Abundant Living

“Life compounds on itself and we can be co-creators with God to create abundant life on our farms and in our communities”

Anybody who knows Reece Klug knows that he lives a very integrated life. To him everything is connected. His profession as a farmer, his vocation as a father and husband and his faith in the Lord all weave together to create an intricate web of similar ideas and fundamental beliefs that drive his decisions. It’s no wonder that Reece started to make lots of changes on the farm after his first son was born. “Kids are there to humble us and help us focus on what’s important,” and that’s just what they strive to do on the farm.

A Home Run

Reece grew up east- central Nebraska amongst feedlot and row crop operations. Like many Nebraska farm kids, he attended the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and studied Mechanised Systems Management. During those years, Reece heard about Gabe Brown, which sent him down a rabbit hole of regenerative agriculture information; also earning himself a degree from Youtube University. “I eventually wanted to get away from the fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, etc. in an intense cropping system.” Upon returning to the farming operation, he convinced his farming partners—his brother, brother-in-law and uncle—to plant a cover crop. That year they planted 100 lbs of rye after chopping corn silage and ended up harvesting about 11 tons/ac from those fields. The soybeans that went in after the rye also turned out beautifully. “That first year starting off with cover crops was a home run,” Reece recalls. This success opened the gate to other opportunities to move the operation towards a more regenerative approach, and gave Reece hope that this type of management would work.

Going Organic

In 2019 Reece and his wife welcomed their first child. “That’s where everything started to change. I didn’t want to be around all the seed treatments and that sort of thing.” Reece decided to begin transitioning some of the acres to organic production. The first year was corn followed by rye that was baled for hay. They applied feedlot manure and then planted a diverse warm season grazing mix with sorghum sudan, sunn hemp, collards, turnips, soybeans and other species. This diversity not only helped the soil, but also provided huge benefits for the cattle. The next year, they planted corn and used no additional fertilizer. After a sap analysis revealed some deficiencies, they added various micronutrients via pivot around tassel time. The chopped silage yielded a bumper crop, with no additional synthetic nitrogen used. “It really blew my mind. It made me question everything. Why do we have to apply 200 lbs of N to get a decent crop?” In the third year of transition, Reece tried his hand at roller crimping. “We didn’t have it set up right. We used VNS rye, only planted 100 lbs/ac, and did not apply any additional nitrogen.” The crimping did not work and they saw significant weed pressure, but they were still able to chop the rye and sell it to a neighbor. Though not nearly as successful as the first two years, “All things considered, it turned out really well.” Not only did the transition to organic open up more opportunities for crop rotation diversity, Reece also noticed an increase in overall biodiversity on those fields. “I used to see garden spiders all the time when I was a kid. I don’t see them as much anymore, but when I do, they are in the organic fields.”

Nothing New Under the Sun

Reece continues to push the boundaries on his operation and try new things as often as possible. “I don’t know everything there is to know about soil, I’m always learning more.” Perennial systems and increasing soil biology are two areas Reece would like to expand into. “There’s really nothing new that any of us are ever going to do with cover crops that hasn’t been done in the past before. Now we have the technology and resources to get these mixes and be able to use them on a precision agriculture basis to be able to utilize what’s in the ground and utilize microbiology that is there to work for us and with us and just create more life in that soil.” The future of regenerative farming excites him and pushes him to be better, not only for himself but for the next generation. “I think we are just starting to understand a tiny little bit about biology and how it actually works in the soil. We are learning what we can do to influence biology in a positive way, and rebuild the soil to native prairie levels, and that’s exciting to me.”