In Southern Idaho, Tillage Reductions Help Growers Exceed Water Conservation Goals and Improve Soil Health, with Justin Place

Center pivot irrigation is so prevalent in Southern Idaho, you can see it from space.

With only 12 inches of annual rainfall, Justin Place says his 1,250-acre operation is heavily reliant on pumping water from the Upper Snake River aquifer to grow wheat, barley, alfalfa and mustard.

But, faced with a mandate to cut water use by 15 percent, he's spent the last decade incorporating no-till and minimal-till into his practices; and that has allowed him not only to exceed those water management goals, but also improve his soil health.

So in this episode, we spent some time learning more about Justin's operation, as well as his involvement as President of the Idaho Grain Producers Association.

We'll discuss how sustainability means different things to different folks in the Rockies, how commodity groups can help growers incorporate new sustainability practices, what practices are working in the arid valley along the Upper Snake River, and what new technologies are helping him thrive in a challenging climate.

Visit agrible.com to sign up for Nutrien Ag Solutions' free digital toolkit, and info.nutrienagsolutions.com/SNO to learn more about Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes.

Episode Transcript

Justin Place

On my farm, down here in southern Idaho, we've gone more of a minimal till to a no tilled program in looking at trying to conserve water and try and look at the soil health benefit. You know, this year I was seeing earthworms in there. And that's just unheard of in blow sand.\

Dusty Weis

Welcome to The FARMSMART Podcast presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions, where every month we're talking to sustainable agriculture experts from throughout the industry. 

As the leading source of insight for growers on evolving their sustainability practices while staying grounded in agronomic proof, FARMSMART is where sustainability meets opportunity.

Sally Flis

We don't just talk change, we're out in the field helping you identify the products, practices and technologies that bring the future to your fields faster. I'm Dr Sally Flis, Director of Program Design and Outcome Management at Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Dusty Weis

And I'm Dusty Weis, and we're joined now by Justin Place, a grower from Hamer, Idaho, and the President of the Idaho Grain Producers Association. Justin, thank you for joining us.

Justin Place

Thank you.

Dusty Weis

So, Justin, I did a little bit of research as we were getting set to talk to you here. I'm excited because we haven't talked to anybody from exactly your part of the country yet, but it's a rugged part of the country, what I've been able to tell about it. 

You're in a valley between two mountain ranges not far from the upper Snake River in Idaho. That's an arid climate, but I'd love to learn a little bit more about your operation. What are you growing out there and how are you growing it?

Justin Place

Well, so it's interesting you mentioned it's an arid climate. The annual rainfall here is about 12 inches, and most of that falls in the form of snow during the winter months. So I can look out and I see the Grand Tetons through my kitchen window. They're out there a little ways out, but I can still see them.

We're about an hour and a half from Yellowstone National Park, so kind of paints a picture where we're really at. It's a dry desert here, so we grow primarily wheat and barley, and we grow alfalfa. We've grown mustard, brown mustard and now this year, we've grown yellow mustard. So in this area, there's a lot of guys growing potatoes.

There is some corn being grown for silage. But we're going to probably dabble a little bit of corn this coming year. You always got to try something.

Sally Flis

Justin, I think you probably mentioned it already, but water is probably one of your biggest challenges where you farm. But what are some of the other challenges that you guys are facing as you look at the diversity of crops that you mentioned, that you guys are growing on the farm?

Justin Place

Yeah, you're right. Water is the biggest thing. That's a hot topic in the Snake River plain. Weather is always a challenge. You never know what the weather's going to do for us. We sit at about 4900 feet elevation, so it's high. 

We've tried doing various things and, you know, you're growing season is always a challenge. This year was a short season, started early, but it stayed cold through mid-May. We've had a great harvest this fall. It's been hot, so that's kind of it, it’s the weather is a big challenge.

Sally Flis

Justin, are you irrigating any of your crops or are you all dryland production on your farm?

