Cover Crops

How North Dakota Farmers Collaborate to Build Soil Health and Manage Cover Crops

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:37:09 GMT

When Tyler Zimmerman looks across his North Dakota fields, he doesn’t see just corn, soybeans and sunflowers anymore. He sees the payoff of an ongoing experiment to build soil health—one fueled by a unique partnership with his neighbor, the impact of grazing cattle, and the changing biology under his boots.

“We do just about everything on this together; it’s made this journey so much easier,” Zimmerman told a room of fellow farmers at the 2026 South Dakota Soil Health Conference, regarding his work with Chris Walberg, a fellow row-crop grower, cattle producer and friend.

Over the last decade, the two farmers have turned what could have been a daunting transition on their individual farms into a shared learning process of transitioning to no-till and the use of cover crops.

Here are some of their key recommendations and how they’ve used collaboration to succeed.

Start With Context

The farmers’ partnership is a study in contrasts. Despite living only 10 miles apart, Zimmerman’s farm features heavy clay soils that hold moisture like a sponge. Walberg’s fields lean toward light, sandy soils. Their farm differences have brought one of the most important soil health “principles” to their attention, one that rarely gets discussed: context.

While soil health principles are universal, the two farmers believe their application is hyper-local. Zimmerman and Walberg have learned that they cannot simply mirror growing each other’s cover mixes.

“You have to think about how to apply these to your specific place, your farm, your operation, to make you successful,” Walberg says.

He and Zimmerman recommend doing an audit of sorts to figure out what soil health practices and cover crops will work best. Consider your specific soil types, residue levels, typical harvest windows, and—crucially—your biggest bottlenecks, whether that’s moisture, erosion or herbicide carryover.

Evaluate Equipment Needs

To get cover crops planted and established, Zimmerman and Walberg leaned first on creativity, not new iron. They started out using an old International box drill, modifying it to run between 30- and 60-inch corn rows.

“There was virtually no improvements needed to make that work, other than pull a couple pins, pull a couple units off where the corn rows are, and we were off planting cover crops,” Zimmerman recalls.

Later, they co-built an interseeder and a 30-inch in-row crimper, sharing costs, so they could interseed corn and sunflower crops.
“I don’t know that alone I would have built that interseeder,” Walberg notes. “Being able to share the cost and the time investment, that’s been the power of partnering together.”

Independent Field Agronomist Lee Briese, who also spoke at the conference, urges farmers to take a hard look at their existing equipment resources, making a list of what they have access to for starting out.

“You need to know if you have the right piece of equipment. Do you have the right operator that has time to do the work when you need to do it? Use those things to help you build your system… Take inventory of resources, because it’s really hard right now to go and spend a lot of money on something that you don’t have.” Briese says.

Here are the seven steps Briese recommends farmers evaluate:

(Lee Briese)

Master The Seeding Window

When it comes to interseeding into corn, both farmers say timing is critical for stand establishment. They’ve found that interseeding earlier at around V2 to V3 before the canopy closes works best.

Two additional takeaways they encourage other farmers to consider:

For aerial seeding, residue and insect pressure matter; flying on before harvest so residue can help cover and protect seed may improve establishment.
Expect more variability in broadcast or aerial seedings as residue builds; be ready to adjust or change your methods over time.

Choose Herbicide Programs With Covers In Mind

Cover crops have to be able to survive your weed-control program. Both Zimmerman and Walberg emphasize planning chemistry use around cover crops—not the other way around.

“A lot of these species — rye, oats, flax, radishes — most of those will grow through almost any chemical program,” Zimmerman says. “They might be in a weakened state for a while, but… most of the time, they will work through it.”

On Walberg’s farm, he leans on a burndown product and then a light residual for weed control.

“What’s worked well for me is a non-residual burndown, like a Roundup and 2,4-D or something like that,” he says. “Then I’ll come back with, typically, Laudis. If I wait about seven days after I apply Laudis and then come back and interseed, it seems like that chemical doesn’t affect my cover crop.”

Use Crimping Strategically — Not Everywhere

Zimmerman and Walberg use two different crimpers: a 40-foot flat-roll crimper for rye; and a 30-inch in-row crimper that rolls covers between crop rows.

For them, crimping is a targeted tool to use and doesn’t fit the entire farm.

“The reason we wanted that [in-row crimper] is we’re trying to reduce our herbicide use,” Walberg notes. “It isn’t like a tool we’re using on every acre, but… when we got rye set up in these twin rows in between our corn, it works good.”

Crimped rye can give fields a powerful burst of soil life.

“Say you crimp down 100 pounds of rye and plant something into it,” Walberg said. “When you come back a month later and you pull that residue apart, you can just see that soil — it’s thriving underneath there.”

Timing matters a great deal if you want to use crimping. In their northern climate, waiting for rye to reach anthesis (flowering, pollen shed) can push soybean planting into June. Zimmerman has seen stands suffer when crimping too late over already stressed beans, and says he’s still fine-tuning termination timing.

Integrate Livestock When Possible

For Zimmerman, who owns no cattle, the payoff from good cover establishment is the ability to attract livestock — and the biology they bring.

“I have no cattle, so I’m always trying to get cattle on my land,” he says, noting that strong cover crop stands can turn your farm into a sought-after grazing resource.

Walberg often places some of his cattle on Zimmerman’s fields and pays him a stipend for feed. In return, Zimmerman gets nutrient cycling and hoof action on grain ground, some of which hasn’t seen cattle in decades.

The two farmers say grazing living or recently terminated covers may improve nutrient cycling compared with chemical-only termination.

Collaboration Makes It Sustainable — and Fun

Beyond the agronomy, both men say the biggest factor in their success with cover crops is their partnership.

“We’ve known each other since, well, forever,” Zimmerman says. “The last seven, eight, 10 years, we’re talking to each other every day, every other day… collaborating about all these things that we can do together and make things work.”

Walberg says the shift from competition to collaboration has changed how he sees farming.

“Conventional farming [can drive] a lot of neighbor competition,” he says. “Doing a lot of collaboration and working together… makes it fun.”

On the fundamentals of making a working relationship like theirs work, Walberg’s answer was simple: shared goals and honest communication.

“We share soil health goals for sure,” he says. “And I think, like anything in life… communication is key. If you can have open and honest communication, most people, as long as they’re reasonable, can work through just about anything.”

Their key takeaways on collaboration:

Find at least one like-minded neighbor to share ideas, equipment and results with.
Start small — one shared tool, one trial field, one grazing arrangement.
Treat collaboration as a long-term relationship, not a one-off deal; trust and fairness matter as much as seed choices or row spacing.

For Zimmerman, the original goal of saving a few dollars on labor has grown into a deeper philosophy. Looking at his thriving fields, he now asks a different question: “Why isn’t everybody trying to do this? We’re saving on inputs and building something for the long-term.”

His advice to any farmer looking to start is simple: start where you are, use what you have, and—most importantly—don’t go it alone.

Watch the full presentation by Walberg and Zimmerman at the 2026 South Dakota Soil Health Conference on YouTube, available here .

Betting on Biomass: How Two Farmers Turn Cover Crops Into Weed Control

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:37:16 GMT

When herbicide-resistant waterhemp began rewriting the rules of weed control for farmers in Illinois, Frank Rademacher didn’t respond by using more products. Instead, he doubled down on no-till and cover crops, betting that a living carpet of rye and roots could do what herbicides alone no longer could.

Rademacher, who farms with his father in Champaign County, recalls the initial transition was a steep learning curve, complicated by making too many changes at one time.

“When we got into cover crops heavy, that was also basically the same year we switched everything over to no-till, and the same year we switched all of our crops to non-GMO,” he says. “Boy, that was a mistake on a lot of fronts, because your weed populations really shift in the process of switching to no-till, at least initially.”

Despite the early hurdles, cereal rye became the foundation of Rademacher’s weed-control program. On his east-central Illinois fields, drilled cereal rye—planted early at roughly 50 pounds per acre—has provided enough biomass to simplify herbicide programs in his non-GMO soybeans.

“There [have been] a lot of times where we have just done like a one-pass herbicide program, so no post spray, and that was in non-GMO beans, and they were really clean,” Rademacher says.

Match Cover Crop Species to Farm Goals

Hundreds of miles away in Virginia, Paul Davis follows a similar philosophy. No-tilling since 1999 and using covers since 2005, Davis views weed control as inseparable from soil health.

“They do so many things,” says Davis, who farms in New Kent County. “Providing erosion control, providing something growing all winter to scavenge any nutrients... making nitrogen, especially this year for my corn crop.”

While Rademacher leans on cereal rye for soybeans, Davis centers his program on a cereal rye-vetch system ahead of corn. Both farmers aim for enough biomass to smother weeds while keeping the cash crop competitive and thriving.

Managing the Fine Line Between Weed and Crop Control

The balance is delicate, particularly with corn. Rademacher warns: “As it relates to corn, the line between enough biomass to fight weeds all season long, and the line between that and having no crop at all can be a pretty fine line. It’s pretty easy to have really good weed control, but also really good crop control.”

To avoid tying up nitrogen, Rademacher opts to use wheat or barley ahead of corn rather than the more aggressive cereal rye.

Davis manages these tradeoffs by decoupling his grass and legumes in the spring. He kills the cereal rye early with a grass herbicide to prevent the Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) ratio from becoming too high.

“I don’t want the cereal rye to go that long, because once it gets a hollow stem, it takes a lot of bacteria eating nitrogen to break that hollow stem down,” he explains.

By late March, Davis terminates the cereal rye but feeds the vetch, letting it grow until it blooms. By mid-May, the vetch forms a two-foot-tall mat that suppresses weeds and allows him to scale back on products.

“That’s really where I’ve cut my herbicide program back the most, in my corn rotation with the heavy vetch stand,” he says.

The Biomass Trap and Termination Timing

Both farmers emphasize that covers complement, rather than replace, good chemistry on their fields. Rademacher warns that a “middle ground” of biomass can actually be detrimental.

“There is kind of a point where you’ve got enough biomass that inhibits some of your herbicide from hitting the ground—too much residue, but not quite enough to get really good weed control to replace that impact,” he says.

He is also “hyper vigilant” about the weather during termination, noting that nighttime temperatures should be above 50°F to ensure the plants don’t shut down. He also cautions about the spray mix used. He sometimes sees termination failures when farmers add clay-based residuals like atrazine in poor temperature windows.

Davis scales his herbicide use based on biomass volume. “If you’re planting into [6,000 to 8,000 pounds], you definitely can reduce your herbicide program,” he says. However, “If you have a weak stand of rye... don’t plan on cutting your herbicide program back.”

On a related front, Davis and Rademacher have been able to reduce their insecticide use. After noticing spider webs in his fields 12 years ago, Davis stopped using them entirely. “I haven’t used an insecticide since—not on corn, beans, wheat, pumpkins, anything,” he says.

Rademacher reports that beneficial predators on his farm now control pests like slugs. “We’ve got such a huge beneficial population... because we haven’t used insecticides now on anything going on six or seven years,” he says.

Weed Control As Part Of A System

Both farmers say weed control is now the product of a broader system they’ve adopted: no-till, continuous roots, high-residue covers, and a more complex biological community above- and below-ground.

To get started with cover crops, Rademacher tells farmers to begin where he believes there’s room for error: with soybeans. “I would get cover crops to have soybeans figured out,” he says. “Just plant… whatever [your] local NRCS recommendations are for cereal rye rates.”

Davis would start out using covers ahead of corn, using a focused cereal rye–vetch program and learning to time termination for both weed control and nitrogen. He stresses growing enough biomass to matter, killing the cereal rye before it gets too lignified, and then letting vetch build the mat that suppresses weeds and feeds the crop.

His main advice to farmers is to think long-term. “It takes five or six years before you really start seeing the benefits,” he says. “God didn’t make Earth in one day, so don’t expect miracles in one day.”

Davis and Rademacher shared their experiences incorporating the use of cover crops on their farms during an online GROW farmer forum addressing the topic of using cover crop mixes for weed suppression. GROW stands for Getting Rid Of Weeds. The organization is a scientist-led network coordinating research to help farmers across the U.S. fight herbicide-resistance with a greater diversity of weed control strategies to complement chemical use.

From Forage to Fertilizer: Iowa Farmers Turn Cover Crops Into A Profit Engine

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:35:36 GMT

Where the borders of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois converge above the Mississippi River, Jack and Maria Smith, alongside their sons Nick and Ted, have turned cover crops into the strategic backbone of their diversified farming operation.

Based in eastern Dubuque County, Iowa, the family combines no-till corn and soybeans with a 420-head beef operation. They utilize a spring and fall calving schedule to produce registered seedstock and yearling bulls, while also finishing select calves.

One of the things that makes their farm unique, Nick Smith says, is how completely they’ve integrated cover crops in all aspects of their operation.

“We cover crop every single acre now. We’ve been able to do that for the last five, six, seven years, somewhere in there,” he told Andrew McCrea, during their recent discussion on Farming The Countryside.

Smith Family Farms got its start in 1853. In addition to their conservation efforts, the family is dedicated to preserving the state’s history through the Iowa Barn Foundation, which has saved more than 300 barns.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Matching Cover Crops To Cattle And Terrain

Because their land is prone to erosion, the Smiths first used cover crops to protect the soil from heavy rains. However, the practice quickly became a “no-brainer” feed source for their beef herd.

On their steepest slopes, the family often uses a two-year rotation centered on covers. They plant a spring cover crop to graze or harvest, then follow it with a diverse “summer cocktail” that is harvested once and grazed in the fall. This rotation prepares the fields for no-till corn the following year.

“With some of our steepest slopes, that’s what we typically do,” Smith says. “On ground that’s not as steep, we grow more continuous corn.”

Cattle graze the rolling hills that make up a significant percentage of the land the Smiths own in Dubuque County, Iowa.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Most of the family’s cover crop acres are grazed by cattle at some point.

