PONTIAC, Ill. — Jim Martin, a LaSalle County, Ill., farmer and healthy soils proponent, is heading to the American Soybean Association’s board of directors. He previously served as District 6 director for the Illinois Soybean Association until his recent appointment to the ASA board. 

Martin is a fifth-generation farmer from Pontiac, Ill., with an insurance, banking and seed sales background. In addition to growing soybeans, corn and cover crops, he operates Midwest Insurance and Income Tax Service. He and his wife, Lisa, have two children. Lisa is the Illinois coordinator for the Certified