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DeKalb County
FALL 2021
CULTIVATING PATIENCE COVER CROP FARMER TALKS ABOUT ESTABLISHING RESULTS IN CONSERVATION PRACTICES
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DeKalb County
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FIRST YEAR OF COVER CROPS
10
Piloting these small aircrafts boosts efficiency in farming and green energy
GETTING ESTABLISHED
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BUILDING HIS SKILLS
SEVERE STORM PREDICTION
14
THE GIRL RETURNS
A soil and water conservationist shares his learning experience Cover crop farmer cultivates patience while awaiting results from conservation practices New weather model could give first responders more advanced warning
THE CAPABILITY OF DRONES
FFA member gains experience in mechanics and earns national finalist honor La Niña could mean another mild start to winter weather this year
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DeKalb County
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Fall 2021 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 3
CONSERVATION CONVERSATION
First year of cover crops is a
LEARNING EXPERIENCE By JEANNINE OTTO – AgriNews Publications
A
s vice chairman of the DeKalb County Soil and Water Conservation Board and longtime board member on the SWCD, Paul Kuhn knows the cover crop talking points. He’s heard about the benefits. “I hear it all the time and we talk about them often on the board. I’ve been to plenty of seminars on cover crops,” Kuhn said. This year, after his soft red winter wheat crop was harvested, Kuhn decided to give cover crops a try. “We’ve been looking at them for several years. Paul Kuhn, vice chairman We decided this DeKalb County Soil and Water Conservation Board year, when we took all our wheat off, we planted a nitrogen-building cover crop,” he said. Kuhn raises corn, wheat and soybeans and farms with family members and farm employees. “We sit in the corner of DeKalb, Boone and McHenry counties, close to some population centers,” he said. Like many farmers, while Kuhn understands the benefits of cover crops, but he also wants to know how the crops will impact his bottom line. “The thing I keep asking is — where does the dollar return come from for the farmer for this? We are investing a substantial amount of money. I’ve got $40 in seed costs. I’ve got another $15 an acre planting it. I’ve got expense for this and I need to see some return on it,” he said. While the argument might be that Kuhn invests more in his acres of wheat,
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corn and soybeans, for those crops, there is an immediate return on that investment and, usually, a profit per acre. “I can see the advantages from the perspective of what we need to do. We need to hold the soil in place better. Erosion control is a big deal. We need to keep that soil in place. We need to keep those nutrients in the ground. We are going to sequester some carbon in the process and we hope that helps too,” Kuhn said. What he hopes to see happen is for the cover crops to improve the soil so the crops that follow yield better. Another benefit Kuhn is interested in is seeing how much the cover crops can reduce the need for purchased nitrogen. With farm fertilizer costs skyrocketing and some fertilizers in short supply due to global supply and demand issues, that could be the profit angle of Kuhn’s cover crops. “We came up with a mix from LaCrosse Seeds in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The mix is designed to build nitrogen for next year’s corn crop so I can put less purchased nitrogen on next year. That was the reason we planted cover crops behind the wheat,” Kuhn said. One side benefit of the learning experience for Kuhn is learning something new. He isn’t a stranger to implementing soil conservation practices on his farm. He uses no-till on some of his acres along with soil and water conservation tools like grass waterways. He installed 12 miles of new grass waterways on the farm this summer, in addition to the miles of those already in place. “I see the environmental benefits of it and I really have enjoyed watching
it grow. The mix has some nontypical crops in it — some clovers, some radishes, some oats. It’s not stuff that we normally grow and it’s going to biodiversify our soils a little bit more. I’m looking forward to seeing how it helps the corn next year,” Kuhn said. Kuhn is involved with the Precision Conservation Management program, a program of the Illinois Corn Growers Association with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He hasn’t signed his farm up for any of the agriculture carbon credit programs. The PCM program helps farmers determine the financial sustainability and viability of various conservation practices on their own farms, using field-level farm data and analysis of that data, along with assistance from specialists who help farmers find the conservation programs and practices that can benefit their farms. Kuhn said he has questions about some of the new carbon capture programs. “I am waiting to see how the dust settles on those. We already are doing a lot of the things they want us to do. They won’t pay farmers for current practices. They only pay for improvements above and beyond those. So, it’s penalizing people who are already taking care of the soil and the environment. It’s penalizing those people and I don’t feel that’s the best way to go with these programs. So, I am in a ‘wait and see’ mode on it,” he said. Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-4102258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.
