“I’m growing worms,” Shawn Geffert chuckled as he thumbed through the soil on his acreage just north of Humboldt. The 42-year-old farmer has been awarded this year’s Kansas Bankers Association Soil Conservation Award. Looking at his neatly maintained fields, one can easily see why he has earned the distinction.
Farming has been a family occupation and tradition for Geffert. He is a fifth-generation farmer.
“I started farming officially when I got back from college in 2005 and just started farming alongside dad,” he said. “He started giving me the rented acres to farm and he eventually said he didn’t want to do it anymore. He decided to rent the rest of his acres out to me. I’ve been farming that and adding on to the acres.”
He shares the farm life with his wife, Kylee, and their two sons — Wade, age 8, and Hayes, 3.
THE BANKERS AWARD is given each year to a farmer who has implemented conservation practices in their operation and effectively improves natural resources. Geffert has done this in several ways. For starters, the aforementioned worms in his soil have shown great benefits. Worms improve soil health by aerating the soil, breaking down organic matter, and creating channels for water to drain.
He also utilizes cover crops — plants grown to protect soil and improve fertility.
“Years ago, when they started farming around here, they were using cover crops of some sort,” he noted. “They were throwing out turnips and turning hogs out on it and letting them root it up. They didn’t know the science behind it, but they knew it worked.”
The science has finally caught up, said Geffert, and farmers are beginning to understand why those old practices worked. “We’re making that circle back to that type of agriculture.”
Corn and soybeans are Gefferts’ crops of choice and once corn season is over, a lot of his acreage is converted to multispecies cover crop. These cover crops help build up the soil and help with erosion.
ADDITIONALLY, Geffert participates in a program with the National Resources Conservation Science (NCRS) that focuses on pesticide reduction. He has a host of heavy equipment that helps him conservatively and responsibly utilize pesticides. One piece of equipment — the See and Spray — uses computer vision and machine learning to target weeds in his corn and soybean fields. “Instead of spraying the whole field for a certain weed, you’re just spraying the weed,” he said.
The advanced technology doesn’t stop there. Geffert also has embraced the use of robots on his crops. The fields are mapped with a drone, then robots are deployed to remove weeds. “They just walk down the rows and cut off the weeds,” he said. This, too, reduces the use of chemicals — and manpower. “They’re cute little suckers,” he laughed.
The robots are from the company Greenfield Robotics. Geffert utilized 12 of these robots on 50 acres last year. He likened the experience to science fiction.
Strip-tilling is another conservation practice that Geffert employs. In this method, soil is prepared for planting by tilling narrow strips and leaving the ground between undisturbed.
When it comes to fertilizer, it is applied sparingly, concentrating only on the areas that need it. This helps Geffert cut back on his use of synthetic fertilizer.
THE BENEFITS of all these practices combined have been huge, said Geffert. “My soil health is getting better and my organic matter is improving.”
Amber Johnson, with Allen County Conservation District, noted that Geffert’s conservation practices are far-reaching.
