

Northwest Kansas Soil Health Bus Tour
August 19, 2024 – August 20, 2024
The Kansas Soil Health Alliance is hosting a Northwest Kansas Soil Health Bus Tour on August 19-20, 2024, departing and returning from Soil Pro Seeds in WaKeeney. Each day includes several stops showcasing northwest Kansas growers who are focusing on improving soil health on their farms. Scroll down for details on each stop and an approximate map of the tour.
August 19 hotel room, meals, snacks, and refreshments are included with the registration fee of $75 for double occupancy and $150 for single occupancy. For those needing a hotel room on August 18, a discount has been arranged at the Super 8 in WaKeeney. Call the hotel at 785-367-4665 and mention “Northwest Kansas Soil Health Bus Tour” to receive a 10% discount on your booking.
Questions can be directed to Jennifer Simmelink, Jennifer@KSsoilhealth.org, 785-545-5628.
August 19:
August 19 will begin with check-in at 8:30 with the bus departing at 9:00.
WaKeeney – Custer Farms, LLC – Brice Custer
Brice is a first-generation farmer focused on following the soil health principles by integrating cover crops when possible, utilizing diverse cropping rotations with up to ten different crops in one year – corn, wheat, milo, oats, barley, rye, triticale, sunflowers, cowpeas, and winter and spring peas.
This stop will feature low population corn under center pivot that is focusing on the profitability of water saving practices and a cow pea field that was drilled into a cover crop mix.
Quinter – Simon & Simon Sheep, Inc – Stephen & Sarah Simon and Curt & Deb Simon
The Simons’ farm is a designated Century Farm of 6 generations beginning in 1920. They raise sheep, barley, milo, wheat, and feed. They run a 1700 head commercial ewe flock and feed the lambs to market weight. Most of the milo and barley raised is fed to the sheep along with grazing the milo and wheat stubble after harvest along with pasture grazing. In the past couple of years, they have also included feeding hydroponic barley sprouts.
At this stop, attendees will tour Infinity Pasture, which is the indoor hydroponic barley sprout production facility used for animal production.
Healy – C4 Ag, LLC – Ben Cramer
Ben is a fifth-generation farmer in Healy, KS. In 2006 after attending the No-till on the Plains annual conference, and being driven by the need to update equipment, the farm made the switch to one hundred percent no-till. At first no-till was used in a wheat, milo, fallow rotation primarily to conserve moisture in their 18-inch precipitation environment. However, after a few years cover crops were introduced to fill the gap created by full season fallow.
After some tweaks, the cover crops proved to be a fantastic addition to the rotation from an agronomic point of view. Convinced the cover crops and animals were to be a large part of the farm’s future Ben has now fenced, cross-fenced, and piped water across all the family-owned agricultural land so high-density grazing can be practiced. Sheep, goat, and cattle have all been used in the operation.
Points of interest on this tour stop will include viewing the water and fence infrastructure Ben has installed and sharing about the use of sheep in the operation.
Colby – Dinner and lodging
The day will end at the Comfort Inn in Colby where attendees will be able to drop luggage into their hotel room before a catered dinner will be held allowing for continued discussion from the tours.
August 20:
August 20 will begin with continental breakfast at the hotel. The bus will depart at 9:00. August 20 stops will include:
Levant – Johnson Family Farms – Sheila Johnson and Tyler Johnson and Northwest Kansas Soil Amendment, LLC – Tyler Johnson and Paul Flanders
The Johnson farm started in 1924. It currently grows corn, grain sorghum, wheat, camelina, and cover crop blends. They started reducing their tillage in 2018 and have been full no-till since 2022. They have been growing cover crops since 2020 and are integrating cattle in the summer for the first time this year on a summer cover crop. Extract Business: Tyler and Paul started their LLC in the spring of 2024, selling roughly 15,000 gallons of compost extract this spring. In 2023, they produced 8,000 lbs of Johnson Su compost which is part of the extract that was made this spring.
This stop will begin at the composting site where attendees will learn about the process of mixing and storing the compost as well as extracting it. Field visits will include corn and grain sorghum that is being grown with only compost extract for starter fertilizer and no phosphorus. If time allows, the tour might also stop at a field of camelina residue to show what is left after harvest.
Goodland – Northwest Kansas Technical College Technology Farm – Thatcher Jones and Jack Polifka
The NWKTC Technology Farm is comprised of 300 acres of center pivot irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation, and dryland environments. The farm involves a large amount of emerging agriculture technologies in the crop production cycle. It produces corn, soybeans, milo, and recently wheat, in rotation. There is also a project aimed at looking at the long-term effect of cover crop practices on one of the 40-acre dryland fields, which has been broken down into 4 zones of varying adoption of soil health practices.
At the tour, attendees will be able to see each of the fields and the tests/plots that are taking place in corn and soybean production, and then possibly a look at the implementation of a cover crop/cover mix in the soil health plots seeded following wheat harvest.
Grainfield – Heier Ranch, LLC – Roger and Mark Heier
The Heier family grows corn, milo, and wheat for cash crops. They have planted cover crops since 2017 and have been mostly no-till since 2017, prior to that they were minimum till. They have a cow/calf herd that rotationally graze the cover crops and native range. Through these changes, they have noticed better water infiltration, less erosion, and better soil structure.
The tour will stop at a summer cover crop that will be grazed as winter stockpile and across the road will be corn planted into a winter stockpile mix.
The bus will return to WaKeeney at approximately 3:30.
