Database Research Summaries2018 Research and Extension Efforts at the Soil Health and Agriculture Research Extension (SHARE) Farm
Research Focus
The focus of this project is to continue research and extension efforts associated with the SHARE Farm, answering questions such as “how do conservation tillage practices help manage salinity”, “What are the soil health benefits associated with spending money on cover crops” and lastly “how do I measure soil health”.
Objectives
- Demonstrate and evaluate field-scale, whole system strategies on saline and non-saline soils developed and guided with farmer-input.
- Evaluate the economics of alternative soil health improving strategies (for example tillage and cover cropping).
- Evaluate soil health testing and how it applies to our region.
- Transfer science-based knowledge to ND farmers using farmer-driven extension approaches.
Results
- This year, soybeans were planted green into a living cereal rye cover crop. Yields were assessed for cover crop vs. no cover crop treatments and across conservation tillage treatment plots. An oat/radish cover crop mix was also flown into standing soybean prior to leaf drop.
- For Extension, “Building Soil Health” and “Incorporating Cover Crops” booklets were produced — written and designed for farmers. These are very popular sources of information and can be found on the NDSU Soil Health webpage (ndsu.edu/soilhealth).
- We also produced 20 videos this fall highlighting soil health building practices and providing summaries of information produced at the SHARE Farm.
- Results are still being obtained from the soil health samples collected and anticipate a complete dataset by mid-winter. The videos will also be finalized this winter and posted on the NDSU Soil Health webpage. Thus far, our video library has received over 46,000 views.
Importance
- Field scale evaluation and demonstration of farming practices for salinity management and building soil health to improve soybean production.
- Information is getting in the hands of farmers using creative extension programming consisting of field days, bus tours, workshops and café talks as well as digital methods of twitter, webpage and videos.
For more information about this research project, please visit the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database.
Funded in part by the soybean checkoff.
