Feikema Farms: caring for the land they call home

In 2014, heavy rain was carrying soil off the Feikemas’ fields near Luverne, Minnesota, where the family has farmed for three generations. Shawn Feikema sat down with his brother and uncle to talk about what had to change. “There’s got to be a better way,” he later told USDA NRCS.

They tried cover crops in 2015. In 2016, they bought strip-till equipment and sold their conventional tillage equipment. By 2018, strip-till or no-till covered nearly all their acres, and the family has since seen less wind and water erosion, better soil structure, and more water soaking into the ground.

The changes kept reaching across the farm. Grid soil tests and manure records now guide where nutrients go; Shawn estimates the farm buys about half the nitrogen of a comparable row-crop operation. A small grain in the rotation opens roughly two more months for hauling manure and seeding cover crops. Becky, who leads the cover crop program, is still working on the mix ahead of corn: cereal rye leaves a weed-suppressing mat before soybeans but competes with young corn, so she is testing lighter mixes and new seeding methods.

Read the Feikema Farms story →

Share your farm’s journey

The Feikemas’ story began with a hard season and a conversation around the table. Many farms have a turning point like that: the problem that started it, the first practice they tried, what failed, and what they are still working out.

If your farm has made a change, or is in the middle of one, we would like to hear about it. Email us a few lines about where you farm, what you changed, and what you learned. Your experience can help a farmer facing the same decision.

Email us your farm’s journey →

Farmer Mentors: help someone take the first step

We are building Farmer Mentors within SHE’s expert network: farmers and ranchers who share what they have learned firsthand, including the practices that worked, the ones that did not, and what they would do differently.

That perspective matters most to young farmers and anyone taking a first step into regenerative practices. Hearing how a change played out on a working farm, with its rotation, costs, and setbacks, helps them plan their own. Each Farmer Mentor’s profile states the experience behind their contributions: years farming, the operation, and the practices they know.

If you have seasons of experience with a practice, we would welcome you. Participation is voluntary and unpaid, and it fits around your season.

Apply to become a Farmer Mentor →

Have a soil health question? Ask SHE

Weighing a practice, reading a soil test, or planning a cover crop? Send the question to SHE’s network of researchers, agronomists, and practitioners. Include where you farm, your crop and soil, and what you have tried; those details let an expert answer for your conditions.

Answers are free and published on the Knowledge Hub, so the next farmer with the same question can use them too.

Ask your question →

Funding open now, sorted by practice

These programs were checked against their official pages on October 6 and grouped by the work they pay for. Dates are application deadlines unless noted.

Cover crops & soil health · Oct 30 · Pennsylvania REAP tax credits →
State tax credits for 50% of cover crop, no-till equipment, and grazing costs, or 90% for multi-species cover crops in impaired watersheds. Up to $250,000 per operation over 7 years; first come, first served.

Cover crops & soil health · Nov 4 · Zero Foodprint Restore Grants →
Food farmers and ranchers in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington can receive up to $25,000 for 1–4 practices such as compost, cover crops, and hedgerows, with technical assistance paid on top.

Cover crops & soil health · Opens Nov 16 · Colorado Agricultural Stewardship Tax Credit →
A refundable state tax credit for practices such as no-till, cover crops, prescribed grazing, and irrigation water management. $3 million a year statewide, first come, first served from 10 a.m. MT on November 16.

Conservation contracts · Oct 15–Dec 18 · NRCS EQIP and CSP ranking dates →
FY2027 EQIP and CSP applications, including the Regenerative Pilot Program, are ranked by state cutoff: Nebraska Oct 16, Michigan Oct 30, Missouri Nov 6, Texas Nov 13, Kansas Nov 20, and Illinois, Indiana, and Washington Dec 18.

Grazing & agroforestry · Nov 1 · Oklahoma invasive woody species cost-share →
Pays 90% of brush management to clear eastern redcedar, saltcedar, or mesquite on 20+ contiguous acres in 23 central Oklahoma districts. Up to $50,000 per landowner a year.

Grazing & agroforestry · Mar 1, 2027 · Catalyzing Agroforestry Grants →
National. Reimburses silvopasture, windbreaks, alley cropping, riparian buffers, and forest farming: up to $1,500/acre ($3,707/ha) for the first 4 acres, then less per acre. Open now.

Livestock infrastructure · Nov 17 · Minnesota AGRI Livestock Investment Grant →
Up to $25,000 for pasture lanes, watering systems, fencing, housing, and manure equipment: 50% of the first $20,000, then 25%. Purchases must wait until the contract starts.

On-farm research · Oct 28 · Western SARE Farmer/Rancher Grant →
Up to $35,000 for a 1–3 year on-farm research and outreach project in the western states and Pacific territories, with a technical advisor. Closes at noon MDT.

On-farm research · Nov 6 · Southern SARE Producer Grant →
$20,000 for an individual or $25,000 for a farmer group to run a two-year field trial in the Southern region, then share the results. Requires $1,000 in documented annual farm income.

On-farm research · Dec 3 · North Central SARE Farmer Rancher Grant →
Up to $15,000 for one farm or $30,000 for a team to test their own idea in the 12 North Central states, with projects up to 23 months.

Any farm · Oct 12 · For Farmers Grants →
Commercial farms nationwide: at least 100 Foundational grants of $500–$1,000, a $5,000 Land Stewardship grant, and at least one $10,000 Transformational grant. Closes at midnight ET.

