Roger Wenning (Decatur County)

Roger Wenning brushes away snow to reveal a living cover crop – feeding soil biology year ’round.

Roger Wenning realized that skyrocketing land prices limited his opportunities to build his farm by expanding beyond the 650 acres he farms with his sister Marita Field and sons Nick and Kevin near Greensburg, Indiana. That pushed his thinking into a new direction.  “I can’t grow my farm horizontally-land’s too expensive-but I can grow it vertically,” he says. “I can get higher yields with the same inputs, just growing it deeper.”  

Growing deeper means building soils for better root growth and higher productivity. That requires a system that combines no-till, drainage, intensive nutrient management, cover crops and careful attention to everything that touches the soil, Wenning says, “You’ve got to put the whole thing together,” he explains. “Two plus two equals six when you’re doing this. It’s a systems approach.”

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