here at the hummer family farm blue erith county just south of man cato the hummer is participate in the u s d a conservation stewardship program which promotes sustainable farming practices they produce non g m o crops which they feed their berkshire hogs and their free range chickens i'm phil jones with us piano and in this episode of market we're going to find out what sustainable farming practices mean to the land the crops and the livestock here that we raise different sausages all brand new components we're pretty happy with for a long time it's pretty state of the air and i mean you're taking your fresh product and it's coming straight from the butcher and here and then we're getting it at the st paul farmer's market how about you show us some of the crops outside sure but we were losing a quite a lot of money just selling pigs on the open market so we switched to the direct marketing this so much more rewarding to sell to customers that can really appreciate the product that you have so fragile what is this ridge killing they keep talking about well ridge killing is a type of pillage we use we don't use always do is as we come in here i planted these soybeans i actually planted these silly beans rate into standing residue if you can see here right here is where the old corn row was a year ago and i planted a raid into their well you look at all this residue now what's wrong with it residual way we have to get rid of that residue and plow it under no need to run a big three hundred horsepower tractor to the barrier residue i got right there on top also the weeds keeps the moisture in which is real important and during this drought season air eliminates a religion too because as the raindrops hit it it doesn't wash the soil away this ground this ground assault soft and mellow and we got it's full of earthworms in here they do all the area farming makes it very porous and absorbent for water i experimented with it the first year i did it the beans that i had on ridges yield that for bushel better than the conventionally raised beings does it take more expensive equipment less less less equipment here's here's my roots still call a bit right here this is an that healing effect i was telling me about and this this cold air here cuts through that that trash residue as it's going through there so it doesn't clog up these things here nobody's culminates anymore with all the roundup chemicals that are available so i found this for basically the cost of scrap iron i paid fifteen hundred dollars for this machine new i bet you it would be twenty five to thirty thousand so do you have to fertilize this much because of the way you're doing the rich that's another nice thing about it too because we do what you call strip till our banding fertilizer we're going to come in there this fall and we're going to put our strip of fertilizer right where the corn is going to be planted next year and saw that it is going to be right in the fertilizer as set of broadcasting and over the top and we get by with about fifty percent of the fertilizer that way i also laid on a cover crop here to see some of this this is part of my cover crop this is vetch i planted rye and vetch spread a bunch of rye and vet seed out here and then this spring i killed it and planted these beans right into it and i don't think means look too whatever we take off the ground we put back on the ground farmers of the original recyclers comes out of the field what was in the bin well is through the hogs goes into the pit goes back in the field it's a it's the recycling that's what we do nothing and this was originally what it is and we've added to it in the last ninety two years looks like you've maintained the foundation of the family farm but you've added so much more to it  we really appreciate you letting us come out here and giving us an inside view of your land stewardship thank you so much roger oh you're welcome