The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and American Farmland Trust partnered together through a Conservation Innovation Grant to study the economics of soil health and recently released four case studies.

Partial budgets and farm details can be found on our national website's home page: www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Some interesting takeaways from the four studies:

- The average return on investment was 176 percent and ranged from 35 percent to 350 percent and the average yield increase was 12 percent.

Interesting enough, these yield increases line up with a study from the University of Michigan several years ago, but that increase is really only telling half of the story. A closer look at the numbers reveals there's more to the story.

In Pennsylvania, cropland value averages $6,260 per acre.

- We also average around 3.2 tons of soil loss per year on cropland; 4.5 ton on tilled ground and around 1.2 tons on no-till farmland. We can also assume the top 3 inches, about 500 tons, of soil is the most productive and the most valuable. Yet it also equates to the majority of soil erosion, which means we are losing $12.50 per ton of cropland erosion.

In other words, on tilled ground we are losing $56; no-tilled $15 per acre per year before we even factor in any crop losses.

These numbers should cause concern to everyone, but when we adopt soil health practices, we can reverse these inherent losses and increase profit.

- The yield increases previously stated, specifically from the University of Michigan study, showed the 12 percent increase is mainly due to a rise in organic matter and in our climate, we can increase organic matter about 0.1-0.2 percent per year.

- When we follow the four principles of soil health — minimize disturbance, maximize a living root, maximize biodiversity and maximize soil cover — we can see around a $13 return on investment per acre per year following a corn and soybean rotation. Expanding this to corn, beans and wheat and the return increases with the ability to grow a longer season cover.

I'd encourage you to look at the case studies, specifically the partial budgets, to see profit and loss points and feel free to contact our office to learn more about how implementing soil health on your farm can improve your bottom line.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.