southwest where annual rainfall is 5 to 20 inches. A catastrophic dust storm does not need to happen in the nation’s highly productive Corn Belt where 40 inches of annual rainfall is common.

Unfortunately, a rare and intense dust storm caused a 90-vehicle pileup on May 1, 2023, in Montgomery County in central Illinois on Interstate 55, about 30 miles south of Springfield. Seven people died and 30 people were hospitalized. The accident involved 30 commercial trucks and more than 50 passenger vehicles. Visibility was near zero after 55-mph winds carried soil dust from newly tilled fields across both lanes of the highway.

The unintended consequences of intensive tillage (usually one pass in the fall and one or two more passes before planting in the spring) include soil erosion by water and wind; decreased soil, water and air quality; and the loss of soil organic matter/carbon, which is the heart and soul of soil health. Soil dust from both tilled and bare fallow farmland poses severe risks to public health and transportation safety as illustrated in this recent catastrophe.

Dust storms are not a minor inconvenience. They can have a major impact on our environmental quality and the health and well-being of humans and animals. A research article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society recently reported a total of 232 deaths from windblown dust events from 2007 to 2017, with dust fatalities most frequent in the southwest Great Plains. Minimizing dust storms will require widespread adoption of new and improved agricultural practices that preserve, protect and regenerate our soil, and hence, our welfare along with the environmental and food security.

Is Dust Soil?

Dust particles are very small soil particles. Dust storms are primarily the result of turbulent wind systems lifting and carrying small soil particles into the air. Those “soil particles” are valuable. The dust is usually our best topsoil and contains nutrients necessary for plant growth. When combined with dry weather and windy conditions, tillage disturbance can create chaos on our fields and adjacent highways. Tillage not only sets the soil up for erosion and degradation, it causes carbon and water loss and decreases the quality of soil, water and air, leading to environmental degradation and food insecurity. In addition, tillage-induced dust storms damage crops, delay transportation, disrupt commerce and reduce the recreational value of all landscapes. Is this the way we want to treat our beloved soils that we depend on for food and other essential ecosystem services?

Slow to Learn Conservation Lessons

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is perhaps the best-known and most often quoted example of large-scale wind erosion and dust-storm activity anywhere in the world. The core of the Dust Bowl area comprised much of the Great Plains when the most severe dust storms (“black blizzards”) occurred between 1933 and 1938, with activity related to the plow and usually at a maximum during the spring. The single worst day of the Dust Bowl was April 14, 1935, known as “Black Sunday.”

These experiences led to the development of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1935 that evolved into NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) in 1994. No-tillage research began in the 1960s. The development of efficient herbicides initially made no-till a more popular soil conservation practice. Now, both weed and erosion control are being enhanced using cover crops. The economic cost of losing 5 to 10 tons per acre of topsoil per year, with attached nutrients, is shameful when soil erosion can be reduced to a few pounds per acre, not tons, with no-till and other conservation practices.

Cause and Solutions of Soil Dust Storms

The three requirements for severe soil dust storms are “dry” weather, “windy” conditions and bare or tilled soil surfaces. From a farm management perspective, we have little or no control over dry weather and windy conditions. The main management decisions relate to the soil surface and tillage decisions. As a result, it is important to transition from intensive moldboard plow tillage to no-tillage to minimize soil loss and degradation. Adding cover crops to continuous no-till offers many benefits, such as erosion control, increasing organic matter, nitrogen fixation, increasing water infiltration, better soil structure, improving the soil microflora and helping sustain or increase yields through healthier soils.

While no-tillage showed promise with respect to decreasing soil erosion, having living plants and roots as long as biologically possible providing biomass is essential. Some time was required to understand the complexity and interactions of the natural systems and put them in proper context to farm in nature’s image.

No-tillage reduces erosion losses, tends to maintain the level of soil organic carbon, reduces the detrimental effects on soil quality, retains soil moisture and lowers the input costs of fuel, labor and machinery. No-tillage as a single practice was not sufficient to provide economic and environmental benefits with profitable yields. The combination of no-till, cover crops and crop diversity are the three pillars of conservation agriculture systems. Several prominent researchers suggest adopting conservation agriculture systems to control erosion, improve soil and water management outcomes, protect the environment and achieve food security.

The three primary principles of conservation agriculture systems are:

1. Minimize soil disturbance.

2. Provide continuous plant biomass cover.

3. Add more crop biodiversity in rotations and cover crop mixes.

While minimum soil disturbance broadly refers to the physical disturbance of the soil, it can also encompass unnatural forms of chemical and biological disturbance. Conservation agriculture systems tend to decrease agriculture’s carbon footprint.

Education is required for the three principles to be broadly accepted as a sustainable agriculture system. As more innovative ideas and concepts evolve, they must serve as a foundational basis for other types of sustainable agriculture, such as sustainable intensification, regenerative agriculture, soil health farming and carbon farming.

The solution is more education for farmers. The biggest challenge is changing the mindset about the need for tillage. Tillage has been a part of agriculture for 12,000 years. That’s a long tradition, making it difficult to convince farmers to change to a system developed over the past 60 years.

Slowly, the concept of a “living soil system” and the importance of soil biology is being understood and accepted. In addition, the unknown risks can be significant and require enhanced management skills as new technology and equipment evolve that require data collection to make improved management decisions. Another area where farmer education can be enhanced is in developing independent farmer-led networks with farmers as mentors. Conferences, field days and other programs to educate farmers, crop consultants, agricultural business representatives, ag science teachers and professors are essential. Experienced farmers with positive attitudes and credibility with a little passion are effective communicating with and teaching other farmers. They can also provide their fields for on-farm research.

Policy Changes

The current crop insurance policy reinforces poor farming practices. Basing crop insurance on conservation agriculture systems principles would encourage adoption of practices that prevent soil erosion from water and wind. The resulting resilient soils provide a level of insurance (consistent crop yields).

Important policy “decisions” are included in the farm bill. The new farm bill, probably in 2024, should emphasize education and funding to get more conservation agriculture system on farmland. The entire agriculture community needs to understand the three primary principles of conservation agriculture systems for truly sustainable production for future generations. Provisions to enable the development of farmer-led networks should be encouraged to ensure the continuation of effective sustainable production. Organizations, such as the Ohio No-Till Council and Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance and No-till on the Plains, should be funded to organize events to educate farmers on conservation agriculture systems practices. Payments to farmers based on practices and land use for ecosystem services, such as CRP, are needed to promote the adoption of conservation agriculture.

As a former chief of the Soil Conservation Service (1990-1993) and one of several farmers who started developing no-till in the 1950s, Bill Richards says we have the technology to help address the blowing dust problems. He believes producers have the duty and responsibility to use the best technology available to protect our land, soil and water while producing food, feed, fiber and fuel for the world. However, farmers should not be asked or required to go beyond what’s scientifically sound and economic. That’s where public policy dedicated to soil conservation practices must be addressed in the next farm bill, he says.

Summary

The recent soil dust cloud catastrophe in central Illinois is just another alarm bell and a wake-up call from mother nature suggesting all of agriculture needs to implement more sustainable production practices. The loss of human life with this and other verified dust storm incidents, should justify the need to apply conservation agriculture systems widely. Farm bill programs that promote further conservation innovation through payments for ecosystem services, training and new ideas along with farmer and consumer education programs are essential. We owe it to future generations.

About the Authors

Don Reicosky is a retired soil scientist for USDA-ARS, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, Minn., and adjunct professor in the soil science department, University of Minnesota.

Randall Reeder, P.E., worked as an Extension ag engineer at Ohio State University from 1979-2011. Since 2011 he has served as executive director of the Ohio No-till Council and coordinated programs for the annual Conservation Tillage & Technology Conference in Ada, Ohio.

Rattan Lal, a distinguished professor of soil science at Ohio State University, has researched soil for five decades on five continents.

David Brandt was known as the “Godfather of Soil Health.” He died on May 21 from injuries suffered in a traffic accident at age 76. He was recognized internationally as a leader in no-till, cover crops, soil health and regenerative agriculture.

Biden Administration Announces $11 Billion for Rural Clean Energy Projects

Tue, 16 May 2023 18:58:55 GMT

Rural electric cooperatives, utilities and other energy providers will soon be able to apply for nearly $11 billion in grants and loans for clean energy projects, the Biden administration said on Tuesday. The funding comes from the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act signed into law last August.

Expanding clean energy to rural communities is critical to meeting the administration’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, officials told reporters on a Monday press call.

“This is an exciting and an historic day and continues an ongoing effort to ensure that rural America is a full participant in the clean energy economy,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the call.

Rural electric cooperatives will be eligible to apply beginning July 31 for $9.7 billion in grants for deploying renewable energy, zero-emission and carbon capture systems, USDA said.

