Committed to Conservation - Brad Doyle: South Regional Winner

While the conservation practices currently used at the Doyle/Berger Farm work well, Brad Doyle maintains an open-minded attitude in adopting new practices that might offer additional benefits.

Brad Doyle isn’t a typical farmer.

In fact, he was two generations removed from farming before he married his wife, Joyce, whom he met while in graduate school.

Yet, the agronomist and crop consultant fit right in with her family’s multi-faceted farm business. A third-generation farmer herself, Joyce brought her husband back home to Northeast Arkansas, where they joined the family operation.

Together with Joyce’s brother, the Doyle/Berger Farm grows soybeans, rice and wheat in the Mississippi River Delta near Weiner. A top commodity for the operation, Doyle says Poinsett County typically ranks No. 1 in the U.S. for rice production each year.

Although he might not be what he considers a typical farmer, Doyle’s passion for agriculture and water conservation is unmatched by the stewardship legacy created decades before him.

Legacy in the Making
Doyle credits his wife’s father and grandfather with starting the operation’s conservation story. In addition to farming, the family owned a seed company which provided Doyle with an opportunity to join the family business when he and Joyce returned to the operation.

A plant breeder himself, Joyce’s father focused on soybeans, though he also worked with cereal grains. Doyle says his father-in-law wanted Joyce to earn a doctorate, so he and Joyce moved to Fayetteville to study at the University of Arkansas.

Not long after their move, Doyle’s father-in-law passed away, leaving Joyce to take over the soybean breeding program while she and Doyle were still attending school.

While that segment of the operation created its own uniqueness, the farm also set itself apart by being 100% irrigated. Doyle says that being in a critical water area is the operation’s biggest challenge.

“Our groundwater use is the primary source for irrigation,” Doyle explains. “That alone is where the farm’s conservation story begins.”

Setting aside 100 acres of the family farm in the mid-1980s, Doyle’s forward-thinking father-in-law built a reservoir to help conserve winter rain. Through what he calls a tailwater-recovery system, excess rainwater is collected in canals built throughout the farm and then pumped into the reservoir to be used for irrigation.

The system was such a successful addition to the operation that Doyle built a second reservoir on 50 acres that was completed in the summer of 2023.

“Not only do these reservoirs provide us irrigation water, but also habitat for waterfowl,” Doyle says. Bald eagles, fish and other wildlife also frequent the area.

The family’s efforts in water conservation have saved the operation in many ways.

“Because we have a high volume of water, we have shorter times that we’re actually irrigating fields, and that reduces stress on the plants,” Doyle says. “Reducing our runoff is critical. Anything we can do to keep water in the field and not run off into our canals and off the farm is a responsible conservation practice.”

Strategies Marked by Stewardship
Farming in an area marked by heavy tillage brought Doyle perhaps the greatest challenge to overcome in the operation in the adoption of no-till. While conventional farming with plow and planter is commonplace and delivers high yields, Doyle knows soil is lost as a result. Plus, those traditional farming methods can be taxing on farm labor, fuel and time.

“Every pass you make across that field doesn’t necessarily have to happen if you go to a no-till system,” Doyle says. “Timeliness for planting is critical for us to get higher-yield potential. By simply no-tilling, that opens the door for us to possibly an earlier planting date, but it for sure reduces our labor costs.”

Through research, Doyle identified the cover crops that would be best suited for the area’s heavy, water-logging soil. About 25% of the farm is planted in cover crops using aerial application and drill seeding techniques. Cover crops are focused on waterways, field edges, roads and highly erodible, sloped fields.

“Many covers will not survive, but we use a combination of cereals ahead of a soybean crop,” Doyle explains. “Before rice, we focus more on non-cereal crops. Cover crop grasses can leave root exudates that injure other grasses.”

Radish, buckwheat and cereal rye are selected to keep nutrients near the surface and prevent weed emergence ahead of soybean planting. Expanded cover crop research is planned to test new varieties, rates and species to help Doyle identify the best choices for different soil types.

Working closely with the Arkansas Game and Fish and the National Wild Turkey Federation, Doyle’s farm feeds more than 20 wildlife species through cover cropping and food plots.

Precision leveling the ground is commonly used in rice farms to improve irrigation efficiency in the area, and Doyle says for that reason, most of their farm has been leveled. The practice helps conserve water and maximize yield while creating a migratory bird habitat when flooded in the winter.

With readily accessible poultry litter in the area, Doyle can increase organic matter and benefit soil health when using the product as a fertilizer.

“Soybeans respond very well to it,” Doyle says. “It’s often referred to as a circular farming system in our part of the world.”

Poultry houses use rice hulls for bedding, and the chickens are fed soybean meal made from the soybeans grown in the area. The chicken litter is then turned into fertilizer to grow more rice and soybeans.

Doyle says using the litter as fertilizer helps relocate it from areas high in phosphorus to those deficient. The risk of phosphorus ending up in a stream is greatly reduced as a result.

Soil testing and grid sampling help Doyle stay on top of fertility and nutrient availability.

“We’ve gotten more aggressive with that through the years,” Doyle says of grid sampling. “This year is one that we’re really going to see a huge savings in phosphorus applications.”

He adds that accurate soil testing and variable rate fertilizer applications help reduce the risk of phosphorus runoff, adding another element to his stewardship practices.

Doyle’s equipment is supplied with GPS (Global Positioning System) and a computer with specialized software to monitor field conditions. The technology helps him prevent overlap when planting and applying herbicides and pesticides.

While the conservation practices currently used in the operation work well, Doyle maintains an open-minded attitude in adopting new practices that might provide additional benefits.

“At the end of the day, we must make good, wise management decisions to be profitable,” Doyle says. “I think conservation could be a part of that on most farms.”

The Next Chapter
The conservation story that began with water management and reservoir construction is far from its final chapter. With sustainability efforts evident throughout the Doyle/Berger Farm, Brad and Joyce Doyle want their acts to prosper the next generation.

While Doyle believes part of the conservation methods in place on the operation have increased yield, he knows knowledge is gained through different planting practices.

Realizing equipment and seed varieties have changed in the farm’s first 100 years, today’s crop decisions are based upon on-farm research and extension resources. Doyle works closely with state agronomy specialists and learns all he can by attending conferences like Commodity Classic.

Education and community leadership are also treasured themes in Doyle’s conservation story. From interacting with the public through social media to hosting field days and planting seeds in a learning park, sharing his stewardship with others marks the epilogue of this farm’s memoir.

“As we have learned, it is possible to improve the soil, attract more animals, save water and watch the yields climb,” Doyle points out. “We want to make it easy for the next generation to be profitable and happy.”