Utah Soil Health Network On-Farm Soil Health Demonstration Project
The Utah Soil Health Partnership with funding from the USDA NRCS is developing the Utah Soil Health Network. This 5 year project is designed to increase our understanding of how best to implement soil health practices into Utah’s various farming systems. Data will be collected from each site to understand the impacts of soil health practices on the agronomic, economic, environmental and social aspects of each operation.
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Program participants will receive annual incentive payments for keeping records, maintaining test plots and implementing practices. Successful applications must meet eligibility requirements for farm bill programs under NRCS.
Additional Details:
- 5 Year Project
- 12 demonstration sites will be selected from around the state
- Each producer will receive up to $6500 per year to implement soil health practices and provide crop management data
- Trials will be up to 50 acres in size (several soil health and conventional strips)
- Sites will be used to host farm field days
- Participants must be eligible to participate in Farm Bill programs (records established with the FSA at time of contracting)
- Participants will allow USU and USHP access to their field for soil, crop, and water sampling.
- Research equipment (soil moisture sensor station, lysimeters, etc.) will be installed
- Participants will be interviewed annually about the project
- Agronomic, economic, environmental and social impacts of implementing soil health practices such as cover crops, no-till, integrated grazing and others will be the main focus of the project.
- Data collected will be compiled into reports and factsheets for the public, all information will be anonymized to protect the privacy of each participant
- Combinations of soil planners, USU extension agents, and crop advisors will work with each participant to develop an individual soil health plan for each site that will be followed for 5 years. Technical assistance will be provided to the participant throughout the project.
If intrested in being one of the demosntration site please fill out the application below. Application deadline is March 15th 2022