Renewable energy developers and electric service providers like municipal and Tribal utilities will be eligible to apply beginning June 30 for another $1 billion in partially forgivable loans for financing wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other renewable energy projects, USDA said.

On the call with reporters, White House advisor John Podesta said the money would bring good-paying jobs to rural communities and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said the investment would be a “game-changer.”

The new funds will help rural electric cooperatives reach parity with private utility companies who have already begun significant investment in clean energy, Vilsack told reporters.

“We have a climate crisis that requires all of America to participate in reducing emissions to get to the net-zero future,” Vilsack said.

Rural electric cooperatives serve 42 million people and draw about 22% of their energy from renewable sources, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Stephen Coates)

How Habitat Management Plans Drive Healthier Land, Livestock and Forages

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:00:39 GMT

David Frabotta is the Director of Climate-Smart Content for Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

Funding for habitat management is squarely under the microscope as legislators and lobbyists evaluate how farm bill programs will be administered in their next iteration. Among the voluminous calls for change, many legislators, agriculture companies and conservation organizations are lobbying for programs like the Conservation Reserve Program, as an example, to be more flexible so farmers and ranchers can continue to conserve or regenerate habitats on private, working lands.

The farm bill negotiations are part of a global movement to address biodiversity loss. In December, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) yielded a landmark global biodiversity framework that identified 23 goals to achieve by 2030, including restoration of 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, halving global food waste and reducing the loss of high biodiversity importance to near zero.

Global biodiversity has become critical as “the planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature as a result of human activity,” according to the UN, which says 1 million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades.

As with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, there is an emphasis for greater private-sector action and investment into habitat preservation.

Also, like climate change, agriculture operations can be seen as both contributors to biodiversity loss as well as a solution to restoring and connecting ecosystems that have significant benefits to farming operations and the communities and wildlife around them. Farmers understand this connection.

In a recent Trust In Food survey of 500 farmers in 5 states, more than two-thirds of farmers say the top benefit of conservation agriculture is better protected wildlife and wildlife habitats. Ecological diversity provides farmers with healthier soils, improved forage potential and a greater number of beneficial insects that can mitigate input costs, among other benefits.

Corteva Agriscience is helping farmers and ranchers advance biodiversity through partnerships with organizations including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Pheasants Forever. Corteva and its partners are helping to establish habitat management plans that provide action-based tools that control invasive species, improve the use and value of their land, protect valuable grassland birds and strengthen the related biodiversity of the ecosystem.

Biodiversity is a core focus area in the company’s sustainability commitments . It is where the company sees one of its biggest opportunities to leverage the breadth of capabilities and touch points with farmers and ranchers to affect meaningful and measurable change, says Corteva Biodiversity Partnerships Lead Aly Wells.

One example of Corteva’s biodiversity partnerships is the company’s engagement with Dakota Audubon’s Conservation Forage Initiative that works with ranchers to establish management plans addressing grazing practices, grassland establishment and conservation as ways to increase productivity by reducing erosion and improving soil health while improving habitat for rangeland birds.

Corteva is also working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in the Audubon Conservation Ranching Initiative in the Rockies, where the partners are working to restore and improve management and biodiversity habitat on more than 30,000 acres of grasslands.

Additionally, Corteva provides resources through its LandVisor platform, a vegetation management platform that uses field data and GIS imaging to help manage forage productivity and to help control invasive species and provide actionable insights for land management and encourage native grasses and forbs to thrive.

“As an industry, we need to do more to measure and communicate biodiversity impacts as they relate to improving productivity while limiting the impact to wildlife, beneficial organisms and soil health,” Wells says. “We know that productivity is critically important for farmers and ranchers, so if we can communicate the return on investment of these biodiversity practices, that could encourage more participation.”

In late 2022, Corteva announced a 3-year partnership with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to enhance habitat in non-crop areas as part of the Rights-of-Way & Energy (ROWE) Habitat Program , which assesses and measures habitat, biodiversity and conservation on transportation, railway, oil and gas, electric and solar corridors across the country.

The partnership will pair the knowledge of conservation experts and wildlife biologists with solutions and strategies recommended by Corteva Agriscience Vegetation Management Specialists. This approach is expected to help industry practitioners create sustainable, integrated habitat management plans with the potential to improve up to 5 million acres of the estimated 35 million acres of rights-of-way and energy corridors in the United States. This would be a 14% improvement in total rights-of-way and energy acres.

“Corteva understands the unique challenges facing farmers, ranchers and the ecosystems in which they operate,” Wells says. “We’re committed to supporting biodiversity through a combined approach focusing on our products, productivity impact using Corteva’s technologies, partnerships with organizations that share our vision and improvements to our own Corteva operations.”

Can the $20-Billion Inflation Reduction Act Get Rolled Out Quickly Enough?

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 21:33:08 GMT

In the pecking order of priorities on the farm, conservation practices have often ranked relatively low on the list – not from a lack of farmer interest so much as the result of limited dollars and cents.

That’s certainly been the case with federal resources available through USDA. Contracts for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), for instance, were awarded to only 31% of farmer applicants between 2010 and 2020, according to a report issued by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) last year. Likewise, only 42% of Conservation Stewardship Program applications were funded during that decade.

But conservation funding opportunities are getting an unprecedented financial boost with implementation of the legislative package dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. The package was signed into law by President Joe Biden last August.

“How often have we said regarding conservation, ‘if only we had the money to do that?’ Well, now we have the money to do that; it’s a generational opportunity,” said John Larson, senior vice president of the American Farmland Trust.

“The thing that we need to focus on is implementing that funding in a way that meets the needs of farmers and ranchers in the field to accomplish their desired conservation outcomes, because that’s going to be key,” he added.

Larson weighed in on the new legislative package during a panel discussion on the topic of farm policy and funding at the 2023 Trust In Food Symposium in Nashville, Tenn. The panel, pictured here, was narrated by Jay Vroom, chair of America’s Conservation Ag Movement and an advisor to Trust In Food.

IRA Funding Allocation Specifics Outlined

The IRA totals approximately $740 billion, including nearly $40 billion earmarked for agriculture, forestry and rural development. Of that latter amount, roughly $20 billion is funding earmarked for agriculture conservation.

Specific funding allocated by the IRA includes:
• $8.45 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program
• $4.95 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program
• $3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program
• $1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program
• $1 billion for conservation technical assistance
• $300 million to measure, evaluate, quantify carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reductions from conservation investments

Conservation Projects Need Funding This Season

The challenge now is whether the agriculture industry will be able to move quickly enough to implement the IRA program and harvest the benefits in a timely manner.

“If the conservation community doesn’t get all those billions of dollars invested – not spent but invested – in the next 24 months there’s not going to be additional resources made available (in the future),” said Bruce Knight, principal and founder of Strategic Conservation Solutions and former head of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), during the Trust In Food panel discussion.

The conservation community must move quickly to get funding into the hands of farmers and ranchers and demonstrate it values and respects “the taxpayer trust that they have been handed,” Knight added.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced initial implementation plans for the IRA funding in mid-February. As of last week (March 17), a press release from Vilsack’s office said applications for the first IRA funding cycle had closed for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Agricultural Land Easements and Wetland Reserve Easements.

While NRCS accepts applications for its conservation programs year-round, farmers and livestock producers interested in EQIP or CSP financial assistance through IRA should apply by their state’s ranking deadline to be considered for funding in the current cycle, Vilsack said in a release. Farmers can click here to learn more about state application ranking dates .

If farmers apply after the program ranking date specified, NRCS said it will automatically consider their application during the next cycle.

‘A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats’

While Democrats backed passing the IRA unanimously last summer, Congressional Republicans voiced unanimous opposition to the legislative package.

Love it or hate it, the IRA represents an opportunity to benefit a variety of people and organizations, said Randy Russell, president of The Russell Group, during the Trust In Food panel discussion.

He referenced benefits he observed from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. USDA invested up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects in the first pool of funding in 2022.

The agency said the climate-smart commodities program provided positive outcomes for up to 60,000 farms, representing more than 25 million acres of working land.

“The real strength of that program is that it forged relationships up and down the food chain between land grant universities, nonprofits, the conservation community, the environmental community, and ag produce organizations,” Russell said. “It really leveraged using private sector dollars to build these partnerships.”

Russell’s hope is that the Inflation Reduction Act will provide similar outcomes.

Vilsack said in a press release the IRA funding will provide direct climate mitigation benefits and expand access to financial and technical assistance for growers and livestock producers to advance conservation on their farm, ranch or forest land through practices like cover cropping, conservation tillage, wetland restoration, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, tree planting and more.

Crop Insurance, Production Costs, ERP Among Key Topics at Senate Ag Farm Bill Hearing

Soil Health a Priority in Latest USDA Climate Funding

Come On In: The Ocean Temperatures Are Hot

Research Shows 90% of Farmers Won’t join Carbon Markets Without Changes

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:08:07 GMT

Despite the exponential growth in agricultural carbon market options, most producers aren’t biting.

