Resources
Documents & Websites
Actively Managing Your Farm’s Climate Footprint
The Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust, Wisconsin Land & Water, and the Wisconsin Department of Ag and Consumer Trade Protection (WI-DACTP) collaborated to create a resource to assist farmers and landowners in understanding their farm’s climate footprint. This succinct handout details the types of emissions typically found on midwestern row crop farms and possible pathways to reduce those emissions. This resource underscores how sustainability on the farm connects to the Paris Agreement, the global accord that seeks to avoid the worst effects of climate change by cutting global CO2 emissions 45% by 2030.
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A Guide to USDA Resources for Historically Underserved Farmers and Ranchers
This guide can help you get started with USDA, whether you are new to farming, ranching, or forestry management, or just new to working with USDA.
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“Cover Crops Economics” Report – SARE
The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education’s “Cover Crop Economics: Opportunities to Improve Your Bottom Line in Row Crops” looks at the economics of cover crops in corn and soybean rotations to help farmers answer that big question, when do cover crops pay?
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Michigan State University Drainage Resources
This Michigan State University Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering website provides education and practical solutions to address drainage issues.
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Financing Resilient Agriculture
This report is for agricultural lenders and lending institutions, as well as others interested in understanding the climate risks faced by the agricultural lending sector and the role of agricultural lenders in financing resilient agriculture. This report provides a path forward for lenders to mitigate climate risks and finance resilient agriculture. Our hope is that it is useful to all those who are invested in the future of U.S. farms.
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CoverCrop Analyzer
The cover crop project seeks to provide farmers with a practical web-based decision support tool designed to help manage cover crops in their fields. The project makes use of existing research to demonstrate the potential for cover crops, as well as providing useful information for decision making and management of this practice. It will also seek to apply future research on cover crops as results are incorporated into updates and new iterations of the tool.
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FarmDoc Daily
FarmDoc is a program of the University of Illinois Extension that aims to provide U.S. Corn Belt crop and livestock producers with constant access to integrated infromation and expertise to better manage their farm businesses. FarmdocDAILY aims to publish short, daily articles on a variety of agricultural topics.
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Farm Analysis Solution Tools (FAST)
FAST (Farm Analysis Solution Tools) are a suite of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets designed to assist those in agriculture make better decisions via user-friendly computer programs. FAST aids users in performing financial analysis, assessing investment decisions, and evaluating the impacts of various management decisions.
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FarmDoc – Farm Management Resources
This FarmDoc website has valuable resources and publications on Illinois crop budgets and historic returns and machinery costs of operation estimates.
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Midwest Cover Crop Council
The Midwest Cover Crop Council website hosts many valuable resources on cover crops including cover crop recipes, selector tools, and state-specific research. Explore their website to learn more.
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