Cover Crop Innovators Video Series
Henry Miller, of Centreville, Mich., helped his father part time on the family farm until 1977 when they were able to purchase a 272 acre farm. Henry installed irrigation on the farm, which is mostly coarse sandy soil, and was able to get a contract to grow seed corn for Pioneer Hi-Bred Seeds. He has continued to grow seed corn ever since, but began diversifying and has developed a rotation which includes soybeans, wheat, snap beans and seed corn as well as numerous cover crops on all 1,800 acres of land he is farming now in partnership with his youngest son, Ricardo (Villa Miller Farms). The tillage methods on the farm have transitioned from conventional tillage with mold plows the first few years to mulch tillage with chisel plows and cover crops. After attempting several times to move some acres to no-till he finally settled on strip-till in 2003. Villa Miller Farms has been an early adopter of much of the technology that has become available in the last several decades.
Watch more videos in this series about cover crop innovators.