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Fall 2021 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 5
CONSERVATION CONVERSATION
Getting
Established Cover crop farmer cultivates patience By JEANNINE OTTO AgriNews Publications
The way Paul Taylor looks at it, using cover crops is a lot like walking. “If your doctor told you to lose 50 pounds, walking is probably not the first thing they’ll tell you. You’ll need a diet plan, you might need to see a dietitian, start going to the gym three to four times a week, you’ve got this regime. But if you just walked a mile or two, every day, five days a week, for a year, you’re probably going to lose weight, have a stronger heart, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar. But that’s not going to happen in two weeks,” Taylor said. And one of the big hurdles for many farmers doing cover crops is that they may want to
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see those results quickly, in a single crop year. “When it comes to cover crops, many people use the mindset ‘is it worth it?’ just like you would nitrogen. That means one year, one piece of ground, what was your yield increase, what did it cost you and if it didn’t pay out, it wasn’t worth it. My answer is — it’s not that simple,” Taylor said. He knows his fellow cover croppers share his enthusiasm and his belief in the effectiveness of the farming and conservation tool — along with the patience to wait. “Almost to a person, the people who have done cover cropping long term say there are a number of benefits, from improved weed control,
water infiltration, the biological health and tilth of the soil, the density of the soil, the nutrientsupplying power of the soil, the higher yield potential of the soil. It’s easier to farm, easier to work. But you can’t measure that in one year,” Taylor said. For Taylor, the reasons he started using cover crops, over a decade ago, just made sense. Over 15 years ago, he sold some of his land for a swine facility, a sow farm. As part of that agreement, Taylor can utilize the manure from the farm. The manure is applied in the spring and fall and he uses cover crops to maximize the nutrients in that manure. “Part of what has made our situation different is that
Opposite page: Farming runs in Paul Taylor’s blood, and so does soil conservation. The farmer bought his first no-till planter in 1976. Through the years, Taylor has worked to adjust and adapt conservation practices to his farm. (Photos by Jeannine Otto)
it has been accelerated with the manure and it has been accelerated with a diverse rotation with the vegetables instead of just corn or just corn and soybeans” he said. A second reason was the vegetable crops Taylor grew for Del Monte when their Mendota processing plant was in operation. “We would put it after peas if we were too late to plant soybeans, cheater beans. Then we used wheat or oats. Recently, we’ve been using rye and radish,” Taylor said. To acknowledge the benefits of cover crops, you have to take a closer look, underground. “We seed them late, they only get three to four inches tall in the fall. We only let them get a foot tall in the spring and we might terminate them. Did we do any good? There’s a huge root mass with that. In our case, it was pulling up some of those nutrients from the applied manure that might have been left over from the spring or applied in the fall,” Taylor said. For Taylor and other farmers who use manure as fertilizer, those roots holding that manure and its nutrients is an important tool. Preventing manure and nitrogen and phosphorus from running off the land and into rivers is one of those benefits and one that has gained prominence in the last few years. “The cover crop is capturing and holding onto that. It keeps it out of the water,” Taylor said. Taylor sees his own conservation farming through the lens of practicality. The practices have to be tailored to each farm — and each farmer’s — individual situation and farm. “I’m still not a hardcore no tiller because we do the manure and some other things. It messes up some things, you
can’t run a shank or a sweep applying manure four or five inches deep and then call it no till,” Taylor said. One of the points he emphasizes is that the practices will look different — and respond different — on different farms. “You do it across the road or down the road and you may not see the same response I do. I guarantee you, after five years, you are going to be happy — but you won’t see the same response I do because we are not farming the same way,” Taylor said. In spite of the hurdles, Taylor, who is a past president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, thinks U.S. agriculture has made progress on soil and water conservation and continues to do so. “Yes, we are making progress,” he said. His enthusiasm for farming and agriculture, for conservation farming and conservation tools like cover crops and no till, is tempered with reality, with understanding how his fellow farmers think and why. “The biggest impediment is just human nature and the resistance to change. I hate to say it, but we can offer incentives all day long, but as soon as the incentives are gone, people quit,” he said. The next question is the toughest, for U.S. agriculture and conservation and for Taylor. “How are we going to fix it? This is something I’ve wrestled with individually, on committees and on the policy level most of my professional career. How do we make this more effective? It’s just damned tough,” he said. Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia. com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.
