Trust in Food

How AI Insights are Reducing Manual Scouting for Midwest Retailers

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:15:12 GMT

Recently, Syngenta and Taranis declared their AI-backed partnership a winner as it combined their respective prowess in leading crop protection and AI crop intelligence for retailers and farmers in the Midwest.

Syngenta’s leadership pointed to AI as agriculture’s next major breakthrough, with early results from the 2025 collaboration demonstrating how pairing Taranis’ leaf-level AI Crop Intelligence with Syngenta’s portfolio helped create value for retailers and growers—momentum that the partnership is now positioned to scale.

“Over the past two years, we’ve been intentional about keeping a pulse on growers’ pain points and making practical improvements to enhance their experience,” says Paul Backman, Syngenta’s Head of North America Crop Protection Digital Agriculture & Sustainable Solutions. “With the help of AI, technical expertise, and strong partnerships, we are enabling growers to spot issues and respond with solutions faster than they have before.”

Ag Retailers: At the Frontline Connecting Growers to Solutions

As the new growing season kicks off for the Midwest, Syngenta’s teams say they are taking off the training wheels and anticipating the program’s success in the retail sector to be the foundation for its growth.

“We believe ag retailers play a critical role in bringing conservation solutions together for growers,” says Backman. “The powerful capabilities brought together through our partnership with Taranis put us in an excellent position to collaborate with retailers and create value for them as we deliver on this vision.”

Early insights from the field signal momentum. Retailer enrollment continues to accelerate, with participating acres expanding rapidly throughout the Midwest.

“We’ve worked to scale the partnership more broadly in our second year – this means connecting AI Crop Intelligence with our Crop Protection portfolio and bringing these solutions to more retailers,” he says. “The results from our first year together demonstrated a clear benefit for growers to be more targeted and to address field issues earlier – helping growers and retailers be more efficient in pinpointing challenges and the right solutions to address them.”

Now, the company says that the program is optimized with data-backed intelligence for corn and soybean producers, and in the early stages of exploring its applications in potato production as well.

A Win-Win to Unlock Conservation Opportunity

Geography and crops are not the only expansion on the table for 2026, Backman says. The partnership is working to help growers enhance profitability and access to conservation funding and technical assistance by matching farmers with public conservation programs and working collaboratively through the enrollment process.

“We know that turning a profit and having the funds to invest in new practices can be one of the biggest barriers growers face when deciding whether to adopt a new practice,” Backman says. “This, in essence, is what makes Syngenta’s partnership with Taranis a real game changer.”

Through the partnership, Taranis Technical Service Providers will identify opportunities to access funding through popular federal mechanisms like the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). “The Taranis Conservation Partnership solution is designed to help growers access USDA conservation funding and implement sustainable farming practices on their farms with minimum effort,” he says.

Backman also notes that smooth enrollment isn’t just a convenience – it’s key to enabling growers to access resources to invest in their operations and experiment with new practices that might otherwise be out of reach.

“We see it as a win-win for all parties involved,” he says.

Sustainability, Driven by Digital Tools

AI-powered intelligence from Taranis is the latest capability offered alongside Syngenta’s suite of digital tools that underpin its corporate sustainability strategy .

“Syngenta has a long history of supporting growers to help increase yields, and today we’re leaning into a broad portfolio of digital tools to meet that mission,” Backman says. “Over time, we’ve learned that leveraging crop protection and advancing sustainability can go forward together.”

This AI-backed partnership, along with digital sustainability tools such as the CropWise™ Sustainability App, are critical levers to achieving Syngenta’s overall sustainability goals – one of several reasons the company combined the two into a new Digital and Sustainable Solutions team.

Backman’s team is charged with finding solutions that work at the farmgate, but also help to manage productivity, profitability, and stewardship.

“A key to meeting these goals and scaling sustainable practices starts with solutions that truly work for farmers, which is why we’re embedding sustainability into our business strategy and operations and equipping our field teams with resources to communicate how our solutions support those efforts,” he says. “While technology has long helped farmers increase yields, today we’re combining it with sustainable practices to help achieve higher yields with lower impact.

“By improving soil health, protecting biodiversity and conserving natural resources, we can help create lasting value – ensuring that growers succeed today, and well into the future.”

Unlocking More With Less Through Precision Agriculture

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:08:08 GMT

Increasing productivity while also using less fuel, water, inputs and time may sound like a dream at today’s farmgate, but a new report called “The Benefits of Precision Ag in the United States” says that very dream is very much a reality for many farms and fields across the U.S.

The report, published collaboratively by Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, CropLife America and National Corn Growers Association, is a follow-up to the landmark 2020 study that first analyzed the potential of precision agriculture technologies to allow farmers and ranchers to do more with less.

It studies precision ag technologies like auto-guidance, machine section control, variable rate application, fleet analytics and telematics and precision irrigation in U.S. production of crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, peanuts, wheat, sorghum, potatoes, sugar beets, hay and alfalfa.

Quantifying the Impact: Inputs, Resources and Yield

Compared to the study five years ago, the trend of precision agriculture adoption is upward, with farmers reaping the benefits in quantifiable ways, according to Austin Gellings, senior director of agricultural services, AEM.

“The industry continues to see an improvement in input efficiency as a result of precision agriculture,” Gellings says. “Compared to five years ago, we have continued to see productivity increase while the comparative amount of herbicide, fertilizer, fuel and water used on a per unit basis continues to decline.”

The report details its findings of the current savings of critical inputs through precision agriculture, as well as what is possible through increased adoption, including:

An estimated 4 billion pounds of fertilizer application was avoided due to precision agriculture technologies, with an estimated 7 billion pounds of additional fertilizer that could be avoided with broader adoption
An estimated 54 million pounds of herbicide was avoided due to precision agriculture with an estimated 66 million pounds that could be avoided with broader adoption

The report didn’t stop with analysis of inputs, though. The research found similar savings in terms of fuel and water use as well, including:

147 million gallons of fuel saved, the equivalent of 283,000 cars off the road annually or 26,000 fewer flights
Water use has decreased an estimated 5% as a result of precision agriculture, or the equivalent of an estimated 824,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water saved

The savings are helping to unlock an increase in overall productivity fueled by two decades of growth in U.S. corn and soybean yields, the report states.

Critically, the report not only highlights the strides made by adoption of precision agriculture, but what is possible with continued increases.

“The study references savings that could be achieved as a result of precision agricultural technologies if we were to reach full adoption, which we defined as 90-95% adoption,” says Gellings. “These numbers are not necessarily targeted goals, but rather a guiding light for the potential that remains within our industry.”

Quantifying the Impact: On-Farm Pain Points

Gellings encourages farmers to examine their operations for adoption opportunity.

“It is about identifying what the needs of your specific operation are and then identifying the proper technologies that can help you,” he says. “What are the biggest pain points that your operation faces? Once you pinpoint that, it is then about identifying what technologies address those needs while also fitting into the workflow of one’s operation.”

The report shares anonymous grower insights into how that analysis has paid off for their operation through precision agriculture technologies.

In the report, a Kansas farmer growing wheat, soybeans and alfalfa on their operation said, “We’re spraying less chemical, [targeted spray application technology] is saving us money, and it’s better for the environment.”

“We ran through our herbicide costs we were going to have and dropped them by two-thirds. That is going to make our sprayer payment.”

Similarly, a Minnesota corn and soybean farmer had this to say:

“We looked at what we were spending on postemergence weed control and felt we could justify [targeted spray application technology] if we sprayed only 50% of our acres post. In the end, we only sprayed 11% of our corn acres with postemergence herbicide and averaged only spraying 20% of our soybeans with both applications.”

Quantifying the Impact: Agriculture’s Solution Through Precision

The organizations behind the report are hoping that it will serve as a catalyst into conversations with policymakers and consumers around stewardship within the agriculture industry.

“When it comes to all of the conversations that are happening, whether it be healthy food, the environment, or a number of other issues, the solution at the end of the day tends to already exist and that solution is farmers,” says Gellings. “Farmers have, for generations, done what they believe is best for the land and the communities that they live within and serve.”

“Precision agriculture and all of the technologies that come with that term are nothing more than a tool to help them accomplish that goal at the end of the day,” he says. “None of these will be the silver bullet to solve any and all issues, but when chosen based on the needs and capabilities of a farm and then paired with the other proper practices and inputs, they can help farmers get ahead.”

The report is available for free download through AEM.

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One Montana Farmer’s Fight to Break the Generational Cycle of Failure

Farmers Want Gene-editing Technology

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 19:05:14 GMT

By Cherilyn Jolly Nagel: Mossbank, Saskatchewan, Canada

Canada is ready for the next genetic revolution.

Farmers like me applaud the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for letting sound science guide agricultural policy—and clearing up the uncertainties and ambiguities that until now had surrounded crop production’s most promising new technology.

On May 3, the CFIA confirmed that gene-edited crops are safe for livestock, following Health Canada ’s lead in determining their safety for food.

This decision means that farmers across Canada will enjoy a new tool for fighting drought, defeating pests, and improving sustainability. For consumers, it means affordable, abundant, and nutritious food. For the world, it means better food security.

It all starts on the farm and I’m excited about what gene-editing will help me accomplish here on the plains of Saskatchewan, where we’re currently planting our new crop of canola for cooking oil, lentils for stews and soups, and durum wheat for pasta.

