Cyclone Farms – ‘Soil health is our first line of defence’

Cyclone Farms is located along a long straight road with vast acreages of farmland on each side of that road in York, East Central Nebraska. Amy and Tyler Bruch currently run the farm as 6th generation farmers with the help of 4 full time employees and additional summer help. With currently operating a little over 1,200 irrigated hectares (3,000 acres) in a 45 miles radius, the farm describes itself as one of the premier food-grade organic growers in the Midwest of the United States. All the land is either organic or in transition. The transition period is 36 months. Amy: “There’s currently some 220 organic farms in total in Nebraska and around 1 percent of all US farmers are organic.”

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Plant three weeks later

Main crops at Cyclone Farms include food grade maize, peas, soybeans and also alfalfa, barley, milo (grain sorghum), sunflower and HRWW (Hard Red Winter Wheat). “We try to produce food grade crops wherever possible. Our soybeans are exported to Japan for instance”, Tyler says. With conventional farmers all around them, the Bruchs plant their crops 3 weeks later than their neighbours to prevent pollination from conventional neighbouring crops.

Annual rainfall normally adds up to 15 inches (381 millimetres) but most of the crops can be irrigated. “We tend to say it’s feast or famine in the Midwest as the weather can be very extreme over here. Cover crops can be great, especially for us organic farmers but we see that there’s also an economic trade-off as they also use soil moisture.” That the weather can be extreme, was underlined this year with the driest May on record since 1857.

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‘Soils need to be in balance’

“Our goal is to outperform non-organic neighbours on crop yields”, Tyler says. “We are not there yet but our yield quantities are already very comparable, with us benefitting from prices that are double the price for conventional crops.”

Amy: “Soils have to be in balance on the nutrient side. Similar to our own bodies. Our aim is 68 percent calcium and 12 percent magnesium. We therefore map our soils with a Veris iScan soil sensor and our goal is to manage the uniqueness of each zone differently in order to build soil fertility using the Kinsey-Albrecht program. Soil health is the first line of defence against all plant stresses and by focussing on soil health, we aim to grow a higher value more nutrient dense crop. Like Tyler said, cover crops can be great and they assist with nutrient delivery to the soil and increase soil health, but they also require soil moisture.”

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Preference for German machinery

Upon arrival of Future Farming on invitation of the US Sustainability Alliance​​​​​​​ (USSA), the farm location itself as well as the machinery seem relatively modest considering the size and type of farm. One thing that immediately struck our mind is that the Bruchs have a preference for German made machinery. Such as a Kuhn Axis 50.2 H-EMC-W twin disc weigh-cell fertiliser spreader, a Tebbe muck spreader and a Treffler tine harrow. “I like German made machinery because it’s accurate, reliable and robust”, Tyler explains. The muck spreader applies chicken manure from 18 contracted chicken barns. The chicken manure is described as the main source for soil fertility. The fertiliser spreader is used to spread micro elements and nutrients according to the Kinsey-Albrecht program at 40 and 80 foot (12 / 24 metres) controlled traffic farming tramlines.

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The weed(ing) challenge

Alike every other organic farmer, a solid weed management strategy is essential at Cyclone Farms. Amy and Tyler and their staff have a customised equipment setup to do so and are taking the necessary agronomic decisions alongside. Something that is particularly difficult in soybeans with the crop closing only in August. “Also when it comes to weeds and weeding, the soil is our number one defence”, Amy says.

The Treffler tine weeder is one of the instruments in combatting weed pressure and combined with the rotary weeder, 5 passes are common praxis. Weed flaming is done with a new machine that was co-developed by the University of Nebraska. The flaming is a rainy weather defence and also acts as a tillage reducer. Late season weeds are typically dealt with by the WeedZapper. Cyclone Farms was one of the first to buy such a machine that electrocutes weeds with 14,000 volts of electricity. In addition to weed management, insight into grain condition during storage in the storage bins is critical. “Storage insight is a key defence for long-term storage.”

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36, 3, 365 labour framework

Tyler: “When it comes to labour, we work with a 36, 3, 365 framework. For an organic farm, the difference between a good season and a bad season depends on responding within 36 hours to our crops, we need 3 times the equipment compared to conventional farms and organic farming allows for us to offer our 4 employees a full-time job, 365 days per year.”

Turning to organic attracted a lot of young farmers / labour to the farm who also stayed. “We try to create an ownership environment with multi-generational employees, specialised training, living (good) wages, health insurance, 401K (pension), and the vacation they deserve. Luckily, we have no shortage of labour.”