Beginning farmers · Oct 23 · PFI Savings Incentive Program →
Farmers with under seven years’ experience in Iowa and neighboring states save up to $4,000 over two years; PFI matches it dollar for dollar toward a farm asset, with a mentor and business-planning training.

Drought losses · Mar 1, 2027 · FSA Livestock Forage Disaster Program →
For 2026 grazing losses to drought. Payments now begin after four straight weeks of D2 severe drought in the county, down from eight. Apply at your FSA office.

Get funding matched to your state in your inbox →
Choose your state and the needs you’re working on. When new matches are available, they arrive at most once a week, separate from this newsletter.

Our five most-read field answers

Each began with a question from a farmer or adviser. Here is what they asked, and the core of the expert’s answer.

Cereal rye before corn: should you adjust your nitrogen rate? →
An Iowa farmer asked how much nitrogen credit rye provides. Jed Grow, PhD: terminate rye before about 8 inches (20 cm) to limit nitrogen tie-up, and consider about 30 lb N/acre (34 kg/ha) as starter. Iowa studies average about a 2% yield drag.

How much nitrogen does a legume cover crop give corn? →
A Wisconsin farmer asked how to estimate it. Musfiq Salehin, PhD: clip biomass from 5–10 spots with a 1 m × 1 m frame before termination, dry and weigh it, multiply by the species’ nitrogen concentration, and credit about half of that nitrogen to the corn.

Lessons from Midwest biostimulant trials →
A northeast Nebraska agronomist with sandy corn–soybean ground asked for independent research. Across university and on-farm trials, most biostimulant and humic products showed little or no yield benefit; gains appeared mainly in drought-stressed seasons.

Do virtual fence collars work, and what do they cost? →
A Kentucky farmer asked whether collars work and what the subscriptions cost. SHE Team: collars reliably contain cattle for rotational grazing and stream exclusion. Every vendor charges a yearly per-collar fee, so that fee and cell or base-station coverage decide whether it pays.

The transition economics of cover crops and no-till →
An Iowa farmer planning 800 acres of corn and soybeans asked what the transition costs. Musfiq Salehin, PhD: budget for seed, establishment, termination, and planter changes, and possible yield variability in years 1–3. Most measurable benefits appear after 3–5 years.

FieldLog: keep each field’s season in one record

When a fall soil test comes back, the useful questions are specific: when did the rye go in, at what rate, and were the cores pulled before or after fertilizer? FieldLog, one of the platforms the SHE team is building, keeps a farm’s tasks, inputs, soil samples, observations, trials, and yields with the field each one belongs to.

Log work from a phone, even without signal. Import the season plan you already keep in a spreadsheet, lay out replicated on-farm strip trials, and keep organic transition records with inputs checked against the USDA National List. At season’s end, a review shows costs and yields field by field and names the gaps, such as fields with no soil sample this season.

FieldLog connects to SHE through Ask an expert: a question can carry the field’s recent activities, inputs, and observations, and the answer is published on the Knowledge Hub. Start free with one field this fall; no card is required.

Read: FieldLog, a working memory for every field →

Start free at fieldlog.info →

Policy check: $1 billion for regenerative contracts

USDA is raising the Regenerative Pilot Program to $1 billion for fiscal 2027, $300 million more than its first year: $650 million through EQIP and $350 million through CSP. One application covers both programs, and CSP now asks applicants to address 75% of resource concerns instead of 100%. Apply through your local NRCS office by your state’s ranking date.

Monitoring is part of every contract. In the first year, that meant CEMA 216 soil health testing in the first and final contract years, carried out by a Qualified Individual. For 2027, NRCS lists monitoring options for cropland, grazing land, and forestry; ask your office which applies to your operation. If you sample as a QI, or plan to, our free six-part CEMA 216 guide runs from requirements to the final report. Pass all six knowledge checks at 85% or higher to earn a Certificate of Completion and one free report project.

The 2018 farm bill extension expired September 30. New CRP enrollment is paused until Congress acts, while EQIP, CSP, ACEP, and RCPP continue with funding through 2031. 2025 ARC and PLC payments begin going out this month at higher reference prices, and 2026 ARC/PLC enrollment closes December 11, even if your election stays the same.

Read USDA’s Regenerative Pilot Program announcement →

CEMA 216 guide: six knowledge checks, one free report project →

FSA: 2026 ARC/PLC election and enrollment →

Help us grow

If this issue helped, forward it to a farmer, adviser, or conservation office that could use it. Readers can subscribe through the newsletter page.

You can also support SHE with a one-time or monthly contribution. It sustains the research, editing, funding directory, and field answers that stay free to read.

Meet a partner

IM-WEST Consulting, Intermountain West

Meet Intermountain West Environmental Services and Technology, IM-WEST Consulting, a partner on our homepage. Founder David P. Huber, PhD, is a soil scientist and conservation practitioner with more than 20 years in soil health, water quality, and environmental sensing across the western United States. This season he has been sampling for CEMA 216, the soil health testing used to monitor Regenerative Pilot Program contracts. Dave has given us an independent Qualified Individual’s view of what that sampling and reporting actually take, and it informs our CEMA 216 guide and QI tools. His philosophy fits any field: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

Learn about IM-WEST Consulting → Soil and land, water and environmental monitoring, and environmental sensing technology for producers, landowners, conservation organizations, researchers, and public agencies.

Run CEMA 216 sampling? Add yourself to the free Qualified Individual directory → Listing is free, filterable by state, and takes a couple of minutes.

Thank you, Dave, for the field perspective and for carrying these resources to conservation partners in the Intermountain West.