Soil Health Institute

03/17/2026

Only 1 in 17 row crop fields in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region currently use cover crops. Our soil health benchmarking shows a major opportunity to strengthen soil health across dairy systems. While many farmers in the region are already reducing tillage, wider adoption of cover crops and perennials could benefit soil health and resilience. Read the full report at the link in comments.

03/13/2026

Arkansas farmers and land managers: How healthy are your soils today — and what’s possible for the future?

Join us Monday, March 30 at 10 a.m. CT for a free webinar on benchmarking soil health in Arkansas.

🌱 Emily Ball, Soil Health Educator at SHI, will share findings from benchmarking work across 480,000 acres in the Arkansas Southern Mississippi River Alluvium.

🌱 Dr. Bill Robertson, SHI Technical Specialist and longtime Arkansas producer and Extension leader, will provide regional perspective on how practices like reduced disturbance and cover crops are influencing soil health outcomes.

The webinar will open with remarks from Steven Pires, Associate Director of Sustainability at Cotton Incorporated, on their support for SHI's U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund.

🔗 Register here:

Join us on Monday, March 30, at 10:00 a.m. CT for a free webinar hosted by the Soil Health Institute: Benchmarking Soil Health in Arkansas. Steven Pires, Associate Director of Sustainability at Cotton Incorporated, will open with remarks on the organization’s support for the U.S. Regenerative Cott...

03/11/2026

Timing matters just as much as location!

When it comes to soil health sampling, WHEN you take your samples can be just as important as WHERE you take them. That’s the key insight from PSA member, Soil Health Institute in their latest article.

⏱️ Their piece “When is as Important as Where for Soil Health Sampling” explains why choosing the right moment in the season - like sampling when soil is relatively undisturbed - helps ensure soil health data accurately reflects field conditions and supports better management decisions.

📖 Whether you’re planning your next sampling window or reviewing past results, this guidance can help you improve your soil health monitoring strategy - and get more reliable data to inform your decisions.

🔗 Read the full article: https://soilhealthinstitute.org/news-events/when-is-as-important-as-where-for-soil-health-sampling/

03/10/2026

At SHI’s 10th Anniversary Meeting, Dr. Mara Cloutier moderated a conversation with Dr. Jason Ackerson, Dr. Cristine Morgan, Cameron Ogilvie, and Dr. Kristen Veum on practical tools for evaluating soil health. The SHI team covered new ways to measure soil carbon, SHI’s essential soil health indicators, regional benchmarks to help growers put their soil health into context, and an upcoming portal to streamline soil health testing and reporting. Dr. Veum of USDA Agricultural Research Service shared updates on the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (SHAPE) tool. For growers looking to make data-driven decisions, this webinar offers insight into measuring progress.

Watch the full session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1aJ0IP_6QI&list=PLdFVkeklZuqwW5lLLV8yF8NR_W32ZtzYt&index=8

03/03/2026

On March 19, join SHI's Dr. Mara Cloutier for the first in a series of webinars on benchmarking soil health in major dairy regions of the U.S., part of the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration project. This webinar will explore findings on farm fields in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region.

Joining Dr. Cloutier will be Dr. Reza Afshar of Dairy Management Inc., Dr. Kathleen Boomer of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, Dr. Dennis Busch of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Rachel Turgasen of Foremost Farms USA, and Jack Herricks of Herricks Dairy Farm.

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__e8q_VizRHmDccIzx4oTJQ. The webinar is hosted by Newtrient.

03/03/2026

Missed the first webinar in this two-part series on measurement and benchmarking? You can still catch the recording and register for part 2 (March 5 at noon ET) at https://mizzou.us/soilhealth.

🎥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG2UUCc_bBE

In this webinar, Dr. Jason Ackerson, Research Soil Scientist and Program Director at the Soil Health Institute, highlights recommended soil health measuremen...

03/01/2026

Join us March 5, from 11 a.m.–12 p.m. CT, as Jason Ackerson, Ph.D., discusses how the Soil Health Institute uses soil health measurements in their benchmarking approach to understand how healthy a soil is now and could become in the future.

CEU credit is available.

Register today at https://mizzou.us/soilhealth

The Center for Regenerative Agriculture

02/27/2026

Join us in Midville, Georgia for this cover crop field day! RSVP to N.C. Cooperative Extension Burke County at 706-554-2119 or [email protected]. Please register by March 13.

A Cover Crop Field Day & Conservation Tillage Alliance Annual Meeting will be offered at the UGA Southeast Research & Education Center, 9638 GA-56, Midville, GA on March 18, 2026 at 9:30 am.

Topics discussed will be cover crops, soil health, research being done in cover crops and sustainability efforts.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, March 13 by call the Burke County Extension office at 706-554-2119 or email at [email protected].

The University of Georgia is an Equal Opportunity Institution. If you need reasonable accommodations, please contact the Burke County Extension office at least three weeks prior to the program date.

02/27/2026

Join us Thursday, March 5 from 11 a.m.–12 p.m. CT as Dr. Jason Ackerson discusses how SHI uses soil health measurements in a benchmarking approach to understand how healthy a soil is now and could become in the future. This webinar is presented by the Farmers for Soil Health education team, composed of staff from the Soil Health Institute and The Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri.

CEU credit available.
Register at https://mizzou.us/soilhealth

02/24/2026

As soil health adoption expands, strong outreach programs prioritize listening, peer-to-peer learning, and practical relevance. Good food doesn't hurt, either. What do you like to see in a farmer-facing session on soil health? Watch the session and let us know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o6Heu7eMkg&list=PLdFVkeklZuqwW5lLLV8yF8NR_W32ZtzYt&index=4&t=199s