The Soil Health Partnership is a five-year initiative to showcase soil health management practices through demonstration farms, measure economic and environmental outcomes, and publish findings. It is administered by the National Corn Growers Association with funding from partners like Monsanto and grants. Field managers will recruit farms and establish research protocols to analyze connections between practices like reduced tillage and cover crops, and outcomes. The goal is to highlight the short- and long-term profitability and sustainability benefits of healthy soil.

1. SHP – Opportunities for Economic Data Collection and Analysis
July 27, 2015

2. Soil Health Partnership: a Five-Year Initiative
 Recruit a network of demonstration farms
– Showcase management practices focused on soil health, e.g. reduced
tillage, cover crops, and advanced nutrient management
 Establish research protocols
– Measure connection between a diverse range of practices and
outcomes that matter: economic and environmental
 Publish findings and recommendations
– Highlight both the immediate and the long-term profitability and
sustainability benefits of healthy soil
 Support networking and technical assistance
– Help farmers and their advisors make decisions that result in positive
changes for profitability and sustainability of the soil
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3. Organizational Structure
 NCGA – administrator
 Contributors
– Partners
• NCGA
• Monsanto
– Grants:
• Walton Family Foundation
• NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant
• United Soybean Board
– Technical Advice:
• The Nature Conservancy
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 Director – Nick Goeser
 Field Managers
– Iowa
• Elyssa McFarland
– Illinois
• Jim Isermann
– Indiana
• Dan Towery and Hans Kok
 Communications Manager
– Jenna Higgins Rose

4. Science Advisory Council Members
 Suzy Friedman, Environmental Defense Fund
 Daren Harmel, USDA/ARS
 Jerry Hatfield, USDA/ARS
 Wayne Honeycutt, USDA/NRCS
 Doug Karlen, USDA/ARS
 Eileen Kladivko, Purdue University
 Joe Fargione, The Nature Conservancy
 Mike Plumer, Agricultural Consultant
 Charles Rice, Kansas State University
 Peter Scharf, University of Missouri
 Harold Van Es, Cornell University
 Wally Tyner, Purdue University
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Organizational Structure

5. SHP Demonstration Network Sites
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6. Data needs and analytic goals- Economics
 Analyzing economic interdependencies
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Soil health
Cover crops
Conservation
tillage
Advanced
nutrient
management
Edge of field
treatment
Downstream
treatment
Pricing and
marketing
Behavioral
change
Land values
Consumer
demand

7. Data needs and analytic goals- Economics
 Opportunistic data collection
– Farm-level historical data
 Economic data collection categories –
– Short, mid and long term farm-level budgeting
• Field information
• Crop information
• Chemical use
– Fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides
• Cover crops
– Seed, establishment, termination
• Qualitative assessment

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8. SHP Analytics Strategy
SHP Short-term analytics goals
–(by August 1) Develop analytics team roles and
responsibilities
– (October 31) Develop analytics budget with input
from analytics team and broader SAC
–(December 1) Identify research goals (with
flexibility to redirect as we continue to gather,
process, analyze, interpret data) and draft contracts
–(January 1) Contracts executed and research begins
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9. Opportunities for Collaboration
 Collaboration for enhanced outcomes
– Shared data collection protocols
– Publically available datasets
– Shared analytical tools and procedures
– Shared resources for practical tools for farmers
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10. Practical outcomes for farmers
 Improved analytical tools
 Improved understanding of soil health linkages
 Better recommendations and education
– On-farm, supply chain, consumer
 Better decision enablement tools
– Precision conservation
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THANK YOU!