“Show Me the Data! Empowering Conservation Champions with Innovative, Real-time Soil Metrics” kicked off Sand County Foundation’s soil health initiative with 30 farmers engaged across the Mississippi River Basin of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
This three-year, on-farm demonstration launched in 2020 as a farmer-to-farmer outreach project. Fifteen farmers already implementing soil health management, each invited a neighboring farmer, who had not yet integrated soil health management into their production, to participate. Real-time soil moisture and temperature sensors were installed in each of their fields, and annual soil health sample were collected. Fingertip access to the sensor data could be used to help the farmers make in-season management decisions like when to irrigate, plant, or apply fertilizer based-on soil moisture or temperature.
View Program Summary
The project goal was to address growing management concerns among those challenged by extreme (abundance or deficit) precipitation events, and to encourage farmers to explore soil management options that can improve their farm climate resilience.
As the final field season has wrapped up, data is currently being analyzed for summary.
Project Partners
This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 02D01421 to Sand County Foundation. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.
