Soil Health and Farm Management in the Upper Midwest.

A great need exists for improved translational research to better understand the site-specific interactions amongst conservation technology management, improved soil health, optimized yield profiles, economic risk management and environmental protection.  The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) is a farmer led, National Corn Growers Association initiative that brings together diverse partner organizations including federal agencies, universities, industry, and environmental groups to work toward the common goal of developing and raising awareness of the practical recommendations for farmers to improve soil health, optimize yields, improve economics and improve environmental risk mitigation.  SHP works directly with farmers across a 65 farm research and communications network (expanding to 100 locations within a year) in 9 upper Midwestern states.  With expert technical assistance, all SHP partner-farmers implement 5-year studies with standardized protocols for experimental setup and data collection to compare a control against an adaptive management system comprised of cover crops, conservation tillage or advanced nutrient management.  SHP also puts great effort into communicating the benefits and potential risks in conservation technology adoption.  Each SHP farm has a farmer engagement event every year to relay locally specific information on the adoption of conservation technology.  The farming community has shown incredible interest and excitement in implementing pragmatic approaches to conservation - recognizing the need to continuously improve sustainable agricultural production.