With harvest winding down, we’re already thinking about what comes next, and believe it or not, the 2025 crop year has essentially started. There’s no better time than after harvest to set our sights on the practices and principles that will carry us into another successful season—and that begins with focusing on soil health and documenting every single step along the way.
As we gear up for the 2025 season, we need to keep core soil health principles in mind. That means keeping armor on the soil, reducing disturbance, maintaining living roots, fostering diversity, and integrating livestock where we can. These practices make a difference—not only to the land but to the bottom line. For many of us, this will look like reducing tillage, maybe shifting to strip-till, vertical till, or even no-till, and incorporating cover crops. Cover crops are a powerful tool for protecting soil, recycling nutrients, suppressing weeds, and boosting soil health. All of these steps don’t just improve the land; they also contribute to lowering your Carbon Intensity (CI) Score, which opens up access to sustainability programs that can put real dollars in your pocket.
“Our mission at Continuum Ag is to help one million farmers profit from improving their soil health. We believe that CI Certification will help us achieve this goal. Carbon Intensity incentivizes farmers to adopt soil health practices because those practices directly lower the CI score,” said Carolyn King, VP of Operations at Continuum Ag. “Implementing soil health practices can be difficult, but that’s where our Regen Roadmap can help. The Regen Roadmap helps farmers on their soil health journey by providing a step-by-step guide to practice adoption. Our expert Regen Success Agronomists work with you to make a plan specific to your farm, provide guidance, and answer your questions along the way.”
Whether you’re applying anhydrous or managing tillage, everything you do in the fall impacts your soil’s microbiology. For instance, if you’re using anhydrous, make sure you’re waiting until soil conditions are just right, and check the weather forecast. The goal is to avoid harming your soil by going too early, wasting nitrogen, and creating pollution—all of which could cost money and hurt the environment.
Another big thing to keep in mind as you plan for your 2025 is, Documentation is so critical. The only way to get paid for implementing soil health practices is to track and document your data. This fall, make sure your monitors are working and that you’re recording every pass across the field. Get written receipts for any fuel, fertilizer, seed, or manure purchases, and use photos or written logs to record every action. This data is your proof; it enables you to pass audits, access programs, and tell your story. At Continuum Ag, we’re here to help you document that data through our tool, TopSoil.
Lastly, if you haven’t already, you can get your FREE CI Score at TopSoil.Ag… and, once you get your CI Score then you can use our CI Calculator Tool to toggle different practices and see how changing your soil health practices could positively impact you CI Score.
In closing, we hope your 2024 season brought you some real wins and insights into what can be improved. As we step into the opportunities that 2025 brings, let’s make it a season of growth, soil health, and profitability.