Elyssa McFarland serves as the Soil Health Partnership Development Manager. Elyssa engaged with the SHP farmer network through her previous role as a field manager and utilizes those past experiences to build regional partnerships that are beneficial for farmers and collaborators of the program. Elyssa is also a farmer herself and conducts an SHP trial on her own farm to discover how her farming practices can impact the water holding capacity of different soils.
Elyssa was raised on a grain and livestock farm in Eastern Iowa. She attended Iowa State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and went on to earn a dual master’s degrees in Agronomy and Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Prior to starting as Development Manager with Soil Health Partnership, Elyssa worked in soil mapping, soil analysis, precision agriculture and farm management.