The North Central Region Soil Health Nexus is a university-led team dedicated to increasing access to research-based soil health knowledge, extension and resources.

The team was created in 2015 with funding from the North Central Region Water Network.  The team is structured around research, extension and outreach, and resources and communications with representatives from all 12 North Central Region states.

Check out our Soil Health Toolbox, including our newly released whitepaper on the connection between Soil Health and Water Quality and our newly created Soil Health Nexus Matrix Decision-Tool!

New: The Financial Implications of Conservation Agriculture: Insights from Analyses of Farms in the Upper Midwest. This booklet aims to inform farmers’ key partners about the costs and benefits of conservation agriculture to assist their work with farmers.

Soil Health Digital Café Series

The Soil Health Nexus is hosting a series of informal soil health webinars featuring Extension soil health experts and researchers from across the region discussing the latest soil health research, resources, and news. The webinars will take place monthly; they will be an hour in length with 20-minute presentation, followed by 10-minutes of Q&A and then a casual 30-minute Digital Café where attendees can continue to discuss the topic in more depth with Soil Health Nexus members.

Upcoming Webinar:

Detangling Fact from Fiction: The Impact of Manure on Soil Health in the Semi-Arid West
Wednesday, September 20th at 2pm CT

Tune into this edition of the Digital Café series as we hear from Dr. Linda Schott, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Nutrient and Waste Management at the University of Idaho. Dr. Schott will share data from several projects about the impact of manure/compost on soil health properties including POxC, infiltration, aggregate stability, etc. Join us!

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28Apr/23

New Whitepaper Explores the Connection between Soil Health and Water Quality

The Soil Health Nexus is excited to debut two new resources on the Soil Health Toolbox! Two Soil Health Nexus members, Francisco Arriaga, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Anna Cates, Assistant Professor and State Soil Health Specialist at the University of Minnesota, recently published a long-awaited whitepaper exploring the connection between soil health and water quality.

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19Apr/23

Top 10 Impacts of Cover Crops for Soil Health

This Digital Café features Dr. Rob Myers, Director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and also Regional Director of Extension Programs for NCR-SARE, discussed several of the key ways that cover crops can improve soil health. These factors include nutrient cycling, soil organic matter, rainfall infiltration, addressing soil compaction, aggregate stability and impacts on earthworms, mycorrhizal fungi, and other aspects of soil biology. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.

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