In this edition:

• Sixty years of crop diversification with perennials improves yields more than no-tillage in Ohio grain cropping systems
• Conservation Tillage Practices on GHG Emissions, Soil Health and Overall Agricultural Sustainability
• Long-term continuous no-till corn-soybean systems: Examining soil carbon sequestration and nitrogen accumulation across various pools
• Assessing the agricultural, environmental, and economic effects of crop diversity management: A comprehensive review on crop rotation and cover crop practices
• Cover Crops Optimize Soil Fertility and Soybean Productivity in the Cerrado of MATOPIBA, Brazil
• Short-term no-tillage improves soil water retention and maintains soil aeration at high moisture conditions despite reduced macroporosity
• Tillage Radish as Cover Crop Improves Soil Health Indicators Depending on Pedoclimatic Conditions.

POET and Summit Carbon Solutions (Summit) announced a partnership connecting the world’s largest biofuel producer with the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project.

In Purdue University's January 2024 Ag Economy Barometer Report, 8% of respondents said they have discussed carbon capture and carbon contracts with a company.

No matter how tuned in or out of farming standards you might be, chances are you are aware that some foods are deemed "healthier" because of how they were raised. One example of this is organic farming, which includes everything from produce to coffee to wine. But what if there was another type of farming, an alternative to traditional and organic farming, that promised even more? This is where regenerative farming comes into play.

The practice addition will allow legacy farmers, who are already leveraging cover crop strategies, to join Agoro Carbon Alliance and get paid for sequestering carbon for the first time.

While later cover crop termination in the spring can allow for more biomass accumulation, such later termination can change the C-to-N composition of the plants impacting residue decomposition. Therefore, identifying the best time for cover crop termination to provide optimal N cycling benefits can help farmers make decisions about cover crop management.

A study led by researchers at the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign quantifies the soil organic carbon (SOC) benefits from cover crops in maize-soybean rotations in Midwestern U.S. agroecosystems.

The soil carbon market is based largely on theoretical carbon offsets derived from complex algorithms, and in some cases artificial intelligence. While the mathematics that go into predicting these offsets is undoubtedly impressive, the predictions will invariably require ground-truthing.

A new way of analyzing the chemical composition of soil organic matter will help scientists predict how soils store carbon — and how soil carbon may affect climate in the future, says a Baylor University researcher.

“I knew we were already doing good things for the environment and not getting recognized. And I wanted to reframe what we were doing, and get really serious and focused about what we were doing with carbon," says farmer Johnny Parker, Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.