Paul Overby
Farmer, Owner, Verdi-Plus President, Northern Plains Resource Conservation and Development Council
CLASSROOM #8: Putting Dollars and Cents to the Value of Healthy No-Tilled Soils
Many no-tillers believe their farm ground should be more valuable than conventionally tilled fields because of improved soil organic matter levels, nutrient cycling, water-holding capacity and the like. But farmland appraisers typically don’t see it that way. And if no-tillers believe their soils are worth more, would they pay more to rent or buy land with better soil health?
To bring this issue to the forefront, Wolford, N.D., no-tiller Paul Overby shares some insights from his own research and numbercrunching — and a survey of hundreds of fellow farmers — while studying in the University of Wisconsin’s master’s program in Sustainable Management. Come with your thinking caps on — this discussion about the worth of healthy soils should be a lively one!