We’re also fighting a seven-year drought. Our area is typically rather dry, and the crops we grow are adapted to these difficult conditions—but over recent years we’ve received much less water than we need, putting extra stress on our plants as they try to flourish.

Gene editing offers a solution. It allows researchers and scientists to speed up the otherwise slow process of conventional breeding. They can develop and refine traits from the genetic code that is already inside each plant—and, for example, develop crops that make more efficient use of water.

Gene-edited crops may rely on new technologies, but in every way that is important, they are indistinguishable from crops produced the conventional way.

This is different from the technology of genetic modification in GM crops, which involves taking the genes from one species and transplanting them into another. I’ve been a strong supporter of GM technology—the canola on my farm is GM canola—but it’s important for people to know that gene editing is a more refined approach to crop improvement. Gene editing allows for precise changes within a plant’s own genome without introducing foreign genes, making it a more precise and targeted method for enhancing crop traits.

Traditional conventional crop breeding can take ten or more years of research and development for a crop trait to move from concept to commercialization.

I’m not near patient enough to wait that long for new, much needed traits. And now I don’t have to be. Gene editing lets us pick up the pace. I’m looking forward to a future in which farmers see new traits every year, as we build crops that withstand drought, frost, and pests. This new generation of crops with specific traits should also allow us to use our resources more efficiently and to improve the nutritional value of our food.

And it gets even better. Because gene editing is fast and efficient, R&D teams will be able to focus their time and energy on specialty crops and regional varieties. It will finally make economic sense to develop plants uniquely suited to the local environment of my region, the Mossbank area of Saskatchewan.

The CFIA’s decision lets us take full advantage of what gene editing can deliver.

It also helps Canada maintain its position as a global leader in agricultural technology. Because we export so much of what we grow, we have both an obligation and an opportunity to tell the story of gene editing to the rest of the world.

That’s why I travelled to Brussels last year to talk about the benefits of gene editing with a group of international farmers: Gilbert Bor of Kenya , Guillermo Breton of Mexico , David Danio of the Philippines , and Diana Lenzi of Italy . And then took my whole family to Japan to share our farm’s experience and support for seed technology with Shuichi Tokumoto, a farmer in Tottorishi, Japan. We are all affiliated with the Global Farmer Network , and we come from vastly different places. Our goal was to show our united support for gene editing.

We think gene-edited crops will make us better farmers, and that means we’ll grow better food for the people who count on us.

This is an essential point: Farmers want this technology. And now Canada is going to get in the game so my family farm can continue to grow safe, healthy, affordable food.

Cherilyn and her family own a diversified grain farm in Mossbank, Saskatchewan, Canada. In addition to farming, Cherilyn is active in many agricultural policy initiatives to improve the communication between farmers and the public and advocate for modern agricultural practices. Cherilyn volunteers as a board member for the Global Farmer Network . This column originates at www.globalfarmernetwork.org

Inside AMVAC's Strategy To Widen Precision Agriculture Adoption

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 19:32:43 GMT

Farm-level production data is critical for precision agriculture and sustainable production systems, but many factors continually stand in the way of farmers willingly handing over that currency.

“It’s human nature to ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’ and farmers are human,” says Rick Rice, director, application technology, AMVAC Chemical Corp . “As an industry, we must make certain that farmers realize value from data they provide and that they’re confident it won’t be used for purposes other than those defined in the data sharing agreement.”

America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM) visited with Rice to discuss what he’s experienced in his career in precision agriculture, what he feels is needed to bridge the data gap and how AMVAC is helping to provide those solutions for farmers.

During your time working with farmers in this space, what have you experienced in their attitudes toward data and data-sharing?
I’ve worked in the precision/prescriptive ag space for 15+ years and I’ve learned farmers don’t want to share proprietary data with an entity that will use it to make money unless there’s a clear understanding about how they’ll share the money.

On the other hand, most farmers I’ve worked with are very willing to share data with companies that clearly define the limited purpose for which it will be used, particularly when it’s to improve algorithms that will make a particular type of software work better. Every data system in use by farmers today was designed and tested using data that farmers shared with designers.

How is AMVAC working to provide solutions to growers that help streamline data measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification?
AMVAC’s Ultimus technology is a supply chain tracking tool that will also increase food transparency for consumers throughout the food chain.

Ultimus starts with an RFID tag that the crop ag input manufacturer attaches to each container, whether it’s as large as a railcar of fertilizer solution or as small as a pint-sized bottle of pesticide. The RFID tag serves as a certificate of origin confirming the container’s contents, and also allows comprehensive tracking of the container. The tagged SKU is scanned as the container moves through each step of the supply chain, allowing each entity with access privileges to see precisely where it’s located, 24/7. Even if some portion of the contents is transferred from the original tagged container to a different or smaller container, the transfer is recorded and tracked in Ultimus.

When a farmer is ready to apply the contents of a tagged container, those contents are transferred through a device that passes to Ulitmus-enabled application equipment the certificate of origin information from the container’s RFID tag, along with the quantity of product removed from the container in that individual dispensing transaction. When that data is matched with the equipment’s as-applied recordkeeping system, a verifiable application record is produced that can be shared with anyone the farmer chooses.

We frequently hear consumers want to know where their food came from, but that’s only part of the story. They also want to be confident the crop was produced in conformity with regulated and recommended crop production practices ensuring food will be safe for them and their families. Ultimus makes it simple and cost effective for farmers to provide verifiable application records of inputs used to produce crops that go into human and/or animal food products.

I believe Ultimus has the potential to change our entire industry, as we make it easy and affordable to provide transparency to consumers, food companies and others with an interest in confident answers regarding who applied what, when and where and at what rate, for every product applied to each field.

Productivity and sustainability must align with profitability to gain adoption on farms. How does AMVAC and your solutions help ensure increased profitability for your customers?
The operative word is solutions. It’s not enough to deliver a break-even solution. The first sustainability test for any farmer is: “Will my profits increase if I use this product?” Every farmer who applies an AMVAC-brand product believes the answer to that question is yes. Because we’re in the business of selling prescriptive solutions, one of our jobs is to help farmers better understand where the “yes” locations are in their fields and, just as importantly, help them avoid applying our products in the “no” locations.

A recent Trust In Food study found 70% of farmers would be willing to start or increase their use of precision farm management technologies if they could be financially incentivized to do so. How is AMVAC solving for this barrier with your customers?
AMVAC was one of the original sponsors of Farm Journal’s ACAM. Through our association with ACAM, we had an opportunity to help draft program rules for the Trust In Food (TIF) Climate Smart Ag Practices grant program that define sustainable farming practices which would qualify farmers to receive cost-share reimbursements. We believe the grant program is a great tool to help farmers implement sustainable farming practices because the reimbursements minimize the financial risk of trying something new. The purpose isn’t to provide a forever subsidy for a particular practice, but instead to act as a catalyst for new conservation practices in particular areas and by individuals who might not risk implementing the practice without a financial safety net. The long-term objective, however, is to allow participants to demonstrate to themselves and their neighbors that new sustainability practices yield positive financial benefits on their own and will continue to do so long after the three-year reimbursement program has ended.

With ACAM and TIF, AMVAC believes the most effective method of marketing to farmers is via word of mouth from farmer peers who have had first-hand experience. This starts when first-year farmer participants in the TIF program tell their neighbors they ought to consider participating in the Climate Smart grant program. After the grant program has ended, that same word of mouth should continue as farmers from the program continue to use those practices knowing they truly are sustainable both environmentally and financially.

There is confusion in the carbon credits market around standards for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying data. What is a big step that, you believe, can be taken to provide clarity across the value chain for this issue?
The measuring process is fairly straightforward. Independent entities such as the American Carbon Registry and universities have confirmed that if a farmer does X practice, Y tons of carbon will be sequestered, or better, not released into the atmosphere.

The real challenges are with reporting, monitoring, and verifying. Today, essentially all reporting activity requires manual entry along with confidence in the reporter’s integrity and accuracy. I don’t believe there’s a community on earth with higher overall integrity than American farmers, but we’ve all heard about a few bad actors. Even farmers with the very best intentions can make honest reporting errors.

This is why monitoring is an essential element of carbon markets. Businesses that purchase farmer-produced carbon credits demand monitoring because they need to be confident those credits won’t or can’t be reversed in the future. But monitoring, whose only purpose is to identify reporting errors, is expensive because it’s human based, manual, and time consuming. It takes the lion’s share of the value of ag-based carbon credits. Consequently, monitoring all the qualifying farm practices that can generate ag-based carbon credit is just not financially feasible, yet without universal monitoring, verification is impossible. It’s a real Catch-22.

Ultimus helps address this dilemma for credit-eligible practices – such as reducing the application rate of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, or applying nitrogen-fixing supplements or soil health products – by completely automating the verification process.

What is the biggest opportunity agriculture has right now in terms of accelerating climate-smart work?
I believe the real accelerator will come from reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) linked to use of synthetically manufactured nitrogen fertilizer. All commercially grown non-leguminous crops require supplemental nitrogen, most of which comes from synthetically manufactured nitrogen fertilizer. Though the manufacturing process is improving, the methods used to produce synthetic nitrogen result in significant releases of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. So, if the number of synthetically manufactured nitrogen units can be reduced significantly, a corresponding reduction in GHG emissions would result, and GHGs not released into the atmosphere won’t have to be sequestered.

