To the untrained eye, Richard Lyons’ farm looks messy. There are no uniform rows of green against a bare canvas of brown soil. Instead, soybean sprouts, 6 inches tall, spring up through patches of decaying corn stalks and blades of dead cereal rye.
But that’s exactly the way Lyons planned it.
The techniques on display at his 300-acre family farm have been honed over a half-century of experience, 32 years of which were also spent in college classrooms teaching the state’s farmers. He says they’ve kept his soil fertile, his crop yields high.
And, he says, walking his Central Illinois farm on a warm and windy Wednesday in May, they could prevent what happened on the interstate a week earlier.
“That’s good, healthy soil,” Lyons, 77, said, grabbing a handful of dark brown dirt. “This stuff doesn’t blow.”
Source: pantagraph.com
Photo Credit: gettyimages-fotokostic
Categories: Illinois, General