Soil Health Partnership

The goal of this project was to launch and fully support a comprehensive SHP program in Minnesota. This project is part of the larger NCGA SHP network that extends across more than 200 sites in 16 states. This includes on farm engagement such as our strip trial research sites, data analysis including peer reviewed literature, and communications efforts across many virtual and in person channels. Our efforts during this project included data collection on 9 farms in Minnesota and extensive farmer engagement activities. We also completed data analysis and have provided a number of reports for academic, policy, and farmer audiences. Key findings of outcomes of our program include increases in soil health metrics through adoption of cover crops, data processing protocols, importance of goal setting as demonstrated by economic case studies, and trends for cover crop impacts on planting dates, weed suppression, and yield.