Supporting Farmer-Led Innovations for Tillage Reduction in Maine and New Hampshire

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: conservation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, drought tolerance, strip tillage

Project Focus

Production‑scale vegetable farmers increasingly recognize that intensive tillage undermines soil health, increases erosion risk, and reduces long-term resilience to fluctuating weather patterns. Yet many face limited options for reducing tillage without increasing herbicide use. While no‑till systems exist for micro‑farms and large commodity crops producers, tractor‑scale vegetable farmers report a lack of viable equipment and field strategies suited to their operations.

Research and industry investment in reduced‑tillage vegetable systems lag other sectors, leaving many farmers to experiment without adequate technical support. Growers report that existing research and technical resources rarely reflect the complexity of mechanized vegetable systems or the realities of production-scale decision-making. Farmers consistently report limited technical support, lack of viable equipment options, and identify on‑farm visits and peer farmers as their most trusted sources of information. They are seeking practical, field-tested approaches developed under real-world conditions, as well as structured opportunities to learn from others facing similar constraints. This project responds directly to those farmer-identified needs by centering farmer leadership, reducing the risks of experimentation, and supporting innovation within production-scale vegetable systems.

Solution and Approach

To address these needs, this project will convene structured Farmer‑Led Innovations cohorts over two years in Maine and New Hampshire through which farmers will develop reduced tillage strategies and contribute to regional education. The project combines structured peer learning, individualized technical assistance, and targeted financial support to enable farmers to move beyond conceptual soil health goals toward practical implementation.

At the core of the project is a working group of farmers who will meet regularly to develop and fine tune plans for practice changes, discuss challenges, and report back on outcomes. Farmers will collaboratively problem solve around equipment configurations, cover-crop management, timing, and weed control, openly sharing both successes and failures.

Each participating farmer will receive a financial award to offset costs and risks associated with on-farm experimentation, such as labor, inputs, or equipment modification. Individualized technical assistance from American Farmland Trust staff and partners-delivered through on-farm visits, phone, and email-will complement peer exchange by providing site-specific guidance and troubleshooting. Together, these elements reduce barriers to adoption and encourage farmers to test approaches they might otherwise view as too risky.

Learning will extend beyond the cohorts through farmer-hosted field walks, a regional winter symposium, conference presentations, and publicly available farmer-innovator profiles summarizing approaches, outcomes, and lessons learned. By pairing farmer leadership with technical and financial support, this project strengthens a regional community of practice and accelerates adoption of reduced-tillage systems that enhance soil health, conserve resources, and improve the resilience and viability of vegetable farms in New England.

• 10 cohort farmers will implement at least one reduced tillage practice affecting approximately 2 acres across all producers

• At least 200 farmers will increase knowledge of scale-appropriate tillage reduction strategies through field walks, listserv engagement, winter symposium, and farmer-innovator profiles

• 10 to 30 farmers will report increased confidence in their ability to try reduced tillage strategies; report will specify anticipated benefits such as improved soil health, decreased erosion risk, or overall increased resilience

Verification will occur through cohort documentation, field‑walk/symposium evaluations, and end‑of‑project surveys confirming practice changes and knowledge gains.