SWOF Farmer Spotlight: The Brass Family Farm
The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF) would like to highlight the work of the Brass Family from northern Illinois. Trent Brass, along with his brother, Tom, and his father, Robert, manages a 400-acre farm for soybeans and corn in Stillman Valley. Their enrollment with SWOF since 2022 has led the adoption of no-till farming across all their acres and the implementation of a cereal rye cover crop preceding their corn and soybeans. We invite you to learn a bit more about their sustainability journey below.
Please tell us a little about yourself and your farming operations.
My dad, brother, and I bought the original farm about 20 years ago after my great-uncle passed. We rented it out for a little while, but we’ve been running our own operation for about 15 years now. At that time, we had about 110 acres, and all worked other full-time jobs. My dad grew up in farming but was a schoolteacher. My brother and I work for the Rockford Fire Department, and on our days off, we help with the farm operation.
We started utilizing no-till pretty early on and purchased an older no-till planter initially. But we’re always looking to improve. We started researching, and that’s where we learned about some of the cover crop programs.
Located in northern Illinois, we endure a prolonged winter, but cereal rye thrives in our region. Despite initial caution due to warnings about its potential to overtake other crops, we decided to proceed with a minimal approach. Our first-year trial of 30 acres ahead of our soybeans yielded highly favorable results, bolstering our confidence. Now, we proudly cultivate approximately 400 acres using this method, and our operations have expanded accordingly.
Planting soybeans into their field of cereal rye cover crop in Ogle County Illinois.
Tell us more about how you scaled your conservation efforts with the help of SWOF.
Since we had success with it in front of our beans, I did more research as we prepared to add it in front of our corn crop. I reached out to several resources at universities. Along the way, we also got a newer planter, allowing us to get the seed in the ground more efficiently. The support from SWOF is excellent and helps cover the cost of the seed. All these things helped give us more confidence in trying this stuff.
Now we plant green—we plant the seed right into the cover crop, wait for it to come up a little bit, and then come back in and spray to terminate the cover crop. This method works well for us up here in northern Illinois. With our shorter growing season, it turns out nice in the spring by the time we pick our corn in November and get the cover crop spread.
Planting corn into their field of cereal rye cover crop in Ogle County Illinois.
What difference have you noticed in your fields after implementing these conservation practices?
We’d previously had problems with water hemp and ragweed, but the cover crops have helped reduce our weed pressure. I especially like how it helps keep the water hemp down. We’ve improved our spraying a bit, too, but having that biomass in the ground from the cereal rye helps keep the sun off the soil and deters it from growing. That’s helped bring our inputs down a bit, and it’s nice to play a more constructive role in that process, I guess you could say.
The soil's health is improving in terms of consistency. I want to continue working on that. Our season is pretty short, but I’d like to use turnips or radishes in the fall to help with that. If we can use more natural ways to balance the soil and reduce our inputs further, that’d be great! We’ve also seen these practices help with erosion control. We’ve been delighted with it.
A Brass Family field of cereal rye helps relieve weed pressure and reduces soil erosion in northern Illinois.
What initially drew you to our program?
Our contact at Precision Conservation Management recommended SWOF to us. We’d done some work with her to evaluate our inputs. It’s nice to combine that with the data we get from SWOF and make even better decisions. We’ve been delighted working with your team. It’s just straightforward. With all the cost-share and learning we’ve been able to do, we’ve become more efficient over time, and I’d like to continue improving. I want to get where I can do things earlier in the season, maybe utilize aerial seeding.
Any advice or words of wisdom you’d like to share with other farmers considering on-farm conservation practices?
Take it small, get your temple down as far as what you want to do, and be mindful of your timing. We’ve had rain this year and haven’t been able to get in the fields as much as we like, so you must be careful. But that’s why we went the route of planting green. We let it get about knee-high before terminating it, and we haven’t had any problems with it.
If you’ve been thinking about trying or expanding a conservation practice, such as reduced tillage, implementing a cover crop, or adding a crop rotation, enrollment in the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund is open for 2024. By enrolling your acres in our program, you’ll receive agronomic support and earn financial incentives for the environmental outcomes of your on-farm conservation efforts. Get started today by signing up for a free estimate!