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Ohio farmer says dry conditions are reshaping conservation efforts

A farmer in Northwest Ohio says drought conditions are altering his conservation efforts.

Leon Klopfenstein grows corn, soybeans, and wheat in Paulding County, and is the second generation of his family farm to incorporate cover crops.

“We’ve used earthworm castings in the past, we’ve mixed those with our cover crop seed and our wheat,” he explains. “I backed away from that because it is so terrible dry. I broadcast cereal rye into standing corn for a number of years, worked really well, but we’re so dry that we’re drilling all our cover crops now.”

He tells Brownfield while the practice has been supported by conservation programs at times, it’s become invaluable.

“If that money wasn’t there, I’d keep doing it,” he says. “It’s not necessarily the increased yields. It’s the changes that you see, the bugs and the birds and the butterflies. And we’re starting to see some changes in our soil.”

Klopfenstein says the covers have helped reduce the impact of the D3 conditions in his region, which he says are likely to continue into spring.

Brownfield interviewed Klopfenstein during this week’s Michigan Agriculture Advancement’s Underground Innovations event in Frankenmuth.