In part two of a two-part series about setting up farm trials, cover crop consultant David Kleinschmidt discusses useful data points and considerations.

The use of on-farm trials helps optimize cover crop performance and ensure successful integration into broad practice.

As Iowa farmers and landowners look for ways to continue building soil health and protecting the state’s watersheds, many are using cover crops.

An Online Cover Crop Boot Camp will be held in July, provided by Iowa Learning Farms and Practical Farmers of Iowa.

Dirt is what you sweep under the cabin rug, but soil is a living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. Soils just don’t happen. Soil is formed from the physical and chemical weathering of rocks.  It is made up mainly of mineral particles, organic materials, air, water, and liv…

Farmer Ray Flickner grows corn, soybeans and wheat on his primarily irrigated operation located near Moundridge, Kansas, northwest of Wichita in McPherson County. Several years ago, the family farm partnered with a Kansas State University researcher on some planting population studies with c…

You can now manage your conservation activities and request assistance from USDA through a new feature on farmers.gov. These conservation features join several others already available through the farmers.gov portal, including the ability to view farm loan information.

Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center and Conservation Learning Group, is hosting a free virtual soil health field day on June 18 at 1 p.m.Participants will dig into soil health with Marshall McDaniel, assistant professor in soil-plant interactions at Iow…

Incorporating cover crops with tillage reportedly results in increased cover crop decomposition rates and increased mineralization of nutrients from cover crop biomass. Multiple studies have reported mixed results for corn-soybean grain yields when planted after cover crops.

As interest and integration of cover crops accelerate, the industry has been challenged in its ability to provide easy to access, comprehensive information. Recently, cover crop application company GO SEED developed the Cover Crop Information Map to provide a free, centralized platform for k…

In the wettest year on record for South Dakota, half the cropland in the state that was planted used a cropping system without tillage. That system, no-till farming, has been the predominant cropping system on South Dakota cropland in recent years, but this is the first year the practice was…

While it’s not a new concept, an increasingly popular practice is to plant cash crops directly into living cover crops. The science behind it is sound—allowing producers to push the benefits of their cover crops to the max and take advantage of things like added organic matter and nutrient release.

Included in her experience as a professor of agronomy for Kansas State University, DeAnn Presley lists work in soil science, cover crops and crop production.

Adam Chappell knows cotton like only a farmer who lives and farms near a town called Cotton Plant, Arkansas, possibly could.For four generations the Chappell family has raised cotton, just like their neighbors have since before the Civil War. Conventional wisdom and generations of cotton far…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced April 28 a $15 million investment to help support the adoption of innovative conservation approaches on agricultural lands. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is accepting proposals through June 29 for national Conservation Innovation G…

Ed and Leta Olson of Craig have been selected for the 2020 Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service announced it will extend deadlines for project proposal submissions to May 29 for On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program Alternative Funding Arrangements. Originally deadlines were mid-May, but NR…

A soil health webinar series launched as part of the Soil Health Institute’s Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton project. New episodes will be offered weekly until mid-May on the Institute’s YouTube Channel and Soil Health Training webpage.

The southern High Plains of the United States have low annual rainfall. When it does rain, though, intense storms can cause severe soil erosion. Strong winds also strip away valuable topsoil.

Knopf Farms is one of three new sites in the Soil Health Partnership network, through a partnership with the National Wheat Foundation, that is evaluating the impacts of diversified crop rotation and how wheat can benefit the soil and other environmental indicators.

Cover crops continue to grow in popularity in Iowa due to their many benefits, reduced soil erosion, weed suppression potential, reduced nitrogen and phosphorus loads entering water bodies, and increased soil organic matter. Iowa Learning Farms and the United States Department of Agriculture…

A wholesale shift to regenerative agriculture is soon to become the primary choice for survival, Tom Cannon told audiences at Soil Health U, Jan. 22 and 23, in Salina, Kansas. The farmer and manager of Goodson Ranch, near Blackwell, in north-central Oklahoma, warned of a potential extinction…

It’s been said that America has the most plentiful, safe and nutritious food supply in the world. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service reported that 89.9% of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year, with 11.1% of households reporting some food …

Shifting to farming with nature, rather than against it, is on a global campaign, and the proof is in the testaments of international visitors to the U.S. Tom and Cassi Robinson, of Hoyleton, Australia, and Laurent Lorre, who farms near Janville, some 50 miles south of Paris, France, attende…

Deciding to work with nature instead of against it has made a huge difference to Darin Williams. The farmer and his wife, Nancy, from Coffey County in southeast Kansas embraced a return to natural systems agriculture in 2010. The couple cut their workload, time on the tractor, input costs, f…

Officials at Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids partnered with USDA to improve soil health and protect water quality on the airport’s 2,000 cropland acres. 

Soil Health U, held Jan. 22 to 23 in Salina, Kansas, did not disappoint when it came to panels aimed at explaining techniques, personal experiences and advice pertaining to regenerative agriculture. The event, in its third year and sponsored by High Plains Journal, held three separate panels…

There’s no teacher like experience, and like any profession, farmers learn from their own experiences plus those of fellow growers and researchers.

There are many benefits to utilizing cover crops, such as improved soil health and reduced erosion, but the details can present challenges. The Nebraska Cover Crop and Soil Health Conference will provide information to growers who are just getting started with cover crops and to those who ha…

Kansas State University Extension Ag Economist Monte Vandeveer said professionals and farmers alike have been talking about the 2018 farm bill even before 2018 ticked over on the calendar. 

Integrating perennial crops into corn and soybean rotations doesn’t consistently increase the ability of soils to store carbon, according to a new study that defies expectations for how diverse cropping systems affect carbon sequestration.

Farmers are aware of the benefits of soil health. However, the difficulty in quantifying soil health, diminishing availability of land that results in higher land prices, the time necessary to improve soil health, and the need to turn a profit often discourage farmers from adopting soil heal…

As we look back through the last 12 months, it is safe to say 2019 was a trying time for most agricultural producers. From unprecedented flooding during critical planting periods leading to delays in fall harvest to the brutal winter that battered the majority of livestock operations, the sp…

Iowa farmer and past Iowa Soybean Association President Ray Gaesser thought he was doing everything he could to protect his farm from erosion and soil loss. He had switched to no-till more than 20 years ago and built terraces. But a true defining moment was a 4-inch rain in one hour.

No-till is one of the most popular and effective conservation practices but making the switch from tilling to not can be intimidating. No-till allows farmers to grow crops with minimal disturbance to their fields and the organisms that live in the soil. This increases soil health while also …

There are more than 2 million farms across the United States, tended by men, women and families who produce the crops that feed, fuel and clothe the world. They care deeply for the lands and waters that sustain their livelihoods, but as the global population continues to grow, our nation’s f…

The Soil Health Partnership and the National Corn Growers Association recently co-hosted a field day for U.S. Senate and House Agriculture Committee staff at Harborview Farms in Rock Hall, Maryland.

A new sprayable bioplastic—made of cornstarch and other natural ingredients—offers potential as an effective method for delivering beneficial microbes to fight aflatoxins and other agricultural pathogens and pests.

Conservation gives many gifts – both to farmers and the rest of the world. Each breath of air, sip of water, and bite of food you will ever take exists because of natural resources and how we protect them.