In April of 2019, the Farmers of the Upper Sugar River Watershed hosted a field day and dug a soil pit to demonstrate the different soil structures from two different cover crops and to demonstrate compaction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBrian’s first year of no-till planting was 2016 when he only no-tilled corn following alfalfa. Now he no-tills most of his corn, and all the soybeans and alfalfa.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Brian started experimenting with cover crops after harvesting corn silage.<\/p>\n
With funding from DATCP\u2019s grant program has experimented with winter rye, winter barley, winter wheat, radish, berseem clover, oats, barley, rapeseed, and cowpeas as cover crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had varying success with these cover crops, but to Brian’s credit, he continues to embrace innovative ideas to continuously improve his farming operation,\u201d said Eric.<\/p>\n
The Upper Sugar River Watershed Association will host a field day on Tuesday, April 13, to discuss cover crops and to demonstrate no-till roll crimp cropping.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fortunate to live near UW-Madison and to work with UW Extension and the amazing experts on staff and to have other resources nearby,\u201d added Brian. \u201cIf we work together for water quality, we will continue to make a difference and build even more relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian and Yogi have four adult children: Erin, Chris married to Rachel, Cory married to Katy, and Whitney; and three grandchildren. The Browns own Sunburst Dairy, milk 500 cows and grow crops on 1,000 acres. A constant consideration is improving feed quality and enhancing environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n
\nStory originally appeared in the April | May 2021 Rural Route<\/a>. Story and photos by Marian Viney.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farmer-Led Watershed Relationships: The Farmer, the Conservationist and the Crop Consultant Brian Brown knew he had to educate and grow relationships with other farmers and landowners if he was going to achieve conservation success on his family\u2019s farm and throughout the watershed. \u201cI figured I had the most to learn because I didn\u2019t do much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":39192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[909],"tags":[68,559,688],"coauthors":[27],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Meet: Brian Brown - Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n