Starting in 1869 and through four generations, Weller Farms has been diversified with an array of livestock and cropping systems.

But in the past 50 years, Kay Weller and her late husband, Arden, and their son, Randy, have adopted a longer-term vision and added conservation practices as a way to further utilize the farm’s assets, while providing it for future generations.

“We need to take care of the land as well as our water, including Lake Erie, for the future,” says Kay, who farms with Randy in Continental, Ohio.

Sarah Rieman, Putnam County Soil and Water Conservation District administrator, says the Wellers are true stewards of the land. She successfully nominated the family as a 2024 Ohio Conservation Farm Family.

Four years ago, the Wellers began participating in the Crop Reserve Program for environmentally sensitive land and started using rye as a cover crop. As early adopters, they started no-tilling 30 years ago. Arden had a passion to protect the land’s resources, while overall improving cropping practices, Kay says.

Today, Kay and Randy, 58, are continuing his legacy and are farming about 550 acres of soybeans, wheat, clover and rye. In the past, they had a lot of pasture for sheep, cows, horses and chickens, while also raising hogs over the years.

Since Arden died in 2018, they have sold their livestock, except for chickens, and converted some of that acreage to cropland.

With rye and clover cover crops, Randy says, “We can really tell the difference in our yields in the last 10 years.”

When they were still raising corn (15 years ago), they tried to plant green into the rye — terminating after planting — but the crops tended to compete with one another, Kay explains, noting they are both types of grasses. But, they have found success with rye in soybeans, which utilizes spring rains and allows for earlier planting.

“We are able to get beans in a field with rye two weeks earlier than a field still wet without it,” Randy says.

It does, however, require some skill and attention to detail to plant soybeans with a no-till drill into green cereal rye.

“We like the cereal rye because it’s a little shorter, but on one field with a taller type of rye I had to put a screen over the front of the tractor to keep pollen from getting into the radiator,” Randy says. “Every so often, I had to blow out the radiator.”

Clover seed is planted into wheat in the spring. When the wheat is harvested, clover is already growing.

“The next year we add red clover, terminate in the fall, and then in the spring we no-till soybeans,” Randy says.

The property includes pollinator habitat fields, four wetland ponds, and a couple of creeks and a ditch. They’ve seeded filter strips to protect the banks, and a 1,400-foot, two-stage ditch was installed four years ago.

“They cut the ditch bank flat and then taper it up to the field to help hold more water and curb erosion,” Kay explains. “We have rolling ground, and this helps to keep it from flooding as much, while not deteriorating the banks.”

The Wellers are enrolled in the H2Ohio program, and with the help of The Farmer’s Elevator in Pleasant Bend and North Creek, they have developed and are following a nutrient management plan.

“The elevator has helped a lot with advising us,” Randy says. “The plan has helped our yields, while not wasting nutrients on places where it’s not needed.”

Three grassed waterways help trap nutrients and topsoil before reaching stream banks. “We’ve got to take care of the farm for the next generation,” Randy says.