Click the link to read the article on the Vail Daily website (Ali Longwell). Here’s an excerpt:
March 19, 2025
The state legislature created a soil health program in 2021 to help producers overcome the barriers to adopting practices that could improve soil quality. The Colorado Department of Agriculture program built upon “pockets of soil health movements across the state,” according to John Miller, the department’s soil health program manager…The state Department of Agriculture partners with conservation districts and local organizations to find ranchers and producers who are already trying innovative practices or are open to doing so. Enrolling in the three-year program, the department provides technical expertise, monetary resources and access to research to support them in trying at least one new soil health practice, Miller said…The program uses the STAR — short for the nonprofit Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources — framework to help ranchers evaluate their soil and implement relevant conservation practices. In March, the Department of Agriculture released the STAR tool for all Colorado producers, not just those enrolled in the soil health program…
There are five key principles of soil health: minimizing soil disturbance; soil armoring (or covering the soil surface); increasing plant diversity; maintaining continuous, living roots; and integrating livestock…In addition to water challenges, improving soil health can help with erosion challenges, bare spots in fields, weed pressure, reduced yields and more. The state has seen the program help increase production and the nutrient density of crops, improve water efficiency and reduce labor and input costs. Miller said that so far in the program, it has been easy to draw correlations between the practices and a rancher’s bottom line.