Recent News
East Central Illinois Retailer Commits to Conservation Trials and Services
With the recent update of the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy showing that work still needs to be done in order to reach the goals outlined in the strategy, increasing adoption of conservation practices is as important as ever. Farmers often turn to their retailer for products, services, and agronomy knowledge. Similarly, given the impact conservation practices can have on the...
Four Decades of No-Till is Paying Off for Vermilion County Farmer Jean Stewart
The Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership was a proud sponsor of the 2023 Illinois Leopold Conservation Award, an award program that recognizes and celebrates extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation by agricultural landowners. The profile of 2023 Award Finalist, Jean Stewart, below was originally published by American Farmland Trust and can be viewed on their website. https://youtu.be/EWWAdGGK780?si=GI2ZVKvXqq6mdgtd “A good farmer is a...
ICCON Recaps The 2023 National Cover Crop Survey
On December 13, ICCON welcomed Dr. Rob Meyers, the Director for the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri, for an insightful discussion on the outcomes of the 2023 National Cover Crop Survey. Conducted in March of 2023, the survey provides a comprehensive reflection of cover cropping data from the 2022 agricultural season. The online survey, comprising 110...
ISAP Releases NLRS Overview for Farmers and Farm Advisors
In 2015, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) released the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS). The strategy quantified nutrient loads from multiple sources and set aggressive reduction targets for the amounts of nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) and total phosphorus (TP) leaving the state. The strategy laid out best practices to achieve reductions, including interim reductions...
Using Citizen Science to Understand Cover Crop Performance in the Great Lakes Region
On November 9th, 2023, ICCON was joined by Etienne Sutton, a PhD candidate and National Institute of Food and Agriculture fellow from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. Etienne shared her research on cover crop performance in the Great Lakes Region which used citizen science, participation by the public in the scientific process, to gather field data...
ISAP Publishes “Introduction to Soil Health Practices” for Illinois Farmers
Bloomington, Ill. –The Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership has published a new resource for Illinois farmers and farm advisors which clearly communicates the role of soil health practices in addressing agronomic challenges and resource concerns. ISAP’s “Introduction to Soil Health Practices” identifies and explains the cause of several conditions that often lead to common resource or agronomic concerns for farmers, including...