News & Updates

February 24, 2025 Although we have officially entered winter, some producers are still growing ample fresh vegetables inside high tunnels, for which NRCS offers funding through EQIP. There are several cold hardy crops that can survive in high tunnels(commonly referred to as hoop houses) over winter without any heating, including kale, cilantro, carrots, and turnips. If you are planning to harvest during the winter, it is important to start seeds a specif ic number of weeks be

February 19, 2025 Upon speaking with Courtney Lercher at the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District, her environmental consciousness radiates along with her ambition to assist producers, and it comes as no surprise that she was one of the first Conservation Planners (CPs) to achieve Level 3 certification. Her interest in agriculture started in high school when she and her parents began raising chickens, ducks, and geese in their small town in Clinton County. Her fo

January 16, 2024 Be a pioneer with Illinois STAR – your participation counts. Complete a questionnaire at IllinoisSTAR.org and be a part of shaping the future of sustainable agriculture via cover crops and conservation practices. Use the confidential STAR tool to share your conservation practices. You will get a personalized Conservation Improvement Plan for your field, and contribute to conservation agriculture insights. Your voice matters and your example is invaluable. Dea

December 18, 2023 Steve Turner doesn’t put all his eggs in one basket. In fact, poultry is among the few things he and his sons don’t produce. They grow wheat, corn, soybeans, rye, popcorn, green beans, pumpkins, and alfalfa, and raise calves on 3,500 acres in Cass and Mason counties. Turner cites two major factors in the operation of Bell-Turner Family Farms, near Chandlerville. The first, for commodity crops, “is the diversification of risk and income” – thus the wide varie

December 18, 2023 Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, rejects the “get big or get out” approach to farming. Instead, he touts multiple revenue streams as the means for farmers to both increase their income and help spark the diversified agricultural economies needed to rejuvenate small towns. The USDA secretary made this case on two recent trips to Illinois. In September, he joined President Biden on a visit to a Kankakee farm to promote significant federal resour

December 6, 2023 Maggie Soliz recently came face-to-face with agricultural diversity in her native Kane County. Located 45 miles west of downtown Chicago, Kane County is a model for proactive land use planning. Voluntary farmland preservation conservation easements are among tools used to strike a balance between the needs of the county’s urban and rural communities. Soliz is the product of the old Fox River towns on the east edge of Kane County. She grew up in St. Charles, r

December 6, 2023 Illinois Prairie Pollinator Rain Garden at the Kane County Farm Bureau, Saint Charles. Located 45 miles west of Chicago’s Millennium Park, Kane is Illinois’ fifth most populated county and the Land of Lincoln’s leader for proactive land use planning to support agriculture. Three decades ago, Kane County leaders watched suburban sprawl transform neighboring DuPage County. The Kane County Development Department director then referred to DuPage as “our living la

November 21, 2023 Tammy Willis, the new USDA State Conservationist for Illinois, came away from the recent 75th annual conference of the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts with a strong sense of optimism. “As we look ahead, I’m excited for the potential of our organizations working together,” she said. “We have a unique opportunity to share resources, knowledge, and expertise that will help us all achieve greater success in conserving our soils, wat