Mike Werling: Enriching Soil for Bottom Line

Mike Werling, a fifth-generation farmer, is thrilled that his “farming ugly” practices of no-till and cover crops are enriching his Indiana yellow-clay soils, turning them darker and prairie-like. He delights in watching earthworms forage at night on his farm and says he typically finds half a dozen in a shovel scoop.

“Soil health is my number one thing right now,” says Werling. “How do I keep increasing my organic matter, and get my earthworms and my roots, to go deeper into my soil?”

Werling began in the late 1980s to implement conservation practices on his 350-acre farm, where he grows corn, oats for seed, wheat and soybeans. Starting first with no-till (planting without plowing first) and the 4Rs of nutrient stewardship—a science-based approach to apply the right source of fertilizer at the right rate and the right time in the right place—he later introduced cover crops. Today he uses minimal pesticides and cultivates a pollinator garden on highly erodible land to support honey bees and other pollinators that are critical to plant reproduction and genetic diversity. He also employs drainage control systems to reduce runoff of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.  

Keeping Nutrients on the Fields

Looking for more effective use of nutrients drove him to begin applying fertilizer at planting time, on the seed or right beside it, rather than spreading it widely on to the field. He keeps his nutrient levels so low, he says, there’s little that can leach from his land. All the same, he’s installed drainage control systems to reduce nutrient runoff from his fields, including a series of gates that can be opened and closed to control water flow and 120 foot-wide filter strips (grassy strips at the edge of fields) on his farm that capture sediment and nutrients during heavy rainfall events.

As a result of these conservation practices, Werling says, “My yields are steadily increasing just like the national averages are, but I’m not at the high end of yields. I’m at my optimum returns per acre.” In other words, Werling isn’t focused on pushing his yields as high as they’ll go by increasing his fertilizer inputs. Instead, he’s found a sweet spot of the best economic yield using the least amount of inputs necessary, along with strong conservation practices.

Those results gratify Werling. His farm’s motto is, “For healthier soil and cleaner water, cover crop your assets and till no more.”

“I’m proud,” says Werling, “to continue what my great-great grandfather started, to hopefully keep it going, and to be making the soil better than the way I received it.”