Yara’s new Incubator Farm in Auburn, Alabama is focused on exploring practical approaches to managing and positively impacting soil health.

The 80-acre farm, located on the EV Smith Research Station in partnership with Auburn University, will implement three different sets of soil health management and crop nutrition programs utilizing established techniques such as cover crops, minimum tillage and 4R nutrient management, as well as exploring the use of new biological and organic inputs combined with mineral nutrition to further understand what combination of practices maximizes soil health.

On-site is also the new Knowledge Grows Center, a space for collaboration, education and training around soil health practices. Yara’s partners and other agriculture stakeholders will be invited to leverage the farm’s research and center to advance their own farming and soil health practices.

Yara North America has three additional Incubator Farms in Modesto, California; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and the Columbia Basin, Washington. These three farms each have a regionally and crop-focused objective to support the local agriculture community while also playing an instrumental role in advancing Yara’s ambition of “Growing a Nature-Positive Food Future” by building solutions to decrease carbon footprint, improve water and nitrogen use efficiency, regenerate soil sources and more.