Farmers can’t reduce the number of nitrogen units required by their crops without a corresponding reduction in yield. However, with the advent of nitrogen-fixing supplements like iNvigorate, Envita and Proven 40, farmers can now obtain a portion of a crop’s nitrogen requirement from free atmospheric nitrogen. A great deal of capital is being invested in development of a better class of nitrogen-fixing supplements. I believe these investments will yield dividends and that farmers should anticipate replacing ever increasing quantities of synthetic nitrogen with free atmospheric nitrogen. When that happens, GHG emissions from the manufacture of synthetic nitrogen will decrease, nitrogen-related field GHG emissions will diminish, and less nitrogen will leach from fields into waterways. And because verification of reductions in synthetic nitrogen fertilizer can be automated, reduced use of synthetic nitrogen can, in my opinion, be the most rapidly adopted climate-smart practice to enable a broad community of farmers to begin realizing new income from the sale of carbon credits.

Farm Journal’s The Scoop recently named BioWake as its new product of the year for 2023. What does that product offer growers who are interested in sustainability for their operations? What is next for the BioWake brand?
We are thrilled to have The Scoop’s audience vote BioWake as the readers’ choice new product of the year . BioWake has two key technology components that will further sustainability efforts for farmers. The first is a soy-based seed fluency agent that is a technology delivery system for live microbes. This protein is carcinogen-free, non-abrasive to seeds, made entirely from U.S. soybeans and not present in the soil after 28 days. It’s a direct replacement for graphite or talc-based lubricants yet provides the same flowability and singulation and eliminates the mess and harm associated with them. The second component of BioWake are the microbes themselves: pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs), which quickly colonize the plant and form a symbiotic relationship, producing molecules that help plants take in more nutrients and encouraging earlier, more vigorous root development. We’ve seen sizable increases in the root area, depth, and root tips of both corn and soybean treated with BioWake. Larger roots lead to improved yields and also add to the overall health of the soil.

We launched BioWake for Corn and BioWake for Soybeans in 2023. For 2024, we are expanding the line by adding BioWake for Cotton and BioWake Prime™. BioWake Prime is an EPA-registered bioinsecticide product designed to mitigate corn rootworm larval feeding and damage. Trial results from 2023 showed an 8 BU/A win advantage across 56 data points, with a 68% win rate. It offers farmers a convenient addition to their current corn rootworm strategy.

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.

Feed Your Soil With Cover Crops

Real-World Cover Crop Decisions

How Planting Cover Crops Today Helps

Drought is More than just 'Water Stress' for Corn and Soybeans

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 12:36:24 GMT

This article was written by Jamie Sears Rawlings, manager of Climate-Smart Content at Trust In Food. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

One of the greatest agronomic challenges facing producers today is the multi-year drought pattern affecting the Corn Belt, says Mike Zwingman, director of agronomy, row crops for Verdesian Life Sciences.

“The impact of drought is more than just water stress,” Zwingman says. “It greatly impacts nutrient uptake and lowers yield potential after drought stress because the plant misses out on some critical nutrient uptake periods.”

As producers in drought-stricken areas monitor how abiotic stress affects their yields, many are looking for solutions to help manage plant health in dry conditions. Nutrient efficiency and management are critical components to creating a more resilient production system.

America’s Conservation Ag Movement sat down with Zwingman to get his perspective on nutrient use, the National Corn Yield Contest and the next generation of products to help producers manage emerging pressures on their operations.

Over your two-decade career in agriculture, how has conservation agriculture evolved?

I don’t think conservation farming principles have changed over the past two decades. No-Till has been a common practice my entire career; cover crops have also existed during that time. What has changed is the focus and intensity of those practices. I understand that none of these practices are new, but how to effectively execute them is the most important lesson I have learned.

Why is nutrient use efficiency important for producers right now? What are some of the factors that are spurring interest?

From the grower’s perspective, economics is the biggest driver of Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE); managing cost of production and yield optimization are two of the most essential things growers can do when prices are so volatile. That is not to say they aren’t worried about conservation issues; often, those things are tied together.

How does nitrogen stabilization and nutrient efficiency fit into your sponsorship of the National Yield Contest’s new Nitrogen Management Class? Why is this new class important for producers? 

We are excited to be part of this new class of the National Yield Contest because it so profoundly aligns with the DNA of who Verdesian is. I have been saying for years that we have significantly improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency in my lifetime; the problem is that it may be one of the best-kept secrets in our industry. This contest gives us the platform to show consumers, and the rest of the value chain, how good at it we really are.

How do nutrient optimization strategies help producers tell their story with the value chain and consumers who are increasingly interested in production methods?

It focuses on many things growers already have been doing to improve Nutrient Use Efficiency and allows them to invest in and explore new technologies that accelerate that improvement. At Verdesian, we support those efforts by developing some of those new technologies as well and providing clarity on how they best fit into a producer’s operation.

How does growing production transparency affect the future of agriculture?

Our customers are more separated from agriculture than ever before in history but also have more concern about how their food is produced as well. This paradox allows for a vast stream of misinformation to flood the internet and mind-space of the end user. We have both the responsibility and opportunity to change that by being more transparent and inviting people to see what we do.

In a segment that has some residual efficacy concerns from early bad actors, what are some ways Verdesian has been successfully communicating the value of biological products to producers?  

For us, it all starts with explaining exactly how a specific product works either in the soil or in the plant to benefit Nutrient Use Efficiency. That begins with the hard work of the people in our lab to identify modes of action as we go to the field to generate yield data for the grower. We also work extremely hard to get the recommendation on how to use it in the field. We have the right processes in place to allow us to do both those things.

What does the next generation of grower solutions look like, and how is your R&D addressing the challenges growers are facing today and the burgeoning demand for sustainable products? 

I am extremely proud of and excited about the products in our pipeline. Soon we plan on having releases in the micronutrient space, phosphorus enhancers category, and some new technology for the planter box. All of those new technologies address stress management and NUE.

Why is it important for Verdesian Life Sciences to be part of coalitions like America’s Conservation Ag Movement and Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance? 

There is no better indicator of what is important to a company’s culture than where it invests its talent, money and other resources. At Verdesian, we are committed to developing new technologies that enhance Nutrient Use Efficiency to benefit the environment, grower sustainability and the end user, because that is who we are.

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.

Planting Green Drives Bold Changes for Indiana Farmers Focused on Soil Health and Conservation

Five Reasons Why I Started Using Conservation Practices On My Farm

Pollinator Habitat Fits Farmer’s Sandy Soils And Delivers A ROI

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.

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Do Input Shortages Open the Gate for Biological Products?

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:39:29 GMT

In the face of shortages and escalating costs for traditional inputs, is 2022 the year you turn to biological products to bridge potential gaps?

Some biological manufacturers and marketers believe that could be the case – and for multiple reasons.

“Given the steady improvement and availability of biological products, overall consumer demand and increasing emphasis on soil health, there’s never been a better time to look at this technology,” says Micah Scanga, commercial product manager for AMVAC.

As you evaluate input options for next spring, here are five steps to size up whether a biological product might be a good fit for your farm.

1. Identify the production need you have that a biological can address.There are two major categories of biologicals today, Scanga says.

One category is bio-pesticides. These are registered through EPA and state regulatory bodies and typically target a specific class of pests, usually diseases and insects.

“These products usually offer a distinct benefit such as a lower field re-entry time or pre-harvest interval,” Scanga says.

The second category of biologicals includes crop enhancers, soil amendments and biofertilizers. These products focus on maximizing plants’ ability to reach their genetic potential by working on either abiotic stress management or fertilizer efficiency.

“These products bring a very exciting addition to the agricultural industry because they have the potential to address major issues such as more efficient fertilizer usage, carbon sequestration, and the health of soils,” Scanga says.

2. Work with a trusted partner or adviser to minimize risk. With more than 200 companies offering biostimulant products, for instance, you have a lot of potential options to choose from, notes Keith Jones, executive director of the Biological Products Industry Alliance. Partner with one you know, especially if you haven’t used a biological before.

3. Pick a product that fits the way you farm today. “I would say that’s the No. 1 goal — choose a product that fits naturally into your existing operational system,” advises Mick Messman, CEO of DPH Biologicals, formerly Douglas Plant Health. In the process, look at company and third-party data to confirm product performance for your area.

4. Consider the compatibility of the product. “You want to use a product that is flexible and can be used as part of your program,” Messman says.

Along with that, make sure you understand how to handle and store the product for optimum results. “Ask if the product has a long shelf life or not and how it needs to be stored,” he advises.

“Where products are manufactured and what types of quality control are in place in manufacturing, distribution and shelf life are also good questions to ask,” Scanga adds.

5. Look for competitive pricing on biologicals. Better yet, look for a return on investment in improved yield outcome, Messman encourages.

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Dan Anderson: The Devil is in the Details

Three Conservation Ag Insights from Illinois Farmer Craig Swartz

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 19:49:53 GMT

This article was written by Emily Smith, Community Engagement Coordinator/Digital Producer, for Trust In Food. Learn more at trustinfood.com.

