Q: What are your thoughts on soil conservation?

When we talk about soil conservation, it’s all about keeping the soil in place. One of the best ways to do that is to keep as much ground cover as you can. Most of the ground around my farm has something on it, even in the winter. It may not be green yet (in early spring), but there’s vegetation there, and roots in the soil to help keep the soil in place.

As a dairy farm, we’re uniquely positioned because we have more crop diversity. We grow corn and soybeans, and we’re also in the heart of wheat country, with lots of green wheat growing right now. We have alfalfa – it’s a perennial, covering the ground year-round. And then there are the cover crops, which we’ll do a fair number of around the dairy locally.

Q: You mentioned cover crops. What can you tell us about how you’ve been using them?

We’ve been doing cover crops for 10 years or more. Being a dairy farm, we’re well-positioned to take advantage of them because we take our corn off earlier in the year and chop it for silage. Corn grown for grain may not be harvested until September or October, but ours comes off around August, so we can get cover crops planted earlier in the year when there’s still enough growing time to get established. Although we’ve also put in some cover crops after combining. And then our pastures always have ground cover. I can tell you for certain that if we’d gotten rid of our cows generations ago, we would have tilled those fields and put in corn and soybeans. I’ve always taken pride in driving through our area and seeing all of the ground cover we manage to keep all year-round. Our corn and soybean fields will sit fallow over the winter, with no ground cover, which is what you’ll see in most of the fields in the Midwest. But then as you get closer to our dairy, the fields start to have a mixture of cover crops, spring oats and radish.

Q: Beyond cover crops, what other soil conservation measures have you tried?

Reduced tillage is something we’ve done. I wouldn’t say we’re true “no-tillers.” Maybe you’d call us “minimum tillers.” The soil here just isn’t the best for no-till…we just don’t work it as aggressively as we used to. Depending on the situation, we’ll occasionally “no-till” an area, but overall, we certainly till a lot less than we used to, which from a conservation standpoint also helps keep the soil in place.

We’ve also got a lot of rolling terrain down here, so during the off-season we’re always working on ways to better manage water—fixing up the waterways, changing the slopes, trying to get grass established—all during the off-season.

One other thing we like about cover crops is that during the fall, we’ll inject the manure using a series of lagoons. It’s all pumped through a large hose and goes into the back of a tillage tool that knifes into the soil’s surface. From a conservation perspective, this is the best way to do it because then the manure doesn’t sit on the surface with gases escaping. So, we knife it all in during the fall and then cover it with cover crops to serve as a bridge to carry those nutrients into the spring and help sustain our cash crops.

Q: Are there any ways you’re using technology in your daily practice?

Soil sampling is a common way to test whether we’re doing things like building organic matter. We also have our yield maps to reference to see how things change from year to year, and they can be helpful at identifying problems in the field. Most of the time around here, our problems are related to water: the ground is either holding too much water or it’s a clay hill and can’t get enough. So, we use this for guidance to know whether to put in a waterway or a berm with a tile drain.

From the manure side of things, we use real-time sensing of the nutrient value of the manure that’s being pumped. That enables us to make more precise manure applications. Before, we’d try to mix the lagoon up and take a couple of samples, but this way we can get a better read on exactly what we’re applying.

Q: Is there anything specific you do with your soybean crops that would be worth noting?

Something that we’re learning more and more about is the benefit of manure on soybeans, which to some extent goes against what many might recommend because soybeans are a legume and they create their own nitrogen. Conventional wisdom says not to apply manure to soybean fields because you’re wasting nitrogen that’s better spent on corn fields.

But soybeans do get a bump from the manure. It could be a phosphorous/potassium thing, but we think it’s also a nitrogen thing. Supplemental nitrogen from manure can really help get crop yields over the edge. We’re definitely seeing there’s a benefit to manure application on soybeans.

Q: What advice might you give to any farmers who might be considering some of the conservation measures you’ve had success with?

Pace yourself. For anyone who wants to try cover crops, for example, my advice would be to start small just to get a feel for it. Do you lightly till it? Or no till it? Do you have the right type of drill to get it seeded? Do you want to aerial broadcast it? And then what species do you want to grow? You’re always best off starting small because there can be a steep learning curve. You’ll have more luck if you just ease into it.

Q: In terms of support, what’s something legislators don’t understand?

I’d probably say that most farmers who aren’t already employing more conservation practices, such as cover crops, have a valid reason for why they’re not. Maybe it’s cost…because it’s not free…or maybe the growing season isn’t ideal.

Also, it is good to look into the government programs available. I remember ten years or more ago we did a pretty big dirt work project on the waterways, adding some berms and drainage and things like that, and we took advantage of a cost-share program they offered. Support and incentives like that can really make a difference.