As the fifth generation to run the family farm, Michael Scherger has an appreciation for the efforts of previous generations to establish and build the operation. “My dad really expanded the farm during his management days,” he notes.

As Scherger looks toward the future, he’s working to continue improving crop yields, while also enhancing soil quality and protecting the environment.

Scherger’s parents, Patrick and Judy, are retired from active management but remain involved with the farm. Scherger, along with his brothers-in-law Nick Kelbley and Brian Brickner, farm just over 5,000 acres, raising corn, soybeans and wheat. Most of the land is within a 7-mile radius of the home farm in Seneca County. Having the land close is convenient when it comes to fieldwork, Scherger says. “But it can be feast or famine as far as rainfall.”

Even though the land is closely spaced, soil types vary considerably, Scherger says, gesturing toward a 50-acre field in front of his farmhouse. “That’s got five different soil types.” They’ve been using grid-based soil sampling for 12 years, and they use the soil test results along with yield data to make variable-rate fertilizer applications.  

Scherger has been using variable-rate seeding for soybeans for several years and just upgraded his corn planter so he can try variable-rate corn planting this year. The planter also has variable downforce and in-furrow jets to place starter fertilizer right by the seed.

Adopting new technology always requires some experimentation and adjustment, he says. “You want to move forward, but you don’t want to upset the applecart.”

Besides using yield maps in making crop management decisions, Scherger says they have been useful in evaluating drainage improvements. In addition to farming, the family has a drainage business, so they install tile drainage systems on their own land and do contract work for other landowners. Yield mapping has allowed them to easily measure the yield increases from improved drainage, he explains.

4-year rotations
Scherger Farms typically follows a four-year rotation with soybeans followed by corn, and then another year of soybeans followed by wheat and a cover crop. However, some fields are more suited to two-year corn-soybean rotations or wheat-soybean rotations, he explains.

CROP PROTECTION: Rotating crops and using herbicides with various modes of action helps Scherger avoid problems with resistant weeds.

To establish a cover crop after wheat harvest, Scherger broadcasts dry fertilizer along with cover crop seed and works it in lightly with a vertical tillage tool. He lets the cover crop grow along with any volunteer wheat that emerges until spring, when he uses a preplant burndown herbicide. The cover crop helps hold nutrients in the soil over winter and releases them for the following crop, he explains.

Scherger also likes to plant radishes as a cover crop into standing corn right before it tassels. He has the seed aerially applied along with a late-season fertilizer application of urea and ammonium sulfate.

“After you shell the corn, you have the radishes,” he says. On land near a creek that floods periodically, he also likes to fly on 110 pounds of rye per acre around Labor Day. If possible, he harvests the corn on that ground first. That gives the rye a better chance to become established so it can protect the soil from erosion during floods, he says.  

When he sows wheat in the fall, Scherger also likes to include about 2 pounds per acre of radish seed. The radishes usually don’t have time to grow large enough to help with compaction, but they help retain nitrogen and release it in the spring, he says. “My thought is the radishes give off nitrogen for the wheat when it comes out of dormancy.”

Scherger has been experimenting with a variety of biological and bacterial products to enhance crop growth and improve soil biology. He adds products with his starter fertilizer and with his burndown, preemergence and postemergence herbicides, and applies some in the fall on corn stubble. “Just about every pass, we’ll get some kind of bacterial or biological product on,” he says.

To evaluate management methods and products, Scherger evaluates yields and looks at field history. “We make a map and then tweak what we do in the field,” he explains. 

Solar investment
Scherger Farms made an investment in renewable energy in 2014, installing a 44-kilowatt solar energy system on the roof of one of their barns. Scherger sees the system as a way of helping conserve limited coal resources.

SUN POWER: Scherger Farms installed a 44-kilowatt solar energy system on a barn roof in 2014. The energy is fed directly to the power grid with a net metering system.

The energy captured by the solar system is fed into the power grid year-around, and the value is credited to his account through net metering. The system doesn’t provide all his electricity needs, but the credits he accumulates help offset his grain drying costs, he explains. “I just take advantage of the credits we’ve built up during the drying season.”  

Scherger estimates it will take 10 years for the system to pay for itself, but he notes, the solar panels are warrantied for 25 years.