Economic Methods: Between 2018 & 2021, AFT’s Consulting Economist (retired NRCS-NY Economist) Florence Swartz, in collaboration with AFT’s Project Leader Michelle Perez, developed the first version of our Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculators (R-SHEC), building off of the NRCS Cover Crops Economics Tool. The R-SHEC is an Excel-based spreadsheet we use to produce a partial budget analysis (PBA) and generate a PBA table. The partial budget analysis:
- Compares costs and benefits “before” & “after” soil health practice implementation,
- Estimates the economic effect of changes in field operationsand
- Focuses only on variables affected by the adoption of soil health practices.
The primary effects analyzed by the R-SHEC include changes in machinery, fertilizer, chemicals, yield, erosion repair, and learning costs.
AFT’s criteria for “soil health successful” producers that are appropriate for the R-SHEC and for featuring in a case study include:
- Growing tree nuts (almonds, pistachios &/or walnuts) or row crops, including barley, corn grain, corn silage, grain sorghum, hay, oats, soybeans, wheat, canola, ensilage, flaxseed, millet, mustard seed, rapeseed, rye, safflower, sugar beets, sunflower seed, &/or triticale (grain); Adopting one or more of the following soil health practices: no-till, reduced tillage, conservation cover (tree nuts), cover crops, conservation crop rotation, nutrient management, compost application, and/or mulching (tree nuts),
- For between four and 15 years, and ideally have
- Positive economic and soil health effects they’ve observed, want us to quantify and want to share with others.
Case Study Methods: Multiple AFT staff and external partners identified the “soil health successful” producers, conducted the interviews, implemented the economic, water quality, and climate methods, and wrote the case studies using the case study writing template provided in the Toolkit. Each producer agreed to spend 5-10 hours of their time providing the necessary data via interviews and other lines of communication.
Review: Each AFT Retrospective Soil Health Economic Case Study underwent review by NRCS economists, NRCS soil health specialists, and university economists. The case studies that include results from a NTT and/or COMET-Farm or COMET-Planner analysis had results reviewed by NTT specialists at USDA Office of Environmental Markets and Tarleton State University and COMET specialists at Colorado State University.
Toolkit: AFT hopes that our fellow conservationists use the existing economic case studies and produce their own. Conservation partners at NRCS, Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), Extension, farm and environmental organizations, watershed groups, ag retailers, crop consultants, cover crop seed dealers, equipment providers, and corporations with supply chain sustainability goals, etc., could use these case studies with their farmer customers as outreach and education materials to help answer questions about the costs and benefits of adopting soil health practices.
To help our fellow conservationists produce their own case studies featuring “soil health successful” producers in their area, we have provided all the materials we used in a Soil Health Case Study Tool Kit. We hope that a “soil health successful” producer can be found in every farm county in the country and an economic and environmental case study can be produced about them, showing the other “soil health curious” producers in that county, that “it can be done here too.” The Tool Kit includes guidance materials and recordings of training videos.