Every spring and fall, Taylor utilizes hog manure from a local sow farm as fertilizer. The manure is injected into the ground. Cover crops help hold nutrients from that manure in place in the soil and also help make those nutrients available for the corn and soybeans later. Taylor implements no-till on as much of his ground as possible, but does use light fall tillage on some ground. He uses an air seeder to incorporate his cover crops.
Sweet corn, along with lima beans, sweet peas and other vegetables grown for Del Monte, were one factor in Paul Taylor’s cover crop journey. Taylor grew various vegetable crops to be processed when Del Monte operated its processing plant in Mendota. Planting cover crops was a way for Taylor to control weeds on those fields before and after those short-season crops.
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SEVERE PREDICTION
COULD AID FIRST RESPONDERS By JEANNINE OTTO AgriNews Publications
W
hat if first responders and emergency management personnel could know about severe storms, like tornadoes and hail storms, weeks in advance? A professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University is developing a model that could do just that and recently received funding from the National Science Foundation.
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“I can’t say a tornado is going to run through Rochelle, Illinois, four weeks from now. But we can say the potential for a tornado outbreak in northern Illinois is high four weeks from now,” said Dr. Trent Ford, Illinois state climatologist. “That puts emergency managers on alert to know that around these four or five days, four weeks from now, we are looking at a set up that could be conducive to having multiple tornadoes break out. That is beneficial to make sure we have resources available when we see those sorts of severe weather,” he said. Ford was talking about the work of Victor Gensini, professor of meteorology at NIU and deputy director of NIU’s Center for Research Computing and Data. In March, the National Science Foundation awarded Gensini a $475,000 grant over three years to extend research into development of those longrange forecasts that could predict severe storms, like tornadoes and hailstorms. In 2018, Gensini led a study to identify a method to predict the likelihood of hailstorms. His work “aims to identify atmospheric conditions that heighten the probability of severe U.S. weather events two weeks to two months before they occur,” according to NIU. NIU said the forecasting project that received the NSF funding will involve “study of statistical associations between intra-seasonal atmospheric modes that can lead to severe weather and creation of conceptual models to explain the physical mechanisms. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will be used to help recognize these statistical relationships.” “At the end of the day, we’re trying to push the envelope of what’s possible for severe weather predictions,” Gensini said, in the NIU news release announcing the grant. Ford said the NIU work points to how far weather forecasting and modeling has come in recent years. “The models and forecasting have advanced a tremendous amount over the last 15 years. When we look at the retrospective, after we get through a week of temperatures, and say, ‘What did it look like?’ We are seeing very low errors on those temperatures. To be able to forecast a temperature within just a couple of degrees, seven days out, is amazing, honestly, and we take it for granted,” he said. Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.
At the end of the day, we’re trying to push the envelope of what’s possible for severe weather predictions.” – Dr. Trent Ford, Illinois state climatologist
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how the capability of
DRONES aids farms & energy
By MARTHA BLUM – AgriNews Publications
P
iloting a drone was one of numerous activities students had the opportunity to experience during the NIU STEM Fest 2021. The event, held on the campus of Northern Illinois University, celebrates science, technology, engineering and math with hands-on activities, exhibits and talks. Drones have been utilized by the Enel Green Power company for several years. “We’ve started experimenting with drones in 2016 and they have been a component in our
operations and maintenance since 2018,” said Bill Badnaruk, drone specialist for Enel Green Power. Badnaruk conducted a drone demonstration in a special cage area during the NIU event. “We use drones in our solar and wind operations and we also use them in the engineering and construction phase,” Badnaruk said. “One of unique things we do is crop damage assessments when we’re building roads for the wind installations,” he said. “We catalog how much crop damage occurs to make sure the land owners are
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appropriately credited.” Thermal cameras on the drones are used to find problems on solar panels. “The thermal camera can easily see outages, bad cells or any issue we have on a solar farm,” Badnaruk said. “We can see what’s going on at the site faster and more efficiently with a drone.” For wind systems, Badnaruk said, drones are used for spot inspections. “The wind turbine blades can crack, so we use the drones to catch that early to make repairs,” he said. “We want
to make sure our assets are running as safe as possible.” Finding inefficiencies with the drone cameras helps to make the company’s sites more reliable to produce additional energy for a longer time. “If one of the wind turbine blades suffers damage or is out of balance, that will affect everything attached to the wind blade such as the bearing system or the generator,” Badnaruk said. “And that will accelerate wear and other issues.” The engineering team for the company uses drones for mapping.
