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If you looked closely at my farm earlier this fall, you could see the hillsides starting to green up. Sprouts of rye were emerging through the corn stover that was left in the field after harvest, offering a winter blanket of protection for the soil and nutrients.It was an investment in seed…
Clint Evans, USDA’s State Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Colorado announced funding opportunities for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program.
Technology—from continually evolving machinery, to hybrid crops, to the capture and use of data—has transformed agriculture over the past century. Yet all of these innovations are dependent on the same thing, which has been at the heart of agriculture since its beginnings.
Cover crops are used to slow erosion, improve soil health and capture nutrients. However, from planting to termination, growers face many production decisions.
K-State Research and Extension soil specialist Dorivar Ruiz Diaz explains the best practices for applying anhydrous ammonia in a crop field to make sure that nitrogen is available for next year’s corn crop.
The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation and the Soil Health Institute recently announced a founding grant to launch the Institute’s U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund, a unique, farmer-facing, science-based initiative that will support long-term, sustainable cotton production in the United States, …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Nov. 8 it is awarding $25 million to conservation partners across the country for 18 new projects under the Conservation Innovation Grants On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials program.
PrairieFood, developer of an innovative approach to converting waste biomass into safe, valuable, high-carbon products for agriculture and other sectors, announces the ribbon cutting of its facility in Pratt, Kansas, along with the PrairieFood Forum + Soil Health Workshop. The ribbon cutting…
From carbon sequestration to greenhouse gas emissions to cover crops, this fall a team of Texas A&M AgriLife faculty and others will begin evaluating the impacts of regenerative agriculture in semi-arid ecoregions in Texas and Oklahoma.
Soils, like people, can be healthy or unhealthy. We’ve recently learned how important the microbes inside our bodies are to human health. Likewise, soil health depends on a complex group of microbes. These bacteria and fungi recycle nutrients and prepare the soils to better support plants.
Rangelands in the Great Plains, and the ranchers who depend on them, are losing battles against an invasion of brush and shrubs on historical grasslands.
In this Ask the Expert, Stephanie McLain, state soil health specialist for USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service in Indianapolis, Indiana, answers a few questions about how to improve soil health, drought resistance and other benefits by adding cover crops to your operation.McLain wor…
“Yeah, the principle of cover crops makes sense but how much are they going to cost me?”
With fall harvest beginning in many areas now is the time to think about planting a cover crop after your fall crop is harvested. A cover crop can provide many soil health benefits.
Soil aggregates are groups of individual soil particles that bind to each other more strongly than adjacent particles. Aggregates that don’t fall apart and revert to individual soil particles when they are subjected to disruptive forces like tillage, erosion, or even a rainfall event are con…
Parents clearing paths for their children isn’t uncommon. However, what makes this story special is that Dr. Katie Blunk says the path her mother Rose Blunk cleared for her—and the land—was thick with cedars.
The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, in partnership with Mark and Renee Jones, placed a conservation easement on 600 acres of the MJ Ranch near Boulder, Wyoming, on Aug. 11. This conservation easement will protect exceptional wildlife values on a property that provides habitat for mule deer…
Four finalists have been selected for the 2021 Kansas Leopold Conservation Award.
Cover crops offer producers many soil health benefits, such as suppressing weeds, increasing organic matter, improving soil structure, reducing soil loss, increasing nutrient and water holding capacity just to name a few. These benefits cannot be fully achieved unless the cover crops are pla…
No-till on the Plains is returning to in-person events this summer. The final of three field events to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the annual Winter Conference will take place on Aug. 10 at Rogers Memorial Farm, Lincoln, Nebraska.
No one appreciates nature’s timelines better than Lee DeHaan, director of crop improvement and the lead scientist for the Kernza domestication program at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Kernza is the trademarked name for a variety of perennial intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum interm…
Noble Research Institute recently hired Joseph Pokay IV as general ranch manager. Pokay brings more than 13 years of full-time production agriculture experience to Noble, specializing in regenerative ranching practices.
American Farmland Trust, the organization that for 40 years has been saving the land that sustains us and advancing the principles of regenerative agriculture shares an updated AFT’s Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculator (R-SHEC) Tool, providing farmers and the conservation community…
Kansas corn farmers are invited to Kansas Corn’s “Born for the Field” Summer Listening Tour. Growers can connect with Kansas Corn at five listening tour dinners to be held in Goodland, Garden City, Marysville, Lawrence and Fredonia, or at two field days held in Moundridge and Gypsum. This is…
In this Ask the Expert, Brett Gilland, County Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency in Harrison County, Missouri, answers questions about the Conservation Reserve Program. CRP is a popular, voluntary program that removes environmentally sensitive land from production in exchang…
The Soil Health Institute, the non-profit charged with safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils, announced its lineup of agricultural leaders, scientists, and practitioners who will speak at its annual meeting, “Enriching Soil, Enhancing Life.”
