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The benefits of implementing soil health systems

A new study finds implementing soil health systems on farms has both economic and environmental benefits. 

Wayne Honeycutt is president and CEO of the Soil Health Initiative.  “Eighty-five percent of the farmers who were growing corn and eighty-eight percent of farmers growing soybeans increased their net farm income from using these soil health systems,” he says. 

He tells Brownfield there were several factors that contributed to the rise in net farm income, including a big reduction in input costs.  “On average the corn growers using the soil health systems, it allowed them to reduce their input costs by $24 per acre,” he says.  “And the soybean producers reduced their input costs by $17 per acre.”

Honeycutt says there are more than just economic benefits.  “It allowed them to get onto their fields earlier because they drained better,” he says.  “And 97 percent of farmers who we interviewed said the soil health management system they were employing helped them increase resilience to extreme weather all the way from drought to heavy precipitation.”

Soil Health Institute interviewed 100 farmers from nine states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Tennessee) who had incorporated soil health systems in their operations.  SHI and Cargill partnered on the survey.

A link to the survey can be found HERE.

AUDIO: Wayne Honeycutt, Soil Health Institute

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