New research based on 500 farmer insights suggests adjustments in payment amounts, credit for existing conservation practices and reduction in paperwork could help but won’t be a cure-all for enrollments.

“Failing to connect with drivers such as purpose, mission and legacy could inadvertently result in negative perceptions of carbon marketplaces as purely transactional efforts to commodify farmers’ hard work,” writes Cara Urban, lead author of the report from Trust In Food , Farm Journal’s sustainable agriculture initiative. “Producers might see such marketplaces as seeking to extract value from their operations at the lowest possible price, while requiring a lengthy and risky up-front investment of time, energy and expert advisers.”

The report isn’t designed to throw water on sustainable agriculture investments or carbon markets, says Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president at Trust In Food . Instead, it balances marketplace excitement with farmers’ pain points and needs.

“We’ve witnessed exuberance in both the private sector and the U.S. government for using agricultural carbon markets as a tool to advance climate and food goals,” Cole says. “We wanted to understand how producers feel about this new opportunity.”

PARTICIPATION AND PROMISES

Around 90% of farmers are aware of carbon markets, and 3% are participating, according to the report. About a third say they’re still monitoring the landscape, and 59% report they won’t join without changes.

If carbon market organizations can meet farmers where they are, it’s possible they can capture the promise of the carbon economy.

GET THE CARBON FARMER REPORT

Find out what U.S. farmers say it will take to get active in carbon markets in an upcoming edition of the Trust In Food email newsletter. You’ll get the full report when it publishes. Sign up at TrustInFood.com

Nate Birt is vice president of Trust In Food, which supports farmers in adopting conservation agriculture.

Indiana Farm Thrives Thanks to ‘Three-Legged Stool’ Strategy

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 20:29:00 GMT

Partnerships, both formal and informal, have made it possible for the Billings family to continue the 1,800-acre Indiana farm that family patriarch, Dick, left them when he passed away three years ago. Today, his extended family – wife, Diane, son, Steve, and three granddaughters – are intent on maintaining and building upon his vision for the operation.

“My husband was a really good steward of this land; it was his parents’ farm. When they died, he was managing it all, even though he had a veterinary practice and we didn’t live in the community,” says Diane regarding the farm, which is based near Covington, Ind.

Billings still lives an hour and a half away from the farm, but a combination of communication and coaching from a team of farmers and a forestry consultant gives her confidence to stay the course Dick set.

The team includes father-son partners, Jeff and Tyson Bell, J/T Bell Farms Inc., who have a crop-share farm lease on the operation’s 800 tillable acres, and Mike Warner, Aborterra Consulting. Warner manages the farm’s 1,000 acres of hardwoods, which include four groves of walnut trees the Billings family started planting 50 years ago.

“We’re using a whole-farm approach to what we’re doing,” Billings says. “We’re working synergistically across crops, trees and prairie, and regular communication has been key to what we’ve accomplished so far.” (Photo: The Billings family planted this grove of walnut trees 50 years ago. “It shows another conservation practice we have implemented which is to not mow around the trees to reestablish habitat,” Diane says.)

Stronger Together

Billings likes to say the partners form the legs of a three-legged stool, the farm. Each leg is vital to its success.

The result is the team works collaboratively on farm projects, talking with each other via phone calls, texts and Zoom meetings weekly and sometimes on an even more frequent basis. The Bells weigh in on the crops, while Warner shares his perspective on the woodlands.

“All of our work overlaps, and we’re mindful and respectful of what’s going on for everybody,” Billings says.

Turning a profit on the farm is everyone’s goal, as is minding the conservation objectives Dick Billings had over the years, such as evaluating whether cover crops were viable. It’s why the team planted cover crop mixes in six different fields in 2020 and 2021, and plan additional plantings for 2022.

“Over time, we’re hoping to see soil improvement, and we’re interested in carbon sequestration, too,” Billings says.

Carbon sequestration is also a possibility for Billings’ hardwood acreage. “I think Diane and her family are positioning themselves to be ready for it when the opportunity is right,” Warner says, noting that a forest management plan guides the decisions made for each stand of trees across the farm. Currently, the Billings have enrolled their forests in a carbon market and are evaluating the benefits of participating in the program.

“We have good inventories on each stand, so we know what’s growing where, and how fast it’s growing,” Warner adds. “We’re implementing practices, like invasive species management and what we call timber stand improvement to promote healthy and productive forests.” (Photo: Mike Warner and a helper plant trees in early 2022.)

Creating Solutions

As on any farm, problem solving is an important part of the team’s focus. To date, one of their biggest challenges has been developing and implementing a plan to minimize crop losses caused by the temperamental Wabash River which winds through 300 acres of Billings’ bottom ground. (Photo: A moonlight photo from the combine shows the farm’s river bottom at harvest.)

The legendary river is nearly 500 miles long and spans the entire state, supplying drinking water to people and livestock in nearly 75% of the state. Known for its unpredictable nature, the Wabash River features no channel markings or even a single boat marina.

“The river dictates what you can do,” Jeff Bell says, adding that the river bottom ground is usually planted to soybeans. “We have a production plan every year, but it’s very seldom that we can stick to it without having to make changes.”

“When the river comes out, it’s a whole new ballgame,” Bell’s partner and son, Tyson, chimes in. “It’s like starting all over again, because it wipes out everything.”

Building A Buffer

When Diane stepped into the farm leadership role two years ago, her family, Warner and the Bells decided something had to be done to reduce crop losses and preserve topsoil.

“We all four walked down there in the river bottom with the district conservationist to look at it, the problem area on the farm, and Jeff and Tyson had already thought through where we could pull some ground out of production, based on yield maps, and put in a buffer,” Billings recalls.

The primary goal for the buffer: to keep the topsoil in place in those areas where the river would normally wash it out, Jeff says. When the soil stays in place allowing soybeans to flourish, yields typically average between 50 and 60 bushels per acre.

This spring, Warner seeded the buffer in a combination of warm season grasses and wildflowers – a combination he has seen work well for other landowners up and down the river.

“They work very well for filters and erosion control along field edges; plus, they make great wildlife habitat,” Warner says. “Deer will bed their young fawns down in the spring, the turkey will nest in that, and other game birds will utilize those edges as well. There’s a lot of really good benefits associated with the buffers.”

The Bells are pleased with the results of the buffer to date and believe it will help them preserve crops and inputs. “Ultimately, our net income won’t change, even though we’re farming a few acres less,” Jeff says.

Where To From Here?

Earlier this summer, the farm irrigation system gave out. Billings and the Bells evaluated whether to replace it with a similar system or install one that is internet enabled. They chose the latter, though it was more costly upfront.

“The technology will allow Jeff and Tyson to monitor soil moisture levels and provide data to their mobile devices to indicate when the irrigation will start or turn off. The team is also installing sensors on the grain bins which will monitor humidity and temperature better and will let the Bells know when to activate the fans,” Billings says. “Ultimately, we think it will help us improve yields while conserving energy.”

Along with that, Billings believes such investments will help her family as well as the Bells in the future.

“Dick chose Jeff and Tyson to farm the property because he felt confident in their succession plan and their family legacy – just as he instilled the same hope for continuity in the three generations of our family,” Billings says.

“Jeff has a saying that consoles and comforts me all the time,” she adds. “He says, ‘We do the best we can, and we’re going to leave this farm better than we found it.’ And that, to me is the guiding principle. It helps me whenever we need to make a decision and to know we should go ahead.”

How Conservation Farming in Southwest Nebraska makes Sunny Heights Farm Viable

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:32:38 GMT

Editor’s note: America’s Conservation Ag Movement has embraced farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer as a key pillar in the strategy to accelerate regenerative ag practice adoption. At the center of the farmer learning communities, exceptional farmers have stepped forward to lead these efforts in their communities. These individuals are leaders in their own innovation and implementation of practices and programs that fit for their unique farm operation and help achieve the goal of continuous improvement. This profile is part of a series of that will highlight these Conservation Stewards, their farms, and their conservation practices throughout the year.

Tracy Zink’s conservation journey began intrinsically as a young girl in windswept western Nebraska just south of the Sandhills. She remembers the trees that her grandparents planted for windbreaks on the family farm in Indianola, accompanied with stories from her grandmother about how they would save their soils from being blown across the high desert. Conservation wasn’t common in much of the country back then, but in southwest Nebraska it was essential.

That memory still drives her to build on the progress of previous generations and employ practices that could give her an edge against the unrelenting weather on her about 3,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum and pastures.

Natural resources are closely managed in southwest Nebraska. Water optimization is crucial in a region that gets about 20" of rainfall per year, although it’s been dryer in recent years. Pervasive winds force farmers to keep a close eye on erosion. And crop rotation, crop residues and covers are critical for soil health and stability.