“In the fall, I would say we’re grazing all of them,” Smith says. He notes that distance and accessibility sometimes limit spring grazing. “Probably 50-plus percent of the acres do get grazed in the spring. It just depends on the weather. You can’t really have the cattle out there if it’s wet.”

Custom “Cocktails” For Summer And Fall

Smith chooses different cover crop mixes based on the season and the next crop in the rotation. For summer covers, he prefers diverse blends based on sorghum-sudangrass.

“We love that stuff,” he says. “It’s really hard to screw it up. It’ll grow pretty much anywhere, and it grows quickly. It’s great feed; cows love it.”

He typically adds legumes like clover and buckwheat to those summer mixes. For fall and winter grazing, the farm relies on small grains and brassicas, including triticale, cereal rye, turnips, and oats. These fall covers are usually seeded in August and September.

The Smiths use a corn-soybean rotation along with some continuous corn. Cover crops help fuel the family’s row crops and feed their cattle herd.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Smith adjusts his seeding rates based on the upcoming row crop. If a field is headed to soybeans, he seeds cereal rye at a heavier rate.

“Beans like cereal rye,” he said. “If we’ve got a thicker stand out there, that’s not going to bother me.”

If he is planting corn the next year, he uses a lighter rate of cereal rye, especially on fields that won’t be grazed in the spring. The family has also experimented with camelina ahead of corn to add more diversity.

From Planes To Drones — And The Combine

Smith’s father, Jack, began aerial seeding cover crops more than 15 years ago, but the rolling terrain made it difficult to get consistent results.

“In our topography, we haven’t had great success with that,” Smith says. “It’s hard to get good coverage over every acre.”

In recent years, the Smiths have used drones for more precise seeding, especially to drop oats, radishes, or turnips into standing corn to create high-quality fall forage.

“We’ve had years where we’ve had knee-high oats while we’re harvesting corn,” Smith says, though he notes success depends on timely rain.

One of the most significant changes the family made was five years ago when they decided to mount a Gandy air seeder on their combine to plant cereal rye during the corn harvest.

“It’s hydraulically powered and blows the seed so it drops right at or through the header, just before the residue goes through the snapping rolls on the corn head,” Smith says. “As that material goes down through the corn head, it basically covers the seed up and helps trap a little bit more moisture there for it to get going.”

Smith can seed about 15 acres per fill. He dismisses concerns that the practice slows down the harvest.

“Everybody’s excuse is, ‘I don’t want to stop harvest,’” he says. “You can refill in 5 minutes with the right kind of tender. We’re saving a whole other trip, saving a lot of fuel, and we’re getting more growth because it’s done earlier.”

Soil Health And Nitrogen Efficiency

Smith credits no-till and consistent cover cropping with improving his soil function. He has observed faster residue breakdown, more earthworm activity, and higher microbial activity.

Earthworms are the only tillage tool on Smith Family Farms operation in northeast Iowa.

(Environmental Stewardship Award)

“The pace of the increases in organic matter have gone up a lot since we started using the combine, because we’re getting seed in every square foot of every acre, and we’re doing it on a consistent basis,” he reports.

Grazing cover crops has also allowed the family to reduce commercial nitrogen rates over the last six or seven years, even as corn yields have increased.

“From an efficiency standpoint, we’re way more efficient as far as pounds of commercial nitrogen applied per bushel of corn,” Smith says. He attributes this to cattle returning nutrients to the soil via manure, though the exact fertilizer value is hard to quantify.

Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has played a central role in helping the Smiths refine these systems. Nick says he uses the organization’s website, events, and on-farm trials to guide experimentation with new cover mixes.

Labor And The “Cheat Code” Of Cows

Smith says labor is the biggest barrier for most farmers considering cover crops. However, he argues that seeding during harvest removes that hurdle.

“That’s where the combine’s a no-brainer, because that’s not labor — you’re saving time,” he notes.

He also acknowledges that having cattle makes the financial risk much lower.

“Compared to other farmers, we’ve got a mulligan, if something doesn’t work,” Smith says. “If you’re a cash-grain farmer only and you’re spending money on some cover crops and it doesn’t really work, it’s hard to stomach that cost. For us, if we have something that’s a failure, we can still recover some of that cost — and in a lot of years, way more than recover the cost. The cows are a little bit of a ‘cheat code’ for us in that aspect.”

The Smith Family Farms received the 2025 Regional Environmental Stewardship Award for their efforts in sustainability, which were highlighted during the CattleCon 2026 conference.

Listen to the complete discussion between Nick Smith and Andrew McCrae on Farming The Countryside here .

Is Zero Tolerance For Weed Escapes The New Standard?

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:08:08 GMT

Across the country, Extension weed scientists are rewriting the rules of acceptable weed pressure in corn and soybeans. For many, tolerance for a few late-season escapes of tough weeds—like Palmer amaranth and waterhemp—is a thing of the past. Increasingly, the Extension community is encouraging farmers to draw some harder lines. One of those is for zero tolerance for weed seed production.

“We have really kind of shifted to this idea largely because of herbicide resistance. That is a huge threat for our crop production systems,” explains Sarah Lancaster, Kansas State University weed management Extension specialist and assistant professor.

Lancaster emphasizes that effective weed control is no longer about picking one or two individual tools to address weeds and prevent seed dispersal. Instead, it is about stacking as many tools as feasible into a single season.

“If you think about this as a multiple-choice answer, it’s not about using A, B, or C. The right answer is D—use all of the above,” she says.
Herbicides, cultural practices, strategic tillage, cover crops, rotations, and sanitation all play a role in stopping weeds.

During a recent episode of The Crop Science Podcast Show, available here , Lancaster addressed specific tools and practices to help farmers work toward the “zero tolerance” goal this season. Here are five for consideration:

1. Herbicides Will Still Be A Core Tool For Weed Control.

Despite the push for diversification, Lancaster believes herbicides remain the central tool for row-crop farmers.

“In our conventional broad-acre ag systems, herbicides are still going to be the most efficient, most economical way to [control weeds]—I’m going to say for the rest of my career,” she says.

However, decisions about product selection, rates, application timing, and application quality are increasingly critical—even more so under stress conditions like heat and drought. In western Kansas, Lancaster sees farmers adjusting their practices to meet these challenges.

“When it gets hot and dry, our farmers are really good at modifying their herbicide applications to make sure they’re still going to be efficacious in those very difficult conditions,” she explains. “They know that if they skimp on the water, they’re wasting their time, so they do a good job of accounting for that, modifying their adjuvants, and knowing when to adjust.”

2. Use Cultural Practices To Make The Crop Competitive.

Lancaster stresses that managing the crop can be just as important as managing the weeds.

“Other things that we talk about would be cultural control practices, looking at planting dates and row spacings,” she says. “How do we manipulate that crop to make it as competitive as possible and maybe support our herbicides a little bit better, so that we have fewer weeds to control?”

For growers, this means considering narrower rows, if suitable for the cropping system, and using optimal planting dates to favor the crop over the weeds.

These tactics don’t replace herbicides, Lancaster adds, but they make every herbicide dollar go further.

3. Consider Using Strategic Tillage In No-Till Systems.

In Kansas, no-till is widely adopted to conserve soil and water, but Lancaster points out that it can reshape the weed spectrum and the tools required to manage it.

“Here in Kansas, no-till is a very important soil conservation practice, but it brings its own set of weed management challenges,” she notes. “The number one reason that tillage is a good thing is to kill weeds. When you remove that, you’re 100% reliant on herbicides.”

She believes there are scenarios in no-till where strategic or occasional tillage has a place. One example is the return of perennial warm-season grasses in long-term no-till fields, such as tumble windmill grass.

“That’s an example of a situation where strategic or occasional tillage is becoming a more accepted, more common idea for managing some of these key weeds,” Lancaster says.

Her bottom-line message is to use tillage strategically whenever tough weeds require it.

4. Technology Can Help Improve Control, Reduce Rates, Cut Costs.

Lancaster sees real promise in camera- or sensor-based systems that spray only where weeds are present, such as “See & Spray” or “Weed-It” systems. She finds the technology is especially beneficial on fallow ground or in stubble.

She notes that in some cases, these tools are what make no-till financially viable. Referencing one farmer she works with, Lancaster sayss they used this technology to stay aggressive on weed control while actually reducing input costs.

“They’ve looked at the economic numbers, and now they know that they can kill the weeds with herbicide applications and drop that herbicide cost below the cost of running a sweep plow,” she says. “It’s allowed them to gain those benefits of conserving moisture.”

5. Prioritize Prevention and Sanitation.

Lancaster urges farmers to lean into prevention and sanitation—two tools she believes are often undervalued. In Kansas, where many farmers also raise cattle, she sees clear risks in how feed and manure are handled.

“Livestock manure is very valuable, but if it’s not been composted well, or if that animal has had a diet that’s full of weed seeds, that’s going to introduce a whole other set of problems,” she warns.

People, vehicles, and animals are potential vectors for weed seeds. Lancaster advises farmers to be intentional about cleaning all equipment—including combines—to prevent spreading seeds from one field to another.

She extends this advice to anyone moving between multiple farms, especially.

“I remind students that if they’re a field scout in the summer, they need to be careful to not make their four-wheeler or their work boots a weed seed dispersal instrument,” she says. “It only takes one instance of seed introduction to have a serious problem for a long time.”

Inside the Room: What Farmers Heard as USDA Rolled Out Its $700M Regenerative Ag Plan

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:54:32 GMT

When USDA quietly selected a small group of farmers to help roll out a new $700 million regenerative agriculture pilot program, most producers never knew the meetings were happening. Missouri farmers Jon and Brittany Hemme did, because they were invited into the room, sitting face-to-face with two cabinet secretaries and hearing firsthand how Washington plans to reshape soil health policy.

“We are very average farmers,” Hemme says. “It was a very humbling experience that we were chosen. My biggest takeaway is that I truly believe they’re trying to do the right things, bringing better health options to people through the way food is produced.”

Reinventing a Small Dairy to Stay Viable

Jon is one of three Hemme brothers continuing a dairy operation their father started 30 years ago. Today, the Hemmes operate the only dairy left in Saline County. Survival hasn’t come easily. As small dairies disappeared, the Hemmes reinvented their business model, adding on-farm processing and direct-to-consumer sales.

“That’s where our direct market part of our business came in, the creamery,” Hemme says. “Being able to go to processing and then direct market that end product has made us a viable operation yet as a small dairy.”

Their Hemme Brothers cheeses are now sold throughout Kansas City and central Missouri, but what also caught the attention of USDA was how they manage their land.

“We started planting cover crops the first time in 2017, got really aggressive by 2018 to where we tried to have all of our acres covered in one way or another,” Hemme says.

That shift began at the request of a landlord nearly a decade ago. Hemme says it pushed him to learn what regenerative agriculture really meant and how it could pencil out.

“We initially started just looking to try to reduce inputs to where we could keep a little more of our income,” he says. “For quite a few years we managed them that way trying to reduce our herbicide and we were successful, but that takes a lot of time and management. Here recently we’ve kind of mainstreamed it to where the main reason for them is erosion control.”

A Text Message From USDA

That work that started nearly a decade ago led to an unexpected invitation from Washington.

“We got a text message on Dec. 8 saying: ‘Would you and Jon want to come to USDA and be a part of Secretary Rollins’ announcement?’” Brittany Hemme says. “Thought it was a joke maybe at first, because it was so random. But we were on a plane the next morning and then with them in D.C. on Dec. 10.”

In the midst of the madness of the holiday season and school activities for their kids, the Hemmes went ahead and said yes, knowing this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A First-of-its-Kind $700 Million Pilot Program

Not knowing exactly what USDA was going to unveil, at the event, USDA and HHS announced what they call a first-of-its-kind, $700-million Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program, administered through NRCS. The goal is to test a farmer-first model that improves soil health while maintaining long-term farm viability.

“We’re doing things a little bit differently than typical Washington, D.C.,” said U.S Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins during the announcement at USDA. “We have encouraged the states to think differently and creatively as our laboratories of innovation about how to solve the many health issues facing America ... but really today is about the next step in making America healthy again, and that is talking about regenerative agriculture.”

During thee announcement, Rollins said the focus of USDA and HHS for the new pilot program was on protecting soil and is critical for farm productivity and longevity.

“Protecting and improving the health of our soil is critical not only for the future viability of farmland, but to the future success of American farmers,” she said. “We must protect our top soil from unnecessary erosion and boost the microbiome of the soil.”

But it wasn’t just USDA unveiling the new program. Rollins was standing beside Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called the program a milestone tied to promises outlined in the MAHA Report.

“Among the recommendations of the report was the promise to make it easier for farmers in this country, farmers who are dependent on chemical and fertilizer inputs, to give them an off-ramp,” Kennedy said in December. “An off-ramp where they can transition to a model that emphasizes soil health. And with soil health comes nutrient density.”

An ‘Off Ramp’ for Farmers

When “U.S. Farm Report” recently caught up with the Hemmes to get their reaction, Jon says one of the key takeaways from the announcement is the structure of the pilot program and why that matters.

“It’s a five-year program, a five-year contract,” he says. “You can address multiple things in the same contract that you want to address. The farmer gets to pick his goal. They’ll develop a plan to help them achieve that goal, and then they’re going to quantify it with a soil test up front and one at the end.”

Along with the announcement, the Hemmes then had the chance to take part in a closed-door roundtable discussion with Rollins, Kennedy and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who serves as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Kennedy.

“They notified us that we would be in a roundtable discussion with Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins and Dr. Oz; that made us pretty nervous,” says Jon, laughing.

Brittany says one word stood out during that discussion.

“He said ‘off-ramp’ several times,” she says. “I really appreciated that, because this is voluntary. There’s nobody forcing anyone to do this program. It’s not all or nothing. You can work with USDA NRCS and come up with a plan that is going to work for you on your farm, in your context.”

