Recent News

Soil Health Institute Releases Action Plan

View the National Soil Health Action Plan

Cover Crop Toolbox: Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources

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,...

Final Reflections and Lessons from Retailer Cover Crop Trial

In a previous ISAP blog post, we introduced a trial partnership between Illini FS and The Nature Conservancy, with funding from the Illinois Soybean Association. Using Illini FS cover crop drilling and Nu-tracker soil testing services, we implemented seven split-field cover crop trials. These plots were subjected to three rounds of soil and plant tissue testing to better educate retailers...

Boosting Climate-Smart Agriculture Implementation

The term climate-smart agriculture was first coined in 2010, but has gotten more attention over the last several years. In this webinar we will feature 3 climate-smart agriculture projects that are working to expand climate-smart ag practice implementation across the North Central Region - The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Ag Program, the Climate-Ready Farm Assessment Tool, and the Satellite-Driven Data...