Economics of Soil Health Systems on 30 U.S. Farms

"Dollison Farm is like a human being; it’s got a heartbeat. It was born in 1949 and it’s been growing ever since."

Ricky Dollinson
Upper Warrior Creek Watershed of Georgia

“As of this year, we are down by 50 percent of our nitrogen calls, and we’re on zero on our potassium. So, we look at the overall expense, we have saved a lot of money on input costs.”

Chip Baker
Inland Bays Watershed of Delaware

“Find [a conservation practice] that works for you and find one that you can live with. Not necessarily what your neighbor’s doing but the one that you can live with and financially sustain.”

Shun Binford
Coxey Creek-Tennessee River Watershed of Alabama

“With any change, there’s always a challenge; we decided that we were going to be extremely stubborn and overcome them.”

Jay Baxter
Chesapeake Bay Watershed

"I’d like to continue to evolve the way I think about my rotation on the farm, but what I would like to do on our farm is grow a third commodity and call it carbon. I would like to have corn, soybeans and carbon as my three commodity crops.”

Levi Lyle
English River Watershed of Iowa

“If you’re increasing yields because of soil health, then there’s clearly an advantage to that. If you’re saving on nutrients, there’s an economic benefit there. If you start putting all of those things together, it doesn’t take long to get a return on investment.”

Don Elsbernd
Yellow River and Upper Iowa River Watersheds

“As far as my water infiltration, it’s actually getting into my soil a lot better, and I’m able to get across these acres a lot more quickly after it rains.”

John Heermann
Lower South Platte Watershed

“The organic matter - they always talk about organic matter in topsoil - that’s only a portion of it. Most of your organic matter is underneath, from the roots. So, the more stuff you put onto the roots system, the better you are. That’s your soil building.”

Tom Klug
Le Sueur Watershed