On January 8, 2025 ICCON was joined by Natalie Kerr, STAR Coordinator for the state of Illinois, to learn about the Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources (STAR) program and how and why farmers should consider enrolling their fields in the program. STAR was founded in 2017 by Steve Stierwalt and Joe Rothermel – both farmers from Champaign County, advocates for conservation, and served on the Champaign County SWCD Board of Directors. From it’s inception, Stierwalt and Rothermel were interested in providing a roadmap for fellow farmers to adopt conservation practices such as no-till, cover crops, nutrient management etc.

As a result of STAR being started by local Illinois farmers, STAR has remained a farmer focused program.
The program emphasizes the need to address local resource concerns by leveraging local research and local cropping system solutions. As the program has grown, it has expanded into a national non-profit program with several states signing on as affiliates to utilize the STAR framework to help farmers address local resource concerns.
So how does a farmer utilize the STAR tool? The tool itself is quite simple and user friendly for farmers. The STAR field form is available for farmers to enter information about their management practices from crop year to crop year. The form is filled out for each field a farmer wishes to enroll. This information is then evaluated by the tool based on the scientific input from local experts to determine each field’s “STAR rating” of 1-5 stars. The better the conservation management the higher the rating. STAR then goes a step further with showing the score report for each field and offers suggestions of ways a score could be improved and also provides connections to technical assistance experts who can help farmer adjust existing practices or implement a new practice on their field(s). For farmers who choose to, a free field sign is available to display at the field that indicates each field’s STAR score. These signs can serve as a way of recognizing the efforts of farmers and to help bring additional awareness of the program and practices to other farmers and the public.

The conservation management on the fields determines the STAR rating. Farmers who wish to improve their ratings can adopt additional management strategies, attend learning workshops and events, and other activities to increase their score.
Farmers also have the opportunity to develop a customized conservation innovation plan that can help connect them not only with the technical assistance needed to help with conservation practices, but also to financial assistance for certain practices when applicable.
Farmers can also be assured that all of their data is private. Data provided to STAR is used for STAR purposes only and is never shared with third parties without the consent of the farmer. Even then, third party organizations who are receiving data farm STAR must sign a data use agreement.
To close out the webinar, Kerr walked through some of the interface of the tool to give a glimpse of what the farmer’s experience looks like and how the tool functions. The interface is intuitive and simple to navigate.
To keep the tool useful and valuable for farmers and to maintain the program’s integrity there is a field verification process that STAR must adhere to. The process is simple and straightforward and is carried out on fields that are randomly selected each year.
STAR is a great program relies on advocacy from farmers and fellow conservation agriculture professionals. The STAR team is always looking to improve the tool. STAR is open to input and feedback about how the tool works and where and how it can be improved for a better user experience. ISAP encourages folks to take the time to provide awareness of the tool to farmers and encourage them to enroll. STAR hopes to continue to expand and help farmers along this journey for many years to come.
Natalie Kerr’s full presentation can be viewed on ISAP’s YouTube channel. ICCON will continue our monthly webinars in February 2025, exploring cover crop seeding rates. Register for the upcoming ICCON call here. If you are interested in joining the Illinois Cover Crop On-Farm Network to learn about new research and hear from cover crop specialists across the Midwest, please join our google group by sending an email to hello@ilsustainableag.org