A couple hundred attendees made their way to Salina, Kansas, Jan. 17 and 18 for the Soil Health U and Trade Show, where Texas cotton farmer Jeremy Brown challenged their thinking during his opening session.
But first, he provided a little context about his operation, Broadview Agriculture, Inc., in the Texas panhandle near Lubbock. He’s in a very dry, semi-arid climate and their 30-year annual average rainfall is about 18 inches. He also raises organic cotton and is Regenerative Certified through Understanding Ag.
“I want to challenge you—that’s why we’re here. Soil health,” Brown said. “We can talk about some of these things like those are what we do, but the question is why?”
Ask things like why you do what you do? Why get into soil health now?
“What is your why?” Brown asked. “I want you to think about that. Why are you here? Why is this important? You see your why is your purpose. Why is yours because it’s your belief.”
For Brown, his why is being the best steward of the land he can. He claims he’s not aiming to win any yield contests, but to improve his soil health and raise the best crops he can with what he has.
The farmer panel kicked off day 2 and was moderated by Vance McCoy, owner of Triple Creek Cover Crops. Justin Dvorak, fifth generation farmer; Jami Richardson, co-owner, Farmin’ Arb Enterprises; Matt Splitter, owner, Splitter Farms; and Brad Haynes, Haynes Farms and FHSU Athletics answered questions from both McCoy and the audience.
Macauley Kincaid was featured during the general session on day 2 and discussed how to regenerate profits and how he’s used cover crops and cattle to continue being successful on his farm. For him, it’s a matter of being intentional and understanding your resource goals and concerns. From that you can gauge success or failure, he said.
Cristine Morgan, chief scientific officer at the Soil Health Institute, helped attendees measure and evaluate their soil health with tips during her closing keynote. Morgan said the SHI is a non-profit group with a mission to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soil through research and other activities.
“A lot of our other activities have to do with education, partial budget economics,” she said. “What we try to do is have a very scientific approach to try and figure out how we support and de-risk the decision for you all and others to adopt soil health management practices. That’s the big, big thing that we work on.”
Morgan said there’s been a lot of interest in soil health and it’s continuing to grow.
“I studied soil science back when precision ag was the big thing in the late 90s. And I always thought it’s never been a better time to be a soil scientist,” she said. “And I think every year, it’s never been a better time to be a soil scientist. So it’s so cool just to be around folks that talk about soil and that value soil.”
Watch for more coverage from Soil Health U and Trade Show in future issues of High Plains Journal.
Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].
