“Conserve the dirt!” exclaimed David Kramer with a grin.
He and his brother Steven have been farming in Allen and Woodson counties since 1973, and have just been honored with the Banker’s Award for Soil Conservation.
“And it ain’t never going to be done,” David and Steven’s mother told them, “because conservation is an ongoing project.”
Over the years, the Kramer brothers (and sons) have engaged in numerous conservation projects, and are more practiced at protecting soil than just about anyone around.
Despite the fact they didn’t grow up with much, today they have an extensive farming operation where they grow everything from corn to soybeans and wheat.
In the past, the brothers also raised hogs.
“Mom and Dad here started in ‘48,” explained David, “and everyone said they’d starve to death.”
As an example of what they’ve been up to lately, David’s “No. 2 son,” John, explains how in one case to preserve soil, “we plugged the end of the terraces that drain into the waterway,” “pushed all the dirt out of the waterway down to a certain grade,” “then reseeded it with grass.”
After that they took the “dirt plugs out of the terraces and put them back into the waterway,” all of which prevents erosion.
If that sounds a bit complicated, that’s because it is.
Soil conservation isn’t just hard work, say, by clearing dirt out of terraces so that water doesn’t spill into fields. It’s a complex craft that requires years of accumulated know-how.
Just wait until Judy Kramer breaks out a soil-book for the area, with dozens of different types and features: texture, slope, silt-loam, 0%, 1%, 2%, Woodson, Dennis, Czar, Verdigris.
It’s abundantly clear that most folks don’t know dirt.
Which is too bad, because as David said with a laugh, “We’ve got some really good dirt.”
“Good dirt,” by the way, according to the brothers, is “dirt that holds moisture, and poor dirt don’t.”
Other key practices the Kramers live by are crop rotation and minimum or “vertical” tillage, which means making beds for seeds without disrupting the soil underneath. As John explains, “vertical tillages just flat don’t go in the dirt. They just work the top 2-3 inches.”
Yet despite attempting to work with nature, the elements often refuse to help out. For instance, John mentions when severe weather events have occurred that smashed terraces and they had to be rebuilt.