If you’re like most farmers, you pride yourself on being a good steward of soil, water and air. Those elements are essential to the success of your business. And you recognize there are opportunities to keep improving and to take that next step. That is the approach Illinois farmer Craig Swartz takes on his family’s operation in the Vermilion River Watershed in central Illinois.

Swartz is a Conservation Steward for America’s Conservation Ag Movement, a public-private partnership that brings farmers and the sustainability community together around the future of farming by bringing profitable, planet-friendly farming practices into the mainstream. In that role, he shares his conservation experiences with fellow farmers, collaborates with local conservationists and identifies ways the partners of the Movement can help local producers on their conservation journey.

His first recommendation? Use nearby experts and resources to your advantage.

“They are our helping hand to get started,” says Swartz, referencing his local service center with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Local conservationists can provide more information about incentive programs available to you.

Swartz shared insights with other producers seeking to improve their stewardship, during a recent webinar. Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative, organized the event in partnership with Farm Journal Foundation, the Vermilion Headwaters Partnership and American Farmland Trust, which leads the headwaters work and has actively supported farmers and the conservation community in the Vermilion River Headwaters for more than five years.

Financial and technical support for the event was provided by the USDA-NRCS and leading agribusinesses, food companies and nonprofit organizations, including American Farmland Trust.

Second, Swartz explains, his family gauges the success of its conservation adoption not only by evaluating economic return but also by considering the future of the farm and how conservation will benefit the land for generations to come.

Third, Swartz says he believes his most successful conservation investment to date has been the nitrogen program he has adopted, including variable-rate fertilizer application. Using fewer inputs reduces his farm’s footprint on soil and water. It also ensures Swartz doesn’t waste product or money.

In addition to Swartz, speakers included Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie, owner of Crop-Tech Consulting; State Conservationist Ivan Dozier of NRCS in Illinois; and Jean Brokish, Midwest program manager at American Farmland Trust.

In his presentation, Dozier spoke about the importance of conservation implementation for farmers, not only in the Vermilion but across the state of Illinois.

“Conservation is not easy, and conservation practices don’t just appear on the land,” Dozier says. “It takes a coordinated and concerted effort to implement and maintain conservation practices. The good news is that there are indeed conservation practices that really do work, and they do fit in with production agriculture.”

The Vermilion River Watershed spans more than 853,000 acres including streams, creeks and man-made lakes that flow into the Vermilion River and then the Illinois River. The region produces row crops including corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa, as well as livestock such as hogs, beef cattle and dairy cows. More than 85% of the watershed is devoted to agriculture.

Estimates from American Farmland Trust show 80,000 new acres of conservation cropping systems are needed in the 305,000-acre headwaters region to help reduce nitrogen runoff into the Vermilion and Illinois rivers and meet the goals of the Illinois Nutrient Reduction Strategy. That’s why the organization and its partners meet quarterly with farmers, promote conservation practices for in-field and edge-of-field use, and coordinate collaboration among producers and the conservation community, says Jean Brokish, Midwest program manager at American Farmland Trust.

During the webinar, she introduced the Vermilion Headwaters Partnership and its work in the watershed, noting that an integral aspect of conservation adoption is the support of local agencies dedicated to providing resources and advice to farmers. The Vermilion Headwaters collaboration also includes community leaders, research institutions and nonprofits. Brokish highlighted several opportunities available to Illinois farmers interested in participating in some of the programs the NRCS offers for financial and technical assistance.

“Since 2015, we’ve been able to leverage $1.4 million in NRCS funding for the headwaters portion of the watershed, and there’s about $700,000 available specifically for this area over the next three years,” Brokish explains. “Farmers interested in reducing tillage, trying cover crops or shifting from fall nitrogen to a split application in the growing season can access cost-share to help get them started.”

To learn more about the Vermilion Headwaters Partnership, visit the American Farmland Trust website

Interested in learning more about joining America’s Conservation Ag Movement and engaging with local partner organizations in your area?

Email mailto:conservationag@farmjournal.com or text the phrase ACAM to 31313. Then visit AgWeb.com/ACAM for additional information, videos and resources.

To view a shortened version of the Illinois webinar, click here .

3 Field-Based Learnings about Precision Ag and Sustainability

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 00:48:24 GMT

As we barrel through the remnants of summer and approach the fall harvest season, I find myself reflecting on some valuable time I spent this past spring walking fields and riding in tractor cabs with farmers and ag input retail partners during corn and soybean planting across the Midwest.

Every day I learn new things as I help bring to farmers SIMPAS technology that allows them to prescriptively address multiple agronomic challenges at planting. But nothing compares to spending time with farmers and their trusted advisors as they work to move forward precision agriculture programs and sustainability efforts.

What are farmers thinking and saying, and what are some of our collective learnings as SIMPAS nears the end of its first full market year? Here are my top three takeaways from #planting2021 as they relate to precision agriculture and sustainability.

1. Better to prescriptively manage each planter pass rather than to try to manage the entire farming operation. Increasingly we talk about reframing the mindset of precision agriculture to focus more on sub-field management decisions rather than the entire operation. I saw firsthand the wisdom of this approach based on two adjacent passes in a 24-row planter in the same field as I rode with Jim Orr, a farmer outside of Rowley, Iowa, and an initial SIMPAS adopter.

From one pass to the next, we could see the transition to a much sandier soil type as well as a slight change in elevation. Jim noted how these subtle field changes often have a significant impact on the prevalence of various pests and diseases, on the performance of crop inputs, and on the overall productivity of the soil. Developing prescriptions for application of inputs on that field requires tremendous granularity to ensure each pass addresses the changing agronomic needs that can come with such variability.

2. Sustainability is not a buzzword—it is a farmer’s primary objective. Sustainability is being built as a separate pillar of focus within most every agriculture-related organization today. But to farmers, sustainability is an inherent objective to maximize the productivity of their land in a way that sustains it not only for their own continued use but also by that of future generations.

This means not simply using fewer crop inputs in a prescriptive manner; rather, the sustainable approach is about applying the right products in the right places, at the right time, at the right rate. Many precision agriculture technologies (SIMPAS included) give farmers the application power to do just this—to apply inputs prescriptively.

This approach represents sustainability in action, yet it is also a simple byproduct of farmers’ objective of applying agronomic inputs more judiciously.

3. Precision agriculture truly takes a village. A key theme of every conversation this spring was how complicated precision agriculture can be. From data acquisition and assimilation to analysis and implementation, there are myriad software options, service providers, and technology platforms to try and utilize. Farmers are not looking for an “easy” button—rather, they seek partners who can personalize service offerings, even if that means working across multiple organizations and platforms.

While I may think that in my role with SIMPAS that I have the best tool to implement a prescriptive approach for multiple inputs at-planting, I also know farmers need data analysis and prescription-generation support from trusted advisors. The sooner that all of us on the crop inputs and technology supplier side recognize we all can work together to help each farmer succeed, the more successful we’ll all be.

This article was written by Jason Jimmerson, SIMPAS Technologies Commercial Manager, responsible for SIMPAS and SmartBox sales and manufacturing. He is based in Bozeman, Mont.

Saving Our Soil…One Billion Microbes at a Time

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 17:55:30 GMT

Lucy M. Stitzer is the founder and editor of Dirt-To-Dinner. Its mission is to help consumers better understand how their food is grown and processed, and why this is important to them and their families. Learn more here: www.dirt-to-dinner.com

Pouring algae on the soil, sequencing soil DNA, and measuring soil diversity are just a few of the new technologies used to keep our soil from becoming just ‘dirt’. And it seems as though diversity is the key. When I hold a teaspoon of healthy soil in my hand I squint and try to see the billions of microbes. Apparently, in this little amount there are more microbes than all 7.8 billion people on earth today. This handful has greater diversity than all the animals and insects in the Amazon Rainforest. This is a powerful group made even more exciting when you think they originated from our celestial bodies.

Since the beginning of time, these soil microorganisms are fungi, insects, bacteria, algae, and more than happily coexist in the soil. They control soil pathogens, reduce disease outbreaks, keep plants nutritious and resilient, give plants the power to pull carbon out of the air, make land less prone to wind and water erosion, clean and filter water, and are a source of human medicines.

You have likely read about the projected increase of the global population to 9 billion people in just 30 years. That means more fruits, vegetables, and row crops needed to feed more animals and more humans. To achieve this growth, the traditional thought has been that farmers will need more and more pesticides and fertilizer to eliminate bugs and increase their yields. Or do they?

Think of the microbiome in the soil like the one in your gut. Similar to your health, plants need diversity in the soil to keep you healthy and strong. Microbial technology is a serious solution that uses bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoans, and yeasts instead of conventional agrochemicals.

Companies in this niche produce biostimulants. These include biopesticides, which are natural materials like canola or baking soda that eliminate pests, and biofertilizers, natural fertilizer compounds such as manure, algae, or decayed material that increase the availability of nutrients to the plants.

Additionally, since microbial crop protection poses fewer risks using than conventional pesticides, the EPA generally requires less data and has shorter review times before the various solutions can be used in the field. This reduces the timeline to development by years and the cost of product development by millions of dollars.

According to Research and Markets, the global agricultural microbial market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.5% and reach $11 billion by 2025 from approximately $6 billion in 2020.

Innovations in the microbiome tech space have to address the challenges of soil needs. The goal is to increase yield and reduce pests, and weeds with less chemical inputs – all while enhancing the soil microbiome. While this is a highly fragmented market, it is dominated by just a few players.

