Beyond Yield: Helping innovative soil health farmers reach their goals
College of Agricultural Sciences
Soil and Crop Sciences
Larimer
County
(Kit Carson, Lincoln)
- Agriculture
- On-campus
Primary Topic:
Agriculture
Other Topics:
Food Systems, DEI
Internship Overview:
This internship will assist agricultural producers with on-farm soil health testing, and will offer soil lab experience, soils data analysis, and outreach activities.
Goals, Scope and Objectives:
This internship will support a WSARE-funded project called “Beyond Yield” that focuses on producer-led on-farm research and farmer-to-farmer learning networks to address social, economic and agronomic barriers to High Plains regenerative agriculture. This project includes a specific focus on addressing barriers for historically underserved producers. The internship Goal is to conduct on-farm soil health sampling, lab analyses, and generate a written summary for agricultural producers, building positive working relationships with soil health producers throughout. Scope: The intern will assist with field sampling on participating Colorado farms in June, and are invited to the sampling trips in Kansas and New Mexico. Some trips may require overnight stays. The intern will then help with soil processing at CSU’s main campus in July, and will take the lead on one of the lab-based soil health analyses. The intern will also help with outreach and communications support as needed, working in partnership with the extension mentor and other members of the research lab to connect CSU to local communities. The Objective is to effectively complete the baseline soil health assessment of participating farms and communicate the results through multiple outlets (field days, news releases, social media posts).
With which stakeholder group(s) will the intern work?
Regenerative farmers with diverse operations, including Historically Underserved producers in Kansas and New Mexico. In Colorado, they will work with large-scale regenerative grain farmers, and farmers bringing grazing back onto the land. The intern is encouraged to join us on the KS and NM trips as well, and our grant will provide travel funds for these trips. There they can work with small market poultry farmers, Black farmers working to rebuild their landbase after decades of discrimination, and Indigenous farmers growing ceremonial chili and corn.
What student learning outcomes do you anticipate and what are the opportunities for professional development?
The intern will gain a deep understanding of varied production systems across the High Plains. They will develop relationships with a network of innovative soil health farmers, who face diverse challenges when implementing soil health practices. They will be invited to develop relationships with the Black and Indigenous farmers on our team in KS and NM. The intern will gain experience with field soil sampling methods, lab-based soil health assessments, and written and oral communication skills. By working in partnership with the extension mentor, the intern will have the opportunity to help plan and attend regional field days and assist with other outreach activities off-campus, to develop a broader understanding of how extension works.