“Everything we do is conservation minded for water and soil erosion, and there is no incentive for that except the viability of our farm,” Zink says. “And if we don’t do that, then we won’t be here.”

Trust In Food: How long have you been conducting conservation stewardship practices and programs? What impact have they had on your operations?

Zink: In our farming climate if you haven’t been using solid conservation practices, you probably aren’t still farming. Every step we take is thoroughly reviewed for water and erosion control. I am fortunate that previous generations viewed conservation and participation in the programs favorably and explained the reasons and benefits of every aspect.

Trust In Food: What does the term “climate-smart agriculture” mean to you?

Zink: Climate-smart agriculture at its heart is an evaluation of your area’s environmental trends and multiple plans of action that will allow an operation to adapt quickly and in a sustainable manner.

Trust In Food: What would you consider your greatest achievements or strengths? What else do you want to accomplish in the next year?

Zink: In this moment I feel my greatest achievement has been finding my way back to the farm. I was blessed with incredible experiences and opportunities all over the globe and while it shaped me into who I am, it never provided the right environment to establish roots or feel settled. The farm that I ran from as a youth has become my place of true joy, and I have a wonderful contentment that is near impossible to put into words.

In the next year it is my goal to get everything done earlier!

Water conservation and irrigation with our pivots is crucial because we have so little. By late August we’re gasping for air, and we have to turn our pivots off and let the wells recharge. The strip tilling helps preserve moisture so everything that falls is more easily absorbed into the soil profile to make every drop count. We adjust the sprinkler heights so nothing is hitting, and we stagger sprinklers every 20 feet. We apply just enough to reach the soil capacity. We don’t want any runoff at all. And we can do little things to decrease compaction to increase absorption potential.

We’ve also increased yields with a corn-soybean rotation and found that it’s the most profitable for both crops.

Your efficiencies must improve when you’re trying to improve your crop. You have to force yourself to be efficient. I’d rather focus on the little things to do right and have a better return than getting more acres. I try to put more bushels in the bin and maximize what we have before we get more land.

Trust In Food: Have they had any agronomic impact? Financial impact?

Zink: The efforts we make to conserve water are never-ending. We believe it is both a necessity and a responsibility, and if it wasn’t at the front of all our decisions, then we could not make the financials work.

We routinely review our sprinkler packages and walk the pivots to ensure efficiency, we strip till our irrigated ground to help absorb every drop from above and through the pivot, and we are experimenting with different moisture probes and pivot systems to save every drop we are gifted.

Trust In Food: What other opportunities do you see on your farm or the farms around you?

Zink: There is always a new technology to evaluate along with efficiencies, production improvement, input reductions, etc. I feel the lowest-hanging fruit often gets overlooked, and it’s actually the best place to start. The top-down has never felt like a positive approach in my opinion.

In terms of low-hanging fruit, tillage practices are a big one, along with the residues that you leave and crop rotation. You don’t always have the flexibility to make some decisions, but not making a decision is a decision too. How long do you leave your stubble height? Do you let cattle graze? What do those practices do for the savings of nutrients for next year? Can you introduce sorghum and get the same soil implementation from the root structure that you get with a deep chisel? I think so.

We’re continually experimenting with new hybrids and adjusting our seeds per acre to get better yields.
There is nothing about farming that you can evaluate in 365 days, not soil nutrients, crop type or taxes. It’s a continuous process of trying new things, and the low-hanging fruit matters.

Trust In Food: What state or local organizations have helped you in identifying opportunities or helped you implement practices and programs?

Zink: The University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) extension agents have been instrumental in helping me quickly get my footing as a producer in western Nebraska. I frequently refer to several threads that have historical conversations between producers from across the county. The TAPS program with UNL has been an incredible experience and one I can’t stop talking about! I subscribe to countless newsletters as well as magazines and try to stay aware of practices and current issues that are impacted other parts of our county because I know they will inch toward us.

The FSA and NRCS offices have been a valuable resource. Every time I’ve had a question about anything, they get me the right contact, so they are one of the first places I go. Those relationships have brought me into the organization in a way where I truly wouldn’t be where I’m at today without my FSA financial person and program person that talks me through the programs, such as crop insurance.

Trust In Food: What advice would you give other farmers as they continue to consider climate-positive practices? Have you had any failures or lessons learned in your journey that you learned from? What would you do differently with what you know today?

Zink: We have a responsibility to the land that we manage. It is a living and breathing creature and as its caretaker, it’s near criminal to not provide it the very best care we can offer. I also believe it is unproductive to cast judgement on someone who may have limitations to achieve the level we believe is best practice. It’s education and exposure that can move the needle.

What works one year may be a colossal failure the next. Mother Nature rules all, and we just have to roll with the punches and have options. And surround yourself with positive and smart people!
If you’re always doing the same thing then you’ll always get the same thing. Take the path less traveled. The straight line isn’t always the best way to get somewhere. If I’m not failing, then I’m not trying hard enough. Without failure then you’re not going to get to a new level of success.

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How an Arkansas Farmer Found Counsel for Climate-Smart Practices to Grow the Best Crop

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:33:32 GMT

Editor’s note: America’s Conservation Ag Movement has embraced farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer as a key pillar in the strategy to accelerate regenerative ag practice adoption. At the center of the farmer learning communities, exceptional farmers have stepped forward to lead these efforts in their communities. These individuals are leaders in their own innovation and implementation of practices and programs that fit for their unique farm operation and help achieve the goal of continuous improvement. This profile is part of a series of that will highlight these Conservation Stewards, their farms, and their conservation practices throughout the year.

Lawrence M. Conyer is a second-generation farmer in Pine Bluff, Ark., where he grows wheat, rice, soybeans, corn and grain sorghum on 1,500 acres. He attributes his conservation practices, including cover crops and minimum till, to his ability to manage his land to be resilient and to grow his operation at scale, and he continues to experiment with new practices to find agronomic and financial benefits for his operation.

Trust In Food: How long have you been conducting conservation stewardship practices and programs? What impact have they had on your operations?

Conyer: I started farming in 1999, when I purchased 22 acres of farmland in Jefferson County. I met a guy named Levelle Foote, who worked for NRCS. Mr. Foote talked to me about some of the practices that I could implement on my 22 acres. At that time, I had no idea the impact of being a steward of the land and how much it would help me. I had several practices installed on my land. The practices helped to enhance my property. I had a well installed, underground piping, land leveling, nutrient management, water management, cover crops, minimum till and others over the years.

The impact it has had on my operation has helped my land have better performance. It has freed up money that I could not otherwise afford at that time. Over the years I have been dealing with FSA and NRCS to help improve all of my land.

Trust In Food: What does the term “climate-smart agriculture” mean to you?

Conyer: Climate-Smart Agriculture means to me that changes have become more relevant in this century. We must take into account the growing world population to ensure all have food and security. CSA will help us managing landscapes, cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries. We must be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a row crop farmer, I am thinking about the rice, corn and wheat that I am growing to ensure the growing population food security. We as farmers must be able to increase productivity, boost income and produce more and better food to improve nutrition.

Trust In Food: What would you consider your greatest achievements or strengths? What else do you want to accomplish in the next year?

Conyer: I would say my greatest achievement so far was winning the Lloyd Wright Farmer’s Award in 2016. It was also a great accomplishment for me and my family to receive the 2017 Farm Family of the Year Award for Jefferson County in Arkansas.

Being able to obtain helpful information from NRCS, FSA, Arkansas Land and Development, and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Since I am a member of the National Black Growers Council, we work together as a group of farmers to help one another to be a better farmer.

I would like to have a good crop this year, and I would like to have capital that I could spend to purchase land or buy equipment.

Trust In Food: Have they had any agronomic impact? Financial impact?

Conyer: Yes, as a farmer I am striving to always obtain information about how to grow and care for plants and soils in certain environments. There is a financial impact for farmers this year. The cost of diesel this year combined with threefold fertilizer price increases since last year means that farmers right now must be very careful of what they’re doing to break even.

Trust In Food: What other opportunities do you see on your farm or the farms around you?

Conyer: I can see opportunities being better for my farm and others by communicating with other farmers. As we learn new technologies, we need to share the information and get together occasionally to discuss problems and share ideas.

Trust In Food: What state or local organizations have helped you in identifying opportunities or helped you implement practices and programs? What other organizations are you affiliated with?

Conyer: The local and state NCRS office has helped me to start and complete various farm practices. They have helped me to reduce soil erosion and helped me achieve and maintain compliance with soil and water conservation standards.

Other organizations I am affiliated with are FSA, John Deere, Cargill, New Holland, and National Black Growers Council.

Trust In Food: What advice would you give other farmers as they continue to consider climate-positive practices? Have you had any failures or lessons learned in your journey that you learned from? What would you do differently with what you know today?