With no cameras in the room, Hemme says the conversation felt genuine.

“They wanted some feedback from farmers,” he says. “They allowed us to each go down the line and explain our operations, our motivations behind using regenerative agriculture, and then they followed it up with some really good questions.”

Those questions included market access and how long the transition takes.

“You could see him, the wheels turning,” Hemme says of Kennedy.

What Was (And Wasn’t) Discussed

Before Kennedy joined the cabinet, some farmers worried his focus would be on restricting tools like glyphosate. The Hemmes say that never came up.

“It’s been more voluntary, putting something out there instead of coming in with a stick,” Jon says.

“There was mention of tools in the toolbox, and there was no mention of taking any of those tools away,” Brittany adds.

As Brittany has watched Jon’s regenerative journey on their own farm, she says regenerative agriculture is often misunderstood.

“Some of the negative connotation has come in from an all-or-nothing mindset,” she says. “They demonize certain tools in the toolbox, and that’s unfortunate. True regeneration is what works in your context.”

Lessons From Their Nearly Decade-Long Journey in Regenerative Ag

For Jon, this really isn’t unconventional or something new. He says regenerative ag, to him, all comes back to building resilience in your soil.

“It is conservation, but it’s also trying to build resilience into your soil,” he says. “If you follow the soil health principles, minimize disturbance, keep residue on the surface, a living root in the soil, you will start to build carbon. You’ll hold more water, perform better in dry conditions, and handle weather shifts.”

But in the nearly 10 years of diving into regenerative ag, Jon says that journey didn’t come without mistakes.

“I was very aggressive when I started out, and I kind of set myself back,” Hemme says. “If I were to give any advice, it would be to start slow and safe.”

He points specifically to cover crops. He says by trying to put cover crops on every acre at the start, he learned the hard way that if you let those cover crops get too tall, it can actually negatively impact crop production.

“If you’re too aggressive up front, you almost constipate your soil,” he says. “Eventually that residue has to leave.”

As the Hemmes say, they still want to pinch themselves over a trip that seemed like a dream, it was those direct conversations with President Donald Trump’s cabinet members that made them believe USDA’s support of regenerative ag will be a practical approach and one any farmer can try or do.

What else should you expect when it comes to regenerative ag? That’s exactly what “AgriTalk” Host Chip Flory asked Richard Fordyce, USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, just last week.

USDA Launches New $700 Million Regenerative Ag Pilot Program

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:24:32 GMT

USDA wants farmers to focus on soil health and producing more nutritious food. To that end, Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins, along with Robert “F” Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary, and Doctor Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, announced a $700 million pilot program aimed at supporting regenerative farming. USDA says the Regenerative Pilot Program’s goal is to help American farmers adopt practices focused on improving soil health, water quality and boost long-term productivity.

“We are committed to restoring America’s natural strength by empowering producers with simple outcome-based tools,” Rollins says. “Producers at every stage, from beginners just starting with cover crops to advanced operators with years of conservation experience, many of those are represented by our farmers today, will find a pathway through this pilot.”

Rollins says the program will be funded through existing programs at USDA and allow farmers to pursue “whole-farm planning” instead of a piecemeal approach. The pilot will be administered through the agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

“Each producer’s results will be measured and credited back to the farmer through an outcomes report, recognizing and rewarding improvements they achieve on their own land,” Rollins says. “This initiative puts American farmers first as part of the solution to make America healthy again.”

Building Off MAHA

The announcement follows the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy released in September.

Kennedy said the initiative promises farmers an “off-ramp” to transition away from chemical fertilizer inputs, “to a model that emphasizes soil health, and with soil health comes nutrient density through voluntary action.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also investing in research on the connection between regenerative agriculture and public health, as well as developing public health messaging explaining this connection.

“We cannot truly be a wealthy nation if we are not also a healthy nation. Access to wholesome, nutritious and affordable foods is a key tenet of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, which President Trump has directed this administration to execute across all government agencies,” Oz says. “I commend Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy for today’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s food supply.”

“This is another initiative driven by President Trump’s mission to Make America Healthy Again,” Rollins adds. “Alongside Secretary Kennedy, we have made great strides to ensure the safe, nutritious, and affordable food our great farmers produce make it to dinner tables across this great country.”

How Does it Work?

USDA released details about the program in a release. It says the program will be administered by NRCS, allowing producers to bundle multiple regenerative practices into a single application, saying it will both streamline the process and allow for operator flexibility.

In FY2026, USDA is dedicating $400 million through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and $300 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to fund the first year of regenerative agriculture projects.

USDA says farmers and ranchers interested in regenerative agriculture are encouraged to apply through their local NRCS Service Center by their state’s ranking dates for consideration in FY2026 funding. Applications for both EQIP and CSP can now be submitted under the new single regenerative application process.

Regenerative Reaction

Farm groups and outside influencers are weighing in on the new pilot program announcement. Farm Bureau and President Zippy Duvall welcomed the approach while pointing out its still light on details.

“We value USDA’s acknowledgement that farmers have long practiced regenerative agriculture on their farms, both through federal conservation programs and on their own,” Duvall says. “Building on these efforts by leveraging existing voluntary and incentive-based programs to advance additional regenerative goals sounds like smart government to me, especially when farmers remain in the driver’s seat.”

Unexpected Blessings: How Regenerative Cattle Production Shaped One Family's Faith Journey

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 04:32:31 GMT

Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz’s journey into regenerative agriculture started nearly 25 years ago on their cattle and farming operation, Stoney Creek Farm, located near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Their use of regenerative practices has lowered their costs and improved their profitability, but its also shaped their faith journey.

Regenerative Journey at Stoney Creek Started With Cattle
Grant Breitkreutz says their first leap of faith into regenerative farming started with their cow herd. “We were going for more grass, more grazing days, and we really didn’t even think about it being regenerative at that time.”

They transitioned to rotational grazing, plus utilization of crop residue and cover crops. So, their herd is grazing at least nine, but weather dependent, up to 11 months a year, which Grant says has lowered their feed costs. “If the cows can be out here doing it on their own and we can provide them cover crops and stalks and crop residues and let them feed themselves. It’s money in the bank.”

Thankful for Record Cattle Prices in 2025
While 2025 has offered cattle prices they never thought they’d see in their lifetime, Grant says these practices allowed them to be profitable when cattle prices were low. “The cattle operation on our farm has pulled us through the lows. To be honest the cattle operation is subsidizing the crop production right now,” he remarks.

So, they have a lot to be thankful for, especially as they can now use some of their profits to build for the future including some long overdue infrastructure upgrades, including new fences and additional water facilities. “Yeah, they pulled us through the bad times, but there was never enough profit there to spend money on machinery. I mean, you did what you had to do. You bought feed wagons, you bought loaders, you did that kind of thing. Now we can actually take the profits from these cattle and really do some stuff that we should have been doing all along.”

Cattle Help Improve Soil Health
The cattle are also helping them improve the soil health on their farm says Grant. “We firmly believe that a cow can speed up the rebuilding of biology and a soil by about two years.” And the cattle are part of their regenerative cropping system.

Dawn describes the breadth of their regenerative operation, which follows the basic soil health principles. “We are a hundred percent no till operation so that we promote the biology and the soil. Adding diversity back into it in seed and in cows and livestock and all that sort of thing is bringing that health back.,” she says.

Cutting Costs
As a result they’ve been able to cut fertilizer and pesticide cost, which is a tall order as Stoney Creek farm is located in central Minnesota and the heart of row crop country. Grant says, “I’d say we’re saving about $140 to $160 an acre on, say, for example, a corn crop. We’ve figured out how to spoon feed the crop.”

Getting Back to Mother Nature
Dawn says another goal was to raise cattle and crops the way Mother Nature intended. “So, our soil health is vital to our livestock, to the crops that we grow, to the food that we grow, and to the humans that we’re growing.”

And she says that has led to their own branded products. “We’re selling chickens and eggs and beef and pork.
All of our stock that we finish or feed on our farm are raised on grains that are only produced here on our land.”

Regenerative Farming Shaped Faith Journey
However, their regenerative farming journey also provided an unexpected blessing as it made the Breitkreutz’s more aware of their spiritual connection to Mother Nature and the land.

Dawn says she never realized how much the Bible has to do with farming. “But you can’t be out here and pay attention to all the details and all the complications and chaos that’s in perfect harmony and not believe in a higher power that put this all together.”

On the office wall of Stoney Creek Farm are several bible verses and Dawn’s favorite is listed at the top. “I think I have three boards now that have Bible verses on them that, you know, they seem to appear at just the right time. And I’ll stop what I’m doing and I’ll find a place on the board to add to it.”

So on Thanksgiving and every day she says they feel blessed to be able to farm the way nature intended. “I’m just thankful for the opportunity to be able to take care of God’s creation.” And to bring their kids back into the operation to keep that legacy alive.

New High-Yield, High-Protein Winter Wheat Variety Set for Farms in the Northern Plains

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:33:53 GMT

Winter wheat harvest — with its amber waves and sun-bleached grains — is a fixture in the Plains states of America. That iconic activity may peak as the combines pass each summer, but the work for big yields began a decade ago.

“Every variety that is made, this is the place where it starts from,” explains Sunish Sehgal , a professor and winter wheat breeder at South Dakota State University, as he points to parent wheat plants growing in a campus greenhouse. “To develop a new variety, we start by crossing two parents.”

Winter Wheat breeder Sunish Seghal checks a field of SD Vivian.

(Clinton Griffiths)

For the last decade, Sehgal has been working to launch next-generation winter wheat varieties for South Dakota farmers. Whether in the greenhouse or in the field, he makes 800 of these genetic crosses every year — hoping to make elite varieties even better.

“We have to continuously make new varieties in order to increase the profitability of our farmers and also to meet the challenges the farmer faces in today’s environment,” Sehgal says.

A Challenging Environment

In South Dakota’s temperamental weather, those challenges are seemingly endless. Sehgal points to new races of stripe rust constantly emerging, issues with head blight, tan spot and insect pressure like hessian fly — just to name a few. Add a variable climate on top, and it makes for a difficult puzzle to solve.

“We face drought every four out of five years,” Sehgal adds. “I need to look at all of these aspects to identify an individual [variety] which will actually survive in this environment, and thrive in this environment, while being profitable for the producers.”

After testing thousands of varieties and a decade of trials, a new variety is on its way. Next season, in 2026, South Dakota producers will be able to plant SD Vivan – a high-yielding, high-protein winter wheat with strong resistance to the state’s agronomic challenges.

“Usually, when the varieties are high-yielding, they tend to have lower protein,” Sehgal explains. “The unique thing about SD Vivian is that it is able to maintain its protein content, even at a higher yield.”

Growing the Future

He made his first crosses for this variety back in the greenhouse in 2015. Today, he’s investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning might speed up his variety selection process. Until then, it’s a labor of love and determination to make a difference for farmers.

Sehgal makes 800 crosses a year in this greenhouse on SDSU campus.

(Clinton Griffiths)

“I’m honored to be able to be the part of the story where farmers, through their checkoff, fund the wheat breeding program,” Sehgal explains. “I am able to contribute and return them something back in the form of advanced genetics, which will make their farm more profitable and more sustainable.”

Some Farmers Are Increasing Cover Crop Acres to Cut Fertilizer Costs and Boost Soil Health

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:27:38 GMT

How can you trim fertilizer costs and still provide adequate nutrients for corn and soybeans next season? One solution is to consider planting some cover crops this fall, recommends David Hula, reigning world corn yield record holder.

“Nitrogen, potash, boron, sulfur… those are mobile nutrients, so if you plant a cover crop it’s going to pick up those nutrients, and then when you kill that cover crop, you can recycle that residue that was left over, or the residual nutrients that were left over,” explains Hula, who farms near Charles City, Va.

Cover crops can scavenge for nutrients from previous crops, store them and then release them for use the following season – a process that can help reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers.

Hula adds that corn and soybean growers don’t need to be using no-till on the farm to benefit.

“You can strip-till into those cover crops, or early in the spring you can work the cover crops in to get the benefits,” he says.

Randy Dowdy says one of the benefits he’s seen is that microbial activity likes to colonize around a living root mass.

“You know, it always helps our early season tissue sample values go up where we’ve got a cover crop,” says Dowdy, Hula’s partner in Total Acre . “So if guys can, at least on bean ground where they’ve harvested, get some cover crop established and get it up, from a biological play and nutrient availability play for next season, it’s a no brainer.”

Experience Has Increased Farmer Confidence
The survey data show that cover crop plantings are on the rise among farmers who already have experience using them, according to results of the September Purdue/CME Ag Economy Barometer. And, those growers will plant cover crops on a higher percentage of their total acreage this fall, reports Jim Mintert, emeritus professor of economics at Purdue University.

He says the survey trends point to broader adoption across acreage: This year, 57% of cover crop users planted them on 26% to 50% of their acres, compared to only 25% in 2021 who reported planting cover crops on more than one-fourth of their acreage.

“What the survey says is, if you use cover crops, you’re using them more intensively now than you did in the past,” Mintert adds.

He believes the increased use of cover crops by those farmers indicates they have figured out how to capitalize on the benefits.

“It’s like this learning curve, where maybe the folks that have learned how to use them are adopting them on a wider portion of their farm acreage. I think that is what we’re picking up,” Mintert says.

Where And Why Cover Crops Are Being Used
Cover crop use by farmers across the U.S. increased 17% between 2017 and 2022 – from 15,390,674 acres to 17,985,831acres – data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture show. In total, cover crops were planted on 4.7% of all cropland in 2022.

Regional differences in the use of cover crops are related to factors such as climate, soils, cropping systems, and state incentive programs, according to USDA-Economic Research Service.

(USDA-ERS)

For example, Maryland, which has the highest rate of cover crop use, has programs that encourage farmers to grow cover crops to help improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.