Here are four examples of new technologies that make our soil healthier…

1. AgBiome prevents pests, fungal pathogens, and weeds with designer soil microbes. Founded in 2017, the tagline reads “Better Microbes. Better Crops. Better World.” On March 23rd, Mosaic Fertilizer Company and AgBiome announced a collaboration to develop biological alternatives for soil health.

AgBiome is sequencing a library of microbes sourced from environmental samples from across the globe. As of today, the North Carolina company has more than 80,000 sequenced microbials, 3,500 of which are targeted toward controlling insects. Their technology can discover and target microorganisms and proteins that kill insect pests, fungal pathogens, and weeds. From there, they can create custom soil microbe “cocktails” that serve as a natural pest control solution for farmers.

For instance, Azomar one of their water-soluble products controls insects on crops from sucking and chewing on plant leaves. It absorbs into the plant tissue and when the insect invades – it dies. Another product Lektivar, naturally controls mold and pathogens on produce such as blueberries, potatoes, carrots, and apples.

2. Biome Makers measures the biological quality of soil to deliver agronomic insights to farmers. Based in Spain and purchased by Bayer Crop Science in 2018, the company was created to solve a fundamental problem facing the future of food: how do we recover the microbial diversity in today’s modern agriculture system?

Using an AI system, Biome Makers assesses the health of a field based on a farmer’s current practices as well as the soil functionality for any crop. What is the right soil microbiome community for a specific farm and farmer?

Now farmers can understand what works well and how it affects their soil’s health. It’s about measuring crop health and functional biodiversity by using DNA sequencing and intelligent computing.

Their team reads more like a Silicone Valley group with experts in genetics, software engineering, microbiology, agronomy, and data science. We are not in Kansas anymore…

3. Pivot Bio provides a clean alternative to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. In April 2020, the company raised $100 million co-led by Breakthrough Energy and Temasek. Their technology reduces nitrogen fertilizer and increases crop yields.

Fully half of the world’s food supply is dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, yet overuse, misuse, and runoff can bring serious environmental impacts such as dead zones and C02 emissions. Our atmosphere is 78% nitrogen – and the only crops that can take it out of the air and convert it into a nutrient are soybeans, alfalfa, and cowpeas.

Wheat, corn, and rice don’t have this ability – therefore they need fertilizer. As Pivot Bio explains: “Nitrogen is essential to life. It’s a building block of proteins, DNA and amino acids. When plants have the right amount of nitrogen, they grow well and yield abundantly. Pivot Bio makes nitrogen fixation as natural as breathing for the microbe. Microbes inhale nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and release ammonia to plants. Enabling nitrogen-producing microbes as a crop nutrition tool for farmers will transform agriculture.”

4. MyLand replicates algae in native soil to grow as fertilizer. “Building strength beneath the surface,” explains Board Member, Bill Buckner, in reference to the company’s purpose. MyLand takes live, native microalgae from the farm to improve soil health, increase crop yields, and capture carbon.

Each farm has its own naturally specific algae – just like we have our own gut microbiome. MyLand technicians go out and take samples and isolate which algae are the most suitable for multiplication. They grow the algae in small vessels with lights and correct temperature. They make millions of cells and it is put back in the soil through the farmer’s irrigation system.

As a result, farmers use approximately 25% less fertilizer, 15% less water and reduce tillage by 40%. Voila, yield increases by about 25% and revenue by 40%.
Beyond farming and onto human health

Direct contact with the soil is key. When my oldest son was just a toddler, he was my garden helper. He would happily eat handfuls of dirt and my pediatrician assayed my worries and told me it was good for him. Now I understand why. As humans have evolved over time, we have had a close relationship with the earth first through hunter-gatherers then through farming, and now to our children crawling and running around the garden.

Humans and soil share common bacteria such as lactobacilli which breaks down our food and soil’s organic matter. We can even look to soil to give us new antibiotics that would kill multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA.

But for more than half the global population living in cities and suburbs, this gut connection to the soil is missing. We primarily receive our microbiomes from the food we eat.

The chart here illustrates the difference in human contact with the soil from pre-industrial days to today.

Beyond farming and onto human health

Direct contact with the soil is key. When my oldest son was just a toddler, he was my garden helper. He would happily eat handfuls of dirt and my pediatrician assayed my worries and told me it was good for him. Now I understand why. As humans have evolved over time, we have had a close relationship with the earth first through hunter-gatherers then through farming, and now to our children crawling and running around the garden.

Humans and soil share common bacteria such as lactobacilli which breaks down our food and soil’s organic matter. We can even look to soil to give us new antibiotics that would kill multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA.

But for more than half the global population living in cities and suburbs, this gut connection to the soil is missing. We primarily receive our microbiomes from the food we eat.

The above chart illustrates the difference in human contact with the soil from pre-industrial days to today.

Hot topic: The link between soil health to human health

We eat what we sow, so to speak. The essential nutrients, such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, that we need to thrive as humans come from the soil (originally from the stars). In speaking with Dr. Stephen Wood, Sr. Scientist of Agriculture and Food Systems at The Nature Conservancy and Lecturer at Yale, “Very simply, plants receive their micro and macronutrients from the soil.

“In order for humans to thrive, we receive those same nutrients that come from the plants.” Dr. Wood highlighted studies undertaken in parts of Africa that show a correlation between low selenium and zinc in the soil with low levels in the blood of the local population who ate the local rice.

But he is quick to point out that this is not as simple as low levels of nutrients in plants equate to low levels of nutrition in humans. While there is emerging research, the actual evidence where “soil management impacts human health through changes in crop nutrient densities is small.”

In Africa, where nutrition and food scarcity are real issues, studies have been done but the correlation is not always strong. The chart below shows the inconsistencies of zinc in the soil versus in the corn, cowpea, millet, and sorghum.

Even so, we want healthy, not degraded soil, to produce a higher yield of crops to feed a growing population. It is because of the nutrients in the soil that the plants receive their nutrients. While industrial fertilizer gives specific nutrients to help crops grow, increasing the organic matter helps build the microbes in the soil to increase yield.

Regenerative agriculture practices such as cover cropping, no-till farming, and adding livestock from time to time all help increase the diversity and abundance of microorganisms.

How do changes in microbial soil affect the future?

There are benefits to increasing the microbial content of soil – but it is not a perfect science. The added microbes only live in the soil for about three months and can easily be taken over by other microbes. They are hard to apply – which is tough for small holder farmers. Finally, if too much is applied for too long, they can saturate the soil of salts and nutrients.

That said, the technologies keep improving. If we can grow our food with healthier soil and less fertilizer runoff and create better nutrients in our plants and soil we will have a healthier planet and healthier people.

New Study Details Financial Risks And Rewards With Conservation Farming Practices

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 19:26:58 GMT

Conservation practices are readily available for U.S. farmers to implement, but financial roadblocks commonly stymie their adoption. A study done in 2020 in cooperation between the Soil Health Partnership (SHP), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and accounting firm, KCoe Isom, measured the outcome of conservation practice adoption on seven Midwest row-crop farmers and determined the financial impacts of adoption on each farmer’s bottom line.

The team found three key takeaways, which were addressed by Maria Bowman, PhD, SHP lead scientist, and Vincent Gauthier, EDF research analyst, on Wednesday during the 2021 Commodity Classic.

1. Conservation tillage systems showed higher net returns versus conventional tillage and reduced farmer operating costs.
Fields using conservation tillage practices achieved higher net returns per acre than conventionally tilled fields for both corn and soybeans.

In corn, Gauthier says average net returns for conservation tillage were $377 per acre, while averages for conventionally tilled fields were $324 an acre.

Conservation-tilled corn fields had substantially lower costs ($404 per acre) than those with conventional tillage ($448 per acre).

“The biggest savings included equipment cost savings, fewer repairs and reduced fuel costs,” Gauthier says. “There were some additional costs that were found in the fields using conservation tillage, including burndown, as you might expect. But overall, those cost savings related to the amount of time and the amount of passes spent on the tractor. That really reduced the per-acre costs for farmers using conservation tillage.”

In soybeans, Gauthier says the average net returns for fields with conservation tillage were $251 per acre, while average net returns for conventionally tilled fields were $216 per acre.

He adds that soybean fields with conservation tillage and no cover crops had substantially lower per-acre costs ($217 per acre) than conventionally tilled fields at $311 per acre. However, Gauthier points out that soybean fields using both conservation tillage and cover crops had similar costs to conventional tillage.

2. Cover crops can be part of a profitable production system, especially as farmers’ experience with them increases over time.
The research team says the initial investments in cover crops cannot be ignored.

“I think it’s really important to acknowledge right up front that cover crops do have costs associated with them – seed, planting costs and burndown as well as learning costs,” Bowman says.

“Cover crops are an investment for farmers as they learn what types of cover crop species and mixes work on their farm, how to plant them, and how to terminate them. And sometimes the benefits take a while to show up, whether it’s an improvement in soil structure, nutrient cycling or availability,” she adds.

The team found that farmers who had worked with cover crops for a number of years were much more successful in generating measurable benefits than those new to using them.

The research also showed that experienced cover crop adopters had fewer costs than farmers who were new to using cover crops. On corn acres, experienced adopters saved $9.19 per acre on cover crop seed compared to recent adopters, $25 per acre on fertilizer and $25 per acre on equipment.

