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On Thursday, Anna Cates, UMN Extension soil health specialist, Joe Smentek, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA) executive director, Dan Coffman, soil health specialist with the Conservation Technology Innovation Center (CTIC), and Warren Formo, executive director of the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resources Center (MAWRC) joined UMN Extension crops educators Ryan Miller and Dave Nicolai at the Minnesota Ag Expo for a wide-ranging discussion about cost-share programs for implementing practices, the practices associated with producing sustainable crops and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This was the third episode of the 2025 Strategic Farming: Let’s talk crops webinars in this series.

With input prices remaining costly and corn, soybean and wheat prices remaining below the cost of production for some, Minnesota farmers are looking for ways to diversify their farms. Some may add additional, more pricey crops or crops that are less costly to produce to the rotation, reduce the number of tillage passes or fertility applied to the crop in 2025, while others may be looking to gain a premium or sell carbon credits.

Cates walked through two different publicly available online carbon intensity calculators that can be adjusted to determine the carbon emissions associated with producing a bushel of corn in one instance or a bushel of corn, soybean or sorghum in the other. She explained that as biofuel processors seek to take advantage of tax credits related to the production of sustainable aviation fuel and other sustainably produced biofuels, they will have to track and document how the feedstock they use is produced. The important difference in the premiums passed on by biofuels processors to crop producers for their sustainably-produced crops is the conservation practices used to produce the crop do not need to be new to the field.

“This isn’t like the carbon credits where we’re just looking at carbon that is going into the soil for a payment that otherwise wouldn’t have gone into the soil. In this case, we’re just looking at the environmental impact of this year’s crop. Whether this is your first year doing strip till or your 40 th year doing strip till, you’re just as eligible for the same benefit,” said Cates.

Also joining the MN Ag Expo trade show floor discussion was Joe Smentek sharing the MSGA’s perspectives regarding the SAF industry, Dan Coffman CTIC’s Farmers for Soil Health farmer to farmer payment and mentoring program to help producers successfully implement cover crops and Warren Formo the joint UMN Extension-MAWRC sponsored Nutrient and Nitrogen Management Conferences in February.

The benefit to attending Strategic Farming live webinars is that the presenters answer many audience questions. For those that missed this session, it is now available to view on YouTube at z.umn.edu/StrategicFarmingRecordings.

For more information and to register to attend other weekly session through the end of March, visit z.umn.edu/strategic-farming.