Last week I visited with Conservation Ag Foundation director and No-Till Innovator alum Mike Starkey on his farm in Brownsburg, Ind..

For the second straight year, Starkey was hosting an event where he invited landowners from all over the state to come and learn about no-till and cover crops and why it is in their best interest to encourage the farmers they rent land to, to switch to no-till and adopt cover crops and other conservation practices.

“Well, this was just strictly for landowners, but there were some farmers here also. And this is our second year of doing it. And two-thirds of the farm ground that I have is rented. And therefore, I wanted to build a relationship with my landlords of what we are doing to their soil and their water, their farm, and improving it, but also bring in others that own land so they can encourage their tenants to do the type of farming that we're doing. I also brought in a guy talking about research and development tax credits, which was kind of outside the box of conservation, but it was a topic that I felt that landowners can bring to their tenants information that they're not aware of. And with that, it's a better relationship between just a tenant paying the landowner a rent check. But in order to do that, to encourage them to do conservation practice on the farm, I wanted them to have some incentives to pass that on to them to look at doing this type of farming, kind of give other farmers the idea that they could do the same thing, especially the no-tillers that I know are my peers.”

“And to bring that relationship, it was an idea that I actually thought of last year thinking, "Hey, personally make these contacts to these landowners to attend this event." And as we had here, most of them are elderly and these elderly landowners want to make sure their land is taken care of and passed on better for the next generation that's farming their ground. So therefore, personal contacts helps. I worked with my local Swan and Water Conservation District to get those contacts. And of course, I made a personal phone calls or texts, let's put it that way, and Cinnamon Flyer to come to this event. And I thought I was well attended.”

If you want to hear some more of my key takeaways from the event, go check out my latest staff blog at covercropstrategies.com.