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December 30, 2024 - Written By Kristen A. Schmitt

Advice for a farmer, by a farmer – Farm Advisors brings mentorship to the field

A recent survey found that nearly 90% of U.S. farmers were aware of sustainable agriculture practices, but only a small percentage fully adopted them. Further, even those who did, on average, only implemented sustainable methods on less than 30% of their acreage. Why? Because change is risky – even if, in this case, adopting climate-smart practices can benefit both the land as well as the farmer’s bottom line.

 

“Farmers learn from three primary sources,” Jim Moseley, former USDA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under President Bush, told Geswein Farm & Land. “One is obviously at the university level, but that’s not grounded in real farm experience. The second way is through educational seminars, but the third way is essential, and I don’t believe we’ll get to scaling up conservation practices without it, and that’s learning from the farmer in action.”

 

Enter Farm Advisors, a mentoring program for farmers by farmers. Moseley is one of the founding members, likening the group to one he belonged to back in the 1970s, which was led by agronomist David Swaim and brought conservation-minded farmers together to compare different practices on their farms, and learn from one another in the process.

 

Launched at the 2024 Indiana State Fair, Farm Advisors provides mentoring for farmers by farmers who already have experience in conservation and sustainable agriculture practices. Mentee farmers are matched up with mentor farmers in the same region with similar soil types, so they can form relationships that will foster in-depth conversations, sharing information on how to select the right cover crop, how to implement no-till and establish seasonal crop rotations, what type of equipment to buy – as well as other key management decisions.

 

“The most common worry when switching to conservation farming practices is whether or not it’s economic,” said Moseley, who reminds farmers that they must have a longer-term view to understand the benefit of these changes.

 

While there’s a cost to get started, Moseley points out that those who switch to a regenerative agriculture system will feel the benefits within the first couple of years since the “resiliency of the land goes up.” This newfound resiliency allows for a new level of risk aversion, which is a major return on investment for adopting these practices. Plant diversity and biodiversity return when fields are transitioned to regenerative agriculture, building natural resiliencies, resulting in a decrease in pesticide and fungicide use (resulting in dollars going back into the farmer’s pocket) as the earth rebalances itself to what it was 50 to 100 years ago, and soil health improves, creating a cycle of healthy land and increased yields.

 

Farm Advisors was established to eliminate the guesswork involved with taking steps towards transitioning into a regenerative agriculture system. To date there are about 100 farmers involved with the organization and Moseley anticipates the program to snowball as more farmers hear about the valuable advice that comes from those with shared experiences. Anyone interested in participating can head over to FarmAdvisors.ag. From there, they can start a conversation to either become a conservation farming mentor or a farmer mentee who is interested in adopting soil health and conservation practices on their own farms.

 

“If you have a farmer who’s been there, done that, made the mistakes that can help you avoid the mistakes they made, you shorten your learning curve,” said Moseley. “We’ve been involved with these practices for 15 to 20 years…we can help new adopters avoid our mistakes.”