Eye on Erosion – Chris Von Holten: Midwest Regional Winner
Midwestern grower Chris Von Holten knows that striving to conserve the land and water are the best ways he can build soil health and make the ground more productive.
In the early 1980s, Chris Von Holten watched as heavy rains eroded the soil away on his family’s northern Illinois farm. A young teenager at the time, he worked as a seed company roguer and detasseler. He saw other area farmers face the same challenge and knew the damage needed to be prevented.
That experience would leave a lasting impression on the now fourth-generation farmer.
“I think that’s the key to why we started going no-till and cover crops, to try and prevent that kind of damage again,” Von Holten explains.
Today, Von Holten’s stewardship journey is centered around those memories from his youth. With soil conservation at the root of his management strategy, Von Holten focuses on soil health and cover crops. The benefits he realizes are not only saving precious soil but also stepping up crop productivity and increasing farm profitability.
Change in Thinking
Chris Von Holten’s fourth great-grandfather emigrated from Germany in the early 1900s to work for relatives in the Sydney, Illinois, area. He later purchased a farm near Tampico, Illinois. That same land would later become home for Von Holten’s father.
Following a stint in the U.S. Army, Von Holten’s dad rented a farm near Walnut, Illinois. There, his father raised cattle and hogs and grew corn, alfalfa and small grains. He also grew seed corn on contract for a local company until the business ceased operations in 1984.
“The erosion from the farming practices at that time was evident to me as I walked those fields and later drove a detasseling machine across those farms plus the others that grew seed corn,” Von Holten says.
Von Holten’s father farmed much like the generations before him until purchasing a chisel plow in 1970. While that helped stop some erosion, Von Holten says the chisel plow still wasn’t the right practice to control soil loss.
“Dad spent a lot of time fixing up or having a contractor build new waterways to control erosion,” Von Holten says.
After graduating from junior college, Von Holten returned to farm with his father in 1984. Using a moldboard plow, he worked the ground on a 160-acre farm he rented. He later switched to the chisel plow. Then, the Von Holtens learned how another local farmer had benefitted from no-till. The father-son duo each planted some no-till corn in the spring of 1987, adding row cleaners to their planter.
“1988 brought a drought that showed us the benefits of no-till and water conservation,” Von Holten says. “The corn in those no-tilled fields yielded significantly better than our conventionally planted corn that year.”
That drought year was all the inspiration the Von Holtens needed to begin no-tilling soybeans as well. Von Holten says their early years of no-till saw successful yields, but much was also learned from their mistakes, such as how to make improvements to the corn planter, no-till drill and weed control.
Today, Von Holten grows corn, soybeans and wheat using no-till and strip-tillage methods, which in the 1990s was incorporated into his farming practices.
“With our variable soil types and slopes, we need to control erosion and retain water in our soil profile, so that’s why we started to go no-till,” Von Holten says.
The move has brought favorable results to the operation through improved soil health and a positive impact on the farm’s bottom line, Von Holten says.
“The retaining of fertility and moisture has increased our yields, has helped our better soils get better and our poorer soils increase air production.”
Boost from Cover Crops
In the fall of 2015, Von Holten no-tilled cereal rye into a couple of cornstalk fields that he planned to rotate to soybeans the following spring. Encouraged by the results, he started planting rye on soybean ground that was due to be planted in corn.
“From those positive results, I started planting rye in the fall of 2018 on bean stubble for fields going to corn to help control erosion,” Von Holten explains.
He then used a strip-till bar in the fall or spring with fertilizer application. Despite rye close to the strips, Von Holten says if a heavy rain fell on the field, the strips would wash out.
“Just like in prior years when a heavy rain would wash out the strips, it became apparent that I needed to stop strip-tilling and just rely on the rye roots for my tillage,” he says.
According to Von Holten, residue from the rye has helped keep weed pressure to a minimum, resulting in lower rates of post-chemical applications. Now, the Illinois farmer works to plant 50% to 80% of his fields in cereal rye to keep a living root in the soil as long as possible. Doing so, he says, aids the soil structure and biology.
Plus, improved water infiltration has been one of the biggest benefits cover crops have brought to Von Holten’s operation. He says the soil not only holds up better to equipment but also allows for planting when soil conditions are damp.
“In the past, you’d have to worry about the soil crusting over after you did that,” he says.
Planting twin row 7.5-inch wheat allows for earlier planting of double-crop soybeans between the twin rows with 22.5 inches of room for a tractor and planter to fit.
“The growth of wheat like a cover crop keeps a living root in the soil through the fall and early spring when the soil is most vulnerable to erosion,” Von Holten explains. “The side benefit is the extra income from the wheat and the earlier planting of the double-crop soybeans.”
With between eight and 10 soil types on most of the fields Von Holten farms, he says cover crops have helped raise performance levels on some of the poorer soils he farms. Variable fertility rates and seeding capabilities also aid Von Holten in managing the wide variations in productivity.
“My APHs (actual production history) for both corn and soybeans have been steadily growing, which has come from the addition of cover crops to my farming practices,” Von Holten says.
Drive to Overcome
As if farming amid multiple soil types wasn’t arduous enough, add some slopes and rocks to the terrain.
For Von Holten, growing row crops on top of or adjacent to the glacial moraines that are found on his farm can mean as many as 14 different soil types in a field, while the productivity index might range from 98 to 138. Because of the landscape of Von Holten’s farm, only one 80-acre parcel is without waterways.
“We try to keep pushing forward, trying new things, trying to expand the envelope to push conservation,” Von Holten says.
Planting on contour and terraces has helped Von Holten manage the farm’s terrain. With slopes over 10% on a contour field, he says planted rows would wash away even with no-till and cover crops if he planted them up and down the slope.
“The terraces at the other farm were built for my wife’s grandfather by the Soil Conservation Service in the 1950s,” Von Holten says. “They are still doing what they were designed for today — to catch and slow rainwater from washing down those slopes.”
Eyes on the Future
Von Holten knows how he farms today will affect future generations. And, he says if he’s doing the right things, others will reap the benefits.
“That’s my philosophy,” he says. “I’m hopefully doing the right thing with cover crops and no-till, and I think it’s shown a positive return to me.”
Striving to conserve the land and water are the best ways Von Holten can build soil health and make the ground more productive.
Life is filled with choices. Some are important, others not so much. The same goes for the decision to implement a new farming practice. The outcome of that decision can follow a farmer for the rest of their life and on to the next generation.
“Only time will tell if we made the right choices of no-tilling and planting cover crops,” Von Holten says, “but I think we are on the right path to making our farm and our rented farms better for the next generation.”
