Biological farming makes us money
As input costs rise and land values soar, “We have to get more out of our ground every day. Biological farming does that,” says Michigan cash crop farmer Brian Klaus.
Healthy soils producing excellent yields and quality are the gains Brian sees from the biological farming practices he’s learned through Midwestern BioAg.
Some are visible just by walking across the land. “There’s a lot of earthworm activity,” Brian notes. “We don’t have water standing on our ground, which indicates good tilth.”
“We don’t have compaction issues that plague many corn-bean operations, with no need to rip or deep subsoil the fields,” he said. “Our ground works up like a garden. It’s really nice. You can just tell that our crops are healthy. Soil tilth benefits all the crops all the way around.”
Brian and his wife Debbie are in their 20th year of farming 800 acres in the thumb of Michigan. Midwestern BioAg customers for nearly all those years, they raise wheat, hay and edible dry beans on their clay and clay loam soils, plus do custom work on about 1,000 more acres.
“You don’t know what you’re missing if you haven’t looked into biological farming,” says Brian. “Explore your options. Think outside the bubble and start out by trying things like compost, humates, and cover crops.”
Klaus says he relies on MBA consultant Pete Creguer’s experience, expertise and product knowledge and likes the way that Pete thinks outside the box. “If it weren’t for Pete, we’d still be doing the NPK thing and dumping 400 pounds of potash on the ground,” he said.
The appreciation goes both ways—Pete recognizes Brian’s skills in management, such as timely hay harvesting, as a key in the Klaus’ success. They’ve worked to get soils healthy and, on a recent spring visit to the farm, Pete saw ample evidence, with “earthworm castings everywhere.”
His banker, says Brian, is amazed by the numbers we turn on our acres — but Brian isn’t surprised. “Biological farming makes us money.”