Above: With the thermal camera on the drone, the heat signature of everything the drone is looking at is displayed on the monitor, including the person standing in front of the drone. At left: Bill Badnaruk flies a drone in a special cage area during the NIU STEM Fest 2021. The drone specialist uses drones to evaluate solar and wind projects for Enel Green Power. (Martha Blum)
“We use can use artificial intelligence to account for the difference in change,” Badnaruk said. “We can look at a map from this week compared to last week and identify the change which helps us get a view of the progress.” For surveying purposes, Badnaruk said, drones can identify site boundaries to make sure the project is built to the plan. “I love my job,” he said. “I’m very happy to be part of green energy and it’s very rewarding to increase efficiencies and production through technology.”
Enel Green Power has solar and wind projects in 10 states and two Canadian provinces. “We are developing two solar projects in Rochelle, two in Marengo and one in Cherry Valley,” said Emily Skill, development manager for the company. “As we bring these projects to the communities we like to partner with universities to help enhance existing renewable energy programs or to help create renewable energy programs from specializing in drones to wind technology to solar,” she said.
Partnerships are really important to the company, Skill said. “We want to make sure we’re building projects that have a co-benefit so not only our company benefits, but also the communities nearby,” she said. “Those partnerships are critical for our industry and success as a company.” Enel is in the early stages of development for a wind project in Lee County. “We are partnering with local organizations, 4-H, community colleges, afterschool programs and athletic programs to
help provide funding and also provide opportunities to learn about our business and provide jobs to those interested students later in life,” Skill said. “We have a circular mindset of when we’re building a project we also need to educate the community about it and provide jobs to work at the sites.” At a solar project in Minnesota, beehives have been established at the site. “There are also a lot of pollinating plants there and we have sheep grazing at the site,” Skill said. “For our Illinois projects we have an intense conservation plan and we are working with third party consultants to help us identify the types of plants that should be planted to insure we’re giving back to the soil,” she said. “That’s really important to our company and the community.” For more information about Enel Green Power, go to www. enelgreenpower.com. Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, or mblum@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.
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BUILDING HIS
SKILLS FFA member gains experience in mechanics, receives national finalist honor By MARTHA BLUM – AgriNews Publications
B
eing involved with FFA activities helped Maxwell Griffey develop job skills, as well as receive national recognition for his FFA project. “All through high school I had a job,” said Maxwell Griffey, who was selected as one of four finalists for a FFA national proficiency award in the area of agricultural mechanics repair and maintenance — placement. “I started working for the school district doing grounds maintenance and then I applied for a job as a mechanic at CSR Bobcat in DeKalb, where I worked for almost three years,” the Sycamore FFA member said. “I worked on all sorts of Bobcat equipment doing services like oil changes and parts replacement.” After graduating in May, Griffey applied for a job with the City of DeKalb’s street division. “I do mowing, pothole repair on streets, tree trimming, traffic control and mechanical work on equipment,” said the son of Jason and Kate Griffey. “All of this has been a great success due to my activities with the FFA,” he said. “It’s a result of being an officer and using the leadership qualities that I got out of FFA.”
