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CIBO Certified Crop Advisor Pathway:

Understanding Regenerative Ag Advising Opportunities and Challenges

Hand-selected content, lessons, videos and resources from the top scientists, organizations, and influencers so you can better build regenerative agriculture into your client’s business.

 

 

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Anne Fairfield-sonn

General Administrative Certified Crop Advisor Material

Our experts have curated tools and knowledge to help you and your business understand regenerative agriculture consulting

An Introduction to Becoming a CIBO Certified Crop Advisor

Embark on this path to gain the skills and tools you need to gain the knowledge of what a CIBO Certified Crop Advisor does and how to help bring this knowledge to your customers. Use this pathway to fast-track your knowledge of key terms, concepts and scientific study of regenerative agriculture.

Experience: Beginner

For those who want to:

  • Understand the benefits to becoming a CIBO Certified Crop Advisor for themselves and clients 
  • Discover and demonstrate an understanding of terms used by certified crop advisor
  • Create strategy plans that help map what steps your clients need to take to transition into regenerative agriculture
1

Why it’s important to be a CCA

| 1 minute

Every day, Certified Crop Advisors face the challenge of both protecting the environment and ensuring economic success for your clients, employer, and yourself. The American Society of Agronomy’s certification programs provide you with Sound Advice coupled with the tools you need to succeed in all areas.

2

The Benefits to Being a Certified Crop Advisor

| 2 minute

Farming practices are constantly changing to meet new challenges. Growers rely on the technical expertise of Certified Crop Advisors to maximize efficiency and navigate the regulatory landscape.

3

SARE – Cover Crops for Sustainable Crop Rotations

| 4 minute

Cover crops are an indispensable tool. They are planted to slow erosion, improve soil health, enhance water availability, smother weeds, help control pests and diseases, increase biodiversity, and bring a host of other benefits to your farm.

4

Nutrient Management Planning: An Overview

| 5 minutes

Nutrient management plans are not new. All farmers have a plan for using the manure produced by their animals. In many cases, however, this plan is very informal and ad- dresses only manure disposal and possibly the crop response to the manure nutrients; environmental concerns usually are not addressed. Changing regulations now require farmers to implement more formal nutrient management plans that address environmental issues.

5

What is Regenerative Agriculture?

| 2 minutes

Regenerative Agriculture is an approach to farming that focuses on healthy soils and ecosystems. The approach to farming works with the natural systems to repair the landscape, soil structure, ecosystem biodiversity and climate for the sake of long term productivity and sustainability.

6

7 Regenerative Agriculture Practices that Improve Soil Health

| 2 minutes

Regenerative agriculture rebuilds the soil and restores the resiliency of farmland. Regenerative practices that increase soil organic matter also increase soil organic carbon, which is well over half of soil organic matter.

7

How Regenerative Ag Creates Climate Resilience

| 3 minutes

Find out four regenerative agriculture ways to improve the climate and profitability of your fields.

Test your knowledge!

It’s quiz time to see what you learned about Certified Crop Advisors

Gaining Knowledge of Regenerative Agriculture Practices

Understanding the benefits and challenges of regenerative agriculture consulting can be confusing. This section will help you understand different nutrient management pathways, how to start incorporating cover crops and how to make the endeavor profitable. 

Experience: Intermediate

For those who want to:

  • Learn about the challenges your clients can face with starting regenerative agriculture
  • Understand different sustainability practices
  • How to choose, implement and track regenerative agriculture practices over time
8

USDA – 4Rs Right for Nutrient Management

| 5 minutes

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is encouraging Iowa agricultural producers to adopt the 4R nutrient stewardship concept to help define the right source, rate, time, and place for plant nutrient application.

9

Soil Health Institute – Living Soil Film

| 65 minutes

Watch this 60-minute documentary featuring innovative farmers and soil health experts from throughout the U.S.

10

Cover Crops: The Doctor of Soil Health

| 5 Minutes

Cover crops have generated excitement as a way to improve soil health, reduce erosion, and help improve the sustainability of agriculture practices. This article will talk about the nitty-gritty of different types of cover crops and how they improve soil health and productivity.

11

How to Avoid Nutrient Planning Pitfalls

| 2.5 minutes

With nutrient management plans becoming a part of many farm operations, growers who operate across state lines must be aware that standards for nutrient planning can differ. Understanding your nutrient goals will keep you inside the Sustainable Triangle.

