SOIL HEALTH SPECIALISTS are in demand at farms and field days across the country, as their targeted knowledge about the life below ground increasingly offers keen insights about nutrient cycling, water infiltration, biological activity and more. Rainfall simulators, slake tests, and soil pits are their calling cards.

A LONG-TIME strip-tiller, Marty Weiss has been conservation-minded for years. But he’s taken inspiration from the recent widespread focus on soil health and in the past few years tackled several new practices, including no-till, strip cropping, interseeding cover crops in both 30-inch and 60-inch corn, planting green and even seeding covers for regenerative grazing.

LONG-TERM DATA from one of the oldest sets of no-till research plots in the U.S. has unearthed a number of interesting findings that confirm no-tilled soils become more efficient and productive over time and do a better job of storing carbon than with tilled fields.

MANY FARMERS WHO switch to organic production start out motivated by increasing profits, says Dani Kusner.