About Us

 

Our farm has been using sustainable agriculture practices since 201 7

We have adopted practices like the 4 R’s of conservation, Strip-Till and cover crops. We see the benefits to these practices every year, sometimes some years turn out better than others but farming is taking a risk.

We have adopted practices such as the 4 R’s of conservation, Strip-Till, and cover crops. We see the benefits of these practices every year.

Strip-Till

Strip-Till is a practice where a machine is used to work ~10” strips in the ground. In the fall the machine is outfitted with a shank, row cleaners, birming discs a main coulter and a chain basket for breaking up clumps of soil. During the fall pass we are putting down fertilizer for the next years crop. In the spring the shank and row cleaners are taken out and a set of coulter are put in to gently till the top two inches. In the spring we can put down more product or just “freshen” the strip. You do not have to do any spring tillage with the machine if you do not want to, but we find that it helps warm up the ground and dry it down a bit.

Cover Crops

Cover crops make all the difference in a regenerative/sustainable system. In 2017 we started planting cover crops and having our seed corn custom interseeded with a mix of different cover crops. Cover crops are key because they keep the soil in shape, hold it in place so that it cannot blow away and add organic matter to the soil all at the same time. We started with our corn planter to get going and now we have worked up to a custom built one of it’s kind in Canada machine. Cover crops are a large part of the sustainable ag system. If you are debating on one aspect of sustainable ag to try on your farm it should be cover crops. Cover crops are cheap, easy and extremely beneficial to soil health

The Four R’s of Conservation

The four R’s of farming are: Right Rate, Right Time, Right Place and Right product. Strip-Till and Y-Drop technology achieve these goals by putting the right product in the right place at the right time at the right rate. This dies several things for us such as: Save on input costs because you’re not wasting valuable product where there is no plants. It also reduces runoff into waterways and the lakes.