Soil Health Institute

All prepped and ready for our field day tomorrow with McCain Foods in Carberry, Manitoba! Joining the #potato growers here to do some #SoilHealth demos showing the importance of soil structure for growing a winning potato crop. On the menu: ✅️Rainfall simulators ✅️Visual evaluation of soil structure ✅️Slakes! If you havent downloaded the Slakes app yet, get on it! Probably the best DIY, data-driven, science-backed soil health test out there...oh, and did I mention it's FREE!? Soil Health Institute #RegenerativeAgriculture

Conservation professionals, local and national partners and commodity organization representatives gathered in Kentucky recently for Farmers for Soil Health training, presented by the Soil Health Institute and The Center for Regenerative Agriculture. The 20-state Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership aims to boost cover crop adoption on 30 million corn and soy acres by 2030.   

We’re hiring! The Soil Health Institute seeks an Inclusive Partnership Lead with a deep understanding of the intersections among racial equity, agriculture, and environmental justice. We are committed to expanding our impact by building partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations and producers integrating their expertise and perspectives in the development of tools, resources, and networks to promote soil health, and ensuring this knowledge is accessible and beneficial to all. This new position – a 1-year fixed appointment with the possibility of extension – will build out SHI’s racial equity strategy with external partners and will play a crucial role in expanding SHI’s reach as a credible and trusted source of soil health science, information, and education. Full details: https://lnkd.in/dzafM3b9 Please share with your networks!

At the National Black Growers Council Model Farm Field Day at Darden Bridgeforth & Sons Farm in Tanner, Alabama, SHI Soil Scientist Helen Boniface spoke about the United States Regenerative Cotton Fund’s efforts to benchmark soil health across the U.S. Cotton Belt. She emphasized the importance of setting locally relevant goals when working to improve soil health in row crop systems. Auburn University extension agents, Natural Resources Conservation Service representatives, and agriculture industry professionals discussed cover crop species selection and best practices in cotton systems, herbicide selection, and strip tillage practices. Attendees toured test plots and saw a drone demonstration for fungicide application in wheat systems. Representatives from several USDA Climate Smart Commodity programs spoke about the resources and projects available in the region to provide financial incentives and support to growers implementing climate smart farming practices. Pictured: Bill Bridgeforth explains how beneficial strip tillage has been for their family farming operation, a Black-owned and operated farm since 1877. 📷: Desmond Moore, Ph.D., MooreAG, LLC

These updates from Sledge Taylor, soil health advocate and former farmer-mentor with SHI’s U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund, show the progress of his no-till cotton in Mississippi. Here’s how it looked with less than 2 inches of rain and no irrigation in the past month.

In this USDA radio segment, Research Soil Scientist and Program Director Dr. Mara Cloutier talks about research underway with the Dairy Soil and Water Regeneration project, now in its fourth year of collecting data for the U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative. Listen to the full update here: https://zurl.co/rsRK

We’re hiring! The Soil Health Institute seeks an Inclusive Partnership Lead with a deep understanding of the intersections among racial equity, agriculture, and environmental justice. We are committed to expanding our impact by building partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations and producers integrating their expertise and perspectives in the development of tools, resources, and networks to promote soil health, and ensuring this knowledge is accessible and beneficial to all. This new position – a 1-year fixed appointment with the possibility of extension – will build out SHI’s racial equity strategy with external partners and will play a crucial role in expanding SHI’s reach as a credible and trusted source of soil health science, information, and education. Full details: https://lnkd.in/dzafM3b9 Please share with your networks!

RFP alert! We’re seeking soil sampling vendors for a unique farm-level study of soil health practices on working farmlands in the United States. Sampling sites include the Great Plains, the Midwestern prairies, and the Southeast. Vendors may elect to submit proposals for all regions, individual regions, or counties within regions. Deadline is August 14. Full details: https://lnkd.in/ecg-zu93

Nearly 200 people joined us for a recent webinar on how soil health practices can boost profitability and resilience in small grain farms, moderated by Steven Rosenzweig, Principal Scientist at General Mills. Find the recording at https://zurl.co/2l2X and more about the study – including fact sheets for the U.S. and Canada – at https://zurl.co/UsyQ.

"What makes work such as this valuable is it validates the management decisions farmers make on their farm, often in isolation," writes Laura Rance-Unger of Glacier FarmMedia in the Winnipeg Free Press. "Making change is risky. It helps to know that the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term costs." Read her coverage of our study on the economics of soil health on small grain farms: https://lnkd.in/exFNCy-5