Carbon Friendly Can Be Budget Friendly, Too
You might say Shawn Saylor was regenerative before regenerative was cool.
The Rockwood, Penn. dairy producer has used no-till farming methods for as long as he can remember. Farming in the mountainous region of southwest Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands means he deals with hard, heavy clay, nutrient-deficient soils and a short growing season. Plus, he needs to plant about two-thirds of his operation’s 1,500 acres to corn every year, to make enough corn silage to feed his family dairy’s 680 cows.
Saylor recently told the audience of the “Cow-side Conversations” podcast from the Center for Dairy Excellence that he started using cover crops about 10 years ago to boost soil tilth and fertility. That means cereal rye and triticale seeding starts literally the day after a field of corn silage is chopped in the late summer or early fall.
“It definitely takes some organization, and the first couple years, maybe three, you’ll see a yield loss as you transition to cover crops,” he shared. “But it has really helped with soil tilth, especially no-tilling into dry soils. You don’t need as much moisture to soften the soil.”
About 200 acres of cover crops at Hillcrest Saylor Dairy Farms are harvested for cereal grain silage each spring. The rest of the cover-crop acres are directly planted into and used as green manure. Precision ag technology has helped with that process in recent years.
“It used to be a real fight planting into that green base,” said Saylor. “If it gets too tall, it’s hard to see the markers at all.” He has been using Precision Planting for 6-7 years, and added autosteer capabilities for the first time in 2022.
“Autosteer really has saved us a lot of stress. You plant your first pass or outline, and it will do the rest, in perfectly straight rows,” he noted.
The Saylors drag-line apply 30-40% of their manure to prevent field compaction. Because they harvest a lot of grass hay over the summer, their fields already get plenty of traffic. “Truck traffic is the worst for compaction,” said Saylor. “So, we try to stay off of it as much as we can while adding fertility.”
That manure is a co-product of methane digestion, as the dairy added a digester during an expansion project in the early 2000s. Saylor said the post-digester effluent makes nutrients more available for plant utilization.
He built the digester himself because there weren’t many commercial options available at the time. Saylor said the benefits to the business have been wide-ranging. From cost reductions due to generating their own electricity and heat, to odor abatement and reduced bedding costs thanks to dried manure solids, he couldn’t be happier with the decision to take the deep dive into the digester adoption.
All of these practices were in place at the Saylors’ dairy before terms like “sustainability” and “climate-smart” became buzzwords in the agricultural and political landscape. Saylor said he did them because they made sense and added value to the business.
Recently, a group from TeamAg, Inc. evaluated the Saylors’ dairy to quantify their net carbon production. The result: the business was found to be almost carbon-neutral, despite no strategic efforts to specifically control carbon output.
“I think it’s helpful if farms look at regenerative ag practices not just to manage their carbon footprint, but to boost their profitability,” declared Saylor. “A lot of these things will probably save them money.”
For more on sustainability, read:
- From Farm to Fuel: Dairy's Role in Supplying Renewable Natural Gas
- Understanding Carbon in Manure Management
- New Efficiencies Bring Sustainability Benefits to Clearview Dairy
