Updated June 29, 2018:
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Research and Extension Efforts at the Soil Health and Agriculture Research Extension (SHARE) Farm
Dr. Abbey Wick, Extension Soil Health Specialist, NDSU Soil Science
Co-Investigators: Dr. Frank Casey, Director of the School of Natural Resource Sciences; Dr. David Ripplinger, Assistant Professor Agribusiness and Applied Economics; Dr. Caley Gasch, Assistant Professor of Soil Health.
The SHARE Farm is a key project within the NDSU Soil Health program. On-site, there are several research projects underway looking at soil health evaluation, tile drainage, conservation tillage practices and cover crops in rotation. The site also has the most-equipped NDAWN station in the network to compliment research at the SHARE Farm. Off-site, Extension programs share information with farmers using primarily the Soil Health Café Talks. Our goals are to both listen to farmers and also communicate what we are learning in a discussion-based environment. All aspects of the SHARE Farm research and Extension is driven by farmer input – this is truly the “farmer’s project”.
One of the most notable results of the SHARE Farm has been the success of the Café Talks. When they started in the winter of 2014, a total of 41 individuals were reached at three locations in the southeast corner of ND. Since then, we have expanded the Café Talks to 17 locations throughout the eastern part of ND and have reached 500 individuals. The best part is those 500 individuals don’t meet just once, there have been 397 repeated connections. This means people with a similar interest in soil health are crossing paths multiple times. This leads to friendships developed and multiple resources for information. To see the impact of the Café Talks, we developed this knowledge network graphic for 2014 and also 2014-2018.
The royal blue squares/text are locations of Café Talks. Green circles are NDSU Extension and Research personnel, blue are farmers, red are consultants, yellow indicate industry and grey are unknown professions. Size of the circle and location within the network are important – the larger the circle and the closer the circle is towards the center of the diagram, the more important the individual’s role within the network.
No single individual is leading the sharing of soil health information in North Dakota. Instead, a group of individuals (farmers, scientists, Extension, consultants and industry) are collectively moving soil health forward in our state. We should all be really proud of that!