PFI: Increasing a Northeast Iowa Farm’s Resiliency by Adapting Practices and Equipment

Brian Keehner’s goal of adding diversity to his 820 acres of crop fields began when he took over the family farm in 2012. He is constantly trialing new approaches, like frost-seeding, to find the best practices for his farm. Brian plants rye on every acre in the fall and has trialed planting cover crops into that rye in the spring. He has also found equipment that works well for his practices, including a combine he retrofitted to be able to plant rye in the fall while he combines the crop.

At this field day, you’ll see how Brian modified his combine to save time and resources. You’ll also see the coulter bar he uses to band his fertilizer and plant cover crops.