2016 Wisconsin Leopold Conservation Award

hey you there I'm sowwy my broad welcome to Brooks fires I don't know if I can point to a specific point in time where my gland ethic started I would like to believe that it started with our Native American predecessors and this is the peace-pipe that my great-great-grandfather sat on top of the hills behind us and smoked with the Native American predecessors the native population it was Mother Earth and everybody owned it and nobody could own it and then the white settlers came in and homesteaded it and claimed they owned it and this peace pipe was smoked on top of that hill when they decided to stop shooting at each other growing up conservation ethic was a common conversation it came up all the time at the breakfast table and dinner table or while we're all in the barn working and I think getting a little difficult to take the next step and do even better but that's what's exciting is that we're going to keep improving and keep finding ways to bring conservation in and to make it a priority in our farm we have about 1600 total acres 1,300 of that is cropland we're really sticklers on crop rotation and we have a 10-year crop rotation where we'll start with wheat wheat goes into nurse crop of oats with an under seeding of alfalfa typically will then be alfalfa for five years then we'll no-till corn into that killed alfalfa at the most we'll have two tillage events in ten years we are both a dairies and a green farm and we try to balance those two as best as we can vertical integration is important to us balancing our land base with our dairy base that's kind of why we're expanding the dairy right now is we're a little land having a little cow short we have the land base not only feed our animals but also fertilize our land from the well and that reduces our use of commercial fertilizers and any other nutrients that we need to apply for the land there's a perception among consumers that vigor is bad but in our case bigger allows us to be better there's an economy of scale that we have to approach one of them is manure separation and putting in a wastewater treatment plant we have to do a better job than we've been doing daily halt isn't the answer newer feed also isn't the answer we in the future want to separate our water and our nutrients and be able to handle our nutrients as we do our commercial fertilizers it has a variable rate applied product and then use our water strictly as irrigation water we're able to use the nutrients from our dairy to benefit our agronomy side and growing our own feed here on the farm all those things wouldn't be possible at the size we were at when we get to five hundred or a thousand cows then those things become economically feasible and it seems rather ironic that we have to get bigger to do a better job but we truly do we have seven prairies in various stages of planting burning our meadowlarks were almost gone our ground nesting birds had just about disappeared now with these strategically placed meadows and cover crops and also our buffer strips we're seeing just a proliferation of metal worms and if you time it just right there will literally be clouds of monarchs that take flight when you walk out there it's a sight to be able every growing season in this experiment we're constantly winnowing and sifting new technology and new science not all of its good but not all of its bad and I can't imagine where the technology and the knowledge that Zoe and her generation have the things that they're going to be able to accomplish with the base that we're giving them to work our innovations all centre-back - how can we produce more using less we're excited to bring new technology into our facility in the form of milk metering and measuring components of our milk we're hoping one day to be able to separate certain components in milk whether that's fat or protein and be able to ship those separately to create and other dairy products in a more sustainable way food is so intimate to people and they should know where it comes from how it's producing who's producing it and we wanted to take that on and bring them here to show them how that quality product is produced and how we're caring for the environment and our animals while we do it we're really excited to do a lot of public outreach with our Dairy Herd and allow people to come in and to show them at our increased cow size how we're doing that and how it's better for the environment the really neat thing about the Brooks farms is that you can literally stand anywhere on the farm and observe conservation practices that have been installed and adopted all around you USDA NRCS has greatly enjoyed the opportunity to assist Ron in the development of a conservation plan for his operation I think if Aldo Leopold were alive here today and on the Brooks farm he would definitely have to be impressed by the long-standing land ethic and conservation ethic that the Brooks have passed down from generation to generation my goal is to remember where we came from and to tie that heritage in with our new ideas and innovation that we're bringing into the farm I think helps something that was passed down to all of us is that if you're doing this stewardship thing right you don't own the land it owns you that's why every decision that we make here on our farm ties back to how does this affect the environment that not only we depend on but also our entire community how does it affect their lives in their houses you

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Length: 5min 59sec (359 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2016