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To plant or not to plant.
Some Indiana and Ohio farmers are wrestling with the question. Many farms include land that would be better left fallow because it borders waterways or is vulnerable to soil erosion. The federal Conservation Reserve Program even pays farmers to plant grass or trees rather than grain on environmentally sensitive land.
But planting comes with its own payoff. With corn prices approaching record highs, farmers want to grow as much as they can to maximize their profits.
High grain prices are sharpening the tension between conservation and economics, experts say. That tension will be the subject of several talks during the Tri-State Conservation Farming Expo in Auburn on Wednesday.
The one-day conference encourages farmers to use environmentally friendly production methods, said Jane Loomis, executive director of the St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative, which helped organize the event. Nearly 300 people are expected to attend the expo at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum.
Corn prices topped $5 a bushel and soybeans pushed past $13 a bushel at central Indiana grain last week, according to The Associated Press. Ethanol and biodiesel production are using more grain and boosting prices. The potential for large profits makes farmers want to grow additional crops, Loomis said.
“It’s real tempting to just plant every acre into grain crops,” she said.
But farmers need to consider the long-term effect as well as the immediate economic gain, Loomis said. Leaving grassy buffer strips between fields and streams can improve the region’s water quality, for instance. The expo educates farmers so they can weigh the economic and environmental benefits their decisions could have, she said.
Farmers have incentives to be environmentally friendly, said Marvin Dietsch, a northwest Ohio farmer who serves on the expo organizing committee. Farmers must nurture the soil to harvest a larger crop.
“We’re constantly looking for the best ways to maintain the organic condition of soil and the quality of the soil,” said Dietsch, who farms about 600 acres north of Edgerton.
Farmers will consider environmental and economic factors when they decide whether to renew their Conservation Reserve Program contracts, which last 10 to 15 years. The government pays participants to set aside land that can serve as a wildlife habitat, a form of erosion control or provide other environmental benefits. Almost 296,000 acres statewide were enrolled in the program last year, according to the Farm Service Agency’s state office.
Some farmers will likely exit the program to grow additional grain, but the government has aggressively courted farmers who own the most environmentally sensitive land, said Brent Sohngen, a professor in Ohio State University’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics. That should help keep key sites in the program, said Sohngen, who will discuss at the expo the environmental and economic pressures facing farmers.
Sohngen sees other sources of tension between economic and environmental forces. Soaring grain prices are boosting the value of agricultural land. That could indirectly encourage developers to chop down forests, he said. Developers who previously built on farmland could target forests instead if farmland becomes more expensive than wooded properties.
But some economic pressures are encouraging farmers to use greener farming methods, said Ray McCormick, a Knox County farmer who is scheduled to speak at the expo.
Nitrogen fertilizer prices have doubled in a year because the natural gas – a key ingredient – is rising in price. To conserve fertilizer, McCormick said more farmers are using GPS and soil testing to apply the fertilizer to sections of the fields that need it. That also has environmental benefits because the soil is more likely to absorb the fertilizer, limiting the risk of it polluting streams.
Another economic pressure – high fuel prices – is making it more attractive for farmers to skip plowing fields, Dietsch said. He uses a method called no-till, which helps prevent soil erosion, on most of his fields. Farmers can reduce the number of times they drive equipment through the field with this method.
Many farmers recognize they have a role to play as environmental stewards, Sohngen said.
The expo will help educate them about the best ways to be environmentally friendly and financially sound.
“Everyone who is going to be there is going to recognize it’s important to balance the environment and economics,” he said.
jglenn@jg.net
