Drought, killer dust storms, torrential downpours, flooding and extreme weather — Illinois, the country’s No. 1 producer of soybeans and No. 2 producer of corn, is seeing all of that this year.
Climate change is disrupting agriculture, a $19 billion-a-year industry that’s one of the state’s largest. And there’s growing recognition that agribusiness is likely contributing to the problems.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agricultural production is responsible for about 10% of global warming, much of that attributable to livestock. In Illinois, with its fertile, black soil created by glacial action, there are 72,000 farms on 27 million acres — three-quarters of the state’s land mass.
Two phrases that are becoming known nationally — climate-smart and regenerative farming — haven’t caught on much in rural Illinois. But farming practices that help prevent erosion, runoff and carbon emissions have been practiced for years by early-adopting corn and soybean farmers.
“You can’t sit in Washington and tell people how to farm,” said Larry Dallas, who farms about 2,000 acres near Tuscola and has used conservation practices during his 39 years in business. “There is practicality involved. The technology is out in the field.”
Now, the practices are being discussed more widely and not solely by small organic farmers and true believers but also among bigger growers.
Here’s what farmers who attended an Illinois Farm Bureau forum in Monticello this month had to say about trying to farm profitably while expanding conservation practices.
Michelle Carr
This spring’s planting of corn and soybeans on 1,100 acres in southern Macon and Shelby counties marked the first time that Michelle Carr, 35, was in charge of the family farm. She took over from her uncle, who farmed for 55 years.
One of the worst droughts in Illinois history wasn’t in her plans. Still, she got planting done early, and the crop was established before the drought hit.
“That felt like a win,” said Carr, who graduated from Southern Illinois University with a plant and soil science degree and was at the farm bureau gathering to learn more about growing cover crops.
She pulled off the “double-crop” trick of growing wheat over the winter and harvesting and selling it in the spring — before planting soybeans in the same field. The 106 acres of winter wheat also served as a cover crop, helping keep the soil from blowing or washing away in a bare field for six months.
Cover crops are planted on less than 5% of farmed acreage in Illinois. Some farmers and agronomists think cover-cropping holds the most promise for preserving soil, enhancing it naturally, with less fertilizer, and for trapping carbon that otherwise would be released to the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.
Carr grows wheat and other cover crops on 35% to 40% of her land, mostly on the more easily erodible rolling hills.
“One day, I would like to have everything in a cover crop,” Carr said. “I know how important it is. Whether I can economically get there, I don’t know.”
Cover-cropping hasn’t been widely adopted in Illinois, though, because of the cost to plant an additional crop that might not be able to be harvested and sold before planting corn or beans in the spring. Also, some farmers say cover crops can be tricky to manage, requiring more time and equipment and potentially eating into yields on cash crops.
To help with planting barley and rye cover crops, Carr recently paid $10,000 for a used drill planter, including repairs — an item that can cost up to $80,000.
“I had to start somewhere,” she said.
Jake Lieb
Jake Lieb and his brother Josh were known for their bison herd, a side project their father Terry started 22 years ago. When the two brothers’ young children started running around the farm, they decided to replace the unpredictable bison with more docile beef cattle.
Trying new things comes easily to the Lieb brothers, who have posted videos of their fifth-generation farm on YouTube.
For example, with a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that provides cost-sharing assistance for some environmentally friendly practices, the Liebs installed grass waterways and terraces to slow erosion, began no-till farming on some ground — that reduces wind and water erosion and releases fewer nutrients and carbon to the atmosphere — and planted winter cover crops on 600 of the 3,400-plus acres they farm.
“Anything we can do to keep the soil from washing away or blowing away and keep our nutrients in the field rather than going downstream, we’re wanting to do because fertilizer is very expensive, and you can’t replace the soil,” said Lieb, 41, a Southern Illinois grad.
“When we first got into it, cover crops were not widespread in this particular area. I wasn’t the first one by any means, but there wasn’t a lot of knowledge from fellow farmers that I could ask. Now, it’s a little more widespread.”
Jared Gregg
Jared Gregg’s family has been farming for seven generations around Cerro Gordo. He remembers his grandfather telling him, “There’s something that you can learn every day if you got your eyes open and are willing.”
That’s why he took time off in the middle of the week to learn more about the cautionary tale of Lake Decatur along the Sangamon River. The city of Decatur recently spent $100 million dredging 11 million cubic yards of valuable Illinois soil out of its lake to make room for more drinking water. Decatur officials don’t want to do that again.
Gregg’s farm is at the top of that watershed, and he wants to be part of the solution. He has been using minimum-till and no-till practices for his soybean crop since 1988.
“All of my farms have filter strips to try to mitigate the impact of nutrients entering the watershed,” he said.
Several species of grasses now slow the flow of nutrients from the edge of the field to the drainage ditch.
“They can be between 60 and 120 feet wide, and they serve a dual purpose,” he said. “Not only are they great for nutrient management, but they’re a wonderful place for upland game, wildlife. We don’t mow them.”
Gregg, 39, also planted 25 acres of wildflowers for pollinators — which the USDA helps pay for. And he just completed a watershed project with USDA assistance.
He said he thinks the billions of additional dollars the federal government earmarked last fall to encourage more climate-smart agriculture will attract more farmers.
“I have two daughters,” Gregg said. “I’ve got one that’s 9 and one that’s 4. And I realized that nature is a huge part of this — of farming, protecting nature, protecting not only the soil but the animals and insects that have been here longer than we have and will be here long after we’re gone. It’s not only for me but for them and their generation.”
This fall, Gregg said, he’s going to try a small cover crop.
“Farming always changes,” he said. “It’s never the same. There’s always something that either we’re fighting or trying to work with or against. The things and practices that my grandfather did I’m not doing. And, if he was here today, he’d be glad to see that we’re not.”
Robert Klemm
Robert Klemm has been farming for nearly 50 years in DeWitt County.
“The farm is a centennial farm,” said Klemm, who is on the farm bureau’s state board. “My dad said he wanted to leave the ground in better shape than what my grandad gave it to him. My son’s farming with me. I have that same goal.”
Klemm, who graduated from Illinois State University, has participated in the USDA cost-sharing programs to install grass waterways, terraces and other projects. But he hasn’t tried cover crops.
“We’ve tinkered around with cover crops just because I think it’s a thing that we need to be evaluating how it might be capable of being used on a larger scale on our farm,” Klemm said.
But he said farmers have to balance conservation practices with “profitability. That’s what puts food on our table.
“You got to know how can you accommodate to do the practices and determine what practices are going to be the most beneficial to the land and maintain the profitability.”
