Please continue to email Beth Mason, NACD North Central Region Representative, any news articles and interviews so we can help share your message.

The Xerces Society is offering a free downloadable handbook entitled Farming with Soil Life: a Handbook for Supporting Soil Invertebrates and Soil Health on Farms.

“It is impossible to tell the story of every living species connected to the ground beneath us. With that in mind, we have focused this guide on the diverse, often overlooked, and essential living species that we know best: the major invertebrates (macrofauna and mesofauna) found in temperate agricultural soils. There is a focus on North America in the groups of organisms and the soil health practices that are covered, but many groups are present in these soil types around the world, and the same management principles apply. Larger soil animals, such as ground beetles, woodlice, and springtails, and their many companions, have received less attention than soil microbes in recent years. We hope this publication helps fill that gap in our understanding and appreciation of the life in the soil.”

To download your copy, please visit the Xerces website. Both a printable version and a screen version are available for download.

Through a program called America’s Conservation Ag Movement, the Farm Journal is offering three free resource guides to help farmers achieve their conservation goals while also keeping an eye on the bottom line. These guides are in PDF format and available as an online download, offering practical strategies, real farmer case studies and outside resources. Soil Health Champion Ron Snyder (Ohio) was one of the many farmers that were consulted in the publishing of these guides.

Resource Stewardship Planning Guide: Everything in this guide focused on providing a path to address a problem or helping you to make progress on that goal – whether that involves cropland, associated agricultural land, pasture or livestock facilities. This guide will help to gather your thoughts and information to advance your conservation efforts one step at a time.

Soil Health Stewardship Guide: Once you understand conservation fundamentals, this guide is a great next step. You can see, touch and watch soil as it changes with the adoption of best practices. Have you ever taken a good look at the health of your soils – given each field a checkup? No matter where you are in your journey, you can apply principles from this guide to increase your soil health.

Water Quality Stewardship Guide: This guide is designed to make a complex and controversial subject accessible. Learn more about using a water-quality lens to maintain productivity and the steps you can take to be a good neighbor and reduce damage to waterways. Fellow farmers chime in to share how they own water quality as something that matters to their business and legacy.

To download your free copies, click here.

The Farm Journal has also requested any feedback from our network members on these guides. Please contact Farm Journal Project Manager Sherry Shifflet at sshifflet@farmjournal.com with your comments. Shifflet also suggests these guides can be useful in helping you share your message with other farmers, consultants, and policymakers.

The Soil Health Institute (SHI) held their annual meeting as a virtual event on August 11 – 12. All sessions were recorded and are now available online for public viewing.

To access the sessions, visit the SHI YouTube channel.

Sessions include:

At NACD’s 75^th Summer Meeting in Chicago, a focus group was held with soil health champions to discuss soil health practices, their benefits and how the adoption of these practices can improve. Attendees also discussed carbon markets and recent weather conditions. 12 champions from Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico, Alabama and Kansas were a part of the focus group.

These champions ran operations that included corn, soybeans, dairy, timber, grazing lands, fruit orchards, organic production and more. Soil health practices utilized included no-till, reduced tillage and cover crops. Most producers discussed the importance of experimentation and the fact that many of these practices work in tandem. “You need to be looking at the whole instead of just a single variable,” said the Tenn. participant.

Producers noted many benefits from their soil health practices, including increased organic matter, decreased erosion, improved nutrient cycling and water infiltration, reduced compaction and more.

Champions discussed the importance of farmers sharing their soil health journey so that others will be encouraged to implement these practices on their own operations. Demonstration plots, rainfall simulators and other ‘hands-on’ soil health education tools were mentioned as helpful instruments.

A report of the focus group will be completed in the coming weeks.

Soil Health Champions Jeff and Myrna Goebel (NM) participate in a program called Harvest Hosts – a membership program that invites self-contained RV campers to spend the night at a location within their network of wineries, breweries, distilleries, farms and other attractions. Locations span country-wide and offer unique experiences for travelers/campers and their hosts.

To explore this opportunity for yourself, whether as a camper or a host, be sure to check out the Harvest Host website.

The South Dakota Soil Health Coalition has collaborated with a variety of radio stations and organizations across the state to air monthly Soil Health Tips and other audio. These short segments focus on a variety of different soil health topics.

·       Diversity

·       Integrating Livestock

·       Keeping Living Roots in the Soil

·       Wildlife

·       Water Quality

·       Biology and Organic Matter

·       Soil Cover

·       Limiting Disturbance

To explore additional educational and technical resources, you can visit the South Dakota Soil Health Coaltion website.

This past month, Soil Health Champion Burlin Findley (Fla.) was inducted into the NACD Southeast Region Hall of Fame. In a luncheon ceremony at the Southeast Region Meeting in Gulf Shores, Ala., Findley was honored along with conservation leaders from across the region. You can learn more about Findley, his operation and his work in conservation by viewing this video which was submitted for the ceremony.

Join us in celebrating NACD’s 75^th Anniversary by submitting a conservation district success stories, a profile of a person who embodies NACD’s commitment toward conservation, a successful project, a video, or whatever else you may have to feature in our special 75^th Anniversary newsletter! To provide us with a summary of your submission, please click on the button below. For questions, please contact nacdnews@nacdnet.org.

To read some of the stories already published, visit the NACD website.

The National Conservation Planning Partnership (NCPP) is now accepting nominations for the 2021 Hugh Hammond Bennett Award for Conservation Excellence through October 1, 2021. This award is dividing into two categories:

The Producer Award will be presented to a producer who demonstrates a commitment to conservation planning, pioneering new opportunities and leadership in the community. The local field office staff that provides assistance to the producer will also receive recognition.

The Conservation Planner Award is independent of the producer award and will be given to an individual who demonstrates a high standard of conservation planning and implementation for customers as well as sharing his/her expertise with others.

For more information on submitting your nominations, please visit the NCPP website.

Are you a member of our Facebook Group? If you are an NACD Soil Health Champion or the conservation district/ Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employee who sponsors a Champion, be sure you connect with us on Facebook.

Share your conservation articles, your pictures, your updates and your events with us by connecting through Facebook! This can not only be a chance to network about soil health, but it can also be a chance to do outreach even among other members.

New rules with Facebook don't allow us to send out invitations to individuals we aren't already connected with on the platform.

So, be sure to search for "NACD Soil Health Champions" and request to join today!

The NCBA has conducted a series of producer education webinars now available online.

The 8th Annual National Grazing Lands Coalition Meeting (8NGLC) will be held December 6 - 9, 2021 at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

For more information and to register for the event, visit the NGLC website.

The National No-Tillage Conference has lined up nearly 40 top-notch no-tillers, agronomists, researchers and other no-till experts to deliver innovative ideas that can help you get the most out of your no-till farming system. This 30th annual conference offers a mix of thought-provoking General Sessions, expert-led No-Till Classrooms and collaborative No-Till Roundtables. Plus, valuable pesticide recertification and Certified Crop Advisor credits are available to qualifying attendees.