The Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) conservation webinar taking place Aug. 20, at noon CDT will feature Karina Schoengold, professor, agricultural economics and associate director, Nebraska Water Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Schoengold is a natural resource economist whose research focuses on the intersection of agriculture and the environment. Areas of focus include conservation technology adoption, irrigation water use, and the value of ecosystem services from agricultural conservation efforts.

In the webinar, “Optimizing Precision Conservation with On-Farm Precision Experiment Data: The Role of Crop Insurance and Spatially Variable Profit,” Schoengold will draw on data from an on-farm experiment in the application of precision farming and precision conservation practice implementation within a single farm field. She will share research goals and outcomes including the variability of optimal input use and profitability across the field. Schoengold will demonstrate how those results were used to determine the optimal placement of partial-field conservation and measure the impact on overall profitability and crop insurance expenditure.

“While our results demonstrated an increase in profitability with partial-field conservation, we know that this result cannot be generalized to all fields,” said Schoengold. “However, we are pleased that our data-driven results show that in some cases, precision agriculture can enhance economic feasibility—an essential part of improving agri-environmental program performance. Partial-field conservation can be a win-win by both improving environmental outcomes and increasing on-farm profits, and crop insurance costs can help tilt the scale in that direction.”

Participants are encouraged to ask questions of the presenters. People from all backgrounds and areas of interest are encouraged to join.