Justin Place

We had some guys from Wisconsin one day, custom cutter guys came out, said, “What does it look like? I see pivots around everywhere around here.” I said, “You see that dry, short weeds over there in the corner where we don't irrigate? It's about four inches tall. That's what we get if you don't irrigate.” So yes, we are all full irrigation.

In my area most everything's irrigated. Up in the higher country, some of those guys are dry land. But even the dry land guys are, there's a lot of irrigation up in the higher country as well, you know, if they can do it. As far as ours go, we come out of wells. So we pump out of the Snake River aquifer.

So that's like I said, it's been a hot topic. There's a water challenge to try to conserve water and make sure we have enough to go around. Idaho has got an interesting, it's an interesting water state. The water law is first in time is first in right. So up here in East Idaho a lot of this was developed later.

The earlier water rights are in southern Idaho. And so those guys have made a water call and they want their water, understandably. You know I don't want to dry them up and they certainly don't want to dry me up either. So it's just a matter of trying to get that figured out for everybody.

Dusty Weis

Yeah, it's got to be an odd balance to have to strike out there, particularly since, I mean, it flows through your land before it gets to theirs. You'd certainly have the opportunity to take more than your share if you wanted to there. 

But certainly one of the ways that we get around that as growers, and we talk to a lot of members of a lot of different national and local commodity organizations, but those commodity organizations can be one way to sort of find a middle ground and find cooperation around issues like that.

And certainly, each one is unique as well. Wanted to talk about how you got involved with the Idaho Grain Producers Association, and what made you decide to take on a leadership role there, too?

Justin Place

Well, I got to bless my dad's heart. I've got to hand it to dad, when I first got involved with Idaho Grain, he's like, “Why don't you go to this tri-state grain grower meeting?” It's Idaho grain producers and Washington and Oregon. The three states get together once a year and have this tri-state grain meeting. And he says, “Why don't you go up there and see what it's all about?”

So I did, and I learned real quick. You know, no offense to the guys in the back of the room, but the guys in the back are always in the back. But the real wheels that make things move and shake and happen sit towards the front in the middle of the room. And, you know, I thought I would like to sit with those guys.

Those guys are the ones that make things happen. And I really didn't know anyone there when I first attended, but I worked my way to the front of the room so that I could get in with the movers and shakers. I figured I'm just a small guy in the in the room here. You know, I'll either get ground to dust, or I'll find my way into where I need to be.

And here I am. I joke with my wife all the time I'm the shy, quiet one in the back of the room. But for some reason I always get pushed to the front and then I get stuck in front of a microphone.

Dusty Weis

You know, two things that have always really impressed me about the commodity organizations like that, Justin, and the first one, and certainly I'd love to hear your comments on it as well, but the first one is the way that they always invite people in when they find someone who has an interest in, as you put it, being in the front of the room, there's nobody that says, “no, no, no, this isn't your place. Get in the back of the room.” They're always happy to have someone be involved in that. And the second thing that's always really impressed me about those organizations is the fact that primarily, they're driven by the hard work and blood, sweat and tears of volunteers like you.

I mean, being the president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, that's a fair amount of time on someone's schedule that's already pretty busy there. What makes you and the members that help keep this organization together, give so generously of your time and talents?

Justin Place

When you stop and think about it, it involves our livelihoods. So you can either sit back and watch things happen, or you can be there and you have a say in what goes on. You know, that's really what it boils down to. We've got some really good people in our organization. And you're right, it's a volunteer army, if you will, to do it.

We have a mentorship program where we're always training, trying to bring new people into the organization and bring them in as leadership eventually, you know, we strive to work that way. You know, I started out in 2015, I was brought on with a mentorship program with National Barley Growers Association. 

It's been a very good training ground, if you will. You know, you go, you get your feet wet. I learned real quick there's no free lunches. You know, they're always willing to give you something, but you better be able to put back because somebody is going to take away from that free lunch every once in a while.

Sally Flis

Justin, you mentioned a lot of different areas that organizations like Idaho Grain Producers work in. Advocacy, leadership training, informational meetings, outreach to members and others. How has sustainability been a part of the discussions at a group like Idaho Grain Producers over the last five or so years?

