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Soil Health Partnership will expand to 100 farm sites

 

The Soil Health Partnership will expand to 100 farm sites this year, one year ahead of schedule. Field Manager Jim Isermann says 35 more farms will join this year and will allow the partnership to expand its research base.

“Having this large data set of farms across the Midwest just helps us to be able to look at all the different scenarios, all the different environmental and economic relationships and environments that we have out there,” says Isermann.

He tells Brownfield the expansion will also help the partnership develop best practices for farms across the Midwest.

“The data that can be coming from the Soil Health partnership is going to be very important because it can lead farmers to help make those decisions as to what management strategies to follow on their farms and how to do it in an economical way,” says Isermann.

Isermann says preliminary data collected over the four year effort should be released later this summer.

The majority of sites are located in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, with additional sites in Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri and North Dakota. The new farm sites, when identified, will likely expand beyond the current nine Midwestern states. The Soil Health Partnership is a farmer-led initiative of the National Corn Growers Association. It develops research and practices to improve soil health, benefiting both farmers and the environment.

Audio: Jim Isermann, Field Manager, Soil Health Partnership