Farms across the upper Midwest can look to operations in Door and Kewaunee counties when it comes to stopping further topsoil loss. A Wisconsin Public Radio report highlights scientists pointing to farming as the reason why a third of the Midwest’s farmland has lost fertile topsoil from their fields. The study points to farms in Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa tilling on erosion-prone hills as part of the problem. Tony Brey from Brey Cycle Farm in Sturgeon Bay says being involved in animal agriculture allows them to have a little more crop diversity in their fields rather than just producing single cash commodities like corn or soybeans.

Brey says they have had a lot of success no-tilling their fields and planting cover crops right after the corn harvest to keep soil in place and adding organic matter to the soil as it dies off.