The Great Bend Co-op and the Barton County Conservation District have agreed to take part in the second phase of a promising pilot program aimed at helping farmers increase knowledge and access to important conservation programs. Beginning in 2021, producers in Barton, Stafford and Russell counties will have a new ally to help navigate the numerous opportunities to improve both their operations and their bottom lines.

In 2017, the Franklin County Conservation District, the Ottawa Co-op, Truterra  (the sustainability business unit of Land O’Lakes), and the local office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) became partners on a pilot program aimed at creating a bridge between retailers and the public sector to help farmers gain a better understanding of how to make conservation work for their operations and also increase their access to programs designed to increase the sustainability of the ag environment. In essence, a new field in agriculture has been created as a result – conservation agronomy.  

With promising initial results, partner representatives delivered their findings and their vision for the future of the field at the 2020 Kansas Association of Conservation Districts annual conference which was held virtually from Salina on Nov. 23.    

Dan Meyerhoff is the executive director of the Kansas Association of Conservation Districts (NACD). The organization is the administrative contact with a partnership agreement between NACD, NRCS and Truterra. Through this partnership, conservation agronomists are making their way into the field to bridge a gap between the public and private sectors. They will do this largely by educating farmers and retailers about the numerous programs available to further conservation efforts in agriculture, ensuring the soil and water resources we have today are not depleted, but rather rejuvenated for the next generation.   

“Our work that we have out here is greater than the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the private sector can take care of on their own, and so we really need to work together,” Meyerhoff said. 

Conservation agronomists work with all levels of governmental organizations and with ag retailers providing expertise through one on one visits with farmers, group field day events, and with the media. Both the Ottawa Co-op and the Great Bend Co-op have staff conservation agronomists who promote the benefits of Truterra to their producers. Alliance Ag & Grain in Edwards County has added a conservation agronomist as well. 

After more than 10 years in the field working as an agronomist, Cammie Vaupel, Great Bend, was offered an opportunity through the Great Bend Co-op to do something new. Through their partnership with Truterra, she became a conservation agronomist.  

Looking back over the past two years, Vaupel continues to see a lot of potential for producers who want to showcase the conservation they are already practicing on their land simply because it makes sense. Bringing farmers on board with collecting data has been a gradual process. It takes time to convince them of the importance of the data to others besides themselves. Then, there is the concern about data privacy, and who will be able to see the data. At all times, farmers own their data in the Truterra program. 

“Growers are very concerned about someone getting a hold of their data and using it against them,” she said. “I would say data privacy is the biggest concern for most and it’s a hurdle we have been able to cross pretty easily with most people because they do sign data privacy agreements.”  

According to Vaupel, the Truterra platform provides farmers the tools they need to document and showcase the practices they are implementing in their operations, helping to turn around the way the non-producer public views farming. Documentation, she said, could become increasingly important in the future if carbon markets open-up as countries seek ways to combat climate change.  

“The carbon market has been blowing up in the last few years with discussions about more companies buying carbon credits. It’s just now getting to where we’re starting to have a more defined answer of what that might start to look like. It’s important to keep good records because these companies are going to want multiple years of data – they’re not going to want the guy who just jumped in and wrote down on a notebook what he’s been doing.”

Providing solid information is key to growing interest in conservation practices.

“It usually starts with a conversation with either the agronomist or our precision ag team,” Vaupel said. “The producer or landowner, sometimes they are one in the same, express interest in a practice, and they are referred to me.”

Vaupel’s role is to bring understanding and insight to her client farmers, helping them to see how adoption of practices can foster improvements to the soil, to yields, and to the bottom line.