Woodbury County Leads the Way

"Woodbury County is leading the way in organic farming. In the last year, the county has added two programs to offer tax breaks and help to farmers who switch from conventional to organic practices. It's a trend that's catching on across the country.

12 years ago, Roger Lansink was bitten by a bug. The organic bug. He saw a magazine article about farmers growing their crops without pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals and was hooked. Lansink says, "Why not, if other people can do it why can't we do it." And so he did. Roger made the switch, meaning some big changes for his 850 acres of corn, soybeans, barley, oats and alfalfa. Lansink says, "It was a challenge at first, because you're totally changing your style of farming, so weed control is definitely a challenge at first. But it gets easier, the longer the farm is in an organic rotation, and the easier the weed control becomes." Weed control is maintained through crop rotation. Each crops effect weeds differently, so by rotating what you grow, you can interrupt the weed's life cycle and stop it from growing."

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