Fairmont Farm & Market
Farming For Future Generations
We Care For The Land
Learn About Our "No-Till" Approach
We are constantly looking for ways that we can improve our field management practices to improve our efficiency, reduce our costs, improve our yields while at the same time optimizing our resources and protecting our environment.
In 2008 we started the transition to a no-till cropping system, we have successfully completed the transition and now plant all of our crops using no-till or minimum till techniques.
What Is No-Till Farming?
It's Simple, it means we don't till the land!
No-till farming is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage.
This approach ensures moisture retention, reduces erosion, increases soil health and living organisms in the soil, plus it will greatly aid in the retention of nutrients.
"No-Till farming is an excellent way to get more annual crops in your crop rotation because it reduces soil erosion greatly."
-Sandra Primard, USDA-NRCS Agronomist
What Is A Cover Crop?
A cover crop is a crop that is grown primarily for the benefit of the soil rather than the actual crop the land is yielding.
We choose to plan Rye as a cover crop as it efficiently grows roots in the soil that keeps weeds out and improves soil health throughout the Winter and Spring months.
Did you know that Worms help us too?
Worm activity in the soil is a positive sign for us!
Worms do a great job at increasing soil aeration and nutrient cycling which also helps to encourage water movement. All of these things lead to the likelihood that we'll yield a great harvest for our animals while simultaneously improving the water quality around us.
Manure Management
Each year we also continue to improve our manure management with consideration for water quality, soil health, feasibility and neighbor impact.
Improvements we have made include moving to utilizing satellite manure pits and frac tanks to spread manure traffic out from just the spreading months, utilizing larger tankers to move manure to reduce trips over the road while keeping designated spreaders in the field, and most recently investing in manure injection technology to improve nitrogen efficiency.