Soil Health Cost Savings
The Redwood SWCD team continues to be a powerful advocate to the ag sector in providing education and best practices to ag producers of the long-term value of no-till, cover-crops, and other soil health practices. Working with producers, staff was able to collect and analyze the economics of using soil health practices and the findings were very insightful. Due to this important and exciting work, Successful Farming Magazine published an article featuring this data in their December 2021 edition, describing the economic impact realized and relayed by Brian Pfarr (Resource Specialist) and Jennifer Hahn (Conservation Specialist) of the Redwood SWCD. Jennifer has worked with farmers around the state and locally to attain and analyze their financials and relate them to the management activities of the farm. Brian not only works at the Redwood SWCD but is also a farmer that implements soil health practices and has benefited from the reduction of inputs over the years while implementing cover crops, reduced till, no-till, and reducing nitrogen inputs due to increasing soil organic matter levels.
“Pfarr, a corn-and-soybean grower, began incorporating no-till and cover crops into his own operation 10 years ago. In the early years of his transition, side-by-side field comparisons showed him that with fewer tillage passes his net income increased by $50 to $100 per acre without reducing yields,”
-No-Till and Cover Crop Systems Cut Costs and Save Soil, Raylene Nickel, Successful Farming.
The Redwood SWCD recently secured a Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) grant to continue to collect and analyze economics of different management practices here in Redwood County as well as collecting information on how soils improve with different management techniques. Making small changes like reducing one tillage pass or no-tilling soybeans can quickly increase cost savings across your acres with minimal risk. Find the Successful Farming Article HERE.
Interested in learning more? Contact the Redwood County Soil & Water professionals at (507) 627-2427 Ext. 3.