Conyer: I would advise young farmers and other farmers to have a positive attitude and be patient. Take advantage of all the Government Programs offered by FSA and NRCS. Become familiar with any other companies studying carbon footprints because certain crops that you can install on your land would help climate change and reduce carbon footprints.

I have had a lot of failures but somehow, I just kept coming back. I didn’t let obstacles stop me from trying again.

I would work more with NRCS and become familiar with all the programs they have to offer farmers so I can make the best decisions in producing a good crop.

Sustainable Farming Events Showcase ‘Struggles and Successes’

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 13:01:32 GMT

Ryan Heiniger sowed his first cover crop seed on his southeast Iowa farm on July 19, 2019. Fifteen inches of rainfall over a 35-day period earlier that year, in April, had convinced him that even his “tabletop flat fields” could benefit from cover crops to help retain soil and nutrients.

“We farm in the floodplain of the Mississippi River and had dismissed cover crops, because we didn’t think we had erosion,” he says. “Well, we do.

“When these big rain events come through, I see the soil move on our farm. That motivates me to want to make sure that it stays put, so it’s there for my kids as the fifth generation here.”

In addition, other corn and soybean growers’ struggles and successes with conservation farming practices have encouraged him to experiment on his fields. In the process, he says he has seen some practices work well and others that haven’t.

“There’s no one size that fits all farms,” he says. “This is about striving to improve, doing things better and not just accepting the status quo.”

Last year, Heiniger joined America’s Conservation Ag Movement as its program director and now oversees its state and local sustainable farming projects.

He says America’s Conservation Ag Movement gives farmers a platform to share their conservation journey, meet other farmers on the same path and access the resources they need to undertake change.

During a recent Agri-Talk segment, Heiniger discussed a variety of farmer-focused events and projects the Program has in the works across five states this summer.

You can get the program highlights from this Agri-Talk discussion between Heiniger and Host, Chip Flory, here:

Conservation Practices With Customization

Fri, 13 May 2022 17:11:53 GMT

This article was written by David Frabotta, Manager, Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming for Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

At Rondo Farms, a partnership owned by Wes and Vonda Stevens Kirkpatrick, they aren’t afraid to try new things. Cover crops, conservation tillage, irrigation optimization and careful management of fertilizers and pesticides all have a place at Rondo in Tillar, Ark.

But here’s the catch: None of these conservation practices are universal. They each have their place when it’s right for the land, the agronomy and the financials. Each practice is carefully implemented to cater to the right crop in the right field at the right time to maximize yields and reduce input costs while fortifying soils and building resiliency into productive acres.

To strike the right balance, Rondo relies on a try-and-see approach and is continually innovating its operation to maximize every acre while searching for new ways to be the best possible steward of the land with a focus on long-term sustainability.

We caught up with Wes Kirkpatrick to talk about the farm’s conservation journey and the lessons he’s learned since 2009, when he became a partner on the fourth-generation farm, which grows cotton, soybeans, and field corn on about 4,000 acres.

Trust In Food: How long have you been conducting conservation stewardship practices and programs? What impact have they had on your operations?

Kirkpatrick: We have been using conservation tillage practices for many years. However, because over 90% of our farm is furrow irrigated, we have to maintain furrows in fields for irrigation purposes, so we can’t be true no-till. Fewer tractor trips across fields compared to conventional tillage not only helps maintain soil structure, but also uses less diesel and limits compaction.

We began using computerized hole selection for developing hole-size prescriptions for all our poly pipe irrigation sets around 2005. By using the computerized hole-selection program, we have averaged 20% to 25% savings in pumping cost and a similar reduction in irrigation water consumption.

We began planting cover crops on some of our farm in 2014 and have continued using cover crops on our non-irrigated acres and on fields with limited irrigation water availability and in areas with high potential erosion.

We have been soil sampling for many years to determine crop nutrient needs. We apply all of needed fertilizers closer to when the crop will actually take up the nutrients, thus helping limit nutrient loss through weather events and other environmental factors.

We make insect pest management decisions by careful scouting for pest populations and making insecticide applications based on economic thresholds.

Trust In Food: What does the term “climate-smart agriculture” mean to you?

Kirkpatrick: With scientist’s and researcher’s better understanding of how the things we do as farmers affect our environment and climate, implementing practices that lower our environmental footprint and maintain profitability is what climate-smart agriculture means to me.

Trust In Food: What would you consider your greatest achievements or strengths? What else do you want to accomplish in the next year?

Kirkpatrick: I try to implement no-till practices wherever feasible on my farm. If we don’t have to work the ground, we don’t. This saves time, money, labor, wear and tear on equipment, and allows us to get the planters rolling earlier in the spring, thus maximizing yield potential and efficiency. But again, since most of our farm is furrow irrigated, we can’t be true no-till because we have to maintain an irrigation furrow.

Therefore, we might plant on the same bed for multiple years if we don’t need to freshen up the furrows, but if harvest conditions cause rutting of the fields or beds wash away due to weather events, we have to till to maintain furrows.

We are going to implement some remote irrigation systems this season and hope they prove useful. These will allow us to switch irrigation sets via a smart-phone application without physically traveling to the field, potentially saving mileage, time and additional water usage.

Trust In Food: Have they had any agronomic impact? Financial impact?

Kirkpatrick: Planting cover crops on our non-irrigated acres has increased our average annual yield on those acres by 20% to 30%. Computerized hole selection for irrigation sets has reduced fuel consumption by 20% to 25% and reduced irrigation water consumption by a similar amount.

Trust In Food: What other opportunities do you see on your farm or the farms around you?

Kirkpatrick: Planting cover crops and/or maintaining vegetation in highly erodible areas along ditches, streams, etc., is an area that I think we can make great improvements. Getting away from the older mentality that we need to till every acre multiple times because it looks pretty is another area I think we can make strides.

Trust In Food: What state or local organizations have helped you in identifying opportunities or helped you implement practices and programs? What other organizations are you affiliated with?

Kirkpatrick: We’ve worked with our local USDA NRCS and FSA offices on many conservation-oriented programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program. We’ve been one of the University of Arkansas’ Discovery Farms for several years and working with that group has helped us recognize many avenues to be better conservationists including cover cropping and nutrient management.

Trust In Food: What advice would you give other farmers as they continue to consider climate-positive practices? Have you had any failures or lessons learned in your journey that you learned from? What would you do differently with what you know today

Kirkpatrick: Don’t be afraid to try some new things on limited acres at first. If something doesn’t work, make a few changes and try it again. You’ll be less likely to get frustrated and give up if you have a failure, which is a real possibility, on a small number of acres. Once you get to a point you like the results you are getting, then increase the practice on your operation. We need to get away from the mindset that the bottom dollar is the only motivation for implementing practices. Long term sustainability should be a motivator for implementing changes in how we farm.

Editor’s note: America’s Conservation Ag Movement has embraced farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer as a key pillar in the strategy to accelerate regenerative ag practice adoption. At the center of the farmer learning communities, exceptional farmers have stepped forward to lead these efforts in their communities. These individuals are leaders in their own innovation and implementation of practices and programs that fit for their unique farm operation and help achieve the goal of continuous improvement. This profile is part of a series of that will highlight these Conservation Stewards, their farms, and their conservation practices throughout the year.

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Three Conservation Ag Insights from Illinois Farmer Craig Swartz

AMVAC, BASF Collaborate to Develop Rhizo-Flo Soybean Inoculant To SIMPAS-applied Solutions

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 20:37:30 GMT

AMVAC and BASF announce a collaboration to develop Rhizo-Flo® granular soybean inoculant as an exciting addition to the expanding SIMPAS-applied Solutions portfolio.

Rhizo-Flo is a unique and leading soybean inoculant designed to deliver high concentrations of viable and effective Bradyrhizobium cells and ultimately improved yields. When Rhizo-Flo inoculant is utilized, the Bradyrhizobium sp. multiplies, penetrating the soybean plant root system to form nodules that allow the soybean plant to fix nitrogen. As growers strive to push soybeans to higher yields, Rhizo-Flo inoculant is another important tool the grower has available to achieve yield objectives and improve bottom line results.

Rhizo-Flo would join a growing portfolio of SIMPAS-applied Solutions (SaS), which are products prescriptively applied with patented SmartCartridge container technology and using the SIMPAS application system to address unique agronomic needs. Across the SaS portfolio are insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, micronutrients, and solutions for soil health and fertilizer efficiency. (See more about SIMPAS-applied Solutions below.)

“AMVAC is excited to collaborate with BASF to develop Rhizo-Flo for use as a SIMPAS-applied Solutions that can be applied with the SIMPAS system,” said Jim Lappin, Director of SIMPAS Portfolio and Alliances at AMVAC. “SIMPAS gives growers the flexibility to apply exactly what’s prescribed, precisely where it’s needed.”

To learn more about the SIMPAS system and the portfolio of SIMPAS-applied Solutions available to help growers optimize yield with their at-plant inputs, go to SIMPAS.com.