“Water quality is a big deal for those of us on the East Coast, and there are some programs available through NRCS and others that could be a little bit of a revenue stream for a grower and you can reduce some expenses,” says Hula.

Warm Conditions Could Help Stand Establishment
With the current fall conditions across the Midwest, Hula would encourage growers new to using cover crops there to experiment with them on some acres.

“A lot of times, Midwest growers are worried they’re going to run out of time to get a cover crop planted, but with as warm as it is, you have a good chance to get some growth established this fall and a good root system going before conditions turn cold,” he says.

Moisture is needed to get cover crops established well, and that is a concern in some areas this fall, cautions the Midwest Cover Crops Council. It says good soil moisture at seeding and 0.5” to 1” of rainfall after seeding will improve germination and stand establishment.

The Council has recommendations for which cover crops are a good fit by state and especially well-suited to farmers who are new to growing them. Learn more here .

Hula and Dowdy address cover crops in more detail in their Breaking Barriers with R&D during their discussion on AgriTalk:

Your next read: Farmer Finds A Silver Bullet For High Corn Yields

Ohio Farmers Mimic Mother Nature To Build Soils and Yield Success

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 21:19:11 GMT

Every acre Les Seiler and his family farm in northwest Ohio has a cover crop planted on it, with the goal of keeping a living root in the ground year-round

“We try to mimic Mother Nature with what we do,” says Seiler. “Through no-till and cover crops we’re building our soil health, which is the No. 1 thing in our world.”

That’s not always been the case, admits Seiler, who farms with his brother, Jerry, and two of their sons near Fayette, Ohio.

Seiler recalls when he bought the land around his home in 2010, he initially decided to strip-till the ground that fall. It was a decision he soon regretted.

“All winter long, I watched that rich, black dirt blowing into the ditch bank right in front of my house, all because I had these nice, pretty strip-till mounds,” he says. “That was the last strip-tilling we did where we built mounds.”

The following spring, the Seilers switched their machine over to low-disturbance coulters, so they could still inject fertilizer, and they went heavier into cover crops. While they’ve moved on from that piece of equipment, their focus on using cover crops and no-till only intensified.

“We don’t use that fertilizer deep placement machine anymore because we can grow a lot of our own nutrients with cover crops,” he says.

Seiler shares two benefits he’s achieved with cover crops and no-till:

1. Biomass stays on the farm. Seiler says when the cover crops are terminated, he wants all the biomass to break down over time and be accessible to their corn, soybean and wheat crops.

“I do not want my biomass to leave the farm. I don’t want it to blow in the ditches,” he says. “I want it all to stay right where it’s at, and let the biological activity – which starts with the earthworms – break this biomass down and put it into a plant-usable form.”

Wind erosion removes the most fertile part of the soil, therefore, lowering soil productivity, Iowa State Extension reports. In addition, wind erosion can reduce seedling survival and growth, increase soil crusting, increase the susceptibility of plants to disease pathogens, and even create hazardous conditions on roads and highways. See Dust Storms Shouldn’t Happen in the Corn Belt

2. Nutrient and equipment investments can be reduced. Seiler says he still uses commercial fertilizer but has been able to reduce the amounts needed to reach his yield goals. He estimates he has reduced his nitrogen use by 20% to 30%.

“I stay flexible on my nitrogen program and will adjust some based on the season,” he says. “I expect to raise 200- to 220-bushel corn this year, and I’m putting on less than 190 pounds of N.”

Seiler adds that he will use a variety of technology and products, depending on the season, to boost corn performance.

“We have technology and tools today that my dad never dreamed of having. We can use in-furrow applications of products and micronutrients, things that can help a corn crop get off to a healthier start and mitigate stress in the process,” he says.

Change Requires A Different Mindset

Seiler says transitioning to cover crops and no-till was a process, and success didn’t happen overnight.

“Have we ever had a failure with this? I would say, no, but we’ve had plenty of learning experiences,” he laughs. “I’m a believer in soil health. That’s my goal. That’s how I’m going to farm, and I know these things can be made to work.”

For farmers interested in using cover crops and other conservation farming practices, Seiler recommends:

1. Start on a small scale. Seiler recommends committing as few as 10 acres and up to 50 acres to cover crops and no-till, starting out.

“You have to build your confidence over time,” he says. “In the process you figure out what your limiting factors are and what works, and you apply those learnings to the next year.”

2. Find a mentor. Seiler suggests connecting with like-minded farmers at meetings, joining conservation networks like Farmer Advocates for Conservation, and seeking out supportive retailers who understand regenerative farming.

“Find somebody that’s having success with this and talk with them. There are farmers who are doing this successfully that you can learn from,” he says.

Seiler cites two individuals who have been important mentors to him – David Brandt, an Ohio farmer who was a pioneer in the use of no-till and cover crops to improve soil health; and Jim Hoorman, who is an independent soil health specialist and former Ohio State University Extension educator.

“Once you have some confidence to do these practices, you can take them to the next level, but you have to have some confidence in yourself,” Seiler says. “You can’t worry about what the guy at the coffee shop is saying.”

3. Invest in other people by sharing what you learn. In the process of growing corn and soybean crops that are sustainable, Seiler and his brother routinely share their 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.

“I know we’re saving soil, spending less on inputs, and we’re more profitable,” Seiler says of the conservation practices his family uses today. “Those are things I can feel really good about.”

Your Next Read: 3 Questions Every Farmer Should Ask About Biological Products

Research to Results: Salin 247 Robot Advances Iowa Corn Strip Cropping Knowledge

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 18:58:14 GMT

A former Corteva Agriscience research scientist and the CEO and founder of Salin 247, an ag tech startup focused on autonomous planting and spraying equipment for corn and soybeans, have joined forces in Iowa to advance research on strip cropping corn and cover crops.

Using Salin 247’s four row, autonomous planting robot, Bob Gunzenhauser is planting strip crop test plots in a field near Corydon to evaluate the practice and collect data on its potential to boost corn yields.

The concept is rather interesting, especially if you’re farming corn and raising livestock: corn is planted in strips at two different seeding rates with cover crops interseeded in opposite strips, and then the plan is to push fertility via in-season nitrogen application at V4-V6 with drop nozzles.

In a real world scenario, a farmer could harvest the corn and leave the cover crops and corn stalks behind to graze livestock on. Soil health would be one ancillary benefit, as would reduced compaction via the lightweight, battery-powered robotic planter.

Here are some videos of the Salin 247 robotic planter Gunzenhauser shared:

Small plots with varying seeding rates and shut offs for alleyways built in thru the prescription, cruising along at 2 MPH. @ptx_trimble pic.twitter.com/emAgf7T0WE
— Bob Gunzenhauser (@BobGunzy) April 16, 2025

Salin247 autonomous running a test plot outside of Corydon, IA today. Including corn/cover strips and Nitrogen x Seeding Rate small plots. @jasonmauck1 @zebulousprime @PfanstielJunior pic.twitter.com/MdWLY4eR9w
— Bob Gunzenhauser (@BobGunzy) April 16, 2025

Gunzenhauser says the trial will also variable rate apply zero to 240 lb. of nitrogen per acre and three different seeding rates to demonstrate the Salin 247 autonomous planting technology and how it can enable small plot research. The data will also be used to build economic, optimum nitrogen rate response data for south-central Iowa farmers, he adds.

“Mainly I think Bob is doing this to get the data and to show the value of strip cropping, which is increasing corn yield because of the sunlight effect,” says Dave Krog, CEO and founder, Salin 247. “There’s data out there that shows generally the outside two rows of a corn strip benefit from extra sunlight, but we want to advance this research.”

In 2023, Salin 247 commissioned a similar experiment on its own test plots, and the total average yield on the check rows came in at 235 bu. per acre. The corn strips ended up yielding just over 300 bu. per acre, and Krog says August was very dry that year, so theoretically the plot could have had higher yields if it were irrigated.

(@BobGunzy/X.com)

Gunzenhauser also invited some students from the local Mormon Trail high school ag program, he has a connection with the student’s teacher, to show them how applied research is conducted in field trials. He is also hoping to enlist their help in harvesting the small plots this fall.

While a small, robotic Salin 247 planter was showcased in planting this trial, Krog says his system has applications beyond small plot seed sowing.

“Strip cropping is just one example of something unique you can do with small, autonomous equipment,” he says. “Our platform, we’ve built a small, autonomous toolbar. We can take the planter off and put a liquid or dry system on, we have a cultivator for the organic guys, and we’re working with Yetter on a strip-till pressure study.”

Gunzenhauser and Krog will lean on the local cooperative to deliver some mid-season sprays for the plots, and then return in the fall with the high school students to harvest the plots and calculate the yields. He says he plans to keep us updated on the results.

Your Next Read: Elevate Your Corn Planting Game Instantly With 7 Proven Tips

Cover Crops Gain Acceptance From Farmers When Their Agronomic Advisers Already Use Them

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:32:03 GMT

Agronomic advisers are increasingly recommending the use of cover crops to their farmer customers and helping them find success – especially when they have experience with cover crops on their own ground.

That’s just one of the key findings in a new survey from the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). A report on the survey was released by the three groups on Wednesday.

Specifically, 22.3% of the advisers who said they use cover crops themselves reported between 25% and 50% of their clients are using covers, compared to a 9.1% rate of adoption among clients of advisers who did not personally use cover crops.

“Advisers play a key role in informing farmers about cover crops and providing technical assistance to help them succeed with covers,” says Rob Myers, director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative and regional director of extension programs for North Central Region SARE, in a prepared statement. “Understanding their attitudes toward cover crops, how they get their information, and how they perceive cover crop benefits will help guide efforts to support those advisers.”

More than 650 farm advisers from across the U.S. participated in the survey. Among the key findings:

The farm advisers surveyed used a wide range of information sources to learn about cover crops. Advisers who reported that they learned about cover crops on the job rather than through formal academic or training channels preferred training sessions (63.9%) and webinars (57.4%) for learning new cover crop insights, but they also liked learning from farmers one-on-one (58.3%) and by visiting field trials (30.6%).

A Valuable Weed-Management Tool

How to use cover crops as a weed management tool is one of the best key learnings Byron Hendrix says he’s gained from helping farmers adopt their use in Illinois corn and soybeans.

“Because herbicide resistance is becoming such an issue, we’ve seen cover crops come in, and they’ve helped tremendously at out-competing these resistant weeds like Palmer amaranth (pigweed) and common waterhemp, says Hendrix, a certified crop adviser and owner of Agronomy 1^st LLC and an Illinois Soy Envoy . “Once we kill that cover crop off successfully, we have a very clean looking field to plant into. So that’s a great tool that’s come about, and we’re getting better at using cover crops. That’s the key, right?”

Hendrix says he recalls when cover crops were initially adopted by farmers in his area, they were unsure of how to use them effectively. “We didn’t know exactly, are they for weed resistance? Or, are we utilizing them for more of a nitrogen benefit in the soil, you know, that type of thing?”

That same uncertainty was an issue for agronomic advisers, and it became less of an issue once advisers understood how to make cover crops work effectively, says Ryan Heiniger, executive director for the CTIC.

“This survey opened a window into how cover crops fit into crop consulting businesses and other advisory services,” says Heiniger, in a prepared statement. “We also observed that seeing is believing, which is borne out by the fact that approximately 70% of the respondents who farm themselves use cover crops on their own operations, and those cover crop users are more inclined to advise their clients on the practice.”

Higher Adoption Rates Are Expected

In addition, a majority of the farm advisers (56.9%) who participated in the survey said they expect to see cover crop acreage continue to increase. That’s true for Hendrix and his retail business.

“We’ve got multiple great things happening with cover crops now, and more and more people are actually implementing those practices,” Hendrix says.

Looking to the future, survey participants said they expect farmers to continue increasing use of cover crop mixes (46.7%) and trying ways of combining other soil health practices with cover crops (52.9%). The advisers said they expect a moderate amount of interest in newer cover crop topics like planting green (29.2%), grazing cover crops (32.2%) and others.

For more information on the CTIC/SARE/ASTA National Cover Crop Survey Report 2024-2025, visit SARE’s website .

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One Montana Farmer’s Conservation Solution: Get Back to His Prairie Roots

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 14:21:34 GMT

A few years ago, Jeff Sather was dealing with burnout and the routine of doing things how they’ve always been done.

“Spray this chemical, put on this fertilizer and hope and pray you get a crop,” he says.

Sather Farms sits in Larslan, Mont., the far northeast corner of the state. When it comes to the ranching side of his operation, Sather felt like he’d made great progress after taking a course in the art of “ranching for profit.” Through that work, his 10,000 acres of pastureland was finally working for him.

What wasn’t working for him? The 4,500 acres of crop ground he was farming.

He started looking for a solution. He took online courses and went to the Montana Soil Health Symposium.

“In spring 2020, I heard these guys talking about how biology in the soil works and how they could cut fertilizer and phosphorus use,” he says. “That was what I wanted to do, so I went home and told everyone we weren’t buying fertilizer that year.”

“I knew that was our end goal so I thought we’d might as well go there now.”

Partnerships That Unlock Potential

Sather had heard about farmers in his area receiving financial and technical assistance from the USDA NRCS to implement conservation. It seemed like a logical place to start.

Completing conservation enhancements through NRCS’s Conservation Steward Program meant he could afford a no-till disk drill to plant seed with minimal soil disturbance.

But the dominos kept falling for Sather. The no-till disk drill could be used with a stripper header that would leave stubble standing after harvest. In Montana, stubble is critical.

“Because we’re high and flat with long winters and the wind always blows, anything that’ll catch snow is in your benefit,” he says.

That’s when the biggest domino fell for Sather Farms. In an effort to find financial assistance for that equipment purchase, he connected with Marni Thompson, then a NRCS soil health specialist.

In 2020, Sather Farms enrolled in an Environmental Quality Incentives Program contract aimed at solving their most challenging soil health concerns.

Sather’s path to regenerative farming was now in overdrive.

