By Tara Heath
Healthy soils, cleaner water, and stronger farms, one field at a time —University of Illinois Extension and STAR (Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources) are working together to make it happen.
STAR was born out of a grassroots, farmer-driven movement in Champaign County to help guide agricultural producers in meeting conservation goals established to reduce soil and nutrient losses and address local water quality challenges. Designed as a simple, straightforward, easy-to-use tool, the STAR concept grew to include an implementation framework and was soon adapted and expanded into other Midwestern and Western states.
Developed for farmers, by farmers, the STAR Tool is a free conservation evaluation and guidance tool that generates a 1-5 STAR Rating at a field scale. Farmers are then encouraged to build a Conservation Innovation Plan for the next crop year to identify next steps in their conservation journey and explore the technical, educational, and financial opportunities available to help them implement practices. Producer data remains confidential and can only be shared with the producer’s explicit permission or as part of aggregated and anonymized results.