Avoidable Accidents and Conservation Agriculture Practices

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 13:34:30 GMT

I’ll never forget Dec. 20, 2021. Other than it being the week of Christmas, it was a normal start to the week. My wife and I rushed to get kids on the school bus, I checked and fed our small herd of Angus cattle, and then settled behind the desk for a busy day of work for America’s Conservation Ag Movement.

Fast forward two hours and I’m in the emergency room as a result of a fire alarm, an extension ladder and a poor decision. As I write this two months later, I’m thankfully on the mend from surgery to fix a broken heel. I’ve also celebrated the removal of a cast on my previously broken wrist.

A MINDSET SHIFT

What does this have to do with America’s Conservation Ag Movement and supporting farmers on their journeys of adopting conservation ag practices? The short answer is that sometimes change stems from major events in our life and our farm that fundamentally shift your mindset.

Our farm, just like yours, has its own story and its own challenges to adapt new practices in the battle of yield, profit and conservation. However as different as our farms might be, ultimately our love of the land creates a common theme in the universal family farm book, “Striving to Leave it Better for the Next Generation.”

I’m proud of the conservation practices we’ve adopted on our farm, which arguably started with my dad parking the moldboard plow in the trees in the 1980s. Our story is far from complete, and each change deserves its own chapter as it is being incrementally written over decades.

The chapter most relevant to an emergency room visit started on April 25, 2019. The skies opened and closed our planting window. Those initial drops began a streak of measurable precipitation for 27 out of the next 35 days totaling over 15".

That July, the first cover crop seed was sown on our farm in my lifetime. Reflecting over the past three years, the reality is our tabletop flat fields lost untold, and if I’m being honest, unacceptable tons of soil and pounds of nutrients from fall applied anhydrous. They were too bare when 35% of our annual precipitation fell in just over a month.

The now obvious realization is had the cover crops been seeded the previous fall, our soil would have been covered and we would have been ready for whatever Mother Nature threw at us.

THE NEXT CHAPTER

Here’s my advice from many lessons learned the hard way: Commit to crafting that next chapter in your book each winter when you have time to reflect. Seek out trusted sources. Imagine what your book and farm will look like after 40 seasons when you pass both to the next generation.

Is your farm ready for the next flood or drought? The Natural Resources Conservation Service is announcing several new and expanded opportunities for climate smart agriculture in 2022. Learn more.

Ryan Heiniger is Trust In Food’s director of America’s Conservation Ag Movement and leads its state and local projects. Ryan and his wife, Nikki, are raising their son and daughter as fifth-generation farmers along the banks of the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa.

Interested in Conservation Stewardship? Check out this Opportunity in Five States

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 17:30:49 GMT

America’s Conservation Ag Movement has a new opportunity for farmers who are based in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Maryland and Nebraska.

Specifically, the organization announces a request for farmers interested in being one of 10 Conservation Stewards (two farmers from each of the five states) for the 2022 calendar year.

“Conservation Stewards are U.S. farmers who will play an integral role as we ramp up farmer outreach and, specifically, the creation of 10 new farmer-to-farmer learning communities,” says Ryan Heiniger, director of America’s Conservation Ag Movement.

“We are seeking farmers of diverse backgrounds representing different crops produced, stages of conservation ag adoption and geographic location,” he says. “Additionally, historically underserved producers are encouraged to apply.

The one common denominator that we are seeking is energetic and passionate conservation-minded farmers interested in convening and leading others to accelerate climate-smart ag conservation practice adoption in their local area.”

The Conservation Steward contract position can earn up to $6,000 annually through the successful completion of eight outreach events which will include hosting:
• Six “shop talk” gatherings to convene a group of 10 to 15 dedicated conservation farmer leaders to form the core team of the farmer learning community
• One field day/conservation practice tour
• One broader farmer and community outreach event

Significant planning and logistical support will be provided by staff from Farm Journal’s Trust In Food team.
Interested farmers should send a letter of intent to Heiniger at rheiniger@farmjournal.com by 5 p.m. Central, Sunday, January 23, 2022.

The letter should include a description of your farm operation and location, your interest in conservation ag including any climate-smart ag programs or regenerative ag practices you have utilized, Heiniger says.

“Please include a list of your involvement in any conservation and agriculture organizations, familiarity and use of social media and preferred platforms, and other supporting information that helps describe your interest in supporting other farmers in accelerating voluntary conservation ag adoption,” he says.

To read the full contract position, click here .

'Farming Weird' Gets Pushback but Deserves Respectful Consideration

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 18:01:02 GMT

Shared by Ryan Heiniger, director of America’s Conservation Ag Movement, Trust In Food*

Most columns published in early January will contain a list of resolutions or outlooks for the New Year, but not this one. Not because I don’t have lists and hopes for 2022, quite the contrary. Instead, I’d like to spotlight, thanks in part due to some great threads on social media, the role of community perception on adoption – or reluctance – of regenerative agriculture practices.

In one notable example, a farmer commented he was the “laughing stock of the neighborhood” when his corn got significantly damaged by a late spring frost. This farmer has adopted strip-till and cover crops whereas most of his neighbors are still conventional and they suffered little to no damage from the late frost. This was a fairly widespread occurrence in the Upper Midwest during May 2021.

However, like any good novel there is always at least one plot twist, right? As the 2021 growing season played out, the predictable summer rains became unpredictable and crop stress quickly became a serious yield limiting issue. It is well-documented that in addition to helping increase rain infiltration, cover crops can also help keep the soil cooler and reduce evaporative loss from hot dry summer winds. Fast forward to harvest and despite the frost impact and the panic the soil and water conserving practices may have temporarily caused, the corn crop turned out to be his second-best yield ever. {insert mic drop}

Resilience.
There has been a lot written and studied about ‘early adopters’ and the risks they have taken but the part rarely discussed is the reality of community perception. This is especially true when things go wrong or are perceived by crop appearance to have gone wrong during the daily neighborhood windshield tours. Rightfully so, there has been a significant investment made by the public and private sector that shares a desire to accelerate regenerative ag practice adoption to primarily offer increased financial incentives. However, it is nearly impossible to de-risk a farmer’s social capital and potential downside of being the laughingstock. Perhaps this is a generational attribute (I’m a GenX), but it feels like the conservation agriculture movement has awoken and energized a subset of farmers that not only are willing to take the risk, but they have a unique sense of pride by having their fields look different. This is where the inspiration starts.

Movement.
Indiana farmer and well-known innovator Jason Mauck has coined the phrase “Farm Weird” to describe his approach to unconventional crop and livestock production. His winter wheat and soybean relay combinations are eye-grabbing to say the least and is worth following him on Twitter @jasonmauck1. His catchy phrase even has its own hashtag. I’ll go out on a limb and guess the local coffee shop had quite a laugh the first year he experimented with this trial but with trial, error and perseverance, his now annual harvest tweets showcasing yield monitor stats have undoubtedly had the last laugh.

Paradigm Shift.
Put yourself in a farmer’s boots with the mindset of wanting to experiment but not necessarily for the entire county to see. Thus the logical location for some trial and error is your field farthest from sight and for sure away from any major road. After all, you wouldn’t want to be responsible for neighbor Larry driving into the ditch while trying to decipher what you did in your field. At least if or when something goes awry, only the deer and satellites will ever see it when you tried this new approach on the back 40. In December 2021, Iowa Soybean Association who has a long track record of promoting and delivering conservation ag practices, launched the Front 40 | Home (iowafrontforty.com) program which is “a continued celebration of our state’s conservation champions, at the forefront of sustainable soil and water management practices.” This is another great step to bringing increased visibility to those pioneers and practices, both symbolically and in reality, shift these practices to a visible location so others can see, study and emulate.

On a personal farming note, I’m proud to report that two of our most visible fields, both along a paved road to the elevator, have cover crops for 2021 and 2022. With a little luck and support from Mother Nature, we will plant soybeans “green” into 36-inch plus tall cereal rye in late April.

September 20, 2021 – Harvested corn field and one bushel per acre cereal rye cover crop incorporated with vertical tillage tool.

October 11, 2021 – Cereal rye off to a great start after catching a timely rain in late September.

Full Circle
What gives me optimism for continued momentum in this area is when others in the community take notice and take action – all stemming from that one field that looked “weird”. A question we all need to ask ourselves for our individual and collective regenerative ag programs are: “how are we supporting the entire community to de-risk adoption and embrace change?” or “What other members in that community are there to help connect the dots and realize they have even greater potential to see more acres be transformed?” Perhaps it will be the agronomist who doesn’t have that original innovator farmer as a client but is curious to learn more about the techniques used so she can be prepared to offer advice when called upon. Or maybe it will be the brand-new soil conservationist working for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service that has heard about these new strategies for soil and water conservation but now they have a living laboratory and possible farmer mentor in their new work territory.

