Farmers Share 2022 Conservation Ag Goals

As you plan for the New Year, how are you thinking about integrating conservation ag objectives into your list of priorities? Across the U.S., Conservation Steward farmers, who are engaged in America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM), are thinking about the road ahead. To learn more about ACAM and to join the Movement, visit AgWeb.com/ACAM.  

Brian Doerr, Nebraska

I learned this year — a year of very little rainfall — that cover crops miraculously still grow! I planted an eight-way mix midsummer into dry dirt hoping for a rain. To my surprise, within seven days that cover crop was sprouted and growing with no rainfall. Even some cover crops I interseeded into corn in dry dirt in June started growing in August after rain. It will amaze you how that stuff can grow in a drought year.

In 2022, I am going to try maybe a bigger mix after some wheat for cattle grazing. I’m also going to try a little more interseeding into 60" corn with a cover-crop mix and compare it to 30" corn with no covers.

Keith Mears, Indiana

Planting early is important. My soybeans planted May 2 outyielded soybeans planted May 25 by 5 bu. 

No-till is not a place to cut populations. Whenever I try to plant fewer than 130,000 seeds per acre, I end up with a really thin stand. This year, I planted 150,000 soybean seeds per acre in 30" rows, and that ensured I had a healthy stand to grow all season.  

My goal is to lengthen and diversify my corn-soybean crop rotation. I have my first wheat crop in the ground and growing. In the future, I want to plant nitrogen-fixing cover crops after wheat and grow a large portion of my corn’s nitrogen requirements. My goal is to band all of my dry fertilizer below ground this fall to keep it in place and maximize plant uptake.  

Angela Vanoni, California

2021 marked another year of extreme drought in Ventura County, bringing just over 3" of rain. Consequently, it was (and still is) essential to conserve water as much as possible. With help from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, we had an irrigation efficiency evaluation conducted, which provided insight on how our system performed and where we could make improvements. This information influenced our decision to install a more efficient inline drip system in our newly planted lemon grove.

In 2022, we plan to further fine-tune our irrigation practices by improving our scheduling. Through the Ventura County Resource Conservation District, we intend to use soil moisture sensors to time irrigations more precisely with consideration to the differences in soil types among our groves. With no relief in the forecast, we must take every step possible to improve our practices.

Ryan Heiniger, Iowa

This was the third year of having some of our acres in cereal rye cover crops. With a little leap of faith and based on favorable reports from #AgTwitter, we planted our soybeans into standing green rye that was 30" to 40" tall. In October, the yield monitor didn’t disappoint and certainly didn’t indicate a yield drag, so we committed to covering all our corn acres with rye that are heading to soybeans in 2022.  

We also added diverse pollinator habitat to some of our red acres that were consistently not producing a profit for corn-soybean rotation and look forward to the habitat and increased hunting opportunities for future years. Another first for us this year was organizing and hosting a cover-crop field day, which turned out to be a lot of fun and attracted over 120 farmers and even a few FFA students.

The next challenge that we’ll be working toward is to modify traditional fall anhydrous and tillage on soybean stubble before corn to attempt strip-till or other reduced tillage efforts and a spring fertilizer application. With our location, we’ve been able to get very good germination of rye by mid-October, so we are looking at increased fall and winter cattle grazing over cover crops as another growth opportunity.  

Editor’s note: In addition to being an Iowa farmer, Heiniger serves as ACAM director at Trust In Food, Farm Journal’s sustainable ag division.

Do you have a 2021 conservation ag success story to share? Write to us at conservationag@farmjournal.com.

We might feature your story in an upcoming issue of Farm Journal!