Nearly 200 scientists, industry leaders, environmentalists, water quality experts and farmers gathered in Des Moines last week for third annual summit of the Soil Health Partnership, a project to make agriculture more productive and sustainable through healthy soil.

“Through this program, we have powerful analytics underway providing early indicators of tangible links between soil health and enhanced farm performance,” said Nick Goeser, SHP director.

Among the presenters at the event were David Muth with AgSolver, Iowa farmer Roger Zylstra, who is enrolled in the SHP program, and Doug Karlen, a USDA distinguished senior research scientist based in Iowa. Working with their agronomists and trained field managers, SHP farmers have enrolled about 32,000 acres to provide data for the analytics. The three main areas of study are cover crops, reduced tillage and advanced nutrient management. Other speakers included Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Working Lands Michael Doane and Purdue Agricultural Economics Professor Wallace Tyner.