This event will be held at the McCook FCS

We welcome you to the Hub 2 Kickoff and Pilot Educational Event with FCS America, our Lead Partner for today’s event. Over the past two years, the support by the FCS Sustainability and Community Outreach Leads as well as local regional offices have been instrumental to developing strong relationships with producers in Hub I (nine counties around the Hastings/south central NE Area).

We are now taking the next steps in Hub 2 (sixteen counties) extending west in NE. Today, we will explore the ROI of soil health, looking at enterprise and partial budgets, crop insurance, and determine mutual goals to support the changing dynamics of agricultural systems including grazing. All efforts are focused on “growing” rural communities through our affiliation with the Nebraska Community Foundation (the first in the nation) and enhancing opportunities for difference makers particularly youth.”

Agenda

10:00 am - 12:00 pm —Economics and ROI

Jason Ackerson from the Soil Health Institute and Zach Mader, a NSHC Hub 1 Producer

will briefly compare soil samples to set the stage for Hubs 1-2. He discuss the economics of soil health from the partial budget analysis. He will emphasize irrigation vs dryland; livestock vs. no livestock and beginning vs. intermediate regenerative system steps. Zach will discuss his participation and results as producer (near Grand Island) in Hub 1.

Jason will address soil health benchmarking and application to southwest NE region. In addition, he will briefly discuss a new drought resilience calculator that will be deployed later this year.

Tina Barrett & Zane Niemann – Nebraska Farm Business Inc.

will discuss examples, the process and the objectives of NSHC Hub 2 enterprise interviews, the ten producers whom have completed this steps (August-present) (four are present) and leverage similar analyses from MN.

Questions and answers will be interfaced in all parts.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm – Lunch

Lunch with FCS teammates and the NE Soil Health Coalition attendees. All attendees can submit the feedback sheets for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate.

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Participants— FCS partners, producers, the NSHC Board (partial), UNL Extension, members of NE Community Foundation Affiliated Funds (McCook, Keith County, possibly Perkins and Imperial), producers in Hubs I-II, SHI, NE Farm Business Inc., McCook Community College and possibly others. 

The session will be inclusive but small enough to foster interactive conversation.

1—Debrief on the AM: what most resonated, what were the gaps and whom were missing that we need at the table as guided by the mutual priorities? *Note—we will briefly summarize the feedback from the AM and utilize it at this time. A formal summary will be shared later.

*FCS participants will leave as they deem best after debriefing the AM session.

2—The NSHC will use their tri-fold brochure to introduce and discuss the approach, progress and challenges in Hub I (10 counties around Hastings in South Central NE) and the progress in the pilot steps with 10 producers in Hub II (16 counties in Southwest NE)—Initial details are at—https://www.nesoilhealth.org/hub2

3—The top organizational priorities will be shared by the: FCS, NE Community Affiliated Funds, NSHC and partners. 

These three priorities are simply intended to stimulate the conversation and provide a beginning point: 

• economic sustainability in rural communities, 

• the role of soil health to enhance mutual goals and 

• possible steps with talented youth to foster leadership and a rippling effect with difference makers and agricultural stakeholders.

4—Determine action steps.

You are encouraged to signup for the SHI Soil Health ROI partial budget work/interview and the Socio-behavioral interview to be completed sometime November-early February (each our 90 minutes with a $600 credit ($300 for each interview) to Green Cover, Ward Labs and/or the Regen Ag Lab. We will formally introduce it to a wider audience mid-Fall.

Initial details can be found here.

We are grateful for our partners including the Farm Credit Services of America, who are the lead for this pilot event. And also for the Nebraska Environmental Trust.

Downloads

Socio-behavioral Summary for Hub 1, Phase II