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TNC supporting Farmer Led Watershed Groups

The Nature Conservancy wants to help grow Farmer Led Watershed Groups in Michigan.

Ben Wickerham tells Brownfield there are currently four groups in the Saginaw Valley offering peer-to-peer networking.

“We’d love to support you in any way to get others going because there’s a need for this type of thing and I think there’s a real appetite,” he says.

Huron County’s Dan Ritter is part of the original group which started about four years in Bad Axe.

“There’s a lot more cover crop use, and I’m starting to see guys do a lot more no-till which is encouraging to me,” he shares.

Ritter tells Brownfield time and money saved on his more than 900-acre cash crop farm using cover crops and no-till has been extremely beneficial.  He uses diesel this past year as an example.

“Our fuel consumption was 3,200-3,300 gallons for the whole farm operation, if we were doing chisel plowing or deep tillage, it would probably be close to twice that,” he says.

Ritter says the Thumb-area group periodically hosts round table discussions or invites soil health speakers to help educate about conservation efforts. 

Other groups have also formed near Chesaning, Vassar, and Kingston.