Join us for a cover crop and soil health field day in Champaign County August 27th! Led by the IL Corn Growers and IL Soybean Association’s Precision Conservation Management program, we will be highlighting the management practices of the Rademacher farm and hear from speakers focused on what best management practices in Illinois are working.…
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Precision Conservation Management (PCM), a farmer service program led by the Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Soybean Association and supported by a non-profit technology partner, Heartland Science and Technology Group, released their 2021 Business Case for Conservation this week, providing financial and environmental data on common Illinois farm practices. Among the recommendations, PCM experts…
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PCM has been awarded $5 million dollars by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). PCM farmers in 20 counties will be eligible for financial assistance when developing conservation plans through their local NRCS offices. PCM will use the award to continue to assist farmers in…
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Partners of PCM continue to show their appreciation. Field to Market acknowledged Clay Bess, Lead PCM Specialist, for his success in the PepsiCo cover crop cost share project, recognizing him as an Adviser of the Year. Clay was also named Partner of the Year with the S.T.A.R. program for his work to enroll PCM farmers…
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Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture provides a platform that allows PCM to analyze farmers on metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, and energy use. PCM’s combination of these environmental metrics with enterprise analyses earned our team the Field to Market Collaboration of the Year Award for providing these valued assessments…
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Article Published by Farm Progress. June 15, 2020. Written by Austin Keating. Data from Precision Conservation Management helps farmers like Adam Brown determine return on investment for conservation practices before making the switch. Austin Keating – FarmProgress.com Adam Brown wasn’t sure about cutting back fertilizer on his family’s 1,000-acre farm in Decatur, Ill. Without local…
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By Gary Schnitkey, Dale Lattz & Laura Gentry Overall returns on Illinois grain farms are projected to be much lower in 2019 than recent years, resulting in more consumer about managing input costs. Fertilizer, seed, and pesticide costs represent a large portion of the total cost of producing corn, with fertilizer costs historically larger than…
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By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry Strip-till is a relatively common tillage practice on farmland that will be planted to corn in east-central Illinois, accounting for about 14% of the acres planted to corn in Precision Conservation Management (PCM) from 2015 to 2018. Returns to strip-till have been roughly the same as other one-pass tillage…
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By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry There is great diversity in number and type of tillage operations used to grow corn and soybean in east-central Illinois. As 2019 appears to be a low-income year, reducing tillage passes is one way to reduce costs. This may be more of an option in 2019 since fewer fall…
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By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry Spring field operations will soon begin, and nitrogen applications on corn will commence. More nitrogen will be applied this spring than is typical because wet weather limited fall applications. University-recommended nitrogen application rates in Illinois are between 140 and 180 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre for corn-following-soybeans. For…
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This annual highlights 9 years of data gleaned from farmers in Illinois regarding the financial, agronomic, and environmental impact of in-field conservation practices. Read more.
