The first move to regenerative agriculture for Harmon Wilts and his three daughters was strip tillage. The summer of 2019 was not right for it. They did it anyway.
“It was kind of a tough decision,” the Minnesota farmer recalled. “Everything over here on the pro list was: We need to do it. Everything over in the con list was around economics.”
On Aug. 10, 2019, corn was $2.84.
“But if we postpone it another year or two, we might never do it,” Wilts said, recalling the conversation with the other leaders of H&G Farms. “So, we committed to strip tillage. On the same day we committed to a big bin, too. No, we couldn’t afford the big bin at $2.84 corn, but we couldn’t afford to give our corn away.”
The bin investment had a significant short-term return. Wilts sold the corn stored there in January 2020 for $5.50 per bushel.
“So, yeah, huge difference,” Wilts said.
The same goes for strip tillage and, more recently, for the family’s move to cover crops. The difference is the return on investment takes a little longer to realize.
Choosing to move to practices like strip tillage and cover crops to improve soil health, reduce erosion and ensure long-term sustainability demands significant investment and management. Wilts, however, is seeing the benefits.
Strip tillage delivers a few immediate benefits: saving time and increasing efficiency. It also involves buying new equipment and increasing technology.
The investment in cover crops is similar. But those returns? On the economic side, government and private companies offer programs for integrating cover crops as part of a regenerative process — and, no, you don’t need to raise cattle.
On the agronomic side, the soil structure and other improvements start to be realized in a couple of years but, realistically, are a five- to seven-year commitment.
When the family added cover crops three years ago, Wilts said, “the big incentive was to hold soil in place, reduce wind and water erosion, and build organic matter. And maybe someday, we could get paid for it through carbon markets.”
The potential for additional income from carbon credits was the secondary, and more tenuous, factor. The primary focus was — and is — agronomics.
For Wilts, cover crops, particularly cereal rye, have proven effective in the region’s cooler climate. “Cereal rye works well because it establishes quickly in the fall and provides good spring cover,” he said.
The improved soil structure realized by planting covers helps protect crops like corn and sugarbeets from wind erosion, a major challenge in the flat terrain. Sugarbeets, which are fragile in the seedling stage, can be blown completely out of the ground. Soybeans, sturdy plants from the outset, are less impacted but still benefit.
“Wind is a big deal here,” Wilts said. “The cover crop holds the soil and protects the crops without competing with them.”
With strip tillage and cover crops, the Wiltses eased into the new practices. “We trialed it on a few fields first to ensure it worked before expanding,” Wilts said.
Now at 95% strip till, the Wiltses are committed to the conservation practice. “We don’t want to go back to conventional tillage,” Wilts said. “Strip tillage saves time, reduces costs and improves production.”
However, the transition to regenerative practices, and particularly cover crops, isn’t without challenges. Investments in technology, such as autosteer systems and equipment for cover crop applications, have been critical.
“Technology is everything,” Wilts said. “It allows us to track and prove what we’ve done, which is essential for programs like NRCS or selling carbon credits.”
Ultimately, the shift to regenerative agriculture is driven by a commitment to stewardship. “We need to do something better for our soils — for our daughters, our grandkids,” Wilts said. “At the end of the day, it’s about improving soils, making a profit and being good stewards of the land.”