Farmers, students and agricultural organizations looking to advance soil health and regenerative agriculture practices can apply for grants through the Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund.
The fund provides financial support for projects focused on education, research and practices such as no-till farming, cover crops, water conservation and other efforts that improve soil health.
Randy Pryor, a retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator and chair of the fund’s advisory committee, said the fund was created to continue the vision of Gillespie, a lifelong Nebraska farmer and longtime advocate for soil health.
“Dan Gillespie’s goal when he retired was to continue with soil health and regenerative ag practices on his own farm, but he wasn’t able to. He was diagnosed with ALS and within a year he was gone, but his dream was to give $5,000 to a young farmer that would be enthusiastic about soil health and regenerative ag like him,” Pryor said..
Since its creation, the fund has grown through memorial contributions, individual donations and corporate support. Pryor said the fund now has about $170,000 available to support projects, with grants awarded from the fund’s earnings.
In the past five years, the fund has awarded nearly $20,000 to 15 projects, including youth-led research, farmer education efforts and on-farm projects.
One example came from Battle Creek FFA students and young farmer Jeremy Grant, who used a grant to study water infiltration across different farming systems. Students used a rainfall simulation unit to compare conventional tillage, crop rotations, no-till systems and a field using no-till and cover crops for more than a decade.
Pryor said the project helped students collect data showing the impact of soil health practices.
“One of the wow moments that the students experienced with that infiltration machine. Over an hour’s time, they couldn’t measure any runoff, and that machine was set at 10 to 12 inches infiltration per hour, a rainfall event that has never happened before,” Pryor said.
The fund also supports projects outside traditional farming research, including efforts by a young organic farmer near Wilber-Clatonia studying cereal rye cover crop seeding rates and weed control strategies.
Pryor said smaller grants can help farmers, students and organizations pursue innovative ideas.
“Out of the box sometimes a little bit of money helps with out of the box ideas. So we’re all about supporting soil health, regenerative ag ideas,” Pryor said.
Grant awards can total up to $2,500 per application. If youth are involved in a leadership role, an anonymous donor may match the grant, potentially doubling the funding available.
Applications are accepted twice a year, with deadlines of Oct. 1 and March 1. Pryor encouraged farmers, FFA chapters, 4-H groups and others interested in soil health education to apply.
“We need people to apply,” Pryor said. “Whether it’s an FFA organization, 4-H, whether it’s farmers and farmers can apply also for educational activities if they’re going to go to a national meeting or to an event to learn how to be better stewards of the land.”
The Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund focuses on Nebraska and surrounding states, continuing its mission of supporting education and innovation in regenerative agriculture.