Conservation work leads to leisure

WORKING FOR LEISURE Dave Hilferty, Grant, Neb., is a third generation farmer who has been working hard to find easier ways of doing things in the effort to find more time for other things. He plants trees and shrubs in irrigation circle corners and uses chemical fallow on his wheat-corn-fallow rotations. Hilferty's efforts have given him time for enjoying hunting on his land, being with family and involving himself with many agricultural organizations. (Journal photo by Larry Dreiling.)

By Larry Dreiling

Dave Hilferty is a busy guy.

He has a lively farming operation, serves on several industry boards, and loves to hunt.

But, the Grant, Neb., producer knows that the conservation work he and his family have put in over the years is the route to making extra time for things other than farming, possible today.

Since 1984 the Hilfertys have planted over 7,700 trees and shrubs and installed over 35, 000 feet of weed barrier according to the Upper Republican Natural Resources District, which presented Hilferty with its 2005 Conservation Tree Planter Award. In the years previous to 1984, Hilferty had planted over 2,250 evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs.

"Dave's love of the land and preserving trees is evident," according to a release by Heather Francis, URNRD's conservation and information specialist. "In the past 20 years, not only have they planted thousands of trees, they have also taken the time and effort to care for the trees by watering, mowing and weeding the tree rows.

"As I understand, many family members have helped in the summer by mowing and watering those tree rows. Dave has been diligent in the replacement of dead trees, and hand planting trees back where needed."

In a way, Hilferty's tree planting work stems in large measure from seeking convenience in working the corners of his circle irrigation units.

"I always have liked to plant a lot of trees," Hilferty said. "I plant trees in all my irrigated corners. The reason I did it is because corners are just a pain to farm. There's a lot of Colorado Blue Spruce and other varieties. Trees are just excellent for wildlife."

Just five rows

To get all the benefit of all this tree planting, Hilferty has to follow some rules, one of which he found amusing.

"I put this corner in trees with some CRP for cover and I had to plant five rows of trees," Hilferty said. "I couldn't plant just four and I couldn't plant six rows either. I had to plant five rows of trees, that's the rule."

First and foremost, Hilferty is a farmer. This year, Hilferty has a dryland operation totaling 900 acres of wheat and 800 acres of corn. He also has five center pivots, with three pivots dedicated to corn, one to popcorn and one to wheat.

"I've got dryland in a three-year rotation of wheat, corn, and fallow," Hilferty said. "I've tried corn behind corn here when the moisture profile is good enough to try it. Most of the irrigation is on sandy ground. I've got six more quarters that could take a well, but there's a moratorium on new wells."

As you might expect from a farmer who's into conservation, Hilferty is devoted to reduced tillage, or as he puts it, chemical fallow.

"I think chemical fallow saves in a lot of ways," Hilferty said. "You don't catch everything, but it's effective overall. "You chemical fallow the previous year's corn ground, for example, and it gets kind of hard. Rain doesn't go in much, but when it does rain, it doesn't take the soil with it in runoff."

Hilferty is in his sixth year of having all of his dryland crops planted in chemical fallow. Many experts on the subject say this period in the development of a no-till and chemical fallow field is critical for the soil to change. Some producers see those changes and get tempted back into tillage.

Hilferty doesn't see that happening.

"I don't think I'll break it back out, despite some obstacles," Hilferty said. "The biggest one for me has to be badgers. They build these big mounds and you have to drive over them with your sprayer. You try and drive over a three-foot mound of dirt sometime. Each year we get a few more. Why they choose hard clay hills and build those mounds I don't know."

"The potential is there"

Hilferty, a former president of the Nebraska wheat Growers Association and a current member of the Nebraska wheat Board, considers himself a wheat grower first and foremost. After many years of drought, Hilferty sees the upcoming harvest as being an outstanding one.

"I've been farming 39 years and I think this is the best-looking wheat I've ever had. The potential is there," Hilferty said. He grows Jagalene, Alliance and Pronghorn varieties on dryland and Wesley on irrigation.

"Wesley is a good wheat for irrigation, but it can lodge on you," Hilferty said. That's why I put growth regulator on it when the flag leaf begins to show."

A nice problem Hilferty has, is that his wheat crop actually is too thick in some places.

"It stooled out and there's such a tremendous stand," Hilfery said. "If it turns too hot and dry, well then, it's too good of a stand.

"The wheat is a foot to foot and a half taller than previous years. The last four and five years we've been right at the optimal time for growth. You get a normal head on it but the danged stuff would be not much more than knee high. That doesn't leave you much stubble. This could help us with next year when we follow with corn. The ground gets shaded better with more stubble."

WRP land entry

Which gets us back to Hilferty and his desire to improve his land for conservation and, by extension, for wildlife habitat. Two years ago, Hilferty entered some low-laying land that often flooded into the Wetlands Reserve Program. Listening to Hilferty, it sounds like it was a drawn-out process, but one that concluded with a satisfactory result.

"Talk about paperwork," Hilferty said. "Add to that, I also had 11 people from the government come out here to take a look at (the land). I had NRCS, FSA, and the state game commission people come out. Then I had to do a land appraisal. I had to have a surveyor come out with a GPS to look at it. It took a year and a half to get it all done.

"It's a dead-end lagoon. You get a big rain at Elsie (a town about 10 miles away) and all that water will come down here. When it gets full, it really backs up and up to 13 feet deep. I decided the government might as well own it. It keeps flowing until it stops coming. When it's full, it will cover 30 acres."

Hilferty has an irrigation circle on part of the WRP land and a pivot system could run underwater if need be.

"I wanted to water part of the pie shape so I could continue planting a crop on it. They told me I couldn't do that so they bought the whole pie," Hilferty said. "So I don't need to water. I'll plant a cover crop of cane on it for the summer then plant it to grass in the fall."

There's just one little drawback to all this work, Hilferty said.

"I found I still got to pay taxes on it. The county assessor put minimal taxes on it. It's on a permanent easement," Hilferty said. "It's like paying a hunting lease. I've got control of it, but I still have to pay taxes on it."

Work toward a final goal

By using all these years to plant trees, establish a chemical fallow farming operation and developing a wetland, Hilferty now has something he's always wanted:

A great place to hunt and enjoy the outdoors.

All over Hilferty's land wildlife abounds, from pheasant to deer. Even a barn owl has taken up residence in an old grain bin.

"Dave has shown by planting trees and shrubs that trees are a valuable asset to wildlife by providing excellent habitat," Francis's release said. "Dave has been an outdoorsman and enjoys seeing the wildlife animal population benefit from the habitat areas that have been created."

Besides being on NWB and having served as leader of NWGA, Hilferty is involved in other agricultural groups including an advisory panel to the chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and on the Nebraska Ethanol Board. In 2005, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns appointed him to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board as a plant commodity producer.

"Out of the 30 people on this board, I'm one of a few producers," Hilferty said. "The rest are academics, researchers. The board determines recommendations to Johanns and the ag committees on how research dollars are to be spent. There's a lot of PhDs on that board. It can be overwhelming.

"I enjoy working on these groups. I could have done it years ago. It's expensive to be an active member of an association because a lot of the work you do, like travel, is out of your own pocket. That is what I think keeps people from being involved, but I think it's important since much of this concerns the future of how I make a living."

Putting in all that time earlier to plant trees instead of planting corner crops every season has given Hilferty a little idle time, enough to have him considering retirement in a while.

"My wife Lynda is retiring from her job soon, and I think we'd both like to travel before we get too old to enjoy it," Hilferty said. "I want to enjoy the things we've done by slowing down a bit and seeing other things."

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

7/2/07

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