NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/440846
A 2009 Leopold Conservation Award sign is displayed proudly near the road in front of Todd and Kristen Eggerling's house near Crete. The award, given to the couple after an application process detailing every aspect of the Eggerling's conservation practices, seems only like a beginning when speaking with this conservation- passionate family. "This land has been in our family since 1873," said Kristen. "It was homesteaded to my family, and every generation – my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents – all had the same idea of conservation. All of us want to make the land better than when we got it so it will be here for generations, be productive and people can make a living on it." The "making a living" aspect is what truly makes the Eggerling's work so innovative. Too often nowadays there seems to be two separate camps: those who farm or ranch and those who conserve. With this point of view, there is no middle ground. However, the Eggerlings have found a way to do both. Smart Farming The Eggerlings farm about 1,200 acres, usually rotating between soybeans and corn, and manage about 1,000 acres of pasture ground and 500 more acres of meadow and grasslands. Their positive land practices start with many techniques typically used throughout the farming community. They terrace their fields for erosion control, including field borders and filter strips as a way to prevent end rows. But that's just the beginning. "My dad was the first in Lancaster County to no-till farm," Kristen proudly said, "and also one of the first to use biosolids from the waste treatment plant for fertilizer. He was doing controlled burns way before people even knew what they were. Before it became cool to be an environmentalist, it's just what we did. Then Todd wanted to make it even better than it was before." Todd grew up near Milford, and his family farm was more of a conventional row crop operation, but his mindset clearly matched with practices already in place by Kristen's family. "There is a huge philosophy in agriculture that you have to make as much as you can make now," Todd said. "But if you push your land to make more money this year, then you're planning on that same money next year and relying on it the following year. Once you get into that mindset, you become reliant on that money to survive. Then you can't make any positive changes to the land." Positive changes on the Eggerling's land come from constant observation of what is working and what is not. An agronomist helps them monitor soil nutrients so they know how much and when to apply fertilizer. The Eggerlings monitor their water usage just as stringently. "We use irrigation as an aide to get us to the rainfall," said Kristen, "not as a replacement for rainfall." "What we do is not more physical work," Todd said. "It's more keeping track of things." Both Todd and Kristen contend that it's not a lot of work to make a field border or put a moisture sensor in the ground, but the management aspect is. And it costs money – at least in the short-term. "When you create that field border, you take land out of production," said Kristen. She added that many people farm ditch to ditch, and cut down trees and farm that. These farmers also apply anhydrous ammonia, used to supply nitrogen as a fertilizer, without a thought to what the ground needs. "It costs on the front-end to do what we do," said Todd, "but if you can prevent an environmental disaster, then you're money ahead." They also end up money ahead with their no-till practices. "When Dad stopped conventional tillage practices, he did so because it was less time he had to spend in the field with much less equipment," said Kristen. "You don't burn diesel fuel and you're not compacting the soil with all those trips across the field. You're also conserving Story and photos Jeff Kurrus 22 NEBRASKAland • JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015 Todd and Kristen Eggerling pictured on their land near Crete. Todd and Kristen Eggerling of Crete demonstrate on a daily basis that smart farming and ranching can lead to increased wildlife. Farmers for Conservation