Saving the soil for future farmers

TOWN OF FREDONIA - A farmer has just so many crops to plant in his lifetime and just so much soil to plant them in.

Brian Huiras wants to make each crop he has left to count and leave as much soil  as he can for his kids when he’s gone.

“The average farmer in America grows 40 crops,” he said last week. “This is my 35th crop this year.

“Back when I started, you fall plowed and worked the ground three times and then you planted it. Now we’re not working the land, just planting it and harvesting it. It’s all about saving top soil.”

It’s a type of farming that’s very different from the way his father, Alois Jr., farmed, and which Brian has been following for the past 16 years, ever since he got involved with the Clean Farm Families organization.

“There is no soil loss” with no till farming, he said.

For his continued efforts to save top soil and reduce runoff, Huiras, 62, was recently named the winner of the Jim Melichar Soil Health Award, named after the late Town of Port Washington farmer and first president of Clean Farm Families.

The award is presented annually to people who advance agriculture by improving soil health and water.

“It’s an honor to receive the Jim Melichar award. I knew Jim for most of my career. He started the (soil health) movement in our county,” said Huiras, who farms 700 acres and has 60 beef cows in the Town of Fredonia with his son, Brian Jr.

Huiras’ wife is Chelsea and they have two daughters, Chelsea and Alexandria.

Clean Farm Families is an organization of local farmers seeking to reduce soil runoff into the Milwaukee River watershed and improve the quality of the area’s soil.

One of the main practices the group promotes is the use of cover crops, often grasses like rye or clovers that are planted among corn and soybean fields and left to grow there after the main crop is harvested.

The advantages, proponents say, is less water runoff, better water infiltration and improved soil health.

Huiras said he often will plant sunflowers as a cover crop.

“People like to see the sunflowers popping up in the field,” he said.

“You’re basically taught to keep the soil covered and not till, always have something growing and rotate your crops,” he said.

“The mix (of crops) adds different forms of bacteria to the soil,” he said.

The practice has economic benefits for the farmer as well, Huiras said.

“I use about a quarter of the diesel I used to use,” he said, because his equipment makes fewer passes over the soil.

“It’s pretty much just one pass over the land,” he said.

The practice also reduces the amount of fertilizer and chemicals used.

“It’s more about micronutrients and soil bacteria. In return, you’re still getting very good yields. We’ve had some pretty impressive crops.”

Those outside of Ozaukee County have noticed.

Last year, Randy Romanski, secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said Ozaukee County is one of the state leaders in reducing manure, soil and chemical runoff into streams and Lake Michigan, thanks in large part to the efforts by groups like Clean Farm Families and the Demonstration Farm Network, another group also encouraging efforts to reduce runoff and improve soil health.

The number of farmers following the practice is growing as well, said Sarah Kempen, a soil health specialist in the Ozaukee County Land and Water Conservation Management Department and who works closely with Clean Farm Families.

“In 2023, we had 56 farmers implement at least one soil health practice through the Clean Farm Families incentive program,” she said. “Of those 56 farmers, there were 3,187 acres with soil health practices implemented on them.

“These conservation practices not only reduce erosion and maximize infiltration, which will help improve the health of our waters, but these practices also allow farmers to save money on input costs and help increase profitability.

“There shouldn’t be a disconnect between profitable farming and improving water quality; both can go hand in hand through conservation agriculture.”

Huiras said there’s no reason for any farmer not to implement the same practices he has and follow his example and that of other local farmers, no matter the soil type.

“In any farm you have all sorts of soil types,” he said. “It takes trust. You have to trust in the system and in three or four years you’ll start to notice it. Better infiltration, less runoff.”

He said his father would approve.

“Your goal is to leave the soil better than when you got it. It’s definitely the way to go.

“I think he’d be impressed. Less time in the field leaves more time for fishing,” he said.