Last but not least, the recently retired farmer who will be renting out his acres and knows the land is a big part of his legacy. Who does he turn to that has a proven reputation of taking care of the soil, water, wildlife while maintaining or improving a farm’s overall productivity? Let’s commit in 2022 to doing our best to lending our support so the regenerative ag farmer, the one who harvests a special sense of pride in their ground being green in in the dead of winter. The one who has our community’s support to grow their operation and accelerate the Movement.

*About Ryan Heiniger: He is Trust In Food’s director of America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM), where he leads all aspects of its state and local projects. ACAM is a national public-private partnership program that empowers collaborators to leverage Farm Journal’s 145+ years of market trust and farmer-to-farmer networks to accelerate adoption of regenerative practices, products and technologies. Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Iowa State University. Ryan and his wife Nikki are raising their son and daughter as fifth-generation family farmers along the banks of the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa. Ryan works from a home office on their farm north of Burlington, Iowa and can be reached at rheiniger@farmjournal.com or on Twitter @FarmrHuntr.

Farmers Share 2022 Conservation Ag Goals

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:20:40 GMT

As you plan for the New Year, how are you thinking about integrating conservation ag objectives into your list of priorities? Across the U.S., Conservation Steward farmers, who are engaged in America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM), are thinking about the road ahead. To learn more about ACAM and to join the Movement, visit AgWeb.com/ACAM .

Brian Doerr, Nebraska

I learned this year — a year of very little rainfall — that cover crops miraculously still grow! I planted an eight-way mix midsummer into dry dirt hoping for a rain. To my surprise, within seven days that cover crop was sprouted and growing with no rainfall. Even some cover crops I interseeded into corn in dry dirt in June started growing in August after rain. It will amaze you how that stuff can grow in a drought year.

In 2022, I am going to try maybe a bigger mix after some wheat for cattle grazing. I’m also going to try a little more interseeding into 60" corn with a cover-crop mix and compare it to 30" corn with no covers.

Keith Mears, Indiana

Planting early is important. My soybeans planted May 2 outyielded soybeans planted May 25 by 5 bu.

No-till is not a place to cut populations. Whenever I try to plant fewer than 130,000 seeds per acre, I end up with a really thin stand. This year, I planted 150,000 soybean seeds per acre in 30" rows, and that ensured I had a healthy stand to grow all season.

My goal is to lengthen and diversify my corn-soybean crop rotation. I have my first wheat crop in the ground and growing. In the future, I want to plant nitrogen-fixing cover crops after wheat and grow a large portion of my corn’s nitrogen requirements. My goal is to band all of my dry fertilizer below ground this fall to keep it in place and maximize plant uptake.

Angela Vanoni, California

2021 marked another year of extreme drought in Ventura County, bringing just over 3" of rain. Consequently, it was (and still is) essential to conserve water as much as possible. With help from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, we had an irrigation efficiency evaluation conducted, which provided insight on how our system performed and where we could make improvements. This information influenced our decision to install a more efficient inline drip system in our newly planted lemon grove.

In 2022, we plan to further fine-tune our irrigation practices by improving our scheduling. Through the Ventura County Resource Conservation District, we intend to use soil moisture sensors to time irrigations more precisely with consideration to the differences in soil types among our groves. With no relief in the forecast, we must take every step possible to improve our practices.

Ryan Heiniger, Iowa

This was the third year of having some of our acres in cereal rye cover crops. With a little leap of faith and based on favorable reports from #AgTwitter, we planted our soybeans into standing green rye that was 30" to 40" tall. In October, the yield monitor didn’t disappoint and certainly didn’t indicate a yield drag, so we committed to covering all our corn acres with rye that are heading to soybeans in 2022.

We also added diverse pollinator habitat to some of our red acres that were consistently not producing a profit for corn-soybean rotation and look forward to the habitat and increased hunting opportunities for future years. Another first for us this year was organizing and hosting a cover-crop field day, which turned out to be a lot of fun and attracted over 120 farmers and even a few FFA students.

The next challenge that we’ll be working toward is to modify traditional fall anhydrous and tillage on soybean stubble before corn to attempt strip-till or other reduced tillage efforts and a spring fertilizer application. With our location, we’ve been able to get very good germination of rye by mid-October, so we are looking at increased fall and winter cattle grazing over cover crops as another growth opportunity.

Editor’s note: In addition to being an Iowa farmer, Heiniger serves as ACAM director at Trust In Food, Farm Journal’s sustainable ag division.

Do you have a 2021 conservation ag success story to share? Write to us at conservationag@farmjournal.com.

We might feature your story in an upcoming issue of Farm Journal!

Soil Erosion Trends in the U.S.

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 17:01:19 GMT

Oceanfront property wasn’t on Brian Scott’s wish list when he bought a rental farm in 2017 that included 9 acres of sandy soils fit for a south-Florida beach.

Scott tried to grow corn and soybeans across the entire farm while renting it. But the sandy ground, featuring a small, steep hill prone to erosion, wouldn’t cooperate.

“We’d go up there and drag all our equipment around, put all the inputs in and then basically not harvest anything,” recalls Scott, who grows 2,200 acres of corn and soybeans near Monticello, Ind. “We quit farming it when we purchased it.”

As Scott evaluated what to do with “the beach,” as he calls it, he learned it had potential for a different kind of production – as home and habitat for honeybees and other pollinators.

Scott seeded the sandy patch of soil to a prescribed pollinator mix this past spring, thanks to financial and project support from his local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office and Farm Service Agency. He also is enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

“Between the cost-share payment for establishment and annual CRP payments going forward, we figure by the third year we’ll make a little money,” he says.

In the process, Scott says the pollinator mix – which includes 24 different plant species – is helping him reduce erosion and hold soils in place.

A Strategy To Go Small
Scott’s decision to address erosion in a small, targeted area is one NRCS National Agronomist Betsy Dierberger would like to see other farmers emulate.

“Applying more and more conservation practices on a whole field may or may not hit the right amount of erosion control for those specific areas in fields that need a little bit more precise care and planning,” Dierberger explains. “There may be spots that are more vulnerable to erosion by wind or water or because of their location topographically, or it might be the field’s soil properties that increase the vulnerability in certain spots.”

The good news is with farmers’ increased focus on improving soil health, erosion on a whole-field basis has been on the decline. According to the 2017 USDA-National Resources Inventory (NRI) report, soil erosion rates on cropland decreased 35% between 1982 and 2017.

Erosion rates computed from NRI data are estimates of average annual (or expected) rates based upon long-term climate data, inherent soil and site characteristics, and cropping and management practices.

Despite improvements, erosion is still a huge concern for farmers, notes crop consultant James Hoorman, owner of Hoorman Crop Health Services, based in Hancock County, Ohio.

“It’s not the 20-ton per acre average losses we saw during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, but it’s still too high and unsustainable,” he says.

Soils Struggle to Keep Up
The NRI report shows water (sheet and rill) erosion rates averaged 2.67 tons per acre in 2017, and the erosion rate due to wind averaged 1.96 tons per acre.

“I often ask the question, are we conserving our soil resources, or are we mining them?” Hoorman says.

At best, soils can only regenerate about a half ton per acre per year, he estimates. The regeneration process is slow.

“Rock breaks down into sand, sand breaks down into silt, and then silt breaks down into clay,” he says.

While soil erosion can be visually dramatic, such as obscured roadways from blowing dust, that’s not always the case. Scott says erosion is difficult to see on some of his fields. Nonetheless, he is proactive to ad-dress it by no-tilling all crop ground and slowly adding cover crops.

“We have about a quarter of the farm in cover crops now, starting back in 2012, and that certainly helps,” he says.
Along with that, wherever water erosion is a concern, Scott has installed 40’ CRP grass buffer strips.

“We know there’s a lot of nutrients and productivity and all other kinds of good stuff in our topsoil, and we want to keep it where it is,” Scott says.

Technology Can Help
Dierberger says NRCS erosion estimation tools for both wind and water erosion, along with soil vulnerability indexes, can estimate the degree of erosion present in a field.

These Agricultural Research Service-supported tools, along with soil vulnerability index maps, help planners and farmers to quickly identify sensitive areas on farming operations and then decide if crops, field operations, and management changes can lead to reduced erosion.

“We can assess the current state of erosion for that field and then look at the results, and the farmer can decide whether to tweak the crop rotation or the intensity of tillage or type of tillage,” she says. “We want to help the producer think about how to keep more residue – whether it’s alive or dead – on the field to keep those soils covered.”

Organic matter is the glue that binds soil together and keeps it in place, according to the Noble Research Institute. The Institute’s research suggests that “increasing soil organic matter from 1% to 3% can reduce erosion between 20% and 33%, because it increases the soil’s water-holding capacity.”

Building soil organic matter takes time and intentionality, and sometimes – despite farmers’ best intentions – Mother Nature interferes. Dierberger says NRCS can adjust to help farmers with their conservation plans, even then.