Justin Place

You know, sustainability is a real good question mark. You know, it's a buzzword that everybody uses. I'm guessing if I ask the two of you what sustainability means it would be something different to both of you, just as it would be for me. And everybody I talk to has the same thing of, well, sustainability just depends on who you're talking to.

We have our meetings with Idaho Grain Producers, and we discuss a lot of things, a lot of politics as we go through there. We talk about different things as we lobby on behalf of the grain producers in the state of Idaho. 

But we also, I call it the “campfire meeting” is after the meetings are all done and we've had dinner and we're just all sitting around the hotel lobby and some are drinking their adult beverages, some are drinking soda pop, some of them are drinking water.

I think that's the very best part of the meetings, because then you sit down and you say, “Hey, you know, how did your grain really work?” You know, we had the meeting. We always go around, we ask, how's things working out for you? How's your crop? What's the crop look like in your area? And you always get those big fish stories.

But you know, the minute you do that, one guy's not going to let the next guy beat him out. But when you get to the campfire session where we're all just sitting around, just farmers being farmers, you know, we've taken the suits and ties off and we're just chillin’. 

And that's the best part of the whole organizational meeting. Because then you have this network of people throughout the state and it extends on over, we're involved with National Wheat Growers Association and National Barley Growers Association. 

You know, you just gain this big group of network of people across the country. And we're all fighting the same fight, and we're looking for the same things, and we're trying to figure out, and there's really no reason to reinvent the wheel if somebody has done it, let's talk about it.

Sally Flis

Justin, I think we've probably said that on the podcast many times, that that definition of sustainability really varies depending on who you're talking to and what their end goals are. 

What are some of the practices when you're in those fireside discussions kind of after all the meetings are done that growers in Idaho are interested in trying or have tried that would relate to some of these sustainability outcomes, like increasing soil health or reducing water loss, given that you've got such a little bit of water to deal with in the first place, and you want to keep that irrigation water where it is, or nutrient cycling in the soil. 

What's really working for you guys out there?

Justin Place

So, you know, it's interesting. Idaho is a very diverse state, and down here in southern Idaho, we're pumping water like crazy to try to grow our crop. Northern Idaho is typically all dry land, and those guys have some phenomenal rains and grow a phenomenal crop with next to no water applied any other way than just God putting it on the ground for him.

And so on my farm, we're a full tillage program. We've gone more of a minimal till to a no tilled program in looking at trying to conserve water and try and look at the soil health benefit. You know, this year I was I was out digging in a field and in blow sand I'm seeing earthworms in there. And that's just unheard of in blow sand.

So when we sit around those roundtables or the fireside sessions, I guess, if you will, we're always picking everybody's brain, you know, “Hey, have you tried growing this crop?” We're very limited on what crops can be grown in eastern Idaho. Southern Idaho, those guys seem like they have a Pandora's box of things that they can grow. 

And northern Idaho also, you know, they're low elevation, but they, they’re further North and so as a result, sunlight is a problem for them sometimes. But, you know, we're always looking for something new. And that's what brought me into the no-till side of things. That also brought me into growing mustard, trying different things, you know, just if you're not experimenting and you're not learning.

Dusty Weis

I'm always really interested to hear Justin in someone’s situation like yours where you're trying minimal till or no till in an environment where you're very heavily irrigated. Has that transition in practice enabled you to pump less water and save money that way?

Justin Place

Absolutely. Let me tell you my story. So my story behind no-till was, my youngest son and I were sitting in the house in the dead of winter with a snowstorm outside. It was cold. And we watched the most depressing video documentary by Ken Burns about the Dust Bowl. 

It's a four-hour documentary. It's pretty rough, but as I looked at it and watched the Dust Bowl and watched all that's happened in there, I looked at that and I said, “This is Hamer every spring.”

Every spring the wind blows here hard. Every spring the sand blows. We have, I call a fence line, is a renewable resource. My neighbors work the ground. The sand blows. Next fall, I go in there. I gather the sand up, I haul it out. I cover up rock piles. I use it to fill wheel tracks. It's a renewable resource for me.

