Soil Health Small Support Groups
Sustainable Agriculture
Jennifer Rees
Extension Educator
Nebraska Extension
York
Abstract
Growers seeking a regenerative agriculture path are often trying outside the box ideas not widely accepted by other growers in their neighboring area. They also may be unaware of other growers in the area or state trying similar practices. In serving an eight county area due to several vacancies, the author interacted with growers trying similar practices, or with like-minded thinking, who didn’t know of each other. These growers often felt frustrated, alone, and stuck when their ideas didn’t work. During the winter of 2020, the author connected nine growers in a three county area to form a “soil health small group”. The growers called it their “soil health support group”. The goals were to build connection, trust, support, and vulnerability in sharing successes and failures to “fail forward faster”. The growers didn’t know each other but knew the author and chose to trust the process. Three meetings were held that winter via zoom followed by a September driving tour of the growers’ farms. Impacts and Outcomes since December 2020 include: the creation of 3 area soil health small groups, yearly driving tours to view farms, one large combined meeting in December 2023 (30 individuals from a 7 county area), growers sharing equipment across county lines, growers supporting one grower’s seed cleaning business and purchasing cover crop seed from a few growers, the completion of 19 Nebraska On-Farm Research studies in the Regenerative Ag space, and growers have been asked to share their experiences and research at 11 Extension and Industry meetings. A few quotes from the growers include, “Thank you for inviting me into this experience!”; “I jokingly tell my wife I’m heading to my support group. However, I need and appreciate this support!”; "I just needed a push to keep going. Thank you for connecting us all."; “It is so refreshing to meet with like-minded individuals!”. This presentation will share the process used, successes, and failures for other educators/agents to begin small grower support groups such as this.
Authors: Jennifer Rees
-
Jennifer Rees Extension Educator, Nebraska Extension, Nebraska, 68467