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At left: Maxwell Griffey learned to operate all sorts of equipment for his FFA project that includes working for three employers. The Sycamore FFA member is looking forward to attending the National FFA Convention and is counting down the days until the national proficiency award winners are announced. (Photo provided)
The winner of the national award was recently presented during the 94th National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis. Griffey was interviewed for the national award over Zoom. “I gave a brief introduction speech and then the judges asked a series of questions,” he said. “It really didn’t feel like an interview. It felt like a conversation because I knew what I was talking about.” Becoming an FFA national finalist is nerve-racking, Griffey said. “It doesn’t seem real that we are the only four people in the country competing for this title,” he said. Since the FFA member wasn’t involved with sports in high school, he didn’t have the experience of looking forward to a championship. “I’m so excited. I don’t know what to do with myself,” he admitted. “I’m counting down the days to convention.” While in high school, the FFA member was a member of the ag mechanics team. “For the contest we had to find out what was wrong with an engine and the fix for it and we also had to know the different types of engines and the tools to work on them,” he said. Another favorite FFA activity for Griffey was packing meals for the Feed My Starving Children program. “We went as a chapter to package protein-packed meals for less fortunate people in developing countries,” he said. “It is goodhearted program and we had a good time doing it, so it didn’t feel like we were working.” Advised by Kara Poynter, Christian Thurwanger and Courtney Wiedemann, Griffey was both the junior plot manager and plot manager for the chapter. “We have two plots of land that totals about 80 acres where we alternate planting corn and beans,” Griffey said. “My job was to organize all the tillage, planting, harvesting and anything special that needed to happen.” During harvest last year, the FFA member operated the combine. “The farmer rode with me, but I harvested the whole plot except for about 10 or 12 rows,” Griffey said. “I owe all of the success I’ve had to my advisers because anything that I ever completed or was a part of had been a push from the advisers,” he said. “I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without them. I owe them a huge thank you.” Griffey plans to complete some alternate education to obtain safety certifications and licenses. “I am going to get a chemical applicators license and water operators license, as well as safety certifications on different equipment,” he said. Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, or mblum@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.
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Snow blankets a farm off of Keslinger Road in DeKalb after a February 2021 storm. Last winter had warmer than normal conditions in December and January, followed by heavy snow and plummeting temperatures in February. This winter could shape up to be the same due to La Niña returning again. (Mark Busch)
‘THE GIRL’ RETURNS La Niña could mean a delayed start to winter snow and cold temperatures By JEANNINE OTTO AgriNews Publications
Dr. Trent Ford Illinois State Climatologist
Just in case one La Niña wasn’t enough, the girl is making a return appearance to North American weather. “This is a double dip La Niña,” said Dr. Trent Ford, Illinois state climatologist. The United States was in a La Niña pattern last year. La Niña, “The Girl” in Spanish, is the counterpart to the “El Niño” weather pattern. Both climate patterns involve the warming and cooling of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. La Niña is the colder of the two events. “It can mean we have a little bit of a drier fall and it can also mean a delayed start to winter,” Ford said. Ford said the winter of 2020, which featured warmer than normal conditions in December and January, then a dramatic fall in temperatures along with heavy snow events into February, is typical of a La Niña fall and winter and could be on repeat for northern Illinois, including DeKalb County. For the rest of the fall and early winter, Ford said outlooks don’t show any surprise tumble in temperatures. “What we are seeing with the near-term forecasts and outlooks, going to the mid to latter part of November, the rest of fall basically, there really is no indication that we
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are going to see any turn in temperatures,” Ford said. That doesn’t mean that temperatures won’t cool down, but it does indicate that the area won’t see a dramatic drop in temperatures. “Obviously, with seasonality and the lower sun angle, temperatures are going to get consistently cooler as we get into November and December. But there’s nothing on the horizon that is showing any indication of this big, persistent cold air outbreak,” Ford said. For those hoping for a jump into a cold, snowy winter, at least in the northern Illinois area, those hopes might be put on hold, at least until after the new year. “The longer-term outlooks are showing a similar thing — at least for December and January together, warmer than normal, a mild start to winter. When we get into February and parts of March, we’ll see how that turns out because La Niña winters tend to get going at that time. Right now, it looks like a warmer end to fall and maybe a mild start to winter,” Ford said. Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.
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