But, you know, over the years, we've lost a lot of topsoil in this area due to that wind erosion from the sand. So that was kind of my “aha” moment is we've got to try something different. And yes, you know, it came on the heels of, with the water situation here, you know, we were tasked to cut back by 15% of what we're been using for the last five years.

So there was an average water use. They figured it from 2010 to 2014. So five years of how much you used and then that average, they subtracted 15% and said, now grow a crop. And we're looking at how can we conserve that water plus conserve the topsoil. And there was a no brainer to me. You know, we switched to no-till for the folks in the Midwest, they're probably like, “You dummy, we've been doing that forever.”

But people look at me and they think “You're crazy. You're trying something weird. You're an irrigated farmer. Why are you doing something that dry-landers do?” Well, dry landers learn to conserve water as well. And the only difference between me and a dry lander is a dry lander they'll plant and then they pray. And I plant, I pray, and I push a button, and that pump comes on and we irrigate.

So we have actually met our reductions. Currently we are banking, I guess, if you will. We're not using even all that we had to cut back. We're using less water yet.

Dusty Weis

So you've exceeded that 15% target?

Justin Place

We have.

Dusty Weis

That's incredible. That's wild. And again, it's stories like that from the field that I think really move the needle when it comes to this kind of stuff. Because, you know folks can sit out there and academically say, “well, you should do this and it'll happen to this.” But until you see it deployed in your neighbor's field and you see them actually succeeding and thriving under those conditions, it makes a world of difference.

Really cool to hear how you've made that work in a challenging environment and facing conditions that a lot of growers from farther east probably wouldn't know what to do with. But I would imagine there are some other lessons that we could take away from what you're doing. So we want to learn a little more about the specific practices and adaptations you've made to thrive in eastern Idaho, and that is coming up here in a moment on The FARMSMART Podcast.

Dusty Weis

This is the FARMSMART Podcast presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions. I'm Dusty Weis along with Sally Flis, and we're talking today with Justin Place, a grower from Hamer, Idaho, and the President of the Idaho Grain Producers Association.

Sally Flis

Justin, in the previous block, you mentioned that as you have transitioned these practices down towards no-till on the field, you're starting to see earthworms show up in places that you would have never expected to or in the past, ever seen earthworms. 

And it's a really interesting data point because in my PhD work, looking at disposal of copper sulfate from dairy foot baths on fields, counting earthworms was one of the things we considered doing to see are we impacting the soil health by disposing of something like copper sulfate through dairy manure on fields.

We never went the route of counting earthworms, but it's a one of those data points that comes up a lot in discussions around soil health is should we count things like earthworms? I don't know how we do that in a scalable way, but there's a lot of other data associated with crop production and soil health that we can collect in a very scalable way in order to measure the impacts of these practices.

So what are some of the data that you guys are monitoring on a daily or a monthly or yearly basis in order to show how things are changing in crop production on your farm?

Justin Place

That's a very good question. You know, one thing that we have done is we're always out there with a shovel. My dad told me a long time ago, one of his good friends said, “You know, the best thing you can put on a crop is your shadow.” And it really boils down to if you're not out there looking to see what's going on, you're going to miss something.

And some things are pretty forgiving and others aren't. As far as the data collection, we've gone the variable rate route with fertilizer. We were doing variable rate earlier on. The last couple of years we've kind of dropped that. We've done variable rate with our dry program going on, but then we've come back with a liquid program behind that with our drills.

So we've gone more straight rate that way. That boils back to the scorecard of what your combine, what your yield monitor’s saying and where we're watching those, some days and some years it's a little rough. You look at it and you think, well this looks awful. 

But then, you know, I think all farmers of this same way, you know, you go out, you think you have a beautiful crop, and then you get out there with a yield monitor and you're like, wow, something went wrong.

What happened here? And I'm a fairly small farmer, that said, I do, I run the planter, I run the combine. And so I see what I did in the front and I see what I do on the back. There's things that you see and you look at it, you think, “Well, gosh, I remember now when I was combining, I remember as I was planting this, there was something over here that was not quite right.”

So I did something different. And it's that data collection there that is a challenge at times to come up with something good that you can say what happened here. You know, the other side of that is you look at the weather and you just say, “Nope, weather just kind of took a dump.”

Sally Flis

So, Justin, thinking about our comments on sustainability, definition is different in everybody you ask about it for, the definition of a small farm is different everywhere you go. So how big is your farm? You keep saying your fairly small farm because I feel like you're probably not as small as some other places in the country would consider small.

Justin Place

I can understand where you're coming from there, Sally. It always just depends on how big the pond is that you're in. But we farm about 1250 acres. I'm here, I've got one full-time employee. I have part time guys come in and help during harvest. I have a grain cart operator that comes in. He works just harvest, and then he's out of here again.

My wife, when she's not running sandwiches to the field or chasing parts, she's out in the field sometimes helping during baling season when we're haying, but most of the time it's just the two of us here. 

My hired man, Dylan. I tell him, I said, you know, we're about a one and a half guys on this operation, just pick the day which one of us is the half. You know, just because I'm either involved in Grain Producers or my local telephone co-op. 

So back to the answer is, it's about 1250 acres, and I'm a small farm compared to some of the guys around me. 

But you're right, I do know other guys that look at me and are like, “Wow, that is huge. That's a big operation. You know, we have 75 acres on our operation,” for somebody else, It makes us want to have all the big toys that we can't afford. So we really get pretty efficient with what we do.

Dusty Weis

Speaking of the toys that you want, but can't afford, I do want to hear what sort of new technologies have you been able to implement into the operation? What's got you excited about new opportunities to drive that sustainability and drive that yield?

Justin Place

You know, it's not really new tech, but it's new tech on our operation with GPS. We have found that's a huge thing. And like I said, it's not really new tech. We've been using it for about ten years now, but with what little time we've had, we've evolved that. You know, it went from just driving the tractor to, okay, now we're applying fertilizer, we're applying seed. We want to do what we want to do. So that's one thing. 

Satellite imagery, we're using some of that. Probably one of the challenges with a lot of the new technology is actually understanding what you're looking at. You know, I can get this really cool chart of my farm and I'll say, yep, all those red spots, that's probably where my crop kind of has a problem.

And when you go out there and you look, you think, yep, it's really got a problem. I bought a drone a couple of years ago. That was fun until it wasn't.

If you're going to implement something, you got to start small and don't do the whole farm at once.

Dusty Weis

Did it go into the tree or the pond, Justin?

Justin Place

Well, it actually flew over a field when we were very first starting our kind of really getting good in our no-till or what I thought was good, and I flew it over a field first thing in the spring. I'm like, this is going to be so awesome to see this beautiful grain crop coming up. And all I could see was straw.

I'm flying this thing around and I'm like, there is nothing out here. So I finally I just brought the drone back. I saw the map where it did, and I just literally drove out there with a four-wheeler. I'm like, I've got to go inspect this myself, you know? And the crop was there, you know, it was about three inches tall.

It just wasn't big enough to really be seen with the drone yet. And so, you know, I'm over there dying like, oh crap, this is a total loss. And my last thing I wanted to do was talk to my dad about it because, you know, he was already giving me a hard time for this conversion to no-till.

He's like, “You're a tree hugger here. You know, you're just, you're just going to be a tree hugger. That's all it's going to be,” you know? Anyway, so time went on. I parked the drone. I learned that it's best to pull the drone out about time you get ready to spray the weeds and the grain, because then the crops big enough, you can actually see it.

We bought a new sprayer, a new to us sprayer this last year. So this year was year one was that. And it gives a different perspective. When you're driving along in the sprayer, you can see that crops much better than and so you know I mean it's things that people are already doing. But it's new on my operation.

