Stewards of the
Land
Local farming family recognized for conservation methods
Five years ago, Mike and Gina Redetzke took a spring ATV ride that would change their outlook on farming. The bitter cold of winter had just begun to give way, pushing the snow that had accumulated over the past few months into its annual melting cycle. As the pair navigated one of their fields, one that had been planted with corn the season before during the Redetzkes’ first year on their new farm, the results of that melting process were plain to see.
“That field that we had chopped corn on and was tilled, the water coming off it was like chocolate milk,” Mike recalls.
A typical sight for many Wisconsin fields in the springtime. Excessive amounts of snow melts into excessive amounts of water, which in turn transforms the tilled and bare fields into quagmires of muddy water containing manure, chemicals and polluted sediment. This runoff must go somewhere, and it often finds ways into local waterways or groundwater. While certainly not ideal, it is the price of doing business, some may contend.
But as the Redetzkes continued their survey, they found something that shows that there is another way.
“We went up the road, to a field that had oats on it the year before,” Mike continued. “After the oats were combined, we no-tilled in winter trit, which is a cross between rye and wheat, which was going to be a spring forage crop. So we had six to eight inch tall green, growing crop on that field.”
“The water there, you could have bottled and sold.” The difference was stark. An in-depth analysis of the water could tell one as much, but in this case it was hardly necessary. A visual comparison between the two was more than enough.
It was a visual that made the Redetzkes start to reconsider some of the approaches they were taking on their farm. As someone who wants to consider himself a steward of the land that he works, Mike realized that continuing on in such a fashion would not be living up to that ideal.
“Running all that water down the river, that’s not being a steward of the land,” he said. “After I saw that, I dove into finding a better way to do it.”
Spurred on by a desire to do right by the land that provides for their family, and by association, those that use the products they produce on their farm, the Redetzkes embarked on a journey that has changed the way they interact with the natural resources they utilize on a daily basis. The Redetzke farm now makes use of a number of conservation techniques, from taking advantage of cover crops to rotational grazing, built around finding a way to better protect and preserve the land they use without losing the efficiency or effectiveness of more traditional methods.
The results of this work are promising and Redetzkes have taken every opportunity to share what they have learned. They have worked with universities on studies regarding their practices and Mike has spoken at a number of workshops, trying to spread the knowledge they have gained.
It is an effort that will take more than just the adjustments of one singular farm. For real change to occur, others need to answer the call as well. In order to preserve the land, perhaps leave it even better than they found it, a community effort is needed. It is that future, one where their children can inherit a world better off than theirs, that the Redetzkes seek.
Hometown Family Farming
Farming has always been a big part of Mike and Gina’s lives. Both grew up on small dairy farms in the area and both quickly realized that they wanted to continue working in agriculture. The pair met at a custom harvesting and fieldwork operation they both worked at over a summer between Gina’s semesters at UW-River Falls, which she was attending in pursuit of a degree in ag business with a minor in dairy science. The two married while Gina was still in college and Mike moved out to River Falls and worked on a dairy farm in the area. They stayed in western Wisconsin for five years after Gina graduated, with Gina working as an agricultural appraiser.
Even before moving back to central Wisconsin and buying their own farm, the Redetzkes were still farming in the area. They would rent land and plant cash crops, traveling back and forth every weekend to tend to the fields. At some point, exhaustion from the constant travel set in and the pair knew that they should just move their family back to the area. They purchased their farm in 2017.
The Redetzkes run a 225-acre operation, with the primary focus being on their custom raised dairy heifers, of which they typically run 200 to 250 head at a time. They also have a dozen or so grass-fed beef cows and have recently added pastured poultry and laying hens. It is a family-run affair, with Mike and Gina passing on their knowledge to their kids.
“We feel very blessed with this farm,” Gina said. “We’re going to take as good care of it as we can, with the hope that someday one of our five children will want to take it over and continue on what they’ve learned from us.”
With that mindset, the want to find more sustainable and less environmentally-damaging processes became a big focus for the Redetzkes. One of their biggest projects comes in the form of setting up, utilizing and collecting data on nitrogen-use-efficiency corn plots to see the effects of cover crops used in conjunction with the corn.
They’re Not Weeds
One of the largest pollution problems that face local waterways comes from the aforementioned runoff from tilled fields. Following large rainfalls or springtime snow melts, the excess water collects eroded soil and other contaminants from fertilizers and carries it along as it makes its way to larger waterways. Tilled fields are especially susceptible to this runoff, as the bare soil erodes much more easily, leading to more of these pollutants entering the water system.
Cover crops are those that are planted with the intent of benefiting other future crops, largely through the maintenance of the soil. By keeping these crops planted in fields, the soil is less disturbed during these large waterfall events, as well as providing other potential benefits such as the retention of nitrogen in the system rather than allowing it to “leak” out into water sources.
One thing the Redetzkes were hoping to discover with their plots, with the help of UW-Madison Marshfield Ag Research Station, was the effects of interseeding these cover crops with the primary cash crop, in this case, corn.
