Final report for ONC25-175
Project Information
This project supports an emerging farmer peer network in Southern Illinois, the Southern Illinois (SoIL) Farmers Network, to increase knowledge and adoption of soil health practices (link: https://bit.ly/SOILfarmers). The Advisory Board members are early adopters of regenerative agriculture in Southern Illinois, and their goal is to increase participation in the group and adoption of regenerative practices. They have strong ties to the Soil Health Academy/Understanding Ag infrastructure. They want to offer two workshops: Summer 2025, and Winter 2025/2026, and bi-monthly virtual and in-person meetings. The group already offers pasture walks and some informal meetings, but want expand opportunities to learn about regenerative agriculture and assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Regenerative practices are still viewed with suspicion in this region, and the uptake of practices like cover crops and no-till has been slow. We aim to educate a total of 40 farmers across two workshops, and offer a subsidized soil health test through Regen Ag Labs (Haney and PLFA). In addition to the two Soil Health Academy workshops, the SoIL Farmers Network will host bi-monthly meetings to build a cohort of farmers adopting new regenerative practices. This project will help advance the vision, missions, and goals of the SoIL Farmers Network.
- Formalize the emerging SoIL Farmers Network and support their vision, mission, and goals
- Host two Soil Health Academy workshops in Summer 2025 and Winter 2025/2026 with the goal of directly educating a total of 40 farmers.
- Assess changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward regenerative agriculture in the region through surveys and questionnaires.
- Host bi-monthly virtual and in-person meetings and increase communication and connectivity between farmers in the Central Illinois region
- Subsidize soil health tests for farmers participating in the Soil Health Academy workshops
- Develop educational materials about soil health test results including infographics and data visualizations.
Cooperators
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
- - Technical Advisor (Educator)
Research
n/a
n/a
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation summary:
We held two Soil Health Academies in July and August 2026 at the Wells Family Farm and at Main Street Pastures in Central/Southern Illinois. We have a journal article in progress about our project, and I will be giving two invited talks to another SARE group recipient and to the Everything Local conference in Springfield, IL in January 2026. The SoIL Farmers met to discuss their outreach activities in 2026, which will include monthly meetups and a special emphasis on Soil Health Week in March 2026.
Learning Outcomes
Learned about principles of soil health, including infiltration and aggregation
Experienced on-farm pasture walks to see regenerative agriculture in action on two farms
Participated in slake and slump tests with local soil samples
Project Outcomes
The two Soil Health Academies funded by this grant helped to establish the Southern Illinois Farmers for Soil Health as a regional source of expertise in regenerative agriculture. This project contributed to building community within the region among farmers using regenerative practices. SoIL Farmers provides a centralized resource for farmers in Central and Southern Illinois to connect and learn about regenerative practices, get mentorship and support, and lower the barrier to entry for adopting new practices like cover crops and no-till.
The operators of the farms involved in the Soil Health Academies shared with participants about the economic benefits of using regenerative methods. These include increased profits resulting from savings from not applying as many inputs (chemicals), less machinery wear and tear, and less fuel. We shared the American Farmland Trust's Predictive Soil Health Economic Calculator to demonstrate the return on investment in regenerative practices.
The project also highlighted the environmental benefits from regenerative health, including healthier livestock and animals for healthier food products, increased nutrient density with research done by Montgomery et al., (2022), and reduced pollution from chemical inputs that lead to Illinois being the greatest contributor to the Gulf hypoxic zone.
Because conventional agricultural practices are so deeply entrenched in Central and Southern Illinois, these two Soil Health Academy workshops helped to introduce farmers to the basic principles of soil health, and also let them know that their friends and neighbors are using these practices. These workshops helped to normalize regenerative agriculture, and demonstrate that using cover crops and no-till is a smart way to farm.
"I didn't realize how many people are using cover crops and no-till in this area!" -row crop farmer in Central, IL
"I didn't know how to get started with this but now I have a better idea of how to make it make sense on my farm." -dairy farmer in Southern Illinois
"The economics seem to make sense. I don't know if I'll try it, but I'm glad to know more about it." -row crop farmer in Southern Illinois
'I'm glad there is a local group leading these workshops and giving us a place to come together." -livestock producer in Central IL
"The soil aggregation tests were eye-opening. I'm going to have to rethink about making a good 'seed bed' now." -row crop farmer in Southern Illinois
"Farm wives are the ones making a lot of the decisions and I'm glad we heard from women about their experiences." -row crop farmer in Southern Illinois
"We need more of these workshops." -livestock producer in Southern Illinois
- We need to look at the role of renters/owners in the decision to adopt regenerative practices. Illinois has the highest proportion of renters in the U.S., and that is one of the most important factors in the decision to move from conventional to regenerative practices. There are good models and resources for negotiating contracts between owners and renters to incorporate regenerative practices, but the biggest hurdle is getting them to initiate the first conversation. We need to provide resources to help farmers talk to their renters (or landowners) about changing farming practices.
- Farm stress, mental health, and well-being are some of the most troublesome aspects of farming today. Farmers experience both chronic and acute stress, largely due to things beyond their control like the weather, the markets, and equipment malfunction. Five decades of psychology research has demonstrated that when people are under increased stress, whether acute or chronic, their ability to consider new information (that engages their prefrontal cortex) diminishes considerably. People get tunnel vision when they are stressed. The gap in adopting regenerative practices is not due to a lack of information or technology; it's due to the fact that the human conditions are overlooked. Farmers are three times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Stressed out farmers are not going to be receptive to making changes and doing things differently. We must center the well-being of farmers at the heart of any kind of social change or change in farming practices. Unfortunately, this is a difficult argument to make to funders because the returns on the grant investment may not be immediate; it may take farmers time to integrate new ways of thinking and behaving into their farming practices.