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Truterra Chesapeake Bay Wheat Project
Truterra leverages its ag retailer (cooperatives and independent dealers) network to advance sustainable agricultural practices at scale and support farmers making practice changes. In the Chesapeake Bay area, The Mill – an independent agronomy inputs and solutions dealer - delivers services, programs and access to stewardship insights and improvement opportunities to their customer growing wheat and other row crops. There are no specific improvement targets, rather the focus is to enable farmers to analyze improvement opportunities on a field-by-field basis. Seven KPIs are used to track progress on the ground including: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Nitrogen Use Efficiency, Soil Quality Trends, Wind Erosion, Sheet and Rill Erosion, Conservation Practices Deployed and Truterra™ Sustainability Score.
Complete
Innovation
Engagement Targets
Notes: (1) Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.
Objectives
Enrollment of 10,000 acres in Maryland and Pennsylvania with wheat in the rotation into the Truterra™ Program and the Truterra™ Insights Engine.
The Mill, an independent agronomy inputs and solutions provider and participant in the Truterra Program, continues to work with its customers that grow wheat and other row crops. The Mill provides access to stewardship insights on a field level and advises on conservation programs and practice changes that would improve sustainability of each field and their impact on field profitability and soil health. In 2022, 4 growers farming a total of 9,720 acres were enrolled in the program and their data was entered into the Truterra sustainability tool.
Improved adoption of conservation practices, conservation tillage, cover crops, advancements in pest management and nutrient management.
Farmers enrolled in 2022 use only conservation tillage practices, with 61% of acres using no-till and 39% of acres using mulch tillage. The cover crop adoption rate on the enrolled acres is very high, 53%. A high percentage of the enrolled fields (78%) have at least one conservation practice implemented. Truterra promotes 26 different conservation practices identified by NRCS.
The Mill provides its farmer customers with a full spectrum of nutrient management solutions and technologies. Every field enrolled in the Truterra Chesapeake Bay Wheat Project utilizes a nutrient management plan. Variable application technology for fertilizers - that helps match the quantity of nutrients to the needs of each field on a sub-field level - is used on 44% of the enrolled acres. All farmers use basic integrated pest management practices on the enrolled fields.
Participants
Project Lead Organization
Pheasants ForeverFull
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)Full
National Association of Conservation DistrictsFull
Pheasants ForeverFull
Project Details
Status
Complete
Pathway
Innovation
Primary Crops
Wheat (winter)
Natural Resource Concern
Counties the project is located in: