For centuries, the idea that farmers would grow multiple crops at the same time was a no-brainer. In fact, it was critical to the survival of the family farm. While the primary crop might be wheat or corn, hay and oats were needed to feed the horses that pulled the plows and feed the pigs, dairy cows and cattle that sustained a remote life.
After World War II, American farmers discovered that the rich, dark soil of Northeast Iowa was ideal for soybeans. Widespread use of tractors reduced the need for working animals. The interstate highway system meant more access to imported food, allowing farm families to specialize in the large-scale production of commodity crops.
“Iowa has become more or less a two-crop state,” says Ross Evelsizer of Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation and Development.
In the Midwest, the consequences of this shift have stripped the soil of critical nutrients and its ability to hold moisture. Fields that were once held together by diverse and deep root systems now hold the more shallow roots of corn and soybeans for only a few months of the year. Evelsizer describes the impact of a raindrop hitting bare dirt like a “mini-explosion,” held together by nothing.
As the climate and storms it produces become more intense, 500-year floods are becoming a once-a-decade occurrence in the Midwest. When storms hit bare soil, Iowa's farmland washes away – flushed down the Mississippi River into the Gulf. In Iowa, Evelsizer says, “Our number one export is not pork, it’s not corn, it’s soil.”
It’s an existential problem at continental scale. The question at its heart: How can farmers and farming communities keep soil in place, protect their land from flooding and sustain a changing way of life?
Working with the power of nature, local organizations like Evelsizer’s are joining forces with national groups like the American Flood Coalition (AFC) to help farmers keep roots in the ground year-round through a practice known as relay cropping.
“When you overlap crops – planting the next one before the first is harvested – you have more roots in the ground, and for longer,” says Anne Baker, chief program officer at AFC.
“This overlap increases root density, which reduces erosion, and helps the soil hold more water. Slowing water down and storing it is vital for reducing flooding – and plants are an incredibly effective way to do that.”
According to research supported by AFC, relay cropping can boost farm profits by nearly $51 per acre. If more widely adopted, the practice could help reduce flooding downstream within a watershed by up to 30%. Nature-based solutions like relay cropping offer a powerful tool to support healthy watersheds in the face of a changing climate.
In addition to environmental benefits, relay cropping can also offer more consistent crop yields and long-term economic opportunity – showing that what benefits ecosystems can also support farm economies.
I’m far from anti-chemicals and fertilizer, but any time I’ve got to write a check for those products, it takes away from my bottom line.
Working in close collaboration with local farmers like Loran Steinlage of FLOLO Farms, AFC and their partners in Iowa are running one of the first pilot projects in the nation using soil sensors to collect critical, real-time data on how relay cropping stores water.
The pilot project is confirming what farmers like Loran have known anecdotally for a long time.
After immigrating from Germany in the early 1900s, Steinlage’s family settled in Northeast Iowa and began farming, integrating Old World practices into the American Midwest.
“There's a lot of knowledge locked up in the older generations. Many of them survived the [Dust Bowl of the] 30s … and learning how to grow a crop versus trying to feed a crop are two different things.”
Currently a successful and devoted regenerative farmer, Steinlage says what folks might call a fad is actually helping him to save money and produce more.
“Nowadays, we call it a cover crop. Before chemicals and fertilizers, they called it green manure. Now, I’m far from anti-chemicals and fertilizer, but any time I’ve got to write a check for those products, it takes away from my bottom line.”
Depending on the year, Steinlage sometimes grows up to three crops at once. Beyond retaining moisture and nutrients more effectively, he says growing multiple crops also adds a cushion to unforeseen risks like weather and disease. And, it creates more profit from less acreage.
“Everybody asks me today why we do the relay crop. It's cash flow. The beauty of the whole system is we're building our own options.”
While AFC continues to build more and better data on practices like relay cropping, at the local level, Evelsizer says the task is now to convince more farmers to adopt these practices. “We're about a generation or two away from where grains were grown on every farm in Iowa. A lot of farmers today have never grown cereal grain. That's a learning curve.”
Many lack the equipment, and accessing markets for cereal grains, such as oats and rye, can be more complicated in a corn-and-soybean-dominated region.
But Steinlage says that with time, working with – rather than against – the power of nature could have a lasting positive impact on water and soil health across the Mississippi River Basin.
“You sit back and start thinking, this is just one farm. If we can produce more food with the same amount of moisture while protecting our neighbors downstream, what could these practices mean in a global system? It’s pretty humbling.”
Today, Steinlage is focused on learning as much as he can and paying it forward to other, younger farmers in the region. “A lot of times today we overthink it, but we need to keep it simple and understand our biggest competition is actually Mother Nature.”