The corn is first planted around mid-May in a nontilled field and then three weeks later, a diverse cover crop mix of brassicas, grasses, clovers and small greens is broadcast across the field with an air flow rig. The two crops then grow together, with the idea being that the cover crop will “feed” the biology in the soil, which will then produce the necessary nutrients for the corn, while also better maintaining the integrity of the soil.
To test this, the Redetzkes had several different plots with different conditions. Some were interseeded with cover crops, others were not, and in the second year, different combinations of planting where cover crops were or were not the year before were added into the equation. Different amounts of added nitrogen were also used as factors.
With two years of data behind them, the experiment seemed to point to the idea that, as long as one is providing the cash crop the fertility it needs, the cover crop seems to have no ill effects on its growth.
Spreading seed of various other plant life into one’s field seems to go against conventional wisdom, where any plant other than the primary crop is seen as a weed and should be removed, lest it do damage to the eventual yield. In sections where the cash crop was interseeded with the corn and no additional nitrogen was added, this wisdom, according to the data, seemed to hold some weight. With the corn not even receiving its necessary nutrients, the cover crops and the corn had to fight over what was there, ultimately being detrimental to the corn. However, this control group is slightly deceiving, as infusing extra nitrogen is a normal part of most farmers’ processes, and as long as that extra nitrogen is received, corn is able to grow normally.
In fact, while there does not seem to be any positive effect on the yield of the corn after two years of data collection, there is empirical evidence that it does increase its quality. The data collected shows higher levels of starch and increased digestibility of the silage produced from corn with cover crops interseeded than those without. This effect, added to the fact that the cover crops make the soil less likely to erode, seems to make the interseeding process a winwin situation.
Even in the areas where no nitrogen fertilizer was used, the crop still had a 277 percent nitrogen-efficiency, according to the research center. The fact that the soil by itself produced that amount seems to show the benefits of the several years of no-tilling and cover-cropping that were done prior to those areas being used as a control group, demonstrating the potential longer term effects on the soil’s health.
Blazing the Trail
But using cover crops isn’t the only conservation effort the Redetzkes have taken on. Their farm and methods for running are filled with them. They’ve added grass buffer zones between their fields and the nearby Randall Creek to help prevent runoff and turned an awkward part of a field into a monarch butterfly habitat. They have also worked with the Grassland 2.0 project, which is a collaborative group of scientists, educators, farmers and policymakers that is looking for ways to increase farm efficiency and profitably while simultaneously improving agriculture’s effects on the environment.
In this work, they have submitted data on their rotational grazing strategies for their cows for their Heifer Grazing Compass tool. This tool is designed to compare the financials of raising heifers in confinement versus raising them in rotational grazing. Data collected for this model suggests that there is no detriment to production value from rotational grazing compared to confined heifers, while also demonstrating that there may be some economical benefits. Additionally, there are environmental benefits to rotating where livestock graze, as it can help prevent overgrazing, which can cause soil erosion and runoff similar to tilling.
One of the most important parts of this tool is the fact that it demonstrates that such a method is not only financially feasible, but perhaps even preferable depending on the circumstances. Proving this is a big part of the equation, as the fear of the cost of transferring methods is one of the biggest barriers farmers would need to overcome when thinking of adopting new conservation tactics.
“It’s one of the big hurdles,” Mike said. “One of things I critiqued in the [Heifer Grazing Compass] is that we needed to show that it’s feasible to those that think ‘I have so much invested in these buildings and this equipment for raising in confinement that I have to use it.’ I own the buildings, I own the machinery to make the feed, I could feed them in confinement all year. But, we showed a savings of 44 percent by leaving a barn sit empty and having the cows feed themselves.”
“It makes sense,” he continued, noting that it’s a hard notion to overcome. “It’s completely backwards to a business person, not just a farmer, to have an asset and not use it. Overcoming that, that’s honestly the biggest hurdle we see.”
The Redetzkes hope that, by sharing this kind of information, other farmers can feel more confident to make the leap to conservation-friendly methods.
It’s an effort the others have taken notice of.
The Redetzkes recently received an award from the Eau Pleine Partnership for Integrated Conservation (EPPIC), a local community conservation group focused on improving the health of local soil and waterways. The honor, aptly monikered “The Most EPPIC Award,” is an award that recognizes the individual that best represents what the organization stands for, which in their own words is “to integrate resilience into the natural resources, community, and economy of the Big Eau Pleine Watershed.” In its inaugural dedication, the Redetzkes were selected unanimously.
While the family was a bit taken aback to have been chosen, having not even known they were up for nomination, they humbly admitted that there were some good feelings to be had at having been selected.
“It actually meant a lot,” Mike said. They noted that it can be tough at times to continue on their path when they know that they can only do so much on their own.
“When you see all these larger farms and what they are doing, it can sometimes feel a bit hopeless,” Gina said.
“You can get down, sometimes,” Mike added. “You’re pushing, trying to do all this stuff. We’re a smaller operation and you see some of these guys that have thousands of acres and make four tillage passes and you start to wonder, ‘does what we’re doing really matter?’” But a little bit of recognition can help and the Redetzkes’ personal convictions and a focus on family make it a very real possibility.
“We have to keep that mindset,” Gina said.
Because while it is true there is a limit on what they can achieve on their own, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying. If enough individuals take up that same mantle, that’s where change can happen.
