In April, a diversified field crop farmer and Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) member, Andy Linder will share his successes and failures with growing oats for the first time. Andy farms with his family in south-central Minnesota and has slowly transitioned their farm to more ecological practices over the past ten years. You can read more about Andy below.

EFAO’s Small Grains program was inspired by PFI’s Small Grains Program. Since 2016, PFI has supported the adoption of small grains on over 10,000 acres across Iowa in just 4 years.

About Andy:

Andy and his dad, Don, farm near Easton, Minnesota. Together, they raise corn, soybeans, oats, and grass hay. Their journey to soil health unintentionally started in 2010 when they purchased a vertical tillage machine and ran trials to compare that machine vs. a deep ripper for fall tillage. After a few years of trials they were convinced enough to stop using the ripper and sell it. Then, in the fall of 2014, Andy tried his first interseeded cover crop by flying cereal rye into soybeans. After some trials with cover crops and attending more soil health conferences, he made the decision to stop tilling and cover every acre; and the fall of 2016, Andy and Don seeded a cover crop on every acre and continue to using cover crop extensively. Currently Andy no tills all of this beans and is trying strip till corn with the goal of going to no-till corn after a few years of building better soil. Andy has recently started a cover crop sales and application business. He does custom hire with a high clearance cover crop seeder and matches customers with other modes of applications.