ICGA honors Bushnell for conservation efforts

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Cade Bushnell received the Randy Stauffer Stewardship Award from the Illinois Corn Growers Association at its annual meeting on Nov. 26, recognizing his farm conservation work through the Precision Conservation Management program.

This award recognizes a PCM farmer who embodies the land stewardship ethic and farm conservation leadership that was modeled by the late Randy Stauffer.

Special consideration is given to farmers who are on the leading edge of conservation technology, or those who work to share information to other farmers, leaders and beyond.

Bushnell graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in 1981 and returned to the family farm in Stillman Valley in northern Illinois.

His father, Fred, a Rochelle native, had started a corn, soybean and beef cattle operation post-Iowa State in the early 1950s. Ever a student of the soil, Fred began experimenting with no-till in the 1970s.

Cade adopted no-till across all acres in 1991. Strip-till was first incorporated in 2004 in fields with large amounts of corn residue.

Due to their decades-long efforts to improve soil conservation, the Bushnell family’s Walnut Creek Farms was recognized in 2004 by the state of Illinois Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts as Conservation Farm Family of the Year.

Bushnell started experimenting with cover crops in 2006, settling on cereal rye as the most effective.

Operating as Bushnell Farms since 2007, he and his son, Ross, plant cereal rye after corn and soybean acres have been harvested.

“I was really kind of shocked when Alexa Skirmont, my PCM specialist, called and told me I had won because I didn’t even know I’d been nominated,” Bushnell said.

“She’s a great representative in our area and I enjoy working with her. I’m very comfortable with the data they collect and what it’s used for.”

He has participated in Precision Conservation Management since the program kicked off four years ago.

“There’ve been good recommendations and I’ve appreciated the outside look. Basically it’s data collection. So, they really haven’t asked us to make much change, but our operation is already 100% no-till. Depending on the year, we’ll get 60% to 90% of our ground covered with cover crops, almost exclusively cereal rye,” he said.

“What PCM is trying to do in my understanding is they’re trying to gather enough data to understand what works and what doesn’t work and whether we can make this pay. I know it pays in the long run. I just have trouble making it pay in the short run.

“We’re about 80% (highly erodible land). The first step to a healthy soil is stopping the soil erosion period. It’s just got to be stopped. You can’t have a healthy soil with soil erosion.”

“Cade’s work to help other farmers learn from his own experience with no-till, strip-till and cover crops is so important to the overall effort of profitable conservation practice adoption,” said Greg Goodwin, PCM director.

“He channels Randy Stauffer in his pursuit of soil conservation and sharing expertise. I am honored to present Cade with this award.”

Bushnell had some challenges and successes during the past growing season.

“Overall, we had a very good crop. We had a lot of wind damage. We had some severe straight-line winds at tassel, which is the worst time, and we had a lot of green-snap. In fields that we didn’t have green-snap, we had great yields. In fields we did have green-snap, not so much,” he said.

“It was sad to see because you have all of this potential, and you knew the day of the storm, that was it. That just limited our yield potential in some fields.

“We’d be picking corn that was 260 to 300 bushels standing right next to another variety that was more prone to green-snap and it would be 150 bushels, almost half.

“We had a good season. Like most farmers we finished up early and we were able to get some things done. We’d still like to be planting cereal rye if it dries up.”