Probably the coolest thing that I got was we went to telemetry on all our pivots, so now I can control those from my phone. I was showing that to various people, and we were actually sitting in West Fargo at a meeting, and I was asking this person, I said, “So have you ever seen this?” And she's like, “No, I haven’t.”

And I'm like, “Well, let me show you how this works.” And so anyway, I, as I did, I'm turning the pivot on, turning it off. Pretty soon I get a text from my hired man. He's like, “Hey, are you messing with the pivots?” I'm like, “Yeah, I am.”

Dusty Weis

Yeah you know, it's funny you say that Justin because I was talking to someone who does center pivot earlier this summer, and he said, one of the biggest game changers in that telemetry technology is not necessarily the ability to control remotely, because you used to have timers and that sort of stuff, but it's the ability to verify that it's working. 

Because it used to be if you had your irrigation on a timer, well, you'd set it, but then you'd still wind up driving out to that field just to make sure that it's on, because nothing ruins your crop faster than thinking you set a timer and then finding out that it wasn't working properly at the time. 

So kind of fun to hear your experience with that as well there. Although I've got to say, Sally, a lot of the stuff that Justin has been listing off for us here, from the practice change to the new equipment, you know, it's the kind of stuff that provides a return on investment that you're able to see in your bottom line at the end of the year there.

And certainly, a farm's only sustainable if it's sustainable financially. One thing that we talk about a lot on this podcast, Sally, is the fact that Nutrien rolls out these incentive programs to help maximize the profitability and to help incentivize growers to try things that they might not have tried otherwise. And this is the time of year when we start thinking about what the incentive offerings are going to be for the year ahead.

I'd love to hear, Sally, what you're cooking up for 2025.

Sally Flis

Sure, Dusty, we've got a couple of programs in this geography, Justin. One is around nitrogen management. It's our Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes program, where we work with growers to find that right combination of nitrogen rate and look for a rate reduction in the program in order to try and get into this carbon marketplace that is still struggling to establish itself, I guess would be the best way to put it.

You know, we all heard lots about how carbon was going to be the next check that every farmer got four or five years ago, and we're still really trying to figure it out. I think the biggest piece that we've touched on here today is that data piece, making sure we have the data to back up the practices that happen.

And like Dusty said, making sure that the practices we asked growers to implement are the right practices that can be profitable for the area. 

The other one is just working with downstream partners that buy the grains coming off of the farms to measure where a grower is at, because I think with some of the practices and programs that you discussed that you're doing today already, Justin, there's not great information out there, whether it's from USDA or really any other reporting source, to let downstream food companies know all the good stuff you guys are already doing.

And so we work with downstream food companies to bring dollars back to growers to just report on the practices they're already doing. We call them our measurement programs, because we're measuring the level of sustainable ag practices that are implemented on the ground, so that those food companies can tell the story about the good you all are already doing, versus coming to you and asking you to do practices that may or may not be the right practice for your acre.

So we'll be rolling those programs out. Some of them are already available, so there are some Nutrien Ag Solutions locations around Idaho and the Snake River Valley. So those would be the contacts to look for if growers are interested in learning more.

Dusty Weis

Well, and Sally we will drop a link to some info about those incentive programs into the episode description, as we always do so anyone who's interested can log in and see if they qualify and apply if they want to. 

But that is going to wrap up this conversation for us, I just wanted to once again thank Justin Place, a grower from Hamer, Idaho, and the President to the Idaho Grain Producers Association for sharing his insights and for joining us on this episode of The FARMSMART Podcast.

So thanks, Justin.

Justin Place

Thank you very much.

Dusty Weis

And that is going to conclude this episode of The FARMSMART Podcast. New episodes arrive every month, so make sure you subscribe to The FARMSMART Podcast in your favorite app and visit NutrienAgSolutions.com/FARMSMART to learn more. 

The FARMSMART Podcast is brought to you by Nutrien Ag Solutions with editing by Matt Covarrubias and the FARMSMART Podcast is produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses, PodcampMedia.com. 

I'm Dusty Weis, for Nutrien Ag Solutions, thanks for listening.