Every Day is Earth Day On Our Family Farm

My daughter is great about asking questions that lead me to blog. (Remember, she was the one who ask about green french fries?) Today after church she says, "Mom, its Earth Day, why didn't we celebrate?" My response? "Honey, we're farmers, we celebrate Earth Day every day!"

OK, so that sounds rather corny, but really, that's the way it happened.

So let me tell you why our farm celebrates Earth Day every day. As stewards of the land, we have numerous farming practices that preserve and improve our soils and protect our environment.

Let me share some of our conservation efforts with you:

1. Our farm voluntarily took over 100 acres of farm land out of production and put them into conservation practices. These acres are adjacent to woods, ditches, ponds, waterways, and streams. This leads to less sediment and nutrients from getting into the water. It takes sensitive acres and takes them out of production protecting the larger environment around them. Not only does it improve water quality, but it also provides enhanced habitat for wildlife.

2. We installed grassy waterways and buffers larger than required. This enhances filtration of the water through the field to a wider buffer and further limits the likelihood of nutrients reaching the waterway.

3. Part of our farm is across from the town cemetery. The corner of that field is very low ground and not productive. We planted it in wildflowers and warm season grasses which when in bloom, will be free for the picking.

4. We take tissue samples of our crop foliage to determine the nutrient status of the crops (sort of like you getting a blood draw at the doctor's to check your cholesterol and other health indicators). This allows us to prescribe a "diet" for the crop that it needs, no more, no less. It allows us to target certain nutrients the plant needs. While many people take a multi-vitamin "just in case" (which by the way leads to higher nutrients in the water too), we feed a specific diet to our crops based on the results of the plant tissue analysis.

5. I have previously blogged about our new "GreenSeeker" technology. We used this technology recently in our small grains (wheat and barley). The GreenSeeker detects the chlorophyll in the plant tissue and tells us what the nitrogen needs of the plant are. We reduced our nitrogen application by 7-15 pounds per acre using this technology. This application is called "variable rate" meaning the technology senses when less is needed and cuts down on the amount of fertilizer applied as you travel across the field. This may not seem like alot of savings in fertilizer, but when you add it together with the total number of acres, it is quite a savings in the total amount of fertilizer applied.

6. RTK is an auto-steering system that we have in our tractors. The Earth Day advantage of RTK is that it guides our equipment with "sub-inch" accuracy, virtually eliminating all overlap in seed and fertilizer applications and preserving precious resources and enhancing our environmental control systems.

7. Cover crops are probably our largest contribution to land stewardship and therefore Earth Day. These are often called "green manure". We put over 1000 acres under cover in the winter. Cover crops are planted in the fall and are designed to take up any left over nutrients remaining in the soil after the previous crop is harvested. Instead of just leaving the field fallow for the winter, cover crops bind the nutrients and immobilize them in the plant. When we burn down the cover crop in the spring, those nutrients become available to the spring crop that we are currently planting.

8. No - Till is probably our second largest contribution to land stewardship and Mother Earth. 90% of our land is not worked up at all and the other 10% is either in permanent perenial crop such as the vineyard or we use conservation tillage equipment to prepare the soil. Using no-till, we do not work the ground up but plant directly into the plant residue left over from the previous crop. The Earth Day advantage of no-till farming is that you do not expose the soil to the risk of erosion.

So Happy Earth Day! Our family farm is celebrating it by continuing to be good stewards of the land we have, doing all that we can to leave it in better condition for the next generation.

Back in the Good Ole' Days

There’s a school of thought being passed around that farmers need to go back to the “good ole’ days”. You know, back when times were simpler and somehow farming was “better”. There’s a perception that farming in the "good ole' days" was some how more “authentic” than on today’s family farms.

If you think that family farms should go back in time, let’s apply this same logic to everyone. This being 2012, I want you to think about this –

Would you go back to a 1940’s or 50’s vehicle? With no air conditioning? No GPS? No CD player? Only an AM radio? No seatbelts? Do you remember that the miles per gallon of those vehicles was in the SINGLE DIGITS?

How about at home? Would you go back to no microwave? No central air conditioning? No dishwashers?  No clothes dryers? Have you seen a picture of a 1950’s style washing machine? How about a party-line phone? (After all, aren’t Facebook and Twitter the same thing?)

Let’s look at your hourly wage…. in 1950, the hourly wage was $0.75…. OMG! Still think that going back is a good idea?

How about medicine? Want to consider where you would be without today’s most advanced medical technology? Would you ask your doctor to only prescribe medicines or apply medical knowledge that was available to us then?

If your answer is no, then why would you think that family farms should go backwards?

Here is something else to consider:

In 1950, farms averaged 37 bushels of corn per acre. Our family farm averages 165 bushels per acre in a typical year.

In 1950, farms averaged 18 bushels of soybeans per acre. Our family farm averages 55 bushels per acre in a typical year.

In 1950, farms produced enough food to provide for only 25 people. Today, our family farm produces enough food to feed 155 people.

On today’s family farms, we are as technologically advanced as you are in your workplace. Our tractors and equipment are guided by computers and GPS and loaded with monitors to detect nuances within each and every field that we farm. We have yield monitors that show us where we have variations in our fields so that we can prescribe a precise “diet” to improve the health of the field where it is lacking, or can diagnose a problem.  Today, we no-till our farm, meaning we do not turnover our soil before we plant. In the 1950’s, we mold-board plowed, a method that causes much erosion and run-off. Our soils are in better condition now with our current technology and farming practices than they were in the 1950’s. By the way, we actually started no-till farming in the 1960's, back then we called it "trash farming". This year, we will be using “Green-Seeker” technology which allows us to detect the amount of chlorophyll in our crops  (the green I blogged about in Why are my fries green?)  and apply only what nutrients are needed to ensure the healthiest crop. In short, we have the safest and healthiest food choices in this country because we family farmers in the USA are highly educated, are professionals at what we do, and adapt to the latest technology that makes our family farms sustainable for this and future generations.

By the way, did you know that 98% of American farms today are just like us? Owned by families working to grow your food, fiber, and fuel.

Below are some pictures from our farm. I call them "then" and "now" pictures. You will see a vast difference between the 1950’s and the current equipment and practices.

What I want you to think about carefully is if it is realistic to expect family farms to return to old technology and old practices? Are you willing to return to old technology and old practices within your household or within your industry? Think about it and post comments. I’d love to understand this better. Thanks for listening.

Our combine transferring soybeans to the trailer

Our 1953 Hi-boy used to seed cover crop. This contraption would drive over the top of the corn you see on the left of the picture and drill seed into the ground below.

My father-in-law filling a 2 row seeder by shovel.

My husband filling a 77-row seeder.