Likewise, experienced adopters had similar cost savings on soybean ground, including $5.90 per acre on cover crop seed, $48 per acre on fertilizer and $28 per acre on equipment.

3. Success with conservation practices is optimized with a targeted, stepwise approach.

Bowman says the researchers found that the farmers who participated in the study had clearly defined goals they wanted to achieve which contributed to their success.

Two goals were especially prevalent for the seven participants: 1. Most wanted to improve soil structure to help with erosion control and water-holding capacity. 2. Several of the farmers wanted to reduce the number of hours on the tractor to save time, machinery and overhead costs.

Overall, participating farmers weighed the risks and rewards of adopting specific conservation practices before implementing them.

“We saw farmers targeting specific combinations of practices to specific acres depending on the goals that they had,” Bowman says. “They weren’t just going no-till across their whole operation or applying the same cover crop. Their decisions depended a lot on the rotation, or the land that they were working on, and sometimes it depended on whether they rented or owned that land.”

Gauthier says the business case for adopting conservation practices can be complex and that financial solutions still need to be developed to help farmers implement such practices.

“There are still financial gaps that need to be overcome,” he says. “One way farmers can minimize their risk is by using a collective network approach, like through the Soil Health Partnership, which allows for collective learning. That can help farmers reduce the risk and uncertainty about taking on a new practice that is unproven on their operation.”

More information on the study, the farmers involved in it and the detailed research results are available at www.soilhealthpartnership.org/farmfinance

Q&A: Regenerative Ag Trends With Dirt To Dinner’s Lucy Stitzer

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:21:03 GMT

This article was written by Nate Birt, Vice President of Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

Regenerative agriculture is quickly moving from small and fringe to mainstream, says Lucy Stitzer, founder of the food and agriculture news website Dirt to Dinner.

“It’s pretty exciting. Walmart, for instance—they’ve committed to having zero emissions by 2040,” Stitzer tells Nate Birt, vice president of Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative supporting farmers on their journey of conservation agriculture adoption. “That’s a pretty audacious goal. As a result of that, they’re restoring 50 million acres of land.”

Other examples of the regenerative agriculture trend include Danone, which is helping dairy farmers in its supply chain make the shift and lock in margins. That’s encouraging, Stitzer shares, because the economic impact of practice adoption on farmers and ranchers is often overlooked.

Meanwhile, Land O’Lakes has partnered with Microsoft to improve farmers’ access to broadband in rural communities, ensuring they can better utilize precision agriculture tools and capture data from the field.

The participation of both public agencies and the private sector in supporting farmers’ stewardship efforts suggests food can be a unifying factor in an often polarized operating environment. Agriculture – especially big ag - is being thrown under the bus as degrading the environment when the reality is that farmers are generally more environmentally conscious than most of us.

“Companies, the government and the entire ecosystem recognize there’s not just one answer to growing our food,” Stitzer says. “At Dirt to Dinner, we know that people and consumers and us as well are tired of polarization. Our country is so divided, there’s a tendency for everyone to take sides. … Bringing food to your dinner table doesn’t have to have the same divide. I am idealistic enough to think that … we can use food to bring people together.”

To learn more about Dirt To Dinner and to subscribe to its emails, visit www.DirtToDinner.com.

Crop Inputs And Soil Health: How Do They Interact?

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:59:23 GMT

Editor’s Note: Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative, is working with Soil Health Institute (SHI) to explore the impact of inputs on soil health. The project is made possible through a grant from SHI.

Beneath your feet is a world teeming with life. Mycorrhizae, arthropods, protozoa and earthworms are creatures mostly unseen yet profoundly important to food production. Yet the agricultural community is only beginning to understand the impact that conventional inputs and management practices might have on such creatures, crop performance and, ultimately, soil health.

We asked a panel of leaders including farmers, agronomists and soil scientists to share their perspectives about what we know – and don’t – on the effect of inputs on soil health and on what new insights could shape our understanding of how synthetic fertilizer, biologicals, manure and other inputs, in addition to practices such as conservation tillage, might impact this important natural resource. The perspectives shared are those of the individuals.

The experts who participated in this Q-and-A session were:
• Bill Robertson – Extension agronomist in cotton specializing in crop, soil and environmental science at the University of Arkansas
• Bryan Biegler – Farmer growing 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans in Southwest Minnesota
• Luke Gatiboni – Extension specialist in soil fertility and nutrient management at North Carolina State University
• Ruth Rabinowitz – Farmer growing primarily row crops who owns and manages three farms in Iowa and one in South Dakota

1. How does the use of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and other pesticides impact or not impact the soil, in your opinion?
Bill: I don’t have any hard data, so I don’t know for sure. But I believe they could have some negative impact on the soil microbiome. But for how long? It could be very short-lived because the soil microbes have tremendous capacity to build up. When there’s nothing for them to eat, they kind of just hang in there. But when there’s substrate available, their numbers blow up really quick. So it may be something that biologically, yes, they have an impact, but statistically, it could be trivial. I’m not sure we really know yet.

Bryan: I can’t say for sure if there is a difference between the two or not. As of now, I am still using synthetic fertilizers. I’d like to be able to reduce the use or eliminate them, but until I find a way to do that – or someone shows me how – I will continue to use them. I have been working on reducing them in small amounts to see how far I can get. In spots where I have shut off the fertilizer for a test strip, I have seen a bit of a hit in the yield.

Luke: In general, the application of chemical substances will likely affect the soil microbiome in some way. However, as characteristics of the soil microbiome will vary with climate, soil type, crops and soil management, it is impossible to predict quantitatively the impact of chemicals on the soil microbiome. In addition, each chemical can affect the organisms differently. For this reason, the impacts of chemicals need to be studied case-by-case. The plants are the best indicators of soil health for farmers. If a given input affects the soil health negatively, it certainly will affect the plant growth and yield.

Ruth: I don’t think they’re a positive for the water, for the root systems, for the compaction, for the living activity that’s essentially livestock under your feet. I mean, there’s a whole ecosystem under the soil that the naked eye can’t see. And these are very, very hard-working soils that have been put in use for decades. So with those acres that are in CRP that are resting and idling, they have a chance to regenerate, which is a great thing. But I’m still dealing with my crop ground and (getting away from synthetic products) is the hardest thing I’ll be doing, because it’s slow going. I have to make a living from these acres.

2. Do you believe synthetic sources of nutrients (e.g. ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate) have different effects on soil health than organic sources of nutrients?
Bill: Some of our farmers really watch their fertilizer sources. They do use synthetic sources but will also often use a mixture of poultry litter. They’ll shop around for sources of fertilizer with a lower salt index or rating. The 4Rs are increasingly important to people, and we’re seeing farmers put more emphasis on sources of fertilizer that have the potential for less negative impact on soil microbes.

Bryan: Personally, I don’t think so. Products like phosphorus come from the ground, so I don’t think the effect is different. I could be proven wrong on that, and I’m certainly open to learning more about the impact synthetics might be having.

Luke: Our agricultural crops need an adequate supply of essential nutrients to grow and produce goods. From the plant nutrition standpoint of view, it does not matter if the nutrient source is synthetic or organic, because plants will uptake nutrients in the mineral form. The synthetic fertilizers need to be dissolved, which normally occurs quickly, while the organic fertilizers need to be decomposed to release the nutrients that will be used by plants. Regarding soil health, it is equally important an adequate supply of nutrients and the microbial activity of a given soil. The advantage of using organic fertilizers would be the concomitant application of nutrients and a source of energy (organic carbon) for the microbiome, which could stimulate the soil microbiome. However, if the soil already has a reasonable amount of organic matter, the soil microbiome already has access to organic carbon and, in this situation, probably the advantages of an organic source instead a synthetic fertilizer would be negligible.

Ruth: I think so, though some things like limestone are pretty natural, and it’s useful for managing soil pH. I think the natural manures, seaweeds and root dips can have more natural features that help improve soil activity. I haven’t looked at the science, but I don’t imagine the synthetics would have the exact same effects. On too many of our crop farms today, what’s missing is livestock—the buffalo and cattle, with their urine and manure and activity from their hooves. They are a very important part of farming that has evaporated and disappeared.

3. How can farmers know whether adding microbes to their soil will have positive, negative or neutral impacts on the soil microbiome and how long those effects will last?

Bill: I’ve worked with some products for several years in our cotton, and I really didn’t feel like I saw much value from them. There are a lot of things that we do in cotton that are Band-Aids—where we’re treating symptoms and not necessarily the problem. For example, we get into a situation where we have potash deficiencies that are showing up on the plant. But to look at our soil-test values, potash is really high. But the plants are showing symptomology of potash deficiency because you don’t have a rich enough root system to pick it up. So we throw the mandate out to put extra levels of potash out and treat the symptom, when our real problem is a lack of soil structure. When we have poor soil structure, we get poor water infiltration. When we get into the heat of the battle, and the plant really needs moisture and more nutrients, we’re handcuffed because we’re only farming the top six inches, so the plant can’t meet its demand. So we put extra fertilizer out, and then we get into issues with soil microbes. The bottom line is, instead of buying microbes (with the exception of poultry manure) I would rather grow my own bugs.