Jeff Sather uses cover crops as part of a five-year intensive soil health partnership with USDA-NRCS.

(USDA-NRCS)

On 600 acres, Sather and Thompson got to work. The partnership put these key soil health practices into place:

Using a no-till disk drill to limit soil disturbance
Implementing a diverse rotation with no fallow ground
Planting diverse, full-season cover crops
Integrating livestock through grazing cover crops
Using a stripper header to maximize organic residue
Testing soils regularly

Betting On Diversity

Of the soil health principles, Sather is putting his chips into diversity. He calls it intensive cropping of his cash crop rotations.

“We were growing yellow peas and spring wheat before and maybe some lentils,” he says. “Now we grow peas, lentils and spring wheat, durum wheat, winter wheat and hull less oats for gluten-free flour.”

Sathers planted some safflower and flax, and he’s looking into adding old-fashioned oats or maybe another crop.

Montana doesn’t have an extra-long growing season, so Sather has started intercropping to stack those crops into the same field in the same year.

He’s grown lentils and flax in the same field, harvested them at the same time and then used a cleaner to separate them. Last year, he intercropped flax and chickpeas.

“We are looking at adding a grass, or some kind of perennial mix in the rotation, so we can plant the grass and keep it in grass for up to six years. Then we would take it back out to farm again as a quicker way to improve soil biology and organic matter,” he explains.

By implementing his rotational matrix, he’s seeing surprising benefits, including an increase in residue material and a decrease in pathogens.

Planting lentils and peas along with flax has allowed Sathers to avoid spraying a fungicide because he’s eliminated the likelihood of blight becoming a problem.

“Peas and lentils are not a high-carbon plant, and their stubble basically disappears before winter even happens,” he says. “But by adding in flax, when we harvest we leave more residue behind and a higher carbon that will still be there next year.”

Multiple years of experimenting with this mixture is starting to pay off, even with current drought conditions in Montana.

“The cool part about intercropping is it might be flax one year and the next year might be a lentil,” he says. “You end up with two different crops you can market.”

Soil health practices are helping Sather Farms weather the drought that Montana has faced for the past several growing seasons.

(Sather Farms)

Reaping the Benefits

Thompson had taken some initial soil health tests prior to the pair’s work. Now, every June, she’s back at it, collecting more data to see the benefits of Sather’s intensive soil health focus.

“It’s tough in Montana because the environment is dry and it’s windy, so soil health moves pretty slow,” she says. “But we did see some really cool things happening in comparison between benchmark data and where he’s at now.”

Slake tests show Sather’s soil is staying intact and the water around is remaining clear, signs his soil biology is holding the soil together.

“In a PLFA soil test, we are keying in on the increase of mycorrhizae fungi because that is lacking in our area,” Thompson says. “In his soil test, we are seeing an increase in those, which is huge because they are very susceptible to chemical and physical disturbance.

“We are seeing the increases in mycorrhizae fungi because he is bought in to these practices and incorporating the soil health principles,” she adds.

Agronomic Armor

Coincidentally, Sather says his work with NRCS hass coincided with the tap drying up for his region.

“We went into a drought in 2020 and now we are in a long-term drought,” he says.

Sather knows what the data is showing him in terms of the health of his soils, but anecdotally it’s adding up to a protective armor for his crops, which he can see every growing season.

“A couple of the years, the guys who used the heavy fertilizer with their seed, their crops really never even grew, where mine put on with biology and fish hydrolysate came up and look good,” he says. “It still ran out of moisture and wasn’t worth combining, but it looked better than some of the crops across the field or across the fence line.”

That visual confirmation made Sather feel like he’s on the right track.

“Now we’re just hoping, praying one of these days it’s going to start raining again.”

Jeff Sather is working to establish a “farming-for-profit” model for his cropping acreage by investing in soil health practices.

(Sather Farms)

Farming for Profit

Sather feels like he’s on track to reaching a profit-centered approach on his crop acres that is yielding benefits not only for his soil but also for his brand, Prairie Roots , a brainchild of his wife, Marisa, to direct-market their food products.

“I might not have the bumper crop yields everybody else might have in the area, but I’m still making a profit on every acre,” he says.

While Sather is concerned about the health of his soil, interested in preserving a legacy and choosing to grow healthier food products for consumers, he knows none of those interests trump his ability to keep farming.

“Mom and Dad rent me everything they own, so I need to make profit to be able to pay them rent,” he says. “I need to be able to make a profit to afford to stay here.”

If the Sather legacy is going to survive in Montana agriculture, he knows he must make a profit in order to set up his sons for a future on the farm. Along the way, he’s bringing his sons on his regenerative journey, hoping they will learn how to steward the land for the future.

“I’m just working on trying to get my system figured out and learning as much as I can to hopefully continue to improve yields,” he says.

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at www.americasconservationagmovement.com .

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8 Best Practices for Year-Round Crop Production Resilience

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:20:16 GMT

Planning for 2025 means planning for uncertainty. At some point during the season, your farm will face too much water, or too little, high wind, heat, cold and everything in between . While not every scenario is manageable or even avoidable, there are things you can do to build resilience into your farming systems.

Here are eight areas to focus on if you want to level out the peaks and valleys of production along the road to harvest.

1. Crop Rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of sequentially planting different crops in the same field year after year. Potential benefits of this practice include improved crop yield, soil nutrients and soil structure; reduced soil erosion; and lower incidence and intensity of pests and diseases. If implemented properly, the financial benefits are usually found in reduced fertilizer and pesticide inputs.

“Alternating monocot (grasses such as corn) and dicot (soybeans, cotton) rooting systems within cropping systems has been shown to improve soil hydrological properties and soil organic carbon,” says Larry Oldham, a retired Extension specialist with Mississippi State University Extension.

There are two general types of crop rotation plans — the simple rotation of two to three crops or the complex rotation of dozens of crops. Rotating at least three distinct crops over five years is optimal.

When studying various crop rotations, consider the nitrogen requirement for the crops. For example, corn is a nitrogen-demanding crop. As corn grows, it extracts nitrogen from the soil that will need to be replenished after harvest. Planting soybeans, a nitrogen-fixing crop, adds nitrogen into the soil by converting atmospheric nitrogen to a usable form.

The key to crop rotations is to realize different plants need different nutrition and are susceptible to specific pathogens and pests.

By rotating crops, you return nutrients to the soil, playing to the natural, inherent strengths of the crops and reducing the amount of purchased inputs needed to grow a productive crop.

Does my crop rotation for a particular field include three different crops over a five-year period? If not, what crop(s) could I add to the rotation?

2. Reduced Tillage

“Too much tillage can destroy soil,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “The more abrasive the tillage tool, such as a large offset disk, as opposed to a chisel plow, the more you will damage soil structure and destroy residue.”

Reducing tillage means fewer passes through the field and decreasing the intensity of the passes, which can slow the loss of organic matter, increase energy savings and reduce compaction and the need for inputs.

Jodi DeJong-Hughes, a University of Minnesota Extension regional educator, believes it doesn’t have to be no-till or nothing — every farmer can reduce their tillage.

“Reduce the number of passes, reduce how aggressive the machine is or reduce the depth it goes into the soil,” she says.

There are several types of reduced tillage , which include mulch-, ridge-, strip- and vertical-till. Reduced tillage should leave at least two thirds of the surface covered with residue after planting.

The biggest hindrance for many people isn’t soil, according to DeJong-Hughes. It’s tradition. Especially for those who tried to reduce tillage a long time ago to no avail, it’s easy to be discouraged from trying again. However, in the past decade a lot has changed, including equipment, seed genetics, seed treatments and weed, disease and insect resistance.

What am I trying to accomplish with tillage?

3. No-Till

The benefits of no-till extend beyond fuel savings. Fields that have been no-tilled for multiple years generally have a higher water-holding capacity than conventionally tilled fields. No-till adoption also reduces soil erosion and increases soil biological activity and organic matter.

“No-till takes some time to get used to, and the fields can be hard to look at at first,” says Debbie Borg, a farmer from Allen, Neb., who adopted no-till practices more than 35 years ago. “It’s a marathon, and sometimes there’s pain, but once you get over it there are many benefits.”

Ferrie recommends spending up to three years preparing soil for no-till planting.

“The first step is to dig in your field and examine soil structure and root growth to identify dense layers,” he says. “Remove them by using cover crops with roots that can penetrate compacted layers and stabilize new pores, equipment or a combination of both.”

On which fields would it make the most sense to try no-till for the first time?

4. Cover Crops

Cover crops , in conjunction with no-till, have the highest potential to improve soil health, Ferrie says.

“Cover crops can provide diversity for soil microbes; improve soil aggregation, water infiltration and storage; suppress weeds; reduce soil erosion; and recycle crop nutrients so they won’t escape and pollute water sources,” he says.

On your first attempt, Ferrie suggests planting a cover crop that’s easy to manage, and start with a few acres.

“Don’t expect to see benefits the first year, but they could be there,” he adds. “It usually takes three years to see definite results from cover crops.”

Which cover crop or cover crop mix should I try on a few acres?

5. Water Management

Water transports nutrients from the soil into the plant. It literally gives plants the strength — called turgor pressure — to stand up.

There are management steps that you can incorporate to keep water cycling. One of them is vertical tillage , which removes compacted layers and creates uniform soil density for a vertical growing system, Ferrie says.

“A well-designed controlled drainage system can move a lot of water in a short time, when necessary, while storing some it for use later in the season,” Ferrie adds.

A Farm Journal Test Plots study has used adjustable gates to maintain the water table at the desired height, while allowing excess water to exit normally through the tile outlet. Water remains available, but crop roots don’t get saturated.

“Depending on spacing, we’ve observed a 20% to 40% reduction in nutrient loss with controlled drainage during large rain events,” adds Isaac Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

In addition, the study found installing tile drainage in poorly drained soil bumped corn yields up to 15 bu. per acre, on average, and increased the number of days available for field work.

There are additional layers to water management in irrigated fields. A water management plan helps dial in. Flow meters and soil moisture sensors help achieve greater precision.

What is one action can I take to help keep water cycling?

6. Nutrient Management

Nutrient management should be part of a soil health plan to improve organic matter levels, aggregate stability and soil structure, infiltration, drainage and aeration, soil biological activity and water use efficiency. As tillage is reduced, biological communities and activity change. Adapting the 4Rs of nutrient stewardship to complement the change in biological nutrient delivery, and better physical soil functioning, is key to sustaining yield during the transition from full width tillage.

One of the first steps to manage nutrients in your fields is to understand how they are lost. For example, most nutrients are lost with water leaching down through the soil profile, through tile lines or via the air through denitrification.

“Water moves faster through coarse soils, such as sand and sandy loam, than it does through heavier soil, such as clay loam,” Ferrie explains. “The faster it flows, the easier it is to flush out the nutrients.”

Surface runoff and soil erosion account for the highest level of phosphorus loss because
phosphorus leaves fields attached to soil particles, he adds.

Ferrie suggests starting with these steps to put nutrient management practices into motion:

Determine what type of tillage, if any, will be best when and where to avoid creating erosion.
Base all fertilizer applications, whether commercial fertilizer or manure, on a sound soil test.
Assess the risk of nutrient loss for every soil type you farm.
Timing your nitrogen application is just as important as the equipment you use.
Apply less lime more often and use the correct nitrogen stabilizer. Understand your nitrogen source, too.

How might I use variable-rate technology to manage nutrients?

7. Forage and Biomass Planting

Whether you seed grass and legumes for pasture and hay for livestock or for production of biomass to be used in renewable energy production, it helps reduce erosion. The living root promotes water infiltration. As the plants die, they provide further organic matter that decomposes in the soil.

To get the most out of forage and biomass planting, be sure to:

Follow recommendations from a trusted adviser on planting rates, methods and dates.
Explore which plants fit best based on management, environment and yield.
Defer grazing until plants are well established, and avoid initial grazing when fields are wet.
Assess whether these plantings are compatible with other species in the field.
Plant when soil moisture is just right and at the right depth for uniform contact.
Try a pre-inoculated seed or a Rhizobia strain that is best suited for the field before planting legumes.

“Be prepared to feed or stockpile graze a little longer into spring so you have adequate growth before turning out livestock. That means perennial pastures with at least 8" of growth,” explains Allen Williams, an Alabama cattleman and founding partner of Understanding Ag. “If you must graze too early, then do what I call a ‘flash’ or ‘tickle’ graze where you rapidly move the livestock through the pastures. Don’t let them consume more than 30% of the total forage biomass. This stimulates soil biology and jump-starts forage growth .”

Can my soil types and climate/weather support these plants?

8. Data and Record Keeping

Over a year, layers of data come together to provide insights into past performance, identify areas for improvement, help manage risks, optimize resource allocation and maximize profitability. A digital record of all field activities shows sustainability practices to consumers and ensures compliance with regulations.

“ The only thing worse than old technology is no technology ,” says Steve Cubbage, a precision ag consultant. “Finding no technology on a farm today is rare, but many farms are in a tech rut where the portfolio hasn’t grown beyond a yield monitor and autosteer. In the age of sustainability and consumer transparency, it will take way more digitization than that. Every pass across a field must be recorded.”

Am I really using the technology I already have and the data I gather?

No one knows better than you that the future of your farm depends on balancing practices and profits that sustain your land, resources and family . The stakes are evolving based on weather patterns, technology, market demand and more. What actions are you taking to remain resilient?

The Only Way To Be Sustainable Is To Be Profitable

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 12:30:00 GMT

The only sustainable thing for your business long-term is profitability. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make efforts toward soil preservation or time efficiency, but does improving organic matter by 0.5% over 15 years matter if you go out of business doing it? Is the carbon program making the payment for your recently purchased land?

The roller coaster of markets will continue into eternity as it always has. Your focus should be what is most profitable for your business. Most of the rest is noise — though it’s still important to pull the signals out.