Who doesn’t like a two-for-one deal, or a double-double, win-win? A team of USDA scientists in the upper Midwest is working on a double-cropping system that is showing promise as a way to improve a farmer’s profit margin by growing cattle feed between rows of a cash crop, in this case corn o…
Pollinator Week is an annual event celebrated in support of pollinator health. The majority of crops we eat (fruits, vegetables, and nuts) and most plants found in natural ecosystems across the globe rely on pollinators for fruit and seed production. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natu…
Did you plant a cover crop and also have crop insurance coverage for your spring crops year? If so, you may be eligible for a premium benefit through the new Pandemic Cover Crop Program. To receive this benefit, you must file a Report of Acreage (FSA-578) by June 15.
The regenerative ranching movement got a huge boost when the Noble Research Institute announced in February that it will “focus all of its operations on regenerative agriculture and set its primary goal to regenerate millions of acres of degraded grazing lands across the United States.”The a…
The Soil Health Institute, the nonprofit charged with safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils, announced its much-anticipated annual meeting will be held on Aug. 11 and 12. This year’s theme is “Enriching Soil, Enhancing Life” and the event will be hosted virtually.
Switzer Ranch of Loup County has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award. Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the prestigious award recognizes farmers, ranchers and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to land,…
Shallow depressions that hold water from rainfall and runoff to create small temporary lakes called playas dot the western Great Plains. When full, they’re transformed into mini-wetlands that are home to a variety of plants and wildlife not normally found in the region. They also serve as ar…
Gov. Kristi Noem and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources announced recently that Prairie Paradise Farms has been selected for the South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award.
Would you participate in a grazing exchange community? The Kansas Soil Health Alliance would like to know.
Circle 7 by Fuller Farms will host the 10th annual Fuller Field School Sept. 8 to 9, at the new location of Fuller Farms in Severy, Kansas.
The May Ranch of Lamar, owned and operated by the Dallas and Brenda May family of Prowers County, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award.
Today’s farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners are better prepared to maintain healthy and resilient soil due to the tireless efforts and contributions of Hugh Hammond Bennett, the Soil Conservation Service’s first chief and the Father of Soil Conservation, who was born 140 years a…
In traditional corn rotations, overwintering with a cover crop is an attractive option for producers wanting to make strategic improvements to field conditions or take advantage of forage potential for livestock.
Three finalists have been selected for the prestigious 2021 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award.
Butterflies, bees, and prairie chickens have a new place to call home in the Buena Vista Grasslands of Portage County, Wisconsin. The Buena Vista area in central Wisconsin is a former marsh once dominated by tamarack, black spruce and cattails that is now a mix of irrigated cropland and grasslands.
In order to realize the full potential of reforestation in the United States, the nation’s tree nurseries need to increase seedling production by an additional 1.7 billion each year, a 2.4-fold increase over current nursery production.
Soil is a living and life-giving natural resource. By farming with soil health principles and systems that include no-till, cover cropping, and diverse rotations, more farmers are increasing their soil’s organic matter and improving microbial activity. Knowing this, we sat down with several …
During his keynote presentation during High Plains Journal’s Soil Health U, Jan. 21, Jimmy Emmons shared how the Natural Resources Conservation Service wants to reclassify some of the soil on his farm near Leedey, Oklahoma.
Trial and error has led Macauley Kincaid down a path that has worked best for his farm. Kincaid was recently awarded the Soil Health U and Trade Show Regenerative Producer of the Year by High Plains Journal.
At the High Plains Journal-sponsored Soil Health U virtual event on Jan. 21, Amy Seiger of Newall, Oklahoma, was presented the first Regenerative Woman of the Year award.
When Linda Hezel and her husband, Richard Moore, bought a family farm in Clay County, Missouri, in 1993, Hezel sought to provide her family with good nutrition and high-quality food.Hezel, Ph.D., R.N., has a nursing background and was formerly an associate professor of nursing at University …
Some climate change activists want the incoming secretary of agriculture to draw from the $30 billion in the Commodity Credit Corporation, set up to support farm prices, to be used to fund carbon farming.
The second annual Panhandle Soil Health Workshop sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center will be an online event for ag producers, consultants, and others in the region.
At the root of it, soil health begins with the farmers who steward the land and natural resources entrusted to their care.
