AMES, Iowa — Healthy soil can lead to better crop yields, reduce the need for chemical inputs and have positive impacts on water quality. Farmers’ perspectives on soil health is a focus of the 2015 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.

Interest in the topic of soil health has been on the rise in Iowa and the Corn Belt region in recent years, but little was previously known about farmers’ familiarity with the concept. The 2015 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll was designed to gauge farmers’ beliefs about potential benefits of soil health, their soil health knowledge and management capacity and their assessments of landlords’ knowledge about soil health practices.

“Research efforts to understand what makes soil healthy are have increased in recent years, and conservation groups like the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service have made soil health a central part of their programs for farmers,” said J. Gordon Arbuckle Jr., associate professor of sociology and extension sociologist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “Understanding what farmers know and think about soil health can help guide the development of research and extension programs on the topic.”

Farmers were presented a series of survey items about the potential benefits of soil health, their knowledge of soil health and capacity to manage for improved soil health, and the amount of attention the press and fellow farmers were paying to soil health. They were asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with each item on a five-point scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

Not surprisingly, most farmers viewed healthy soils as beneficial; 93 percent agreed that healthy soil can lead to increased crop yields, 77 percent agreed that healthy soils can reduce vulnerability to drought conditions and 75 percent agreed that healthy soils can reduce crop input needs.

Farmers also expressed some concerns about the impacts of production practices on soil health. Eighty-four percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were concerned about the impact of compaction on soil health and 70 percent had concerns about the impact of pesticides on soil health.

The survey also gauged farmers’ knowledge of soil health and their confidence in their capacity to improve the health of the soils they farm. Most respondents - 72 percent - indicated they had given more thought to soil health in recent years, and 76 percent reported that they had taken steps to improve the quality of their soil. While about 70 percent felt that they have a good understanding of the concept of soil health, and two-thirds agreed that they know how to manage for improved soil health, only 54 percent indicated that they have an effective soil health management plan.

“Iowa farmers are paying more attention to soil health, and report that they are taking steps to improve it,” Arbuckle said. “That said, most farmers would like to learn more about how to manage for soil health, and there was a lot of uncertainty about the effectiveness of current management. I think there’s a demand for more research-based information on soil health.”

Most respondents indicated that they have noticed more discussion of soil health in the farm press, with 80 percent noticing a spike in information on the topic. Despite this jump in attention to the subject in the press, only 46 percent of farmers noticed more discussion among fellow farmers.

Because more than half of Iowa farmland is rented, the survey also asked farmers to assess their landlords’ awareness and knowledge of soil health. The reviews were mixed, with 28 percent agreeing that landlords know what farming practices can improve soil health while 27 percent disagreed. Twenty-two percent of respondents agreed that landlords have a good understanding of soil health while 29 percent disagreed.

“Almost half of farmers selected ‘uncertain’ when asked whether their landlords know about the concept of soil health and how to improve it,” said Arbuckle. “Those results suggest that a lot of farmers haven’t talked about soil health with their landlords.”

The Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll has been in existence since 1982, surveying Iowa farmers on issues of importance to agricultural stakeholders. It is the longest-running survey of its kind in the nation.