Luke: Unfortunately, it is very difficult to predict the impacts of adding microbes to the soil. This is because the soil microbiome will vary with climate, soil type crops, and soil management, and it is not possible to predict the interactions between the added organisms and those existent in the soil.

4. What new innovations might be spurred by understanding the relationships between inputs and soil health?
Luke: In the future, I expect to have more products and enhancers based on microorganisms to improve the plant performance and to have better use of non-available forms of nutrients from soils. Understanding the impacts of inputs on the soil system will help us to refine our recommendations to get the best performance of plants with less adverse environmental impacts.

We are just starting to develop tools to measure soil health. As a consequence, we still do not know the best metrics to evaluate soil health and, additionally, the available methods are still lacking of calibration. It means we can obtain a bunch of data from different methods, but the interpretation of this data still needs improvement.

This process is completely normal. It just takes a long time to find adequate methods and to calibrate them. For instance, in the U.S. it took us maybe three decades to develop and calibrate the methods of soil analysis to evaluate the nutrient availability for plants. Nowadays, the soil testing is accurate and it is doing a good job recommending the best rate of fertilizers for American soils. I envision the same process for soil health evaluation: We need a long time to test and choose the best methods, calibrate them, and to develop a reliable way to interpret the results.

Bill: I believe we’ll see a greater use of artificial intelligence to address soil health issues. Artificial intelligence will help give us a better idea of how inputs impact crops, and it will make us more efficient. I think the possibilities with it are almost unlimited.

Co-Invest in Soil Health

How do You Manage the Water on Your Farm?

Embed Resilience into your Farm Operation

New Research: 900 U.S. Farmers Weigh In On Water Management Practices

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:41:59 GMT

Kinsie Rayburn is a Conservation Knowledge Officer with Farm Journal’s Trust In Food. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

“Without water there is no food.” –Nebraska farmer

Water challenges play a central role in five of the top 10 risks currently facing humanity. Of those top five risks, water challenges are central to four, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2019 report.

Many of these challenges are human-driven: climate change induced increases in extreme weather events, poor public infrastructure management leading to breakdowns, and pollution derived from human society—including from agriculture. These challenges are complex, multifaceted and will take a systems-based thinking approach to solve.
One clear pathway to addressing and mitigating water challenges is to engage farmers to continuously improve water management practices.

In 2019, Trust In Food, in collaboration with American Public Media’s (APM) The Watermain, conducted research into farmer perceptions of water. This research yielded several key findings on what farmers know about water-related issues, their concern around water resources, and conservation actions they take to protect water resources that their operations unequivocally rely on. Overall, perspectives from more than 900 farmer-respondents, representing all nine farm production regions and 43 states, were analyzed.

The resulting report, U.S. Farmer Perspectives on Water: A communicator’s road map for engaging with U.S. farmers around water challenges U.S. Farmer Perspectives on Water: A communicator’s road map for engaging with U.S. farmers around water challenges, is meant to serve as a way for water communicators to strengthen relationships between farmers, the agri-food value chain and the public to secure clean water, in perpetuity, for everyone.

The report encourages communication towards engagement tactics that:

Strengthen the foundation farmers need to serve as solutions to water challenges.

Build awareness and understanding among farmers of the outsized positive impact they can have on the health and wellbeing of the nation’s water resources and infrastructure.

Engage with farmers through mitigation and resilience-building programs aimed at minimizing water challenges.

Build on the high baseline levels of concern farmers have for water issues to engage through geographically and culturally targeted tactics.

Empower farmers to maintain and improve their role as a solution to water challenges.

Equip farmers with the tools, education and systemic frameworks they need to continuously improve the concept of agriculture as a solution to water-related issues.
Acknowledge the challenges and celebrate the successful implementation of practices that improve downstream water quality to prevent farmers from being misunderstood or mischaracterized.

To learn more and read the full report, visit: https://bit.ly/Farm-Water-TIF .

While Trust In Food captured Farmer Perspectives on water, the APM Research Lab, The Water Main, conducted research into the nation’s connection to water. This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind and is a useful tool for researchers, journalists and advocates in gauging how in-tune the rest of the country is with the water-related challenges we face today. More information on data from the APM survey can be found at https://www.thewatermain.org/water-and-us

New Cover Crop Tool Assesses Field Impacts For Illinois Farmers

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 15:37:34 GMT

Building trust in food begins with empowering farmers through one of the largest and most diverse conservation- and sustainability-focused public-private partnerships in our nation’s history: America’s Conservation Ag Movement. To find the latest news and resources related to the Movement, visit AgWeb.com/ACAM .

This article was written by Emily Smith, Community Engagement Coordinator/Digital Producer, for Trust In Food. Learn more at trustinfood.com.

A free, new online tool called the Cover Crop Analyzer helps farmers across Illinois predict how much nitrogen loss they might prevent using a cover crop such as cereal rye—and also assess field conditions to manage covers alongside cash crops such as corn and soybeans.

“Future releases will include improvements, along with additional functionality and features that include improving the weather data and modeling as well as additional cover crops,” write the creators in a blog post at Farmdoc Daily. “The project is also interested in expanding beyond Illinois.”

The tool, developed over a four-year period, launched Oct. 1. It is a collaboration of the University of Illinois Gardner Agricultural Policy program, the Farmdoc project and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

Cover crops are a common conservation practice among farmers because they can hold nitrogen in the soil better than a fallow field, which might allow nutrients to be lost through leaching and drainage. This poses unique challenges to farmers in Illinois, where the state is working with farmers on voluntary efforts to reduce nitrate-nitrogen loading by 15% and phosphorus loading by 25% by 2025.

Such loading presents problems because it removes nutrients such as nitrogen—plant food—from being available for crops, says Jonathan Coppess, director of the ag policy program. It also means water must be cleaned by local communities before it is suitable for public consumption.

How It Works. Coppess is hopeful the tool will help move farmers closer to adopting beneficial conservation practices and help all that do adopt, reach success.

Available to any landowner in the state, it can help farmers explore how cover crops might help their operations and which inputs are needed.

Among the most exciting aspects of the tool are the following elements, according to Coppess:
• It allows farmers to run a cover-crop simulation on any field in the state, a low-risk step that illustrates potentially important rewards.
• It can facilitate conversations about cover crops within the agricultural community. Farmers can share what they see and explain how cover crops are useful.
• It will include additional features in the future, including a decomposition simulation and weather forecasting.

The inaugural version of the tool is just the starting point. The Illinois team hopes farmers will use the Cover Crop Analyzer to simulate cover crop use before actually incurring costs and putting them into practice. The researchers hope to eventually have data showing that cover crops can reduce overall farm costs.

To learn more about the tool, visit the FarmDoc Daily blog. https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2020/10/introducing-the-cover-crop-decision-support-tool.html
You can also register to use the tool. https://covercrop.ncsa.illinois.edu/

Funding for the project came from Illinois Nutrient Research & Education Council (NREC), with seed funding from the McKnight Foundation and the University of Illinois. Future iterations of the tool will have financial support from The Walton Family Foundation.

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Is Specialty Produce Headed For The Mid-Mississippi Delta?

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:27:41 GMT

By Julia Kurnik, Director of Innovation Startups, WWF Markets Institute

California produces more than one-third of the vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts that are grown in the United States today. However, as the global climate changes, California will likely suffer from more chronic weather (e.g. increased droughts) as well as severe weather (e.g. heavy rains, flooding, fires and freezes) in the years to come, making farming there less certain and putting U.S. food security at risk. Some farming is likely to shift, and at WWF’s Markets Institute we are exploring whether fruit and vegetable production can be boosted in the mid-Mississippi Delta to take pressure off California in a win-win-win for the environment, food security and local communities.

In the first phase of our strategic analysis, we explored the potential from an ecological, social, and financial lens to boost farming of specialty produce in the mid-Mississippi Delta River region (eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, southeast Missouri, and northwest Mississippi) and the Arkansas River Valley. It’s a region with fertile soils and a long history of farming, but it also has a very different climate than California’s Central Valley. Water is plentiful, but it’s humid whereas California is quite dry.

There are many opportunities in the region. With its history of farming, strategic location, low-cost land and labor, fertile soils and abundant rain, the mid-Delta region offers many benefits that might support specialty farming on a larger scale. The diversity of the region, from the flat plains of the Mississippi Delta to the mountains and hills of the Arkansas River Valley, brings the opportunity to target different crops in different areas, allowing for growth of a wider variety of produce. Meanwhile, there are many strong local partners who are eager to work together to have a bigger impact. There are also opportunities for the region to develop a competitive advantage. Testing seeds and investing in public breeding programs could lead to heirloom and regionally specific varieties, which are increasingly in demand. Growing these higher value crops could also bring a significant economic boost to growers and their communities in an economically depressed region.

However, there are significant hurdles. First, while it is an area with a long history of farming, there is very little specialty produce grown in the region. It is dominated by commodity row crops, such as rice, soy, wheat, corn and cotton. The farmers here are innovative and, with the right safeguards, willing to tackle this new challenge, but they would still need significant technical support since this would be such a large change in production practices.

Infrastructure investments would also need to be made to grow, harvest, store, and transport these more delicate and perishable crops, as the current infrastructure is geared towards commodity row crops. While some of this could be done at a farm level, much of it would be too expensive for an individual farmer and would need to be organized as co-ops, communities, or even regions to attract the interest and support of major corporations.

