Commitment to Soil Health
Dead soil - Nothing growing on it
Over the last twenty years, Griggs Farms LLC has transformed from a monocrop farm utilizing conventional tillage to a farm that practices strict crop rotation, no till, and cover crops. Our goal is to utilize these practices to mimic nature as closely as production agriculture can while still producing high yielding crops. By utilizing no till, cover crops, manure, and "planting green," we are slowly able to restore land to high productivity from its highly eroded and degraded state that it became from over a hundred years of plowing and raising cotton.
Living soil - full of roots, organisms and humus
Soil is the backbone of any farming operation and is by far our most valuable resource. Only recently, agriculture has come to realize that there is another whole ecosystem living under the surface of the soil that is perhaps more diverse than the ecosystem living above ground. This ecosystem is what transforms "dirt" into soil. Soil is a living, breathing entity that must be properly cared for. Many years of monocropping, tillage, and synthetic inputs have severely damaged this underground ecosystem, hampering its ability to provide nutrition, disease resistance, and pest control for growing plants. We are just now scratching the surface on our understanding of all of the different species of microbes, fungi, bacteria, ect and the way they interact. What we do know is that many current farming practices are harmful to them or their environment. One pass with a tillage tool is the equivalent of someone blowing up your house with a bomb. Tillage completely destroys this ecosystem's habitat.
Rye, ryegrass, crimson clover, vetch, radish, and winter pea cover crop
This is why we are completely dedicated to using practices that improve soil health. We are not an "organic" farm but we do utilize quite a few of organic principles on our farm. We use chicken litter for our base fertilizer. We use cover crops to prevent soil erosion, provide fertility, help control weeds, and provide food for underground microbes. We have reduced the amount of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers that we use. We believe that this is the best way to sustainably farm and produce high quality crops while still producing the high yields at a low cost that the world's growing population will demand.
We are committed to eliminating soil erosion, keeping our fertilizers out of this nation's waterways, improving our soils for future generations, and leaving the environment a better place than when we started.
We are committed to eliminating soil erosion, keeping our fertilizers out of this nation's waterways, improving our soils for future generations, and leaving the environment a better place than when we started.
Summer Cover Crop following wheat
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Rye, oats, crimson clover, vetch, and winter pea ready to be terminated to plant corn
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Healthy cotton planted in a rolled cover crop
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Terminating the cover crop to plant cotton
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Corn coming up in a rolled cover crop
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Stockpiling chicken manure
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