Boerst Farm
Dan and Ruth Boerst on their farm.
Image Credit: Amanda Zelinski from NRCS
Farm Story
Dan and Ruth Boerst’s farm is located in Manawa. Dan farms 352 acres of his own, and 106 rented acres. He is milking cows but is looking at getting out of dairy and going into diverse cash crop and beef cattle.
Steps Towards Conservation
Prior to getting involved with the Upper Fox Wolf Demonstration Farms Network Dan was always experimenting with different practices. He hosted field days to demonstrate a crimper roller, and various manure incorporation techniques. He also tried cover crops and diverse seed mixes. His willingness to try new things, and show others that they work, made him a wonderful candidate for the demonstration farm network.
With the demo farms network, Dan has no-till planted into green cover, established a rotational grazing system for dairy heifers, interseeded multi-species cover crops (Italian rye, red clover, hairy vetch) into V4 corn, planted alternating rows of corn and soybeans (8 rows of each) and broadcast covers crops into the stands. Dan also compared three types of dairy forages for feed quality (corn silage, summer cover mix and annual ryegrass).
Currently, Dan is focused on improving soil health through grazing practices. To do this, he is planting cover crops, and incorporating grazing livestock on those. He wants to demonstrate that soil health is improving, so he has utilized soil health analysis to establish a baseline. He intends to have soil samples taken yearly to give data on how his soil is improving.
Dan is also working to increase water infiltration and have water that leaves his farm be clean. He recognizes he has a part to play in keeping the Little Wolf River and lakes within his watershed clean. His cover crops help water infiltrate the ground, and he put sediment control basins in to help too. He’s installed 7 catch basins, so the water is slowly released from his farm rather than rushing off.
Benefits of Conservation Practices
Dan no longer sees gullies on his property as the soil is being held in place by his cover crops. He has also improved the water holding capacity of his soil, as demonstrated by soil tests. He says, “in two years, we increased organic matter half a percent, which really increased the amount of water that soil is going to hold.”
Advice for Others
Dan suggests not getting too caught up on yield as your measure of success. He recommends considering your profitability, and how few inputs you have on your field instead. For example, he says, “if someone said that you need 200-bushel corn, and it cost you 180 bushels to breakeven, you’re only getting profit on 20 bushels. But what happens if you drop your input costs way down, and you only get 130-bushel? You may be making more money out of 130-bushel corn than you are on 200-bushel corn [because your input costs were so much less].”
