As Farmers, it’s Our Job

“I feel like I have a responsibility to keep the soil covered not only for the land, but for the people surrounding it. That’s our job as farmers.”

If you’re still skeptical about cover crops you would be in good company with Dan Janski circa 2017. The now avid cover crop user and no-till farmer credits his brother with bringing these practices to the Janski farm. The two sons farm with their father in South Haven, Minnesota. Not only do they run a 4000 acre diverse crop rotation with 28 center pivots, they also manage 900 dairy steers, 30 beef cows and 110 dairy cows with an automatic milking system.

Converting a Skeptic

Only 7 years ago the Janski farm was managed with full tillage, full synthetic fertilizer, and no animals on the land. They were struggling with erosion, low nutritional quality, and declining yields. They had to change something. When Dan’s brother initially introduced the idea of trying no-till he admits “I was very skeptical about the no-till deal, but we gave it a try and it worked!” The next obvious step was to add cover crops in order to keep the soil covered. “Once I started learning about the benefits of no-till, I realized the importance of keeping the ground covered”. In the first year of using cover crops, the Janski’s tried a diverse warm season grazing mix after small-grain harvest. “One of the first cover crops we used was Japanese millet, and I have liked it ever since. The cattle went crazy over it, that was the first thing they ate.”

“A” Grade Above

The Janski’s utilize a three crop rotation on their dryland and a four crop rotation on irrigated. Corn silage followed by beans and then a small grain give the dryland acres an opportunity to add a diverse warm season cover crop. On the irrigated, the small grain is followed by canning peas, an early season spring crop, which also allows for a diverse summer cover crop. After downsizing their milking herd, the Janski’s were exploring ways to increase revenue streams. They decided to improve the systems they already had and increase the nutrition and health of crops they were raising. With a heated area of the dairy barn no longer in use, Dan decided to try his hand at creating compost and compost extract. They no-till planted peas and applied the compost extract as a foliar application. The kicker was in the profitability as the Janski’s made Grade A canning peas for the first time ever in 10 years of growing peas. “Lot of times, I felt like we were doing the wrong things or we don’t have it right but it’s very rewarding when we see the crops flourish and our nutrient density increasing regularly!” The Janski’s are also moving away from Roundup ready alfalfa because their feed samples reveal a lower quality nutritional profile compared to non-GMO alfalfa.

More than just cover crops

With the new farming practices, Dan also picked up a new hobby. “I had never been much about pheasant hunting until we integrated cover crops. Now that’s my opportunity to go out and evaluate our warm season covers and see how they are benefiting the fields in the off season.” Dan also experienced the personal benefits of this new way of farming. “My wife and I came home from the hospital with our son and couldn’t get him to stop crying so I took him for a walk down to the cover crop field. It was the end of August and the sunflowers were in full bloom and the field was just buzzing with bees and insects, and…my son stopped crying. That was the day I realized there’s more to this than just the cover crop.” Not only does it add diversity to the below ground and above ground ecosystems, regenerative farming also taps into an innate human desire for connection with, and dependence on the land. Even a baby in its most vulnerable state can recognize that.

A Long Way to Go

Clearly, Dan and his brother don’t shy away from learning new things and they are always on the hunt to improve their systems and soil health and learn as much as they can about regenerative agriculture. “I’m still learning a lot about the Haney test, bioreactors, and how to decrease synthetic fertilizer.” For the Janski’s the last half decade has been a huge learning curve, accompanied by successes and failures, both of which push them to stay the path and continue innovating. “We’ve come a long way in 6 years but we have a long way to go.”