By the time his corn crop would normally be chest-high, Brian Roemke’s farm was less than 10 percent planted. That’s the most-repeated story across the Corn Belt for the 2019 planting season, but for Roemke, it’s an opportunity. “When you’re given lemons, you make lemonade,” he said.
Roemke recalls the 2015 planting season when he and his family had 1,500 prevented-plant acres. “That gave us the opportunity to really get into cover crops,” said Roemke. It was the year after they had first tried them.
An agronomist has been tracking improvements in Roemke’s soils for the last 18 seasons. Since 2014, when they began earnest use of cover crops, something significant showed up their soil profile: organic matter was increasing by one-tenth of a percent per year. “Over a decade we can gain a full percentage point of organic matter,” he said. “That’s living soil.”
No-till farming has been a regular part of the Roemke farm since about 2000 when they made a commitment to the practice. “We had toyed with the idea for many years prior,” confessed Roemke. “That’s where we learned trying just doesn’t get the job done.”
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By the time his corn crop would normally be chest-high, Brian Roemke’s farm was less than 10 percent planted. That’s the most-repeated story across the Corn Belt for the 2019 planting season, but for Roemke, it’s an opportunity. “When you’re given lemons, you make lemonade,” he said.
Roemke recalls the 2015 planting season when he and his family had 1,500 prevented-plant acres. “That gave us the opportunity to really get into cover crops,” said Roemke. It was the year after they had first tried them.
An agronomist has been tracking improvements in Roemke’s soils for the last 18 seasons. Since 2014, when they began earnest use of cover crops, something significant showed up their soil profile: organic matter was increasing by one-tenth of a percent per year. “Over a decade we can gain a full percentage point of organic matter,” he said. “That’s living soil.”
No-till farming has been a regular part of the Roemke farm since about 2000 when they made a commitment to the practice. “We had toyed with the idea for many years prior,” confessed Roemke. “That’s where we learned trying just doesn’t get the job done.”
Getting Healthy: A New Year’s Resolution for Soil and Business
Soil Health Partnership - SoilSmart
6 minutes 50 seconds
6 years ago
Getting Healthy: A New Year’s Resolution for Soil and Business
“Getting healthy” is often near the top of the list of New Year’s Resolutions. There is an equal need for soil to be healthy. The new year is a great opportunity to set goals for getting your soil healthy, which can help with managing extreme weather, it can increase profitability and it can sequester carbon.
Elyssa McFarland, the development director for the Soil Health Partnership, talks about how soil can benefit from following through on resolutions that result in healthy soil.
Soil Health Partnership - SoilSmart
By the time his corn crop would normally be chest-high, Brian Roemke’s farm was less than 10 percent planted. That’s the most-repeated story across the Corn Belt for the 2019 planting season, but for Roemke, it’s an opportunity. “When you’re given lemons, you make lemonade,” he said.
Roemke recalls the 2015 planting season when he and his family had 1,500 prevented-plant acres. “That gave us the opportunity to really get into cover crops,” said Roemke. It was the year after they had first tried them.
An agronomist has been tracking improvements in Roemke’s soils for the last 18 seasons. Since 2014, when they began earnest use of cover crops, something significant showed up their soil profile: organic matter was increasing by one-tenth of a percent per year. “Over a decade we can gain a full percentage point of organic matter,” he said. “That’s living soil.”
No-till farming has been a regular part of the Roemke farm since about 2000 when they made a commitment to the practice. “We had toyed with the idea for many years prior,” confessed Roemke. “That’s where we learned trying just doesn’t get the job done.”
