Regenerative practices impacting farming operation

LELAND, Ill. — The Riskedal family uses regenerative agricultural practices on their farm where they grow corn, soybeans and wheat along with feeding cattle for a freezer beef enterprise.

“We started using strip-till in 2019, and with the process of switching to reduced till, less chemicals and adding cover crops now we can go in the field and find earthworms in any ball of roots we pull up,” Brad Riskedal said. “We couldn’t find them before.”

“All our corn is strip-tilled in the fall and everything else is no-tilled,” said Stephen Riskedal, Brad’s son and the sixth generation of the family to farm in La Salle County.

“We do a strip freshener in the spring on some acres, but for the most part we like planting in a stale seed bed.”

“Most of our acres have cover crops on them from last fall so we manage around the cover crops,” Brad said.

Ahead of soybeans, the primary cover crop has been cereal rye.

“We plant either a rye or barley with hairy vetch ahead of corn,” Stephen said.

“Almost all of our corn gets interseeded with cover crops when the corn is V3 to V6 between the rows,” he said. “Between the reduced tillage and cover crops reducing our herbicide, this year our goal is a single pass of herbicide on everything.”

All the soybeans are planted into a standing cover crop.

“This year, we’ll use a herbicide to terminate the cover crops, but we also have a roller crimper,” Stephen said. “But our stand of rye this year was too light to have good termination with a roller crimper.”

“Planting into a cover crop is a strange thing to do,” Brad admitted. “I planted soybeans last year into rye that was 5 feet tall and then we crimped it and sprayed it.”

“Sometimes we crimp the cover crop after the beans have emerged,” Stephen said. “If you do it at the wrong time, you snap off the beans, but if you do it at the right time the beans will push over and go right back up through the rye.”

“The beans last year hit the average yield; there was no yield penalty at all from the cover crops,” Brad said. “Although there was a time in June when the beans looked really bad.”

The farmers work closely with GreenCover Seeds, located in Nebraska.

“They do a good job of educating how cover crops work,” Brad said. “As a result, Stephen now has a dealership for cover crops and this is their first venture that far from their home.”

The Riskedals plant corn that ranges from 109- to 112-day maturity and soybeans from 2.4 to 2.8.

“This year, we switched to all non-GMO corn and the company that certifies us for regenerative ag is working on building a market for non-GMO corn,” Stephen said.

“We were just going to plant non-GMO corn on one field to try it out,” he said. “But we don’t have the ability to segregate our corn to identity preserve it, so we decided to go all in.”

This year, for the first time on their farm, the farmers will plant sorghum that will be sold for birdseed.

“Sorghum is a really good rotational crop for breaking up disease and insect life cycles,” Stephen said. “I’ve been told deer won’t eat it so it’s going on a 60-acre field that is close to timber.”

In addition to the 1,000 acres the Riskedals farm, they also cooperate with two other farm families.

“About 15 years ago, Matt Johnson was working for me driving a truck and farming,” said Brad, who owns a trucking company with his dad, Steve.

“At the end of harvest, we figured if we combined our resources and worked together, we could probably do it cheaper in the same amount of time,” Brad said. “We did and we treat his farm as important as our farm and he responds the same way.”

The cooperation started as a way to save some money and now the families are benefiting from sharing labor.

“There’s enough of us that know what’s going on to jump in any piece of equipment to make things happen,” Brad said.

“Four or five years ago, Steve Jameson started working with us so we have fields from here to Harding to Morris,” he said.

This is the first spring the three farm families have rolled their planters together, going from six planters to two.

“We have a 12-row high speed planter and a 40-foot air seeder,” Stephen said.

“The important part of the air seeder is that opened us up to plant wheat better and cover crops in the fall,” Brad said.

The three families make their own decisions for inputs on their farms.

“We try to be compatible as far as herbicide programs,” Stephen said. “We try not to have all of one person’s crop harvested and none of the other so we go where it is fit and where it makes sense for bin space.”

This year, the three farm operations will harvest a total of six crops — corn, soybeans, wheat, rye for cover crop seed, sunflowers and sorghum.

“As a small farmer, you wouldn’t try that many things in one year,” Brad said. “Because the learning curve would be too steep so we take turns on what we do.”

Whatever the farmers try, they share the data.

“We’re in each other’s fields and we’re using the same data management accounts so we can see what each other is doing,” Stephen said. “That’s been really beneficial for us all.”

Stephen and his brother, Darren, have raised cattle for freezer beef for many years.

“When I was about 4 years old, dad bought us two steers to teach us responsibly of taking care of animals,” Stephen said. “We continued to reinvest and it’s one of those FFA projects that hasn’t stopped.”

The beef is sold as quarters and halves and currently 11 head of cattle are in the feedlot.

“As we do more cover crops, we’re trying to figure out if there are opportunities to graze the cattle,” Stephen said. “I see that as an economical feed source, as well as being really good for soil health.”

Stephen knows how to raise cattle in the feedlot, market the beef and deliver it to consumers.

“But I don’t understand grazing livestock as well as I’d like to, so I’m learning,” he said. “I have to finish taking down the depilated fence to build new fence.”

Beef is delivered directly to consumers in the Chicagoland region.

“We have a really strong customer base,” Stephen said. “We’re really good at keeping existing customers, but I think we’re in a spot where we should grow.”