As planting gets underway for more farmers across the U.S., improving production practices continues to be top of mind. U.S. farmers are proof success in stewardship starts from the ground up.
Brandon Hunnicutt farms in south-central Nebraska and serves as a National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) board member. He is also the current Field to Market chair, a nonprofit organization that brings together a diverse group representing every link of the supply chain. With more than 100 members, Field to Market consists of grower organizations, agribusinesses, food and beverage companies, conservation groups and more to measure and improve the sustainability of U.S. food, fiber, feed and fuel production.
NCGA is a member of Field to Market, and as chair of the group, Hunnicutt understands how translating the ideas of all stakeholders to practical production practices is a vital step in moving the sustainability needle in agriculture.
“I’ll take my case in Nebraska, reducing irrigation is a very important step, because we can’t just pump water wells completely dry,” says Hunnicutt. “We need to figure out how do we use technology to reduce that? How do we use technology to reduce nitrogen?”
2030 Goals
NCGA is also working to help corn farmers create an even stronger commitment to environmental, economic and social sustainability goals. Last summer, NCGA released U.S. Corn Sustainability goals, as well as a report that documented how corn farmers across the U.S. have already made strong improvement in production practices.
“We have some very, very solid goals we’re going after by 2030 to help really reduce our environmental footprint, whether it’s an irrigation, nitrogen use or soil conservation, those all the are important factors that we’re looking at,” Hunnicutt says.
NCGA’s Environmental Efficiency Goals to Enhance Corn Production Sustainability includes five specific goals:
- Increase land-use efficiency by 12%.
- Increase irrigation water use efficiency by 15%.
- Reduce soil erosion by 13%.
- Increase energy use efficiency by 13%.
- Reduce greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions by 13%.
“It’s really important, from my standpoint, to be able to measure those successes more than just saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing it,’ to that point that we can go out and really show what we’re doing as an America corn farmer or American soybean farmer, whatever you may be, and then how can we partner with others to make sure that those initiatives are being met,” Hunnicutt says.
Measuring Success with Cover Crops
For Hunnicutt it’s not just making changes on his farm, but showing the metrics behind practices that prove successful for farmers nationwide. That’s why states like Indiana are also getting involved with actual field trials that provide vital data and information. The conservation practice that’s showed strong signs of improvement for Indiana farmer Mike Buis is the use of cover crops.
“I started six years ago, and we’ve been noting that since we have a lot of highly erodible ground in one county, and we put that on there every year, and that helps hold the soil,” says Buis, who also serves as a grower director with INfield Advantage.
Buis says cover crops have helped improve efficiency on his farm for several years. He’s one of 90 growers across the state participating in statewide trials through INfield Advantage, a program that helps growers evaluate cover crop use through soil tests, tissue samples and soil health assessment.
“It helps to take some of the risk off as it helps with the expenses for farmers to experiment with cover crops, and it’s been very, very beneficial,” he says.
The Weed Control Advantage
The other benefit Buis is seeing as a direct result of cover crops is weed control. It’s something not just showing up in Indiana. Seed corn growers in Iowa have also witnessed how cover crops can help tame hard to control weeds.
“I think cover crops, especially when you look at like a really good establishment of cereal rye in the fall, can really have an impact on weed control,” says Shannon Moeller, Project Coordinator, Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative.
She says as more seed corn farmers adopt cover crops, they are seeing the impact on weed control.
“As we run into various issues with different herbicides that are being used, and we see different resistances coming in, I think in the long run to be able to be productive with corn and soy and other commodity crops, as we look towards staying productive, and being able to keep that going, I think that the use of cover crops and finding some of those benefits is going to be really important,” Moeller adds.
She says the Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative was started in 2016 through a grant from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
“It was estimated then about 5% of Iowa’s seed corn acres had cover crops on them,” says Moeller. “Now we estimate that to be over 50%. And we know just through our project alone, we are helping cost share on about one-third of those total seed corn acres in the state.”
Adopting and Adapting to Change
While cover crop growth has been monumental in some areas, the production practice is still met with skepticism by growers across the country. David Ring, who farmers in southern Indiana Farmer, as well as serves as a grower director with INfield Advantage, says the adoption of a new practice like cover crops comes with a change of heart and hands.
“Well, if you’re using cover crops, you changed your whole philosophy of how you’re planting and things like that,” says Ring. “So that has to be a mindset for somebody to accept the change. People tend to be afraid at first. I don’t think the cost has that much to do with it. But I think just changing your system that you’re doing is the biggest obstacle you can come up with.”
Ring also implements minimum tillage as another conservation practice on their farm. However, cover crops are nothing new. He says his family farm has been using cover crops on their farm for close to 25 years.
“We chop silage, and as you well know, you take everything off to the stubble. We weren’t about to leave that ground bare, so we got into the cocktail mix very early with radishes and cereal rye and things like that,” adds Ring.
The Indiana grower says there are a lot of various ways to implement sustainability on your farm, many of which are fairly easy to implement.
“You just protect the soil and INfield Advantage, it’s a way to experiment with different things. That’s what I like about it, and we do comparisons,” he says.
SEE Sustainability
From environmental to social impacts, even seed companies are working to uncover more solutions with conservation.
Bert Strayer, Iowa Seed Association board member, says when some of the cover crops initiatives started within the state, it was under the guidance of Bill Northey, who was Iowa Secretary of Agriculture at the time.
“We were all kind of told to keep in mind to make sure that the practices that we suggest are easy to understand and implement, and they’re also not casting all the burden of making changes on the grower,” he adds.
He says from that, came the acronym “SEE sustainability” which stands for the social, environmental and economic impact of sustainability.
“The first part is the social aspect,” says Bert Strayer, Iowa Seed Association board member. “We got federal money that’s helping us develop these projects and programs, that needs to have a social aspect. So, I’d say the social aspect with cover crops, ultimately, is that we’re improving water quality.”
“Then there’s the environmental side, what are the good things that come out of cover crops, how our cover crops sustainable? Well, they’re keeping soil in place, and they’re doing a lot of things inherently good for the soil,” he adds.
The last piece is the economic impact, which is vital to growers.
“We need to keep finding ways to make sure that the economic impact on the growers isn’t out of line so that it becomes cost effective at the grower level,” says Strayer. “As I’ve seen the evolution of that sustainability or developing the means to develop cover crops, say in Iowa, the first was use cover crops while put a cover crop on because if you can get cost share, that really isn’t a good reason to do it. And then we moved into the fact we’re using cover crops for soil health. And lately, as we talk about the development of carbon, it’s regenerated carbon in our soils.”
As the conversation around sustainability evolves, it’s adapting and growing on the farm that will ensure U.S. farmers lead the way in finding success in sustainability.
To learn more about NCGA’s efforts, visit http://www.ncga.com/sustainability
