Starting point: Enrollment numbers are rising for conservation program

DEKALB, Ill. — When Alexa Skirmont first became a Precision Conservation Management specialist five years ago, there were no farmers enrolled in her northern Illinois region.

“I started with zero farmers, but to be honest, I have not had to cold call or reach out to farmers probably since the first year. People are calling me all the time, wondering about the programs, how they can get involved. A lot of the time it’s landowners that want their farmers to be a part of it, too,” she said.

Interest in her region has since grown to 64 producers and about 50,000 acres.

PCM is a conservation program of the Illinois Corn Growers Association and its partners, applying financial analysis to in-field conservation practices to help farmers adopt practices that impact environmental goals without risking their bottom line, as well as providing financial incentives.

Skirmont, a PCM specialist in DeKalb, Ogle, Lee and Winnebago counties, works one-on-one with farmers to provide technical support, cost-sharing programs and personalized data analysis.

The program’s footprint has expanded since it began 11 years ago in Illinois and now includes parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska.

The number of farmers and size of acreage also continue to grow year over year. PCM currently has over 605 farmers enrolled, representing over 660,000 acres.

PCM is fully funded through program partnerships, meaning there is no cost to enroll. Farmers who sign up also receive a $750 sign-up bonus over two years, and an annual field-by-field profitability and environmental analysis each February.

The are additional cost-share financial incentives through PepsiCo for cover crops, nitrogen reduction and reduced tillage; Farmers for Soil Health’s pay-for-practice cover crop program; and in Illinois counties eligible for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

PCM is supported by more than 30 organizations with a vested interest in improving the sustainability of commercial agriculture.

Farmers enrolling in PCM have a wide range of practices on their farms.

“Not every farmer that I work with plants cover crops or does minimum tillage. I have a lot of farmers that are doing conventional practices, but it’s a great comparison, a great data set we have in northern Illinois. I have really great farmers,” Skirmont said.

“A lot of those first farmers that enrolled in PCM in northern Illinois had been using cover crops or doing no-till for 10, 20 years, and they had never been paid for things such as programming and cost share.

“Those were my main growers because a lot of the time, a conventional farmer isn’t going to want to give someone their data, if it’s not doing anything to benefit them essentially.

“The ideal farmer for PCM is someone that is at least interested in conservation or even just interested in economics. I believe every farmer should be interested in that, just seeing where they could potentially make more profit.”

As part of the program, PCM looks at the economics of different farming systems with data-driven analysis.

The program focuses on nitrogen timing; overwinter, winter-terminate, partial overwintering, or no cover crops; and no-till, strip-till, one-pass light tillage and two-pass medium tillage.

Here are some key points based on the northern Illinois dataset from PCM:

• A one-pass of light tillage to farmers in northern Illinois — it’s a win-win for soil health and profitability. The data show this as being the most profitable practice on both corn and soybean fields in the region year after year.

• For fields with a Soil Productivity Rating below 135 in northern Illinois, overwintering cover crops ahead of corn has proven to be a profitable practice. This highlights an opportunity for farmers to improve soil health on some of their less productive acres without negatively impacting their bottom line.

• When it comes to nitrogen rates, farmers may be surprised to learn that PCM data shows leaner rates tend to be more profitable. Applying less than 150 pounds of N per acre had the highest returns in high-SPR corn fields, while 151 to 175 pounds came out on top in low-SPR corn fields. This is one of the easiest adjustments farmers can make to improve financial and environmental outcomes.

Enrollment Process

The process typically begins with a phone conversation between the farmer and a specialist such as Skirmont.

“We’ll talk a little about program, make sure it’s good fit. The next step is for me to come out to the farm. That first meeting usually takes an hour, hour and a half. That would be our enrollment meeting. That’s when I would map all the farmer’s fields,” she said.

“We like to get two years of data for the time that we’re meeting. So, if the farmer was enrolling right now, I would get the past two years yield of data. That’s just to make a good baseline for the farmer’s data set so when they get their Resource Analysis and Assessment Plan report in the wintertime, it has information on it, not just a one-year thing where it doesn’t really show you a whole lot of information.”

During the fall, the farmers send yield information to PCM specialists via texts or other means.

Overall, the program takes about three to four hours total of one-on-one meetings or phone calls over the year.

“At the end, we do the RAAP report in February or March. We like to be done by the middle of March because the information is published. We want to make sure all of our farmers get that information first before the aggregated anatomized data is published in the summer,” Skirmont said.

Career Path

Skirmont’s path toward becoming a PCM specialist certainly wasn’t apparent after graduating from Burlington Central High School.

“I was not involved in agriculture in high school. I was part of FFA because my boyfriend at the time, now my husband, was in it. I just followed his lead, and that’s why I got into agriculture, too. I went to college, not really knowing what I wanted to do, and he proposed the idea of going into ag business. I took my first few classes, and I was like, ‘This is great, I love this,’” she said.

Skirmont earned an undergraduate degree at Illinois State University in ag business and business administration and received her master’s degree in international agriculture at Oklahoma State University.

“I came home after I graduated right when COVID was about to happen. There weren’t a lot of jobs available. I ended up bartending for a few months, and then I got a job at Conserv FS in Marengo. I was doing retail there. It was a great experience. I am not cut out for sales. It takes a special type of person to do that and that was not me and that was very evident. I was there for about 13 months,” she said.

Skirmont was hired by PCM in May 2021.

“It’s such a great job, and I can’t thank PCM enough,” she said. “When I worked for FS, my favorite part was visiting with my farmers, whether that was in-field or just at the kitchen table or anything. This job gave me the flexibility to do that with my growers.

“When we’re doing our RAAP reports, it’s in the middle of winter, we’re sitting at the kitchen table, maybe his wife is there and she’s making us a cup of coffee. A lot of the times their kids might be home from school, and they’re kind of running around listening to me.

“It’s just really cool to be able to learn and get to know these farmers, their families and their operations. I think they’re just so special because they are giving us their data and information, and I want them to feel confident in me and trust me.”