“We can adapt and be flexible in helping farmers when their plans change,” she says. “We will work with you to make sure you get the conservation benefits you signed up for by adjusting your conservation plan implementation. We understand things happen beyond your control.”

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AGI/Farmobile Joins America’s Conservation Ag Movement

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:44:26 GMT

AGI (Ag Growth International) along with its Farmobile data brand is the latest Founding Partner to join America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM), a public-private partnership and program of Trust In Food, Farm Journal’s social impact division.

With more than 160 years of combined history, AGI operates on six continents providing planning, engineering and manufacturing services in storage, handling, structural, processing and technology across five platforms — seed, fertilizer, grain, feed and food — for farm and commercial applications. Farmobile, part of the AGI family of brands, is the leader in collecting live agronomic and machine data from a mixed fleet of farm and ag retail equipment so it can be easily viewed, shared and streamed into other software systems.

“As a global company that serves a broad cross-section of food and agriculture, we recognize the importance of driving innovation to support farmers and other leaders across the agri-food value chain in a way that is sustainable and best manages precious natural resources including soil, water and habitat,” said David Postill, senior vice president marketing and customer experience, AGI. “We’re proud to join America’s Conservation Ag Movement as a Founding Partner and support farmers across the U.S. on their sustainability journey while raising the profile of modern technologies and innovations like AGI’s Farmobile and SureTrack solutions that help producers and their trusted advisers quantify environmental stewardship and unlock new economic opportunities.”

Greater integration of data and technology on U.S. agricultural operations can help producers tell the story of their stewardship while identifying new ways to manage resources, lower environmental impact and participate in emerging opportunities such as ecosystem services markets. Spotlighting solutions that can help more farmers use technology to save money, mitigate risk and improve resilience will bring value to the ACAM mission and progress for agricultural sustainability overall.

“We’re delighted AGI/Farmobile has joined the Movement to help farmers better understand, value and participate in the many opportunities regenerative farming and data-driven solutions offer,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president of Trust in Food. “AGI/Farmobile’s participation in ACAM initiatives such as our Connected Ag Working Group will move the conversation forward, breaking down barriers that often limit producers’ ability to fully engage with data-driven solutions.”

“AGI’s Farmobile data-as-a-service team recognizes that a more connected agriculture means different things to different farmers,” said Bradford Warner, vice president business development – sustainability, Farmobile. “ACAM represents a powerful platform for engaging U.S. farmers in the tremendous potential of data-driven decision making via ongoing storytelling, case studies, place-based farmer learning communities, events and more. Farmers are the original stewards of our land and water, and as we increasingly pursue the potential of climate-smart agriculture, Farmobile will help them navigate these new opportunities through the power of rich, interoperable data sets that create a system of record for crop stewardship practices and drive better business outcomes at the farm gate.”

To learn more about America’s Conservation Ag Movement, visit www.TrustInFood.com/ACAM .

Wisconsin Farmer Shares Climate Positive Tips For Producers, Trusted Advisers

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:12:13 GMT

A series of extreme rains prompted Wisconsin farmer Brad Clark to change the way he operates and begin integrating more regenerative practices. The transition began three years ago on the row-crop and dairy operation, which included his older brother, Brian, and younger brother, Bruce.

“We’d have 5” to 7” in an hour,” says Brad. The operation manages 1,000 dairy cows, 2,500 tillable acres and also raises dairy replacement cows.

They started collaborating with Adam Kramer, co-founder of Black Sand Granary, their certified crop consultant, and work together to support local farmers with services including custom seeding and support in converting to no-till and integrating cover crops.

Making Cover Crops Pay

In the near-term, Clark says, the biggest ROI from regenerative practices will come from using dairy manure on his farm’s fields.

“We added a small grain into our rotation so we could get early manure application on our ground,” Clark explains. “If needed, we can follow that manure application with fall direct-seeding of alfalfa into that or cover crops to carry through till the next spring.” In some cases, the cover crop—such as rye—can be harvested for forage for the cows.

On other parcels, the operation uses a 10-way mix of different covers including clover and sudan grass.

Environmental and economic benefits extend beyond cover crops. Converting to a no-till system has reduced fuel and labor costs by cutting equipment passes across the field, Clark notes.

Those benefits are especially important given the farm’s location smack dab next to the Mississippi River in the Driftless Area, a 24,000-square-mile region spanning four states.

“It’s rolling hill ground with ridgetops and pretty decent slopes,” Clark explains. “We also farm river-bottom ground. It’s kind of unique that way with different soil types including sand and black timber soil.”

The location presents opportunities and challenges. “It depends on the day,” Clark jokes. They have ready access to river and rail services, and they have plenty of fresh water for grazing throughout the summer. Yet the hills, bottoms and tapestry of soils make it important to steward natural resources well to keep local recreation areas clean for the public.

Regenerative Farming In Action

In the past several years, Clark and his operating partners have begun participating in a demonstration network that invites other farmers to see regenerative farming in action. He’s encouraged by the feedback he’s getting from members of his dairy peer group as he speaks publicly about his experiences. A peer recently told Clark they’d made a recent article about Clark’s operation mandatory reading on their farm operation.

For farmers curious about applying regenerative practices within their operations, Clark has some advice.

“Talk to someone that’s done it, and get a plan down in front of you that you can see yourself realizing from start to finish,” Clark says. “Keep an open mind. You’ve got to have willingness to change the old ways. Change is hard. And follow through. You’ve got to have follow through and commitment. Because there will be failures, but there will be successes, too. And hopefully Mother Nature gives you a little good karma, too.”

Trusted advisers supporting farmers on this journey can do their part by researching contact information for “everyone and anyone involved” in regenerative farming efforts, Clark adds. “They need to offer value-added programs or incentives. That would really get people on board—monetize it in some way,” he says.

Another item high on Clark’s wish list? “Campaign to make cover crops insurable,” Clark says. He notes that today, cover crops can’t be insured.

For now, Clark is willing to risk a loss on the covers because “they’re doing the work.”

He’s seen the benefits. He isn’t turning back.

Clark will participate in a free virtual event titled, “Can regenerative agriculture unlock the connection between food consumers and agricultural producers?” from 10 to 11 a.m. CT Nov. 17, 2021. Registration is now open for this America’s Conservation Ag Movement experience sponsored by Corteva Agriscience. Corteva recognized Clark earlier this year as one of nine winners of its Climate Positive Leaders Program .

‘Additionality’ Issue keeps some Farmers out of Carbon Markets

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 02:43:21 GMT

When Mike Estadt talks with Ohio farmers using no-till and cover crops who want to participate in carbon markets, he often tells them they are unlikely to qualify for those opportunities.

“These are farmers who’ve been in no-till for 20 or 30 years, and they’ve probably sequestered all the carbon that they can,” says Estadt, Ohio State University county Extension educator for Pickaway County.

Old Versus New
At the crux of the matter in those scenarios is a term the carbon industry refers to as additionality.

To qualify as a genuine carbon offset, the reductions achieved by a project need to be “additional” to what would have happened if the project had not been carried out.

In most scenarios, companies want to incentivize growers by paying them to use regenerative farming practices, especially no-till and cover crops, on ground where they haven’t used such practices previously.

“No one wants to pay for what happened last year, two years ago or five years ago, because corporations and governments can’t make (carbon offset or inset) claims for that,” explains Debbie Reed, executive director of Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC).

That reality keeps some farmers out of the marketplace. Of 1,200 farmers who responded to a national carbon market survey by Purdue University economists last spring, 22% indicated their previous use of eligible agronomic practices disqualified them from participation.

It’s an issue ESMC is working to address with a portfolio of carbon pilot projects.

For example, in one pilot project, ESMC was able to incentivize farmers for using a cultural practice in a region where 50% or less of the farmers there had adopted it.

“We have made progress showing regional thresholds for practice-based additionality thresholds should be 50% not 5% (as they are currently),” Reed says.

Now, ESMC is working with Gold Standard, a carbon offset registry, to reward early adopters of regenerative farming practices and, in the process, get credit for the companies that work with them.

Layer On Practices
In the meantime, Jean Brokish, Midwest Program manager for American Farmland Trust, encourages farmers to look at ways to layer conservation farming practices on acres.

“They might be able to participate in some programs by integrating multiple species of cover crops rather than a single species,” she says. “Or if they’re only using cover crops, they might layer in no-till or some additional soil-health practice.”

In some ways, carbon programs distract from what Hannah Birge believes is of greater value to farmers.

“I don’t think most farmers will get substantial income from the carbon markets,” says Birge, director of agriculture for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska.

“Payments from carbon markets should be thought of as a supplement for practice adoption costs,” Birge adds. “The real benefits are in soil health over the next 5, 10 or 20 years. Farmers will have lower input costs and more stable yields and benefit from costs savings.”

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