To Thrive, Farmers Need Conservation To Improve Their Bottom Line

Jun 10, 2026

By Michelle Perez

It may not need saying, but we’ll say it anyway:

“Thriving farms and ranches are the backbone of thriving communities. When farms and ranches are profitable, resilient, and supported—when they offer fulfilling lives to the families who run them—their success ripples outward.”

The ripples enable food companies to be more resilient as their ingredient supply chains become more reliable. Consumers become more resilient as food security increases. The environment becomes more resilient and able to continue producing clean water through healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. That’s what the Thriving Farms and Ranches Initiative at American Farmland Trust reminds us: that we are all better off when farms are resilient and able to sustain a farm family long into the future.

One pathway to achieving thriving farms and ranches is through healthy, more resilient soil. Soil that sustains farms is:

Rich in biodiversity above ground (diverse crop rotation) and below ground (diverse microbial populations)
Covered with crop residue to withstand the scouring forces of harsh rainstorms or to retain life-sustaining moisture during drought
Planted with cover crops that provide habitat and nutrition for the microbes over winter
Managed with limited disturbance to maintain good soil structure and an effective cycle of nutrients and water

But adopting regenerative soil health conservation practices like crop rotation, reduced or no tillage, cover crops, and nutrient management can present barriers like high upfront costs, equipment and seed bottlenecks, and many new management techniques to learn, refine, and master. One huge barrier is that farmers and their ag advisors may not know what the economic costs and potential benefits are of adopting these soil health regenerative farming practices.

To learn more about AFT’s soil health work and engage with the many free resources available to farmers and ranchers, join us on June 11 for a free webinar: Regenerative Practices: New Economic Tools in the Crop Resilience Tool Box.

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Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.