Finally, there would need to be a different approach to labor. Specialty crops require more hand-picking labor, whereas the region’s producers currently use machines to harvest their row crops. The labor shift would be expensive, time-consuming and a behavior change. It also likely means further education about and interaction with the H-2A migrant labor program.

In our next phase, we aim to answer key additional questions, elicit further stakeholder buy-in with firm commitments, and design a specialty produce pilot program in the region.

We believe that this region holds a lot of potential to grow specialty produce in commercial quantities to ease some of the pressure on California, benefit farmers and local communities, and protect the environment without risking our food security. We envision the possibility of a more distributed food system where producers grow what is best suited to local climates, closer to consumers with less waste, and economically depressed areas can benefit from higher-value crops. Our goal is that this new model could serve as an example for other regions around the country – so that the mid-Mississippi Delta is just one of many “next Californias.”

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Secretary Perdue Commits USDA To Farmer Innovation Support

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:26:47 GMT

Producers are leaders in innovation, and a new federal initiative aims to help them maintain that competitive edge in a global market, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says. He addressed farmers during the 2020 Farm Journal Field Days virtual farm show.

“U.S. agricultural output has grown significantly over the past 90 years,” notes Perdue, whose full video remarks are embedded in this article (see a transcript below). “We’ve increased the production of food and fiber by over 400%, while using nearly 10% less land. With the Ag Innovation Agenda, I committed USDA to stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the shared goal of increasing U.S. agricultural production by 40% while cutting environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050.”

Announced in February, USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda is designed to help farm operations of all sizes and effectively creates a scoreboard—the sports metaphor is fitting for an “old jock,” Perdue quips—with producer-focused goals that prioritize innovation and evaluate progress.

Additionally, the initiative aims to:

Synchronize public & private sector research
Ensure USDA programs facilitate adoption of innovation tech & practices for producers
Help farmers and the U.S. food and agriculture industry meet the food, fuel, feed, fiber and environmental demands of the future

Proactive investment to grow production while lowering environmental impact will secure access to global markets such as the United Kingdom and European Union, Perdue adds. There, he says, misinformation about production has led to consumer mistrust of U.S. agriculture. With the UK’s departure from the EU, the U.S. has the opportunity to negotiate new trade agreements—and for American farmers to “get out from behind the farm gate” and tell the story of how they are being good stewards, with science and research to demonstrate it.

“Amid the coronavirus,” Perdue says, “we have learned firsthand how lucky, how fortunate we are to live in a country that produces a wholesome, abundant, sustainable supply of food that’s really self-sufficient.”

To learn more about the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, visit usda.gov/aia .

How do You Manage the Water on Your Farm?

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:25:01 GMT

This article was written by Kinsie Rayburn, Conservation Knowledge Officer, Trust In Food.

Trust In Food in collaboration with American Public Media’s The Water Main , recently conducted research into farmers’ perceptions on water. Analyzation of responses from more than 900 farmers across 43 states yielded some incredible insights into farmers’ water-related concerns and the actions farmers take to conserve and protect water resources their operations rely on.

Among others, farmers were asked to respond to these two questions:
• In your day-to-day life, do you try to do things that conserve water or protect water from pollution?
• What is the most meaningful thing you do in your day-to-day life to save or protect water?

96% of respondents stated that, yes, they do take action daily to conserve or protect water from pollution and provided several, concrete ways they take action to do so. Many respondents shared actions such as:
• “Only start the washing machine when it is full”
• “Turn off the water when it is not in use”
• “We have a low-volume toilet”

While we have heard from more than 900 farmers in this research , we’d love to hear what you do on your farm! Here’s a link to a short, three-question survey about water quality improvement practices. Click the link and tell us how you save or protect water on your farm.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY

Farmers surveyed to date noted at least six additional water-saving approaches they take in their farm businesses:

1. Developing nutrient management plans
As each farm operation is unique, so is their nutrient management plan. These plans focus on the proper timing, placement and amount of nutrients and soil amendments farmers add to their fields. The intention of this practice is to reduce costs while minimizing unintended environmental degradation.

2. Establishing irrigation plans
When irrigating or applying inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, the more planning, the better. By applying the right amount to the right area at the right time, farmers can mitigate runoff, reduce input costs, and increase the overall efficiency of a farm operation.

3. Minimizing soil disturbance
No-till or reduced till limits soil disturbance and protects the soil from excessive erosion, encourages the accumulation of organic matter in the soil, improves percolation and improves general soil health.

4. Using rotational grazing and fencing
Livestock exclusion fencing helps keep livestock out of waterways, and rotational grazing allows farmers to optimize land use while minimizing negative soil impacts.

5. Increasing technology use
Soil moisture sensors and variable rate technology (VRT) allow farmers to increase the efficiency of the rate they irrigate and add soil amendments, saving time and money while reducing the chance of runoff.

6. Establishing conservation buffer areas
Buffer areas between cropland and waterways or environmentally sensitive areas act as filters that filter nutrient runoff and reduce soil erosion, protecting farmers’ soil and input investments as well as mitigating the impact of nutrient runoff. Conservation buffers include field borders, filter strips, vegetated or grassed waterways, and riparian buffers.

The proper implementation and management of practices such as these can help keep soil and nutrients in the field and away from waterways. This helps farmers protect their investments, the water resources their operations rely on and helps protect water quality for downstream users as well.

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How a Food Company Responds to Consumer Needs, Supports Farmers

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:23:13 GMT

From major metropolitan areas to mom-and-pop chains, today’s grocery stories are a culinary wild west, says Christine Daugherty, vice president of sustainable agriculture and responsible sourcing at PepsiCo.

“We are constantly trying to stay ahead of these trends,” says Daugherty, who delivered the Trust In Food Keynote Address at Top Producer Seminar.

The company sources more than 25 major crops in 60 countries to produce its 22 $1 billion food brands, such as Pepsi, Lays, Lipton and Tostitos.

“The ultimate overseer of our businesses is the consumer,” Daugherty says.

While modern agriculture has a great story to tell, she says, the entire agri-food value chain must cope with startling numbers:

Over 75% of fertile topsoil is degraded.
Six garbage trucks of edible food are lost every second in the U.S.
14% of plastic packaging ends up in oceans and streams.

“We must transform how we make food,” she says. “It’s unlikely consumers will pay more for sustainable attributes; we have to balance what consumers want and what farmers are doing.”

Education and agricultural advocacy are important to building shared understanding.

Retailers Pivotal To Farmer Adoption Of Conservation Ag, Says Research

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:28:02 GMT

Kinsie Rayburn is a Conservation Knowledge Officer with Farm Journal’s Trust In Food. Learn more at www.trustinfood.com

“I would say that precision ag has gotten more precise. So we’re selling products now by the ounce that we used to sell by the gallon, and we’re applying them in very small doses.” –Anne Cook, The Andersons Inc.

U.S. farm productivity increased by 178% between 1948 and 2015, according to a 2018 USDA report, while total land used for agricultural production fell 24%. Modern agricultural systems development such as mechanization, biotechnology, and crop nutrient management solutions played a large role in the productivity boon USDA identified. However, along with the growth in productivity has come other challenges—water quality issues, declines in pollinator habitat, and soil erosion, to name a few.

Key to mitigating risk and firmly ingraining agricultural resilience into farm operations across the nation is the increased adoption rates of conservation agricultural practices, which research has shown can improve environmental outcomes associated with agricultural production. To scale such practices on farms, growers need increased access to informed professionals, such as ag retailers, who can provide the education, training and technical support services required.

Research conducted in 2019 by Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative, in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), found that ag retailers are uniquely suited to play an influential role in the continuous improvement of conservation across the agricultural value chain.

According to the research, ag retailers:

• Have the tools and training to help farmers make data-informed production decisions. “We can say to a grower, ‘The green on this yield map is where it only cost you $1.90 to produce a bushel of corn, but the red is where it’s costing you $5.50.’ That’s how we turn data into actual results and possibilities for the grower.” –Ashley Schmeling, Central Farm Service

• Can help farmers meet the needs of future agricultural markets. “That’s the big point going forward: We’re going to have to have traceability of crops that goes back to sustainable practices, or food suppliers are not going to buy them.” –Tim Mundorf, Central Valley Ag

• Can help educate critical stakeholder groups, such as lenders and financial institutions. “We actually encourage our customers to bring their loan providers to some of our tours out on the research farm during the summer, and we have winter meetings where we really recap a lot of that data. We encourage the customers to bring their lenders to those events.” –Cat Salois, The McGregor Company

• Can help farmers get ahead of new or potential regulations. “If we in ag, the farmer and the ag retailer, don’t start taking the environment [issues] seriously, there will be new regulations sent our way quickly [Sustainability] is the difference between whether farmers are going to be allowed to manage and farm their farms the way they want to, versus a state or federal office placing a bunch of mandates on them.” –Ben Hushon, The Mill

The full report presents a clear business case for ag retailers, exploring how they can dramatically transform their businesses to meet the needs of their grower-customers, the broader agri-food value chain, their local communities and the natural resources the world depends upon.

The time for proactively seeking out ways to improve the reputation and impact of the agricultural sector is now, and the full report showcases how some leading ag retailers are getting the job done.

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