Is There a Doctor in the House? Soil Health Check Up March 16

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say. That’s why medical experts recommend regular checkups as a preventative measure. But you may not realize you soil health needs a regular check up, too.

Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will be hosting a Conservation Chat: Soil Health Check Up to do just that. The event will take place at 6 p.m. on March 16 at the Ashland SWCD office in the Ashland County Service Center off of State Route 60.

“One of the biggest priorities set by our Ashland SWCD board for the next 5 years is a real focus on enhancing agricultural productivity and soil health within Ashland County, and we are firm believers that improving soil health and conservation can also improve farmers’ bottom line,” said Jane Houin, Ashland SWCD program director. “We’re excited to offer a variety of options for farmers to implement good soil health practices on their farm, and we believe we offer enough different options that we have a program that will fit any operation.”

For example, one of the soil health tools the district will highlight at the chat is the Truterra Insights Engine — a new addition to the district’s precision conservation modeling tool line up for 2022.

“The Truterra Insights Engine is designed to help producers increase their on-farm profitability while improving soil health,” Houin said. “The engine puts meaningful insights to work in farmers’ field right away through a sustainability tool that provides opportunities to improve profitability, stewardship and cost-share opportunities on a field-by-field basis using an objective, data-driven analysis.”

The Truterra Insights Engine is one of five precision conservation modeling tools that Ashland SWCD has partnered with leading ag retailers to put into the hands of Ashland County farmers for the 2022 season with no out-of-pocket cost for producers. Plus, Truterra serves as the basis for Land O’Lakes TruCarbon program, giving producers who use the tool a carbon market option to reward their stewardship practices.

“We’re excited to be able to offer this kind of cutting-edge soil health analysis to our producers,” Houin said, noting that the Truterra Insights Engine also offers a seamless integration into one of the district’s other precision conservation tools, the Fieldprint calculator. The Fieldprint calculator is being utilized by the district as part of it’s new conservation stewardship certification program, and details will be available on that program as well at the Conservation Chat.

In addition to new, cutting edge technologies, the chat will also highlight some of the district’s tried and true programs as well, including their equipment rental program. The district current rents two John Deere no-till drills, a cover crop interseeder, a straw chopper, a frost seeder, and a terra plane and will be adding a small-scale manure spreader to that lineup later this spring.

“We are fortunate to have a long-standing, successful no-till program here in Ashland County, but there is a renewed interest in encouraging no-till management as interest in soil health grows,” Houin said. “The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster has the nation’s oldest continuous no-till research plots, and we’re excited to have Dr. Warren Dick from OARDC who works with those plots at our chat to talk with us about the impact no-till management, especially long-term no-till management” can have on soil health.”

Information will also be provided on the district’s soil testing program and new conservation stewardship certification as well. Additionally, all attendees who bring soil samples in for testing will receive free shipping charges on their analysis as a thank you for attending the program.

Dinner will be provided at the Conservation Chat, and registration is $5. For more information, contact Ashland SWCD at 419-281-7645 or register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conservation-chat-soil-health-check-up-tickets-252779729977