Ohio farmer David Brandt, who has been no-till farming since 1971, has mentored Waverly, Kansas, farmer Darin Williams on his soil health journey.
Williams grows several hundred acres of cover crops each year for grazing, using a mix of eight to 10 varieties. Cattle and sheep are rotationally grazed on the covers to help with biological diversity, Williams said.
The two gave several pointers on a few things they have learned along the way.
1. A carpet of covers
Brandt’s mission is a healthier atmosphere.
“Our goal on our farm is to capture the nitrogen in the atmosphere and put it in the soil profile,” Brandt said.
He can tell Williams has built up his soil health by walking across the field.
“With healthy soils, you will see the root system, he said, adding, healthy soils are “like walking on the shag rug of your carpet, you can feel it underneath your feet. That is what we are talking about when having good soil health.”
2. Non-GMO corn and beans
Like Brandt, Williams is now growing non-GMO corn and soybeans. Williams said his yields are as high if not higher than those of conventional farmers. Moreover, his dollars-per-acre profits are high, also.
Williams said he started growing non-GMO mainly to see if he could do it.
Brandt said on his farm, he sees good yield, less disease and has cut back on seed costs.
Brandt said he thinks non-GMO crops might be able to better accept the mycorrhiza and organic phosphorus and nitrogen that is produced through cover crops.
Williams said there is a market for non-GMO crops, but living near the market is key. He takes his soybeans to an intermodal facility near Kansas City.
“It’s not easy, I don’t want to mislead anyone,” Williams said. “It is not as easy to direct market your crops. If you have to truck your grain 300 miles away, you eat up your premium on trucking. Not everyone is going to be close enough to a market to make it work.”
He added the premium isn’t what drives him.
“I’m doing what I’m doing because I can lower my input costs.”
3. Don’t shoo away the bugs
Cover crops will attract up to a thousand beneficial insects, Williams said.
He had aphid troubles in his wheat a few years ago. He called in a crop consultant to have a look. The consultant walked out of the field and told Williams he needed to spray.
Williams instead looked down at the man’s orange legs.
“Count the ladybugs on your legs,” he said. “A week later, the ladybugs had eaten all the aphids, and I had a decent wheat crop. That was when wheat was $7. We probably won’t see that again.”
4. Turn down the thermostat
Cover crops also decrease the soil temperature compared to standing in a cornfield with conventional tillage.
For instance, in mid-July, the temperature of his neighbor’s conventional corn crop, at 2 inches in depth, was 164 degrees. His no-till crop with covers read 87 degrees.
Soil biology slows down at 97 degrees and typically ceases when soil temperatures exceed 100 degrees.
5. Cereal grains key
A cereal grain in the rotation can give a producer more options, including for grazing.
Whole wheat might not be profitable from a cash crop standpoint, it has benefits for soil health and, like rye, can be grazed to help add pounds to your livestock and can help increase next year’s corn crop by 7 percent, Brandt said.
“And after the corn, you can bump the bean yield by 4 percent,” he said, adding with the pasture situation, even if you don’t have cattle, neighbors might be looking for places to graze.
“You have guys in our area getting 90 cents a pound on gains on cover crops. And they are pushing 3 to 4 pounds of gain on fed cattle,” he said of average daily gains over a 90-day period.
Williams said he plants a cereal like rye in his cool season mix in September. By spring, he has good green growth for his cattle to graze.
“I realize not every acre can be grazed, I realize not everyone wants cattle,” Williams said. “But in tough times you have to think outside the box to get profitability.”
6. Business ventures
Williams has expanded his cover crop success into a business opportunity. In 2016, he and his father purchased an elevator in Moran, Kansas, to market cover crops and other seeds, including non-GMO soybeans. Called Natural Ag Solutions, Williams and his sales manager, Zach Louk, work with farmers on their own management plans, such as creating wildlife habitat through cover crops.
Big buck deer populations have increased on his own farm, he said.
Meanwhile, Nancy operates Green Pastures, the family’s direct marketing business. That includes beef from the family’s herd of British whites, plus lamb and poultry.
While Williams stressed how cover crops have increased his profit per acre, another reason for incorporating the system is for healthier food.
Healthy soils produce healthier plants, which produce higher density foods, he said.
“I think there is not enough emphasis on that,” he said. “Profit per acre and all that is important, but we are also doing our best to grow as healthy of food as we know how, whether it is beef, eggs, grain, soybeans we sell overseas for tofu, we want it to be healthy. With regenerative ag, it gives us that opportunity.”
7. Don’t forget management
“When you get started, you have to change your mindset because you are no longer in a tractor in a cab planting crops,” Brandt said. “You change your management strategy because you aren’t spending time in the seat. You are spending time looking at the roots, looking at the plants and deciding what to do. Management can eat your lunch just as a bad as a hail storm can. You have to change your management perspective.”
Williams added he doesn’t have the answers for everyone. Every operation is different.
“But being able to think outside the box and think differently about things is important,” he said. “What if the Wright Brothers gave up on flying? Would we have had any airplanes or how much longer would it have taken?”
Amy Bickel can be reached at 620-860-9433 or [email protected].
