Les Seiler’s goal is sustainable crop production to preserve and improve the land for future generations.
Les Seiler knew in 1986 preserving the soil was important. That’s when he and his brother set aside conventional tillage practices and looked to conservation farming methods on their Ohio farm.
Now more than three decades later, the Seilers continue to make no till, grass waterways and filter strips as well as planting cover crops vital components of their overall farm management plan.
Near Fayette, Ohio, Seiler Farms, Inc. makes its home not far from the Ohio-Michigan line. The operation includes Les, his brother Jerry, son Nathan, and Jerry’s son, Jerad. While Jerry, Nathan and Jerad work off the farm, Seiler says they, along with their families, provide an extended support system that is key to making the family business successful.
Seiler Farms is part of the Western Lake Erie Basin where Les says conservation tillage practices can protect land in the area. He adds the Maumee River itself is one of the biggest contributors to the algal bloom issues of Lake Erie.
“Thirty years into [conservation practices] and the aggregation of the soils is really good,” Seiler says. “We’ve seen the need to do something different besides the conventional farming practices of moldboard plowing and a lot of tillage.”
Thinking Outside the Box
Faced with erosion problems, in 1986, the multi-generational operation turned to no-till to help keep the farm’s soil in place.
In a world where change is often met with resistance, the Seiler’s land stewardship journey has been led by their reliance on no-till followed by installing grass waterways, filter strips, subsurface drainage tile and a two-stage ditch on one farm.
But their quest for conservation hasn’t come without challenges.
Seiler recalls when their strip-tilling experience in the mid-1990s was met by an arduous fall.
“I knew that somehow we had to get into cover crops,” he says, “and all the time we were still continuous no-till. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we could make cover crops work in our situation.”
Seiler eventually discovered how to integrate cover crops into the farm’s management plan. Today, the land is 100% cover cropped in addition to winter cereal species as part of the rotation. Traditional crops grown include soybeans, corn, wheat, barley for malt and alfalfa is also harvested for a nearby alfalfa mill.
“Every acre we farm has something growing on it, or we attempt to do something to get a cover growing, so we have got a living plant growing through the winter months,” Seiler explains.
Proof in the Pudding
Three decades of thinking outside the box with the area’s traditional farming methods have proved beneficial to Seiler’s soil composition.
“Soils have changed dramatically over the years of using no-till and covers,” he explains. “Infiltration rates have increased, erosion and runoff are reduced and nutrient inputs, especially phosphorus and potash, have been drastically reduced or eliminated. Organic matter content on the soils has increased.”
Still, soil composition hasn’t been the only change in the Seiler operation.
“We haven’t strip-tilled anything for a long time, and we’ve been cutting back on our commercial fertilizer usage a lot,” he says. “We’re trying to cut back on herbicides to make this more of a regenerative farming operation by improving our soil health and what’s going on in the soil.”
The result, he says, has been an increase in soil organic matter as well as an expansion in crop diversity.
“We’re seeing some pretty awesome results by doing that,” he says.
Seiler’s conservation efforts have also helped reduce soil erosion and promote water absorption.
Waterways are used where needed in the Seiler operation. The practice involves 15- to 30-foot-wide buffer strips on all fields and along streams. The most visible is what Seiler calls a “massive two-stage ditch in one of their major drainage channels.” The venture was a cooperative effort with The Nature Conservancy.
“The water moves very quickly, and before it was a waterway, it caused washouts and gullies that we were constantly needing to fill in,” Seiler explained in an article for Ohio Ag Net and Ohio’s Country Journal.
He said the two-stage ditch has multiple functions, including increasing vegetation on the banks, slowing the water that moves through the farm and removing less sediment and nutrients. The project also fosters diverse plant species and pollinators.
“We want to hold that water and keep using it to feed the crops,” he explains. “By doing things differently, the way we can absorb water on the land is huge. That’s why soil health is so important.”
Conservation Advocate
Seiler’s goal is to sustainably produce crops with the least amount of environmental impact while preserving and improving the land for future generations. In addition, he unselfishly wants to share his knowledge with others.
The farm actively hosts field days in conjunction with area soil and water conservation districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Nature Conservancy. They also have an Ohio State University water quality monitoring site on the farm. Seiler has shared his soil health knowledge at conferences and through videos and webinars. Additionally, he and his brother communicate with their landlords to maintain good relations and assist with snow plowing, mowing and maintaining buffers around their fields.
“Our dad did the best job he could with the tools he had to work with,” Seiler explains. “I feel like we must carry the torch a little farther because of what we can work with, too. You get so many years to do this, and you hope when you’re finished, you’ve done as good a job as you possibly could have.”
Seiler’s conservation journey hasn’t been an easy one, though.
When he started farming in the early 1980s, the agriculture economy itself was struggling, and many farmers tried no-till only to return to conventional farming methods.
“They said if they kept going [with no-till], they were going to go broke, but we’ve never seen that as an issue,” Seiler says. “We always thought it was the best fit for us economically.”
The progress Seiler has seen in soil test results over the years proves he’s on the right track.
A no-till proponent, Seiler isn’t afraid to step outside his comfort zone regarding other management strategies. 2022 was his eighth corn harvest without phosphorus application—a decision he says no farmer wants to make.
Many years of soil testing led Seiler to the decision, he says, knowing it was the right thing to do for the problematic geographical area in which he farms.
“I had started using calcium in my in-furrow mix,” Seiler explains. “Calcium and phosphorus can’t go together, or they’ll solidify, so we had to drop one of them. I worked with a guy that was very good at helping us get started at this.”
Seiler discovered that the farm’s in-furrow treatments needed micronutrients and calcium, a blend he mixes himself, to help the plants get a jump start early in the growing season. The shift in thinking sent the veteran farmer to do what he calls “move toward ways that our crop is telling us what we need to change.”
Cutting herbicide use is among other goals Seiler has for the operation. He hopes to continue to find cover crops that can be grown, which will further supply more of the nitrogen his corn crop requires. He’s optimistic the roller crimper he recently purchased with a neighbor will help him achieve that goal.
Beyond Yield
While yield is the way to profitability for many of today’s farmers, for Les Seiler, dollars and cents have come through his steadfast journey in land stewardship.
Still, he’s quick to point out that his dad was always a believer in planting cereal rye, although he and his brother never knew the benefits of him planting it. Those efforts helped Seiler form a foundation to enhance soil health.
“It’s made us way more profitable,” Seiler says of the conservation practices he uses today. “Everybody thinks they must farm for yield. I know we’re saving soil. I know we’re not spending as much money on nutrients. That’s something I really feel good about.”
As one of the American Soybean Association’s Conservation Legacy Award winners, Seiler says he’s been blessed by the people he’s connected with along this journey. Soil and water are among his passions.
He recalls the Toledo water crisis of 2014, in which several people had no access to water for a couple of days because of the algal blooms on Lake Erie. He realized during the event that he didn’t want to be any part of causing people to be without water because it was contaminated.
“I don’t think there should be anybody, anywhere in the world, that wonders where their next glass of water is coming from,” Seiler says. “I hope someday that somebody says, ‘Well, I hope that that guy made a difference.’ I don’t want to be the one who didn’t realize the importance of that.”
