Bredehoeft Farms, a century-old row-crop farm in west-central Missouri, is run by Neal Bredehoeft and his two brothers, Gene and Clark, representing the third generation of family leadership.
If you ask Neal Bredehoeft, conservation has always been part of how they farm. One of their biggest challenges is soil erosion, and each generation has taken steps to address it. From installing terraces and grass waterways in the early 1950s to transitioning to 100% no-till in 1995, their focus has remained the same: keep the soil and its nutrients where they belong.
During the past decade, Bredehoeft and his brothers have added cover crops to their rotation, planting them after corn each year. As they grew more comfortable with the practice, they decided to expand their use of cover crops by planting them after their soybean harvest. That decision led Bredehoeft to enroll just 88 acres in Farmers for Soil Health.
He knew it wouldn’t be easy. The planting window after soybean harvest is tighter, and establishing a good stand of cover crops can be more challenging. Still, he saw value in giving it a try.
“One of the reasons we enrolled was that we wanted to learn and gather more information to help us successfully expand our cover crop usage by planting them behind soybeans,” Bredehoeft said.
By enrolling in Farmers for Soil Health, Bredehoeft not only gained access to technical support to guide him but also to financial support to help offset some costs.
“I think the technical assistance aspect of the program is very important,” Bredehoeft said. “They obviously have expertise in enrolling in the program, but they also have expertise on cover crops in general. From helping decide which species to sow, when to sow them, how to sow them, to being able to come to your farm, this can really help along the way. They are a really valuable asset to this program to make it successful.”
For Bredehoeft, that guidance goes hand in hand with the program’s financial incentives. Now that the program’s payment rate has been updated to $35 per acre, per year, for up to 2,000 acres and a one-year contract period, he thinks these changes “will pique the interest of farmers to try cover crops on their farms because they can offset some of the initial start-up costs.”
Bredehoeft has always encouraged farmers to try cover crops on at least a few acres. With the improved cost-share opportunity of Farmers for Soil Health, he thinks more farmers will be interested, as it will help lower some of the risks. As he puts it, “Once they get involved with cover crops, they’ll see some real benefits to the soil, reducing erosion, etc., and they may want to increase some acreage on their farms.
On Bredehoeft Farms, those benefits are already showing up in the field.
“Cover crops have definitely slowed down soil erosion,” he said. “When we went to no-till, we saw a substantial reduction in soil erosion, and when we implemented cover crops, we were able to reduce it a little more. There were a few ditches here and there, but once we started with cover crops, we were able to eliminate a lot of that as well as improve organic matter in some of our fields.”
Looking to the future, the Bredehoeft brothers are proud that the conservation practices they’ve implemented over the years will make farming a sustainable and profitable career for the next generation of the family, who are already involved in day-to-day operations.
If you’re interested in enrolling in Farmers for Soil Health, visit FarmersforSoilHealth.com/enrollment today
Farmers for Soil Health is a collaborative initiative led by the Soy Checkoff, Pork Checkoff and National Corn Growers Association, alongside state commodity groups and conservation organizations. This 20-state program was created with a shared commitment to enhancing soil health and strengthening farm profitability.