The current bleak outlook for farm profitability should stress the importance of this message. Many operations in 2024 are going to be OK only because of the higher yields. 2025 is an unknown, as any new year is.

The Best Product, The Best Price
The first question clients ask us is, “Where can we cut first so this doesn’t hurt as badly?”

Usually, we start with the importance of yield and price. You can’t save your way to prosperity — you need product (bushels), and you need to capture the best price by paying attention to the markets and knowing when to market because you know your bottom line (cost of production) to the penny. Cost of production doesn’t have room for error.

The Wrong Cuts in the Wrong Places
Next, we look at expenses. You need yield, so choose your fertility cuts with caution. The uncomfortable one that most people choose last is the cost of living. Lifestyle creep is when we make more money, we spend more money and become accustomed to that standard of living — see 2021 to 2023. It seems too hard to cut. Packages, frivolous expenditures or premature equipment upgrades add up fast. One or two generations back kept the cost of living in line much better than we do today — this is not conjecture, this is a fact.

The next place people look is other things they are writing a check for: seed, custom application and insurance. This is a slippery slope, especially in the outlook of environmental sustainability or income security.

While this might be unpopular in the modern outlook of sustainability, not seeding a cover crop could be a huge net positive. No seed costs, no application costs and maybe increased tillage. Tillage can and does improve yields in a large area of the country, and that is why it is still prevalent and important — this should be undisputed.

I wouldn’t reduce insurance coverage. Saving a few bushels worth of cost and leaving 20% to 80% of your income unprotected is something a lot of farms can’t afford. I don’t care if you like the current system or agree with the programs — they offer a huge safety net for revenue.

Five Takeaways
Do you want your farm to be sustainable for years to come? Make more money. Pull out the tillage equipment, grow good crops, get your spending in check and take advantage of insurance and marketing opportunities. It’s simple when written, but it’s not easy. Sustainability is profitability — there’s no two ways around it.

Digging into Soil Health

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 20:07:21 GMT

One hundred years after the Dust Bowl blew away topsoil from nearly 200 million acres of American farmland, farmers and ranchers are slowly entering into a new relationship with the soils beneath their boots.

But is change happening quickly enough to make an impact on the future of our soil? Some experts are concerned.

Certainly the nomenclature “soil health” is more commonplace now across farm management plans and in everyday farm-gate conversations.

“In the early 2000s ‘soil health’ was a term hotly debated among scientists as a replacement for ‘soil quality’,” says Dr. Bianca Moebius-Clune, climate and soil health director of American Farmland Trust’s Climate and Soil Health Initiative.

More than 20 years later, Moebius-Clune says that “significant strides” have been made in normalizing the concept of soil health across the research and agricultural community.

But that normalization may not be translating to soil health practices on the ground fast enough.

“We need to scale up the drivers of adoption, because we don’t, as of yet, have a New Conventional Agriculture where soil health management systems are the new normal,” she says.

“Depending on which data we look at, no-till or reduced-till are in use on about half the acres at this point, and possibly still slowly growing, while cover crops increased from 10M acres in 2012 to about 15M acres in 2017 to about 18M acres in 2022 per the Ag Census, that’s 6% of today’s about 300M cropland acres,” she says.

“That’s progress, but not enough progress!”

(America’s Conservation Ag Movement)

Soil Health Principles

Moebius-Clune says that principles that promote healthy soil ecosystems are broadly applicable, but they need to be carefully adapted for success in a production system.

She points to four globally accepted principles that, together, can achieve an optimal soil health system:

- Maximize biodiversity
- Maximize living roots
- Maximize soil cover
- Minimize disturbance

Putting these into place on farms and ranches is to commit to stewarding what Moebius-Clune calls an “underground herd of livestock” or living organisms that contribute to a vibrant soil ecosystem and, therefore, high-functioning soils.

Beyond well-known practices like reduced tillage and cover cropping, those baseline principles can yield additional opportunities for farmers to invest in the health of their soil, including diversification of crop rotations, integrating livestock into cropping systems and precisely managing inputs. One innovative soil health tactic— biochar --has recently been included by USDA-NRCS through Soil Carbon Amendment Conservation Practice Standard 336, meaning financial and technical assistance is now available to help growers with implementation.

Soil Health Drivers

If the baseline principles are basic enough, why aren’t more farmers and ranchers jumping ahead in implementation?

Moebius-Clune says that adoption thus far has largely been driven by innovators, early adopters, researchers, NRCS and organizations like American Farmland Trust that have put time and effort into education, outreach and training. But, that work, she says, is not sufficient to take soil health adoption to the next level.

“We need to address the still significant social, financial and technical barriers to adoption,” she says.

American Farmland Trust is working in collaboration with partners across the value chain, including America’s Conservation Ag Movement , to break down those barriers through initiatives that develop farmer networks, science-and-practice grounded technical resources, decision-support tools and policy solutions to improve farmer access to resources.

Soil Health Benefits

Those soil health early adopters are seeing tangible benefits on farms and ranches, especially as climate extremes are becoming more prevalent.

“Healthier soils provide more resilience in extreme conditions,” says Moebius-Clune.

Moebius-Clune credits the “stable aggregates” of healthy soils for keeping pores open during periods of heavy rainfall events, allowing rainfall to infiltrate into the soil and store rather than washing topsoil downstream.

“This prepares systems to be more resilient during droughts when stored water in a deeper root zone remains available for longer,” she says, adding that diverse production systems are more likely to produce some crops that maintain yield when others fail.

The diversity of ecosystems in healthy soils can protect crops from pests and pathogens as well.

“There is even evidence in social science literature that farmers who manage for healthy soils may experience less stress and more inspiration, autonomy, confidence, freedom, flexibility and happiness,” she says.

Soil Health + Bottom Line

While soil health practices could lead to enhanced opportunities for farmers and ranchers looking to cash in on the carbon marketplace , Moebius-Clune cautions that there is still confusion and uncertainty holding many back.

But, even without that opportunity, American Farmland Trust has been putting soil health to the economic test by highlighting case studies where soil health penciled out in the bottom line.

“Our case studies show potential for return on investment through increased yields, decreased input costs, decreased long-term production system risk during extreme weather events and decreased maintenance needs and also quantify environmental benefits such as decreased erosion, nutrient and sediment pollution and increased carbon sequestration,” Moebius-Clune says.

“We know that farmers who successfully adopt these systems experience real economic returns on their soil health investments that can be quantified.”

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at americasconservationagmovement.com .

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Is Now The Right Time To Ditch Tradition On The Farm?

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 13:30:00 GMT

When Joe Frey first considered switching to regenerative farming, he was driven by a simple, yet profound, observation: a tree splitting a rock in the wild. This remarkable sight sparked an idea—what if farming could harness such natural resilience and strength? Frey tested no-till practices against traditional tilling and found that not only did this approach save money, but it also added $30 per acre due to improved soil health. This revelation was just the beginning of a transformative journey.

Shifting Focus: Yield Versus Net Return Per Acre
Many farmers, like Frey, initially focus on yield, believing that higher yields directly correlate with higher profits. However, Frey soon realized net return per acre (NRA) provided a more accurate measure of profitability. Shifting his focus to NRA allowed Frey to see the true financial benefits of his efforts, emphasizing long-term sustainability over short-term gains.

Innovation Over Tradition
Frey faced a critical question: should he continue with the farming practices that had been handed down, or was it time to innovate? Inspired by his business partner Adrienne, who always advocated for natural and sustainable choices, Frey decided to break away from tradition. Adrienne’s research and strategic thinking played a crucial role in their decision to transition to regenerative farming, helping them navigate challenges and seize new opportunities.

Reducing Insurance Dependency
One of the most striking benefits Frey discovered was the potential savings from reduced insurance premiums. By improving soil health and adopting regenerative practices, Frey minimized the impacts of drought, heavy rains, wind and hail without relying heavily on insurance, tile drains or overhead irrigation. This approach not only saved money but also highlighted how agricultural insurance subsidies, could be better allocated to areas of farming in greater need.

Investing in Soil Health
Frey’s journey into regenerative farming underscored the importance of investing in soil health. By focusing on the long-term health of his soil, he reduced his dependence on chemical inputs and mechanical interventions. Healthier soil led to more resilient crops, better water infiltration and reduced pest populations. The immediate benefits included easier field preparation, larger harvest window and increased overall field resilience.

Mark Faust Top Producer Summit 2025

(Lori Hays)

Strategic Profit Improvement
Despite initial skepticism, Frey found that adopting regenerative practices significantly improved his profitability. Corn profits, for instance, improved by about 10% per year for the first several years. This increase in profitability came from the significantly lower input costs, reduced reliance on subsidies and a more resilient farming system.

Customer Relationships and Gradual Transition
Maintaining customer relationships has been a challenge that has required a lot of adaptation along the way. Customers who are used to monocrops, certain harvest time frames, harvest techniques and crop rotations have had trouble adjusting their operations to accommodate the new style of farming. Over the years, some have faded off into the sunset, some have changed slightly and others have embraced the transition wholeheartedly. Frey and Adrienne now find themselves searching for new markets altogether as they continue to integrate livestock and increase plant diversity more.

Health Benefits and Environmental Impact
The move to regenerative farming also had profound health and environmental benefits. Frey noticed a decrease in inflammation among livestock and a reduction in pest populations. Healthier soil, with increased organic matter, could store more water and withstand extreme weather conditions better. Frey’s fields, with no tillage and ground cover, proved much more resilient during droughts and floods, showcasing the environmental advantages of regenerative practices.

Moreover, regenerative farming enhanced the nutritional value of produce. Frey highlighted that modern produce requires multiple servings to match the nutrition of a single serving from 50 years ago. This improvement in food quality could have significant public health benefits, potentially reducing healthcare costs associated with poor nutrition.

Addressing Common Objections
Skeptics often argue regenerative farming is not feasible on a large scale or that it involves higher risks and costs. However, Frey’s experience, along with examples from large-scale farmers such as Rick Clark and the Kahle Family, disproves these concerns. Regenerative practices can be successfully implemented on large farms, offering financial stability and lower risks due to reduced input costs and increased profitability per acre.

The Bigger Picture: Long-term Resilience and Reduced Risks
In the broader context, regenerative farming offers a way to build long-term resilience and reduce risks. Healthier soil can absorb more rainwater, reducing flood risks and increase drought resilience. The approach provides financial stability by focusing on long-term profitability rather than short-term yields. It also positions farmers to better handle the uncertainties of climate change and market fluctuations.

Conclusion
Frey’s journey into regenerative farming illustrates a path to increased profitability, environmental sustainability and improved public health. By strategically investing in soil health and adopting more innovative practices, farmers like Frey are able to achieve long-term financial gains while also contributing positively to their communities and ecosystems. This shift from traditional methods to regenerative practices represents not only also a change in farming techniques but a paradigm shift toward a more sustainable and profitable future in agriculture.

Farm Management New Year’s Resolutions for 2025

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 14:00:00 GMT

We asked past Top Producer award winners to share what’s new for them in the coming year. Here are some of the responses they shared with us:

“For the first time, we planted all our acres going to corn or soybeans next year to a cover crop. It is not the first time we have planted cover crops, but it is the first time we have done that many acres.” ~Bill Came
“We are hiring more people for the same amount of tractor seats. We are scheduling much better. We do this for two reasons — younger employees don’t want to work as much as they used to. Most used to work six days a week 10 years ago and now they are happy with four days a week. The second reason is ag overtime has passed in Oregon, so in order to manage overtime, we manage hours.” ~Shelly Boshart Davis
“We are continuing to expand the intensity of revenue acres by converting more conventional acres to organic production.” ~Pat Duncanson

“We’re going to reduce our soybean acres and increase our corn, winter wheat and cow-calf operation with these acres. We feel this will increase profitability.” ~Kelly Garrett
“I want to do a better job of promoting the extremely nutritious vegetable (yes, a vegetable) we call a potato, whenever possible. When choices appear relating to the value of spending time at work or with family, personally, I really need to do a better job of prioritizing, and therefore choosing, family time. After all: which one is more important?” ~Gregg Halverson
“For the first time in 39 years, I want to sidedress nitrogen on all of my corn acres.” ~April Hemmes

“Things that we need to do next year are straight out of the Danny Klinefelter playbook. We will focus on controlling cost in a high inflation/low price world. We’ll look for money under rocks — diversify revenue streams. We’ll leverage technology and new practices to become more efficient. It’s time to manage debt carefully in a high-interest environment, and it’s time to plan for the long term. This is a valley, don’t lose focus on the long-term plans of the operation.” ~Jeremy Jack
“I will physically and mentally execute and implement a succession plan for our farm to transition to the next generation.” ~Pam Johnson
“My resolution is that if you want to sell things at my farm, you need to reduce pricing by 15%. For those who say that is too sharp a cut, I say “try on my boots.” Price increases were easy on the way up. Now it’s time to reduce or be replaced.” ~Ben Riensche

“We’re going to buckle down and conserve operating cash and be conservative with inputs in anticipation of Trump tariffs negatively impacting our markets and prices like his last administration. We are considering replacing some aging storage and increasing our capacity. There are no plans to update equipment; just keep what we have operating. We will probably increase our vegetable acres in anticipation of low grain prices.” ~Jennie Schmidt
“We purchased life insurance and invested cash in a flex plan, so we can cover and service the debt if I am not around.” ~Trey Wasserburger

Cover Crops to the Rescue

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:04:21 GMT

When Don Morse began growing cover crops, one of his main goals was to tackle the growing populations of marestail (horseweed) and waterhemp that defied traditional control measures.

“I can give you a half dozen reasons to plant cover crops now, but weed control was a big reason I started using them at the time,” recalls Morse, who farms 90 miles north of Detroit, Mich.

Application Practices

Today, he uses cereal rye across 3,100 acres of corn and soybeans.

Between Labor Day and Oct. 1, Morse aerially seeds cereal rye into no-till corn and soybeans. That timing allows for good stand establishment before winter.

