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planters.
Keller and his brother, Tim, milk 300 cows and farm 640 acres at Kellercrest Registered Holsteins near Mount Horeb. The farm is located in two watersheds, and conservation has been a way of life for the family as long as Keller can remember.
By Stacey Smart stacey.s@dairystar.com
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. – The interest in cover crops and no-till farming continues to escalate.
This was evident as farmers piled into the Glacier Canyon Conference Center Dec. 13, 2022, in Wisconsin Dells to learn all they could about these conservation practices. Saving soil, water and money while making extra feed are benets farmers are seeing from the use of cover crops and no-till.
During the 2022 Winter Wisconsin Cover Crop Conference, a panel of southern Wisconsin dairy and crop farmers shared why no-till and cover crops are important to their operations. Panelists Mark
Keller, offered thoughts on which cover crops to use in no-till situations and how beginners can get into no-till systems while explaining modications they made to their
“We were one of Dane County’s original farms to do contour farming,” Keller said. “We’ve been doing cover crops since 2007 and have been pretty solid with no-till since then also. We have trout streams on both sides of our farm, so we need to be very conscious.” www.dairystar.com
When introducing winter rye as a cover crop, the Kellers found it made nice feed for heifers.
