Building resilient, profitable farms

How MU Extension supports long-term success for producers

CEDAR HILL, Mo. — In the hills outside St. Louis, hard rains can quickly turn creeks into floods. At Big River Grain and Cattle, Daniel Bonacker said repeated flooding once carried away valuable topsoil.

In 1983, his grandfather switched to no-till farming to reduce erosion and help the soil absorb more water. Decades later, after a 2012 drought, the farm added cereal rye as a cover crop to hold unused nitrogen, improve soil structure and retain moisture.