Funded by the Illinois Soybean Checkoff Sustainability conservation agriculture. FY21 ANNUAL REPORT Your partner in The Illinois Soybean Association checkoff program makes significant investments in programs and partnerships that are taking strides to promote sustainable agronomic practices, in addition to achieving environmental sustainability objectives through its biodiesel programs. That’s why we’re introducing our Sustainability Annual Report, to communicate the efforts ISA takes to promote best management practices to Illinois soybean farmers and stakeholders. We’ve got a special focus on sustainability education and resources for maximizing soybean production while minimizing soil and nutrient loss. Whether it’s meeting you in the field, hosting train-the-trainer events, or creating online resources, the ISA Agronomy team is here to assist you. Working across Illinois with farmers of all operation sizes with different goals, cropping systems, conservation experience, and management, our mission is to provide you with the best information to sustainably optimize your soybean production. This team has experience in agronomy, soil health planning, conservation systems, water quality, double-crop systems, and plant pathology, and we are eager to help you reach your yield and conservation goals. - Abigail Peterson, ISA Director of Agronomy ILSOYADVISOR ILSoyAdvisor is a free, one-stop resource for the latest soybean insights, tips and advice, all designed to help soybean farmers succeed. One area of content that ILSoyAdvisor prioritizes is providing resources regarding sustainability practices. In FY21, blogs featured on the online resource covered carbon programs, tillage, cover crops, conservation assistance programs, and more to hundreds of soybean farmers and agronomists visiting the website each week. ILSoyAdvisor’s Soy Envoy program, established in partnership with Illinois Certified Crop Advisers, recruits six CCAs from across the state to provide actionable insights and advice to soybean growers throughout the growing season. In FY21, the Soy Envoys hit the ground running providing local recommendations, expert advice, articles, webinars and more. The Envoys also conducted a soil health experiment where they buried one piece of cotton fabric in a field that they felt had very good soil health, and another piece of cotton fabric in a field that they felt had poor soil health. The more fabric that was broken down and consumed by soil microbes during the growing season, the healthier the soil.
