Soil Health Institute

Each year, the American Society of Agronomy announces their Early Career Award that recognizes a professional who has made an outstanding contribution in agronomy within seven years of completing their final degree. SHI is excited to announce that our own Dr. Dianna Bagnall, Research Soil Scientist and Program Director, is this year’s recipient! An applied soil physicist, Dr. Bagnall specializes in soil physical health and socioeconomic dynamics of soil management. Dr. Bagnall is an adjunct assistant professor at Texas A&M University Soil and Crop Sciences Department, the Early Career Board Representative for the Soil Science Society of America, the 2024 Vice Chair of the Land Management and Conservation Section of the Agronomy Society of America, and an Associate Editor for both Vadose Zone Journal and Soil Security. She will be recognized during the 2024 ASA, CSSA, SSSA Annual Meeting. Stay tuned for more!

Boosting average net farm income by $52 an acre while benefiting the environment? You read that right! That’s a finding from our study of the economics of soil health systems on 100 farms, one of many SHI President and CEO Wayne Honeycutt, Ph.D., shared recently in his keynote address at the Potato Sustainability Alliance Summer Symposium. In the study, soil health management systems increased average net farm income by $52/acre for corn and $45/acre for soybean. “Soil health is the foundation for regenerative agriculture,” Dr. Honeycutt told the crowd at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago. “And now that we have established effective ways for measuring soil health, that means we can quantify the outcomes of our investments in regenerative agriculture.” More information on the soil health economics study is available here: https://lnkd.in/e-vJpKWJ

There's still time to apply! Details at https://lnkd.in/eFpwEtkD

Spotted: SHI's Cameron Ogilvie demonstrating our free Slakes app in Manitoba. Watch this space for more on how easy it is to measure aggregate stability with Slakes! (Don't want to wait? Download it now: https://lnkd.in/gX_zJuBM)

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