12

Regenerative Ag Practices 101: How to Choose, Implement, & Monitor Ag

| 2 Hours

Embark on this path to gain the skills and tools you need to effectively choose and maintain a regenerative agriculture practice for your client’s farming operation.

13

Regenerative Ag Verification 101: Proving Sustainability Practices

| 2 Hours

To successfully manage regenerative agriculture practices, you need to have a deep understanding of the science behind the surveillance technologies. Embark on this path to gain the skills and tools you need to effectively choose and measure a regenerative agriculture practice for your operation.

14

The Definitive Guide To Regenerative Agriculture

| 10 minutes

Farming is a complex operation, often requiring years and significant investments to realize the benefits of regenerative agriculture practice changes fully. Investments include the time to learn and incorporate new practices, money to fund new equipment, fuel, and seeds, and tribal knowledge handed down from prior generations of growers.

Test your knowledge!

It’s quiz time to see what you learned about Certified Crop Advisors.

Advanced Regenerative Agriculture Consulting Knowledge 

Guiding clients to incorporate regenerative agriculture can help generate more revenue while also ensuring a better future for their growing operations. Taking the next steps on this learning path helps you learn how CIBO can help growers and organizations navigate the right incentive programs and regenerative agriculture practices to create a future that is environmentally and economically sustainable.

Experience: Expert

For those who want to:

  • Questions to ask when reviewing new nutrient management plans
  • Figuring out the best incentive programs for different organizations and farming operations
  • How to use regenerative agriculture to improve productivity and profitability
15

Sustainability 101 Pathway: How to Engage & Advise about Regenerative Ag with Confidence

| 2 Hours

Scaling regenerative agriculture within your grower network empowers you to become both economically and environmentally aligned, so you can focus your energy on providing a delightful experience or product for customers. With this learning path, explore how you can take advantage of getting the right information to the right people at the right time, regardless of what stage of implementing regenerative practices they’re in.

16

USDA – A Strategy to Improve Soil Health in a Midwest Corn-Soybean Cropping System

| 25 minutes

Managing for Soil Health is recognized as a regenerative approach for farmers to achieve resilience to the effects of extreme weather conditions and attain higher yield capacity on any soil in any year. The following is an approach for a corn-soybean farmer interested in a no-till cropping system that is low in risk, and will jump start nearly any soil type toward higher production capacity and function.

17

Cover Crop Economics – Opportunities to Improve Your Bottom Line in Row Crops

| 10 minutes

With the decision to adopt cover crops, a conservation practice that is becoming increasingly popular throughout the country, the economic picture can admittedly be hard to decipher at first. This is because a simple, one-year budget analysis of cover crops, one that just compares the cost of seed and seeding to the impact on the next crop yield, may indeed show a loss. Find out how quickly it can become a gain.

 

18

Sustainable Agriculture Through Sustainable Learning – An Educator’s Guide to Best Practices for Adult Learning

| 10 minutes

Learning empowers farmers to make sound decisions and beneficial changes to enhance the sustainability of their farms. The purpose of this guide is to help educators and farm advisors effectively facilitate learning for farmers, agricultural service providers and others working to improve agricultural sustainability.

19

Journal Article – Nutrient Management

| 5 minutes

Explore this academic article which dives into the benefits and consequences of nutrient management

20

Best Management Practices for Agricultural Nutrients

| 2.5 minutes

Managing nutrients is referred to as the 4Rs: Right rate, Right timing, Right source, and Right placement. Consistent use of the 4Rs will help prevent excess nutrient loss from agricultural fields into surface and ground water resources.

21

Regenerative agriculture: merging farming and natural resource conservation profitably

| 5 minutes

Farmers have devised an ecologically based production system comprised of multiple practices that are woven into a profitable farm that promotes ecosystem services. Regenerative farms fundamentally challenge the current food production paradigm that maximizes gross profits at the expense of net gains for the farmer.

Test your knowledge!

It’s quiz time to see what you learned about Certified Crop Advisors.

CIBO collage corn 4

Take the next step, meet with CIBO!

With the CIBO platform, organizations can quantify the impact of agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gasses and contribute to an organization’s carbon footprint. Find out how CIBO can power the sustainability and ESG initiatives of your grower-focused enterprise.

Request a Demo

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