Responsible Farming in a Big Way
Since 2002, we’ve increased our certified organic acreage from about 270 acres to nearly 9,000, making us one of the region's largest organic vegetable and feed crop growers. Our closed loop system uses the dairy’s manure as natural crop nutrients to grow food for people and cows while minimizing fossil fuel based fertilizers.
Cover Crops and Strip Tilling
We grow triticale, a wheat-like plant that prevents soil erosion over the winter. We harvest it green in the spring as forage for our dairy cows. Immediately after harvest, we strip till our corn through the existing stubble. The strip tilling process reduces wind erosion of our corn crop, saves time in planting, uses less fuel, and increases yields.
Our farm uses strip tilling practices with GPS equipment to prevent top soil erosion and minimize fuel usage. Using GPS, we synchronize the strip tillage and spring planting so the areas between tillage are undisturbed. This helps decrease top soil erosion and wind damage to our corn crop.
Many of our cover crops, such as triticale, are used as feed for our dairy cows.