He prefers aerial seeding over the use of a ground rig. “We have a really good aerial applicator with a great skill set, and I think that’s what makes it work so well,” he says.

For seeding, he uses 75 lb. of cereal rye per acre. The seed runs about $12.50 an acre, and the aerial application costs about $16 per acre. He adds that for a ground rig, the seeding cost runs about $12 an acre.

In the spring, he no-tills soybeans into actively-growing cereal rye. In no-till corn, the cover crop is terminated prior to planting.

“I don’t want the rye to get any higher than my knees on corn ground, or we start getting a nitrogen penalty,” he says. “If you haven’t used cover crops before, I’d start with them in soybeans as there are fewer potential concerns.”

Iowa State Extension encourages farmers to evaluate the length of their growing season before planting rye. Longer is better for weed management.

Reduced Herbicide Use

Lance Dobson, who farms near Lexington, Mo., says he is using cover crops, primarily, cereal rye, across 100% of his acres now.

“We saw an opportunity with the cover crops to take advantage of some of that forage through cattle,” he says. “It’s also helping increase the nutrient cycling and soil health along the way, and helping us build another cash crop through the cattle.”

He expects additional benefits with cover crops from a reduction in inputs, going forward.

“We’re reducing our synthetic fertilizer use with cover crops and building organic matter,” he says. “We’re (also) able to do a one-pass herbicide on our soybean rotation — a $20 herbicide pass, excluding application costs. So that’s what we’re kind of moving towards.”

Cereal rye is helping Morse pull back on herbicide rates as well.

This past spring, on 400 acres of no-till soybeans, he left metribuzin out of his preemergence application, though that wasn’t his original plan. Wet conditions kept him out of the field until just before the soybeans emerged.

He did opt to make a post-herbicide application in the field, though few broadleaf weeds were present.

“Probably only half of that field really needed the post application,” he says. “I was tempted to not apply anything, but I wasn’t that courageous.”

Based on the positive results this year, he anticipates using less metribuzin on his 2025 soybean ground.

In a similar vein for corn, Morse says he has cut 4 oz. of mesotrione out of his herbicide program and has seen no negative consequences.

“We’ve been getting improved weed control, and now it looks like we’re going to be able to cut some herbicide use, so this is making financial sense,” he says. “We’ll keep watching and evaluating our weed control to see how far we can go with it.”

Your Next Read: How To Boost Your Sustainability Efforts By Aerially Applicating Cover Crops

Next Gen Spotlight: Missouri Farmer Diversifies to 'Roll With the Punches and Grow'

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 19:43:14 GMT

After graduating from the University of Missouri in 2011, Lance Dobson returned to his family farming operation in Lexington, Mo. Today the farm consists of a corn and soybean rotation, but they are looking at ways to diversify. Cattle have been added into the mix following the decision to plant a cereal rye cover crop ahead of soybeans to use as forage. Dobson also started a seed dealership for Beck’s Hybrid to diversify his own income.

Q: Why did you feel a need to diversify?

A: I think it’s important. As human beings, it’s much easier to focus on just one thing. Life has a rhythm, and you know what to expect during every part of the year. However, diversification allows you to roll with the punches and grow. As we get out of our comfort zone, it usually leads to good results. Whether it’s exercising or farming, hopefully diversification in our day will yield results that improve our longevity. I think we’re seeing the need for it right now given the direction our commodity prices are going. So, maybe we need a few more cash avenues or options on the farm.

Q: Why did you become a seed dealer?

A: When I first returned to the farm, I didn’t have a lot of ownership in the operation. I was mostly just an employee helping with the daily operations. After a few years, I really wanted to take on something of my own. I wanted something I could take hold of and build. I had an opportunity sent my way to start a seed dealership, and so I took it. At that time, we were also going through a downturn in the farm economy, and so it was another way to diversify my cash flow. Since then, it’s helped me build a lot of relationships with neighbors and given me the opportunity to figure out how we can all help each other grow our operations.

Lance Dobson introduced cattle and planted cereal rye cover crop ahead of soybeans to use as forage.

(Dobson Farms)

Q: What lessons have you learned from diversifying the operation?

A: Try something new just enough to get a good experiment going so you can see how it could play out on a larger scale, but don’t get in over your head. You don’t want the test to be so big that it’s a real disaster. Right now, it’s hard to try new things when financials are already constrained, but find a way to try. It’s one of the best ways to find new successes. Yes, there will always be failures, but just go learn from them. I think once you make that jump, you’ll be happy you did in the long run. There’s so much personal growth that happens when we can try new things.

Q: What else do you hope to accomplish in the next five to 10 years?

A: A goal for our farming operation is to be more self reliant and resilient. Today, a lot of the constraints we have are based on commodity prices, which we don’t have any control over, and our input prices, which we also don’t have any control over. So, if we can build our farm to where we don’t rely as much on herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers, I think we’ll be in a better place. Similarly, I’d like to build our operation so we don’t rely as much on straight commodity prices. Maybe that means we do more direct-marketed goods, or we sell our corn as value added, somehow differentiating what we’re growing from commodity yellow corn, I think we’d create a lot more resilient and sustainable business.

Your Next Read — Next-Gen Spotlight: Arkansas Farmer Always Willing to Try Something New

How To Boost Your Sustainability Efforts By Aerially Applicating Cover Crops

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:02:25 GMT

Planting cover crops is one of the many ways growers can implement conservation practices on the farm. While the cost may be a deterrent for some, the long-term benefits are vast.

“Quick growing cover crops stabilize soil, protecting it from wind, rain, and snowmelt erosion,” said Andrew D. Moore, chief executive officer of the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) . “By mitigating erosion and runoff, they ultimately enhance water quality by minimizing sediment in waterways.”

Along with minimizing erosion, the practice also:

Improves soil structure, allowing for increased moisture and aeration
Retains and recycles of soil nutrients
Increases organic matter
Breaks insect and disease cycles
Increases soil carbon sequestration

Additional Benefits Through Aerial Application
One of the common ways to seed cover crops is aerially. According to NAAA, aerial applicators seed 3.8 million acres of cover crops - that translates to 1.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide sequestered annually. EPA says that’s the equivalent of removing approximately 412,000 cars with carbon-combustion engines from the roads each year.

There’s evidence to suggest using aerial application to plant cover crops provides additional benefits as well. In addition to eliminating soil compaction concerns, the method provides more flexibility in timing.

For example, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) , planting cover crops after harvest limits the species that can be used due to cold weather. But with aerial application, pilots can begin seeding prior to harvest without the risk of damaging the existing crop. This also allows the cover crop to achieve a good stand before residue is introduced.

UNL suggests beginning to aerially apply cover crops when soybean leaves start to yellow and drop or when leaves begin to senesce in corn. For non-irrigated crops, it may be more important to time seeding after a late August or early September rain instead of a specific development stage. Peoples Company adds local conditions should take precedence over general timing recommendations.

Selecting A Pilot
If aerial application of cover crops makes sense for your operation, Peoples Company recommends asking prospective pilots three questions to ensure uniformity in your crop:

Do you do dry pattern testing?
Have you handled the species being planted before?
Can you assure the seed will be applied uniformly?

10 Tips to Shorten Your Cover Crop Learning Curve

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 21:58:35 GMT

For years, governments have channeled their support for agriculture through incentives that nudge you in directions they feel are beneficial, such as erosion control, clean water and wildlife habitat. In the near future, those incentives will also include climate change mitigation.

You’ll be rewarded for practices that minimize soil disturbance and sequester carbon, such as no-till, strip-till and cover cropping. Decades of on-farm studies, conducted by Ken Ferrie and the Farm Journal Test Plot program, prove those practices only perform their best in a vertical farming system, as opposed to horizontal tillage which creates yield-limiting soil layers.

Hence our series of articles to help you transition to vertical farming by removing dense and compacted soil layers, balancing fertility and pH through the soil profile and learning vertical tillage techniques. The final requirement to reap benefits from climate-based incentives is mastering cover crops.

“Farmers who learn as much as possible about cover crops now will fare much better than those who go whole hog the first time they plant cover crops,” says Ferrie, who serves as a Farm Journal field agronomist. “No-till and covers need to become part of your farm resume before incentive programs, or climate-conscious landowners, require you to grow them.

“The experience you gain by trying cover crops on a small scale will help you evaluate deals offered by the government or by landowners,” Ferrie adds.

Here are some tips to shorten your learning curve:

1. Set an objective.
Decide what you want to accomplish — for example: compaction mitigation, erosion control, improved soil health, increased biodiversity and nitrogen fixation. Then choose a cover species that accomplishes your goal and fits your climate and farm operation.

2. Think like a scientist — neither optimistic nor pessimistic.
“If you or a neighbor has had a bad experience with cover crops, try to figure out what went wrong and use that knowledge to help guide your new trials,” Ferrie says.

3. Start small.
“Expect hiccups, and learn from them,” Ferrie advises.

4. Seize can’t-miss opportunities.
“While most cover crops do not produce an immediate financial return, there are a few situations where planting covers is a no-brainer,” Ferrie says. “One is planting a cover after silage harvest and grazing or chopping it for forage, and where sandy soil is subject to blowing, planting into a cover can reduce wind erosion and protect the young plants.”

5. Begin with easy-to-manage cover crops that winterkill.
Oats and radishes top that list. “Then learn to manage covers that overwinter and must be terminated in the spring because they will be required for many carbon sequestration incentive programs,” Ferrie says.

6. Don’t expect higher yield or lower production cost, at least not right away.
“To achieve those the first year, all the stars, including Mother Nature, must align, and they seldom do,” Ferrie says. “You will be setting yourself up for disappointment.”

7. Calculate both your financial ROI as well as your true ROI.
“Knowing your actual ROI is essential for evaluating incentive programs, land rental opportunities and your own stewardship goals, such as improved soil health,” Ferrie says.

8. Become an expert terminator.
“Killing cover crops on time in the spring is crucial,” Ferrie says. “Our studies show the quicker you kill a cover, the less yield drag — but the sooner you kill it, the less environmental benefit. If you sign a carbon-based contract, understand how long your cover needs to grow. If you use a custom applicator to terminate your cover crop, let him know this ahead of time. Have a Plan B, such as a plane, drone or ATV sprayer to kill the cover if wet weather keeps your ground applicator out of the field — covers will jump when the soil warms up. Planting into a tall cover crop might look cool on YouTube, but our trials show a stiff yield penalty.”

9. Learn to manage pests.
“Anytime you have a green cover, you’ll have more insects, disease and varmints such as voles,” Ferrie says.

10. Understand the risks.
“Some years, covers delay planting by keeping soil wetter and colder,” Ferrie says. “If it turns dry in June, they might pull out all the soil moisture and lock up the cash crop until it rains. This can have a big impact on yield.”

Calculate Your Cover Crop ROI

“In our studies, we’re excited to see equal yields, let alone a yield increase, following a cover crop,” says Farm Journal field agronomist Ken Ferrie. “But equal yield leaves no room to pay for seed, establishment and termination of the cover crop.”

“Deciding whether cover cropping is sustainable for your operation requires knowing the cover crop’s financial ROI, income minus expenses, and its true ROI, which includes less tangible factors,” Ferrie says. “Some growers want to reduce erosion, water runoff or nutrient leaching, improve soil health or increase biological diversity. For them, growing a cover crop might produce a negative financial ROI, but knowing they are improving their land creates a positive true ROI.“

Based on Farm Journal studies, the financial ROI from cover crops won’t be high enough to persuade many farmers to plant covers on cash-rented acres.

“Within our customer base, the cost of establishing cover crops ranges from $35 to $85 per acre,” Ferrie explains. “If yield slips, and it often does, that puts pressure on growers.”

That situation is likely to lead to strong incentive programs from government agencies.

“Right now, current incentive programs can offset some of your cost as you learn to grow cover crops and calculate financial and true ROI,” Ferrie says. “With that knowledge, you can evaluate future incentives that might benefit your farm and the environment.”

Financial Discounts for Regenerative Ag

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:23:49 GMT

Pilot programs are exploring the opportunity to offer farmers improved financing terms based on their adoption of regenerative agriculture. The goal is to bring an expanded scale via financial incentives structured differently than dollars per acre for adoption.

Money Back To the Farmer
In March, Indigo and Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) introduced their incentive program to provide a 0.25% interest rate rebate to U.S. farmers with eligible Farmer Mac farm mortgages to maintain existing or adopt new sustainable practices (reduced tillage, cover crops, crop rotation or nitrogen optimization) and provide annual agronomic data.

Currently the Indigo and Farmer Mac program is available in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.

“Farmers join the program for three years, during which time they benefit from an interest rate rebate and are also qualified for additional revenue by joining a specific Indigo sustainability program, such as Market+ Source or Carbon by Indigo,” says Roman Tarnovsky, vice president and global head of sustainability markets at Indigo.

Via this partnership, lenders determine farmer interest and refer farmers to an Indigo representative. The companies would like to expand the program.

“We’re interested in studying practice adoption, market-based outcomes and how mortgages might play a role in the future of agricultural practice changes. Indigo has been a valuable partner in trying to better understand the risk and return profile of regenerative and sustainability practice adoption, and we continue to fine-tune program parameters in order to learn more about how the market values these activities,” says Jackson Takach, chief economist and senior director at Farmer Mac.

Promoting Resiliency
“We recognize there is missing infrastructure and missing economic incentives to support producers in the U.S. who are using soil health practices,” says Aria McLauchlan, co-founder of Land Core, a 501c3 organization with the mission to advance soil health policies and programs.

Working on the hypothesis that adopting such practices builds resiliency to extreme weather, Land Core is partnering with Compeer Financial to use the science to build programs and explore productivity impact on farmers who use cover crops, crop rotations and reduced tillage.

This is a new project built on a predictive risk model factoring in the benefits of soil health-focused management practices, while accommodating for the natural variability in agriculture.

