Board and Partners
Board Members
Michael Thompson - Almena, KS
Chair
Michael farms in partnership as Thompson Farm and Ranch LLC with his brother Brian and father Richard. The operation is located in Northeast Norton County near Almena, KS. They grow corn, soybeans, and wheat. They also manage a cow/calf beef herd that rotationally grazes on native range and diverse cover crops grown on farmland when there is not a cash grain crop growing. The operation is 100 percent no-till with a focus on increasing biology, soil cover, water holding capacity, and carbon levels of the soils they manage.
Brice Custer - Hays, KS
Vice-Chair
Brice Custer is the owner and operator of Custer Farms LLC in Hays, Kansas. He operates a no till farming operation that includes growing corn, wheat, milo, oats, and barley. In 2008 he started planting cover crops into the summer follow period of the crop rotation. A few years later he started to realize benefits like weed suppression and soil health improvement that the cover crops were providing. With the growing interest in cover crops the farm started growing crops like triticale, millet, winter peas, and beans. It was not long before a cover crop seed sales operation took off. Now the farm is growing, selling, and mixing cover crop seed year around.
Dr. Lucinda Stuenkel - Palmer, KS
Mary Howell - Frankfort, KS
Mary Howell has been a part of agriculture most all of her life. Growing up on a farm in west-central Kansas, she started her cow herd at a very young age with an orphan heifer calf. Adding heifers over the years, a commercial cow-calf operation was put together. Today, Mary along with her husband Dan raise cattle, have converted their northeast Kansas farm completely to grass, forages, and cover-crops to complement their native grass. They have one adult daughter, Ashley.
For the last twenty-five years, Mary has worked with Kansas Graziers Association, Kansas Rural Center, Kansas Farmers Union, Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition, Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Steams, and collected data for Kansas Ag Statistics. Her work promotes improving agricultural stewardship and practices in grazing, soil health, farming, water quality, livestock handling, stockmanship, and herd health. Mary serves on the Kansas Soil Health Alliance as a producer board member. She also is a board member on the National Grazing Lands Coalition.
Mary is a service provider for farmers, ranchers, and many of the above mentioned organizations putting together educational programs, tours, and activities to bring producers together to learn ways to improve their livelihood, production, and profit. She believes that one of the very best ways to learn is to offer farmers, ranchers, as well as organizations and agency folks the opportunity to get together, take advantage of educational opportunities, share their successes and struggles to learn from each other.
Bill Buessing - Axtell, KS
Bill Buessing and his wife Sandy own and operate BS FARMS INC. He plants primarily corn, cereal rye, soybeans, oats, and wheat for cash crops. 1999 was the first year he planted cover crops. Bill has tried to have something growing on every acre year-round since 2013. Cereal rye, a 25-way cover crop mix, and a hairy vetch, pea, triticale, and cereal rye mix are some of his current cover crop mixes. Not only are his crops diversified, his livestock with several different classes of cattle and his flock of sheep diversify his grazing. Bill is constantly looking for ways to improve soil health and increase profit per acre.
Nick Vos - Hugoton, KS
Nick Vos was born in South Africa where he grew up on a vegetable farm in the Limpopo Province. Proud to currently be an American citizen, Nick and his family, reside in Hugoton, Kansas, where they farm corn, soybeans, wheat, and sorghum. He started using cover crops in 2010 when he was still part of another farming enterprise, mostly interested in the Daikon radish, and its scavenging ability to retrieve nutrients from their mostly sandy, low OM fields. Today, Nick farms on his own, runs a seed business, and also incorporated Dorper sheep into the operation, managed by his wife Johanna. Dopers are a hair sheep breed, used to harsh arid environments, and fits in nicely with their “dust bowl” climate.
Darin Williams - Waverly, KS
Darin and Nancy Williams farm near Waverly, Kansas. D&N Ag Farms LLC features Holistic Management practices to reflect nature’s image and to solve problems in a more natural way. Holistic Management practices on the farm include no-till farming, a diverse cropping strategy, and managed livestock grazing of cover crops—all of which improve the health and function of the soil—a key operational goal.
Diverse cash crops, including non-GMO soybean seed, food-grade corn, food-grade clear hilum soybeans, barley, cereal rye, triticale, sunflowers, and oats are grown on the farm. All livestock are free-range, and beef and lamb are raised on all-natural food sources of grass and diverse cover crop vegetation.
By implementing farming and ranching practices and principles that regenerate the health and function of the soil, the Williams have reduced the use of synthetic fertilizers, and eliminated fungicides and pesticides—all of which have reduce production input costs. In addition, non-GMO crop seed is used exclusively on the farm.
In addition to being members of the Kansas City Food Circle, Darin and Nancy received the Conservation & Energy Award in 2014 and have been featured in the John Deer Journal and The New York Times for their commitment to soil health-improving regenerative agriculture.
Program Coordinator
Jennifer Simmelink - Esbon, KS
Coordinator
Jennifer first began learning about soil health through her coursework in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University. Two years after graduation, she moved to Jewell County to be with her husband, Chad, on his family's farm and ranch. They began no-tilling in 2003 and added in cover crops in 2006. Since then, they have continued to adopt all the principles of regenerative agriculture. Improving soil health is a key driver in their operation.
Jennifer has seen first-hand the value of applying soil health principles and, as coordinator of the Kansas Soil Health Alliance, is ready to organize efforts to help more growers in Kansas learn what improved soil health can do for their operations.
Outside of the farm and the Kansas Soil Health Alliance, Jennifer volunteers in many capacities in her community and church and, along with Chad, enjoys attending their three children's school and extracurricular activities.