Farmers Navigate the Tricky Terrain of Profit Versus Planet

Monday, June 12, 2023

As a young boy in the late 1950s, Frank Glenn knew the soft, freshly tilled brown dirt lining his family’s fields signaled the start of another planting season.

“Back when we were young buckaroos, we would plow and disc and get a crop of weeds to come up (and then) knock them down,” Glenn said.

Frank and his younger brother John would hop on the tractor and start pulling their blue plow through the fields in February and March. Then they would go back with a tiller and turn over the topsoil before planting corn, soybeans, wheat and oats.

Today, the Glenns are still running their family farm in Columbia, growing corn, soybeans and hay. But about 25 years ago they transitioned to a majority no-till operation, no longer digging up the first few inches of soil before planting. Their fields are now filled with big clumps of dirt and old roots from previous harvests.

No-till farming helps decrease erosion and runoff. It’s one of several regenerative farming methods that help farmers’ fertilizer stay in fields and not run off into nearby waterways.

Rob Myers, director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture, said less than half of Missouri farmers are using a regenerative method such as cover crops, no-till or integrating crops and livestock. Cost is one of the factors holding farmers back, Myers said.

Farmers use fertilizer to build their soil’s fertility and help increase crop yields. But less than half of the nitrogen fertilizer applied is taken up by the crops. These excess nutrients wash into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a dead zone where fish and shrimp cannot live.

Farmers are responsible for the cost of implementing alternative practices, and they bear the risk if it doesn’t work.

“Their first goal is they need to make enough of a profit to stay in business that year,” Myers said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls nutrient pollution “one of America's most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems.” But it’s not just an environmental problem — it’s a business one.

Bruce Shryock, a corn, soybean and wheat farmer in Auxvasse, said farmers are stuck between science and the economy.

“If you spend more and then don't make any more, then you're in trouble,” Shryock said.

Source: komu.com