Register today: First in new webinar series March 19 will highlight soil health benchmarking results in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region

The Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration (DSWR) project work began in 2021 with sampling of soils on commercial farms in key dairy states across the U.S., representing a wide range of climates, management practices and soil types. More than 1,000 samples from nearly 200 fields were analyzed to create a baseline of soil health and carbon storage in various regions.

The emerging results provide an understanding of the potential for soil health in the associated regions and which management practices are helping farmers and the industry reach their sustainability goals.

DSWR collaborators are launching a series of webinars in March that will explore the results of the baseline survey, showcase the impact of practices such as cover crops and reduced tillage on soil health and highlight opportunities for continued progress. Each webinar will feature a presentation of findings and a panel discussion with a participating farmer and other regional experts who will share local perspectives and on-the-ground experiences.

The first webinar, focused on Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, is set for March 19, from 12 to 1 p.m. CT. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. Upcoming webinars in the series will cover findings in other major dairy regions of the U.S. (Dates are to be determined).

The March 19 webinar will feature:

Kathleen Boomer, scientific program director at the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research who is responsible for the organization’s Sustainable Water Management portfolio and specializes in improving the design and adoption of integrated water management practices essential to strengthening food and water security
Dennis Busch, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville whose work centers on applied agroecosystem research, with emphasis on pasture- and crop-livestock systems, soil and nutrient dynamics and long-term field experimentation
Mara Cloutier, research soil scientist and program director at the Soil Health Institute who oversees the organization’s scientific and data management contribution to DSWR
Rachel Turgasen, Wisconsin dairy and row crop farmer and vice president of member and corporate relations and sustainability at Foremost Farms USA, a dairy cooperative headquartered in Wisconsin
Jack Herricks, Wisconsin dairy farmer at his family’s multi-generational Herricks Dairy Farm, which milks 600 crossbred Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss cows and grows crops on 1,500 acres. The Herricks family has been recognized with the Sand County Foundation’s Aldo Leopold Award for their conservation efforts.

Dairy Management Inc. and the Soil Health Institute initiated DSWR in collaboration with research partners at seven universities and a USDA Agricultural Research Service site to advance progress toward the dairy industry’s collective 2050 environmental stewardship goals, which were established through the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.