“This is designed to be a practical tool for lenders, insurers and practitioners,” says Harley Cross, co-founder and director of strategy at Land Core. “There’s a real opportunity to acknowledge the work being done by the farmer and quantify the benefits while also giving needed financial discounts.”

He offers some analogies: Good drivers receive lower insurance rates. Non-smokers pay less for their life insurance.

“But those who have healthy soil aren’t getting a good soil discount even though they are de-risking the entire supply chain — bankers, investors and more,” he says.

Land Core’s goal is to provide data to help direct specific offers to expand regenerative agriculture in geographies with lower adoption or greater opportunity. Its database is layered with satellite imagery, soil maps, weather data, etc., to inform offers on a county-by-county level.

“We are working with financial institutions to explore which offers are going to be the most effective, with ideas such as reduced financing rates, deferring payments for the purchase of cover crop seed, or covering the cost of education and technical assistance for producers,” Cross says.

The Land Core Risk Model tool will be open source and available for non-commercial use. So far, the tool’s modeling has focused on the risk mitigating effects of soil health practices in dry conditions for corn.

Land Core aims to expand over nine states in the next three years. Its leaders say they think structuring the financial offers is an effective way to reach farmers because it’s not asking them to sign up for another program.

“We see opportunities for farmers to get more from investments they’ve made in soil health,” McLauchlan says. “The goal is to quantify the risk reduction and recognize the intrinsic value farmers are creating.”

Iowa Study: Soil Conservation Practices On The Rise

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 20:02:40 GMT

Beginning in the 2017 growing season, The Iowa Nutrient Research & Education Council (INREC) has worked over the past six years with Iowa State University and local ag retailers to study the progress of conservation practices used on the state’s crop acres.

The survey uses records from ag retailers to measure the use of cover crops, nutrient management and conservation tillage and no-till by Iowa growers. When comparing their latest data from the 2022 growing season with 2017’s records, researchers found a significant increase in the adoption of these practices – most notably in the number of cover crop acres planted.

“Iowa cover crop planting has skyrocketed to a record 3.8 million acres over the first decade of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, and that clearly demonstrates that Iowa farmers and landowners are taking on the challenge of improving Iowa’s water quality by accelerating this important conservation work,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “With the help of ag retailers and other conservation professionals, as well as both public and private sector partners, programs, and incentives, I know our farmers and landowners will continue to push these statewide cover crop numbers ever higher.”

In 2022, Iowa growers planted 3.8 million acres of cover crops – which is 16.6% of all corn and soy acreage. This is compared to 1.6 million acres of cover crops in 2017, or 6.9% of acres. Rye accounted for 81.2% of the cover crops planted over the past 6 years.

The survey also looks at nutrient management practices such as timing, rate, source and placement. It found 45% of nitrogen applications have occurred in the spring before planting, followed by fall-only applications at 20%.

As for phosphorus applications, there has been a notable increase in growers applying the nutrient only when the soil is at or below optimum levels for it – increasing from 74.3% of applications in 2017 to 95.4% in 2022.

The number of no-till acres in the state has remained relatively steady throughout the duration of INREC’s survey, averaging 35.8% of fields. It does, however, account for more overall corn and soy acres in the state than conventional tillage and conservation tillage practices.

INREC is currently preparing for its seventh year of the survey, which will be conducted this winter, and the Iowa State University Center for Survey Statistics & Methodology has randomly selected 150 ag retail locations to participate.

To review the data from each of the six current surveys, click here .

Ferrie: Farmer Asks How to Use Red Clover as a Cover to Reduce Nitrogen Rates and Costs

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:58:26 GMT

In this week’s Boots In The Field report, Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie answers several questions from a farmer based in southwest Ontario, Canada, who had participated in Ferrie’s Beyond The Basics agronomic series.

All three of the farmer’s questions focused around the topic of nitrogen (N) use, with regard to using it in conjunction with red clover. The farmer says he typically broadcasts red clover on his winter wheat in the spring, lets it grow after wheat harvest, then kills the red clover in the fall and tills it into the soil.

Following are the specific questions the farmer asked and how Ferrie responded. You can also listen to this Boots In The Field podcast in its entirety here .

Q: How much nitrogen can I expect from red clover the following year, and when will it become available?

A: “Red clover has a 14 to one carbon nitrogen ratio, which means it will decompose and recycle quicker than soybean stubble, which has a 30 to one carbon nitrogen ratio,” Ferrie says. “That means recycling will happen quickly in the spring when things warm up. Based on our plots here in Illinois, a good stand of red clover should give you between 50 and 100 pounds of nitrogen, and I would use 75 pounds as a rule of thumb.”

Q: The second question the grower asks has to do with him wanting to try some reduced N rates this spring to assess what the red clover is supplying for next year’s nitrogen. The farmer’s question is, should he reduce the preplant 28% N application that gets worked in after spraying, or should he reduce the sidedress pass?

A: Ferrie says the answer depends on a couple of things – how much you’re already putting down in the preplant versus the sidedress application and how much volunteer wheat or grasses are in the red clover cover.

“It’s not uncommon to have a good mixture of volunteer wheat and red clover when we interseed like that from volunteer wheat,” Ferrie says. “By October, this wheat typically has some good size to it. So it’s probably at that 60 to one or higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. Chiseling this cover in will speed up its decay, and the nitrogen in the red clover will be available earlier in the season. But, if there’s a lot of volunteer wheat in this mix, it will take longer to decay and will cause a large carbon penalty in the spring and could slow down next year’s crop.”

“In either case, I would plan to pull the rate back in the sidedress nitrogen,” Ferrie says. “This keeps the N rate high early in the season when that crop’s trying to get established and it’s ready to go into the rapid growth stage. Sidedress nitrogen should be N that your crop needs in July and August. I would pull in-season nitrate tests before sidedressing to kind of help you answer the “so what” question at the end. I would also recommend multiple rates in the sidedress applications – a low, medium and high rate – so you can kind of build yourself a response curve. One additional note, N plots can mess with moisture and test weight. So I recommend you use a scale cart this fall to get accurate numbers. Yield monitors do struggle in this area.”

A third question the farmer asked had to do with nitrogen stabilizers. The grower wanted to know if Ferrie and his agronomic team at Crop-Tech Consulting have done any work using stabilizers to lower the N rate and, therefore, lower input costs.

Q: The specific question is, could we reduce the rate of N with a stabilizer and cut our costs?

A: “To answer this, we first must make sure we’re using the right stabilizer,” Ferrie says. “A urease inhibitor is used to stop urea from volatilizing off the surface. When you work your N in right away, your urea will not volatilize. Urease inhibitors are for no-tillers or people who let their surface-applied N set for long periods before incorporating it.

“Being that you’re incorporating your preplant N, I would use a nitrification inhibitor, one that slows down the process of making nitrates that can leach away. In your situation, though, unless you’re in highly leachable soils, it might be hard to get a financial ROI out of your spring inhibitors by lowering the N rates. Because you are splitting your N program up with different timings and different rates and the addition of red clover, you’re (already) in a 4R format when it comes to N,” Ferrie notes.

“Can you reduce your N rate with the use of a stabilizer? It’s possible. But with today’s N prices, if we take the money spent on spring stabilizers and invested in more N, more times than not more N wins in our plot trials. Now, if your goal is to reduce your nitrogen footprint and be safer on the environment, then using a stabilizer and lowering your N rate may give you a better true ROI, even if it doesn’t give you a better financial ROI.

“You guys know how we talk about our ROIs, right? Financial ROI is what we can prove on paper as far as profit. So, we have a lot of data here at Crop-Tech that says starter fertilizer has a strong financial ROI. But for some growers, the hassle of using starter is just too much and it’s not worth using, and that’s their true ROI. It’s the same case here. If stewardship of your nitrogen is what’s really at the forefront for you, then your true ROI may suggest that this process is better off even if it’s not financially better off. Now, in some cases, there are programs that will pay to do the same thing, helping you to bring your true ROI and your financial ROI closer together. So, watching for those programs might be another way to handle this.”

5 High-Yield Farmers Share Their Secrets

Ferrie: Farmers Are Strip-Tilling Covers Now. Is That A Good Idea?

Plants That Talk: Coming Soon To A Field Near You

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Risk–Reward: Tar Spot Tolerant Versus Susceptible Hybrids

5 Tips To Achieve The Best Fertilizer Spread Pattern

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 20:50:04 GMT

The fertilizer spreader is an important component to any crop operation, and the team at Heartland Ag Systems offers their advice for keeping it running in top shape.

“We’ve all seen fields that are almost wavy across the field. That’s because the fertilizer spread pattern is uneven,” says Daryl Patten, operations manager at Heartland Ag Systems. “The operator may have put the right total amount on the field, but because of improper settings, poor maintenance, operator error or worn equipment, different rates were applied within the field.”

To avoid varied emergence and uneven stand densities in your crops, it’s important to take a look at the set-up and calibration of the machine each time a different product is spread or the rate of application changes.

“At the farm level, the best way to ensure your machine is working properly is to routinely pattern test in actual field conditions with the product(s) or blends that will be spread,” Patten says.

Patten shares his top five steps to take before conducting your next pan test.

Have a pull-type spreader? Check the hitch height.
Dust off your owner’s manual to double check the proper hitch height for your spreader. If it’s the wrong level, the distance fertilizer particles are thrown will not be accurate. The spinners on truck-mounted spreaders should be leveled in respect to the rest of the machine.
Know the intended operating speed.
This speed should be consistent over the entire field despite varied terrain.
Perform an inspection.
Check for worn, bent, rusted, loose or sticking parts and remove any build up found.
Is the spinner speed correct?
While Patten notes that newer and commercial spreaders will allow operators to monitor the spinner speed from the cab and sends a warning if it is off, it’s a good idea to manually check on other machines.
For machines with dual spinners, use a handheld tachometer and make sure the fins on the spinner-discs are moving at the same speed. If your machine has an operator interface, check that the spinners’ RPM matches the rate controller setting.
Check the density and quality of the fertilizer.
“Changes in product (season to season, location to location, load to load) have an impact on a machine’s performance and the quality of the application pattern. One setting does not ‘fit-all’,” Patten says. “Dust and fine particles can change the flow of product through the spreader, affecting the accuracy of the application since fine particles often aren’t thrown as far as larger particles.”

Ferrie: Farmers Are Strip-Tilling Covers Now. Is That A Good Idea?

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:16:23 GMT

With good weather conditions across much of the Midwest, farmers are working on fall tillage and fertility applications.

Ken Ferrie says many growers in central Illinois are telling him how challenging tillage is this fall. Many fields are dry and the ground is hard, making equipment tough to pull and achieve full shatter.

“Farmers are burning up points, shear bolts and diesel fuel,” he says.

His agronomic crew at Crop-Tech Consulting, near Heyworth, Ill., was putting in tillage plots this week and had some similar challenges as local farmers.

“I was the parts runner for the team and went to three different places only to find that everyone was out of grade five shear bolts,” he says, noting that’s an indication of how tough area soils are.

For farmers in a vertical tillage program, he says to remember the golden rule: “You need full-width shatter, meaning you will need to add ballasts to the tractor and shift down if need be. In some cases, you may need to

flip the outside shanks on your seven-shank rippers and make them five shanks to get the job done,” he adds.

Is Strip Tillage A Solution?
Some farmers are strip tilling through cover crops, a move that Ferrie believes is partly due to their disappointment over yield results in fields this season. He believes strip tillage in those fields can potentially help corn yields by reducing some of the allopathic issues and carbon penalty issues that are present.

“It does allow you to let the covers grow longer, and while it does reduce some of the agronomic issues, it doesn’t completely remove them,” he cautions.

Strip tillage ahead of soybeans has some of the same benefits: Beans get out of the ground faster and are not as affected by the carbon penalty of a decomposing cover crop. However, if the decision to use strip tillage ahead of soybeans is a practice change, it needs to be weighed against the original plan.

Ferrie says If the plan was to plant narrow-row soybeans, and you’re now switching to wide-row beans, there are a couple things to think through:

1. First, evaluate the potential impact on yield outcomes in 2024.

Based on Farm Journal Test Plot plot research in previous years, narrow-row soybeans tend to yield more than wide-row beans.

“This yield gain is higher in dry years when the 30-inch rows have trouble closing, like in this year, when the narrow-row beans were out-doing wide-row beans by 6 bushels to 8 bushels per acre in our side by side trials,” he says.

2. Second, and perhaps more importantly, consider the impact of tilling covers on weed management.

“Due to prolonged sunlight reaching the ground, our wide-row beans here tend to have late breaks in waterhemp,” Ferrie reports. “When these waterhemp break, many times it is too late to fix them with a herbicide because we’re already in the mid-R growth stages in the beans, especially if we planted them early.

So, you’re left with few options – possible cultivation, weed zapping or walking the weeds out.”

For growers already using 30-inch rows with soybeans, this is likely a non-issue. But for growers going to 30-inch rows for the first time and, on top of that, growing non-GMO soybeans, Ferrie says to be cautious.

“Have a long talk with your chemical supplier on how you’re going to manage these weeds,” he says. “A cover crop will help with the winter annuals but not the late-breaking waterhemp.”

As a point of reference, Ferrie says the combination of cover crops and dry weather conditions locked-up soybeans this season for three to four weeks, which led to more weed issues in 30-inch rows.

“Again, strip tilling through the covers will help some but will not eliminate all the issues,” he emphasizes. “I am seeing a lot of nice strip-tilled fields, though. This stretch of good weather has created a window to create some of the nicest strips we’ve seen in a while. This will be a big plus for next spring,” he adds.

Ferrie provides additional insights on strip tillage in cover crops, as well as a brief report on initial test-plot results, in this week’s Boots In The Field podcast available below:

Strip-Tillers Need a Plan B After Tough Post-Harvest Conditions

Your Guide To Hybrid Tillage Tools

Strip Tillage Promotes Soil Health