Protecting Topsoil Could help your Farm Save Money

Jan 07, 2026
By Farms.com

The costs of damaging the soil

Topsoil is the upper layer of soil that supports plant growth. It holds nutrients, organic matter, and living organisms that help crops develop strong roots and healthy yields. A recent study from explains how losing this valuable soil layer creates serious financial and environmental problems for farmers – one of the first times a financial figure has been applied to the loss.

Soil erosion occurs when wind, rain, or heavy tillage moves soil from fields. When soil becomes loose, it can easily wash into ditches and streams. This movement removes nutrients from farmland and also affects nearby water sources. Polluted water can harm people, livestock, and wildlife.

The study finds that losing just one inch of topsoil can cost farmers more than $1,000 in lost nutrients and organic matter. When six inches of topsoil are lost, total costs can exceed $6,000. These losses include valuable nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, and iron that crops need to grow.

While fertilizers can replace some lost nutrients, organic matter is much harder to rebuild. Organic matter improves soil structure, water holding ability, and nutrient supply. Even with careful management and manure use, soil organic matter increases very slowly. It can take over one hundred years to replace what is lost from only a few inches of soil.

Erosion also creates long-term environmental concerns. Soil that washes into water sources reduces water quality and increases cleanup costs. This affects communities that depend on clean water for daily use.

Farmers can reduce erosion by using simple methods. Reduced tillage keeps soil firm and limits soil movement. Cover crops protect the soil surface and reduce damage from rain and wind. These practices also improve soil health over time and support stronger crop growth.

Protecting topsoil helps farmers reduce costs, maintain crop yields, and protect water quality. Preventing erosion is a smart and affordable way to protect farms for the future.

Photo Credit: gettyimages-sasiistock

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.