Farmer shares process of adopting sustainable practices

Art Tanderup knew he was in for a challenge when farming in the Nebraska Sandhills. This led him to transition from a traditional farm to one that was more regenerative and sustainable.
After going through the process of trial and error, he shared the lessons he learned on a Conservation Nebraska Webinar.
Located north of Neely, the farm has been in his wife’s family for 103 years and was barren prairie when her grandfather settled.
Tanderup became the newest farmer on the land and discovered that while change is challenging, that it was time for the family farm to look at some new options.
“We plowed with chisel plows and we field cultivated,” he reflected. “Then quite a few years ago people decided that maybe the old plow was a little too much every year. So they went to discs, chisel plows and field cultivators. They’d disc early, then come right back before they planted it and then disc that again and make it look pretty.”
He then saw farmers go through with planters and disturb the soil once again. What he found was that he and other farmers had committed first-degree soil murder. The practices were killing organisms in the soil such as microorganisms and worms.
This led him to decide that they had to work together to make the soil better. Despite the challenge of living in an area that was primarily sand, he found there were strategies that could be implemented.
 His first goal was to find ways to keep the existing soil in place. He started by keeping the soil covered with something growing for as much of the year as he could. Plant residue will also support worms and other microorganisms.

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