Over 600 farmers enrolled in PCM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Precision Conservation Management program is wrapping up its 10th year of providing free technical assistance to identify solutions for the environment and farmers’ bottom lines.

PCM, created in 2015 by the Illinois Corn Growers Association in response to the state’s Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, currently has 605 farmers across about 660,000 acres in four states enrolled.

Illinois has the largest footprint. Other states with participants are Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska.

The primary goal of the Illinois NLRS is a 45% reduction in both nitrogen and total phosphorus loads, with interim targets set at a 15% nitrogen decrease and a 25% total phosphorus decrease by this year.

A participant farmer, PCM director and PCM specialist detailed the program in an Illinois NLRS podcast with host Todd Gleason, University of Illinois communication specialist, and producers Rachel Curry, Nicole Haverback and Luke Zwilling.

Noah Forlines, of Toulon, farms primarily in Stark County. He’s been farming with this father for the past 10 years after working as an engineer at John Deere.

“My dad has been interested in conservation for some time and he switched to no-till maybe 30 years ago. So, I have inherited a lot of that no-till legacy in both corn and soybeans. We have tried and dabbled in some strip-till in the fall with P and K in the band. More recently, we’ll do a little bit of kinda quasi strip-till with just planting into anhydrous tracks that the co-op will put in for us,” Forlines said.

He became interested in PCM after seeing some information about the program.

“It kind of strikes a chord with me because, with my engineering background, I’m interested in data and analysis. PCM blends a lot of the data and analysis and, along with University of Illinois and ag economists, bring that power with conservation to highlight some of the pluses and minuses of the profitability that conservation can bring,” he said.

Forlines works directly with Lou Liva, PCM specialist in an area that includes Rock Island, Mercer, Knox and Henry counties.

“We provide technical assistance for farmers, helping them leverage their data to become more profitable,” Liva said.

Three Meetings

As part of a farmer’s commitment to PCM, they meet with a specialist such as Liva three times a year.

The first meeting is the enrollment meeting where the specialist interviews and records data about the farmer’s operation. This takes about one to two hours.

The second meeting is a quick check-in after harvest to collect yield data, drying data and transportation. This is often a phone call or a short visit.

“The third meeting is where we give our deliverables — resource analysis and assessment plan,” Liva said.

“This is where we provide insights on profitability and sustainability benchmarking and compare the farmer against themselves through time, as well as against the entire PCM data aggregate.

“The overall time commitment comes into just about under five hours for each grower, and PCM works with the farmer to get all of their data into a usable format. The data is self-reported, and if a farmer has a hard time keeping track of all of this data in one place, we provide a lot of value as this report can provide a way to compile all of their information into one legible and central location.

“PCM is free to join and we require no practice changes on behalf of the farmer.”

Nitrogen Lessons

Forlines has utilized this information on his farm.

“The information that Lou has provided, for one thing, he’s kind of holding me accountable to doing what I say, saying what I do, especially around nitrogen,” he said.

“I have a tendency to discount any nitrogen that comes along in MAP or DAP in the fall phosphorus spreading. He’s holding me accountable to that nitrogen because it’s real and it can contribute to nutrient loss if over applied.

“So, there’s a nitrogen aspect that he’s holding me accountable to. And then just seeing that there’s some profitability metrics that he’s comparing to by tillage, by region and several different ways he breaks out your yields, revenues, profitability that otherwise I do not have access to. I find value in that local aggregated data.”

Rate Calculator

The data includes using the Maximum Return to Nitrogen calculator.

“The data is overwhelming. I’ve seen Emerson Nafziger’s data, over time and it’s it’s hard to refute that dataset. It is large,” said Forlines, citing the U of I professor emeritus.

“And, so I say I like data, I’ve got to follow the data and, try to keep my nitrogen rates in check when it’s just so easy to just ‘let’s just add another 30 pounds and swing for the fences.’”

The year-end data delivered to the farmer by the specialist is a Resource Analysis and Assessment Plan that breaks the data down in a way that adds value and knowledge back to the farmer about their own operation, comparing them to themselves in time, as well as compares that data with others anonymously.

“We make comparisons based on distance from the center of a farmer’s operation, as well as make these comparisons based on where they fall on the different practice standards that we assess,” Liva said.

“We can compare the farmer against other farmers (anonymously) within our aggregated dataset who also no-till within 30 miles of the farm or those who strip-till or those who do one light pass of tillage. And we break out for the farmer, as well as the aggregate based on these different classifications, so they can understand how these input costs end up, impacting their profitability.”

Forlines was asked what he’s seen in his data over the years that caused him to make any changes.

“If you have low yields and high inputs, some of your nutrient loss metrics or greenhouse gas metrics and costs are going to look worse. It’s a year-by-year thing relative to your neighbors,” he said.

“So, when you’re compared, there are weather differences, of course, across counties, and so when I’m compared in Stark County to someone in, say, Warren County, they could have 20 bushel higher or lower corn yield, which kind of drives the boat there.”

In terms of what data often draws his attention, Liva said it’s interesting to look at what farmers are spending on nitrogen and dry fertilizer.

“Those often are going to drive a lot of the costs of the farmer and if the farmer is taking any additional passes through the field. We find that anything above a second tillage pass is only going to impact profitability in a negative way,” Liva said.

“We also look at herbicide costs, fungicide costs and all the different pest management practices that the farmer takes through the field.”

Only Upside

Forlines said there’s only an upside for those farmers who are considering signing up for PCM.

“You don’t have to commit to any changes. The upside is another look at your own data, but I think you also should be willing to let the data speak to you and be open to making some small incremental changes as you go along. There’s also benefits that Lou brings from, say, carbon-type programs. There’s a Pepsi program where we get paid,” he said.

“PCM will collect the data and we really have no obligations outside of providing data and we get paid for those acres that qualify in the Pepsi program. He’s also continually keeping us in the loop on other types of conservation programs through the federal money or through state money. It’s all upside, in my opinion, and very low risk.”

Pass Details

“Overall, the organization works through the conservation specialist role like Lou who works one-on-one with farmers to in-take their data on a field-by-field basis, on a pass-by-pass basis, capturing detailed information around every pass that farmer makes across the field in a given year,” said Greg Goodwin, who oversees the PCM.

“It also includes transportation and drying information about their grain and corn drying at the end and basically tries to compile all of that and provides that back to farmers in an annual report. That’s effectively helping to benchmark farmers against themselves in time and others at a regional basis and at the state level and really doing that from an economic standpoint and a sustainability standpoint.

“We run all that pass-by-pass data through an economic model that was developed in conjunction with the U of I’s farmdoc team and using Farm Business Farm Management average accounting data.

“We pair all that pass-by-pass information with the average cost of each one of those passes, and that’s how we essentially compile the economic benchmarking. We also pass that pass-by-pass data through a couple different environmental models, one being the Field to Market field prep platform, as well as the Cool Farm Tool.

“Both of them output a set of different sustainability metrics related to water quality, sediment loss, greenhouse gas emissions associated with various farming practices, and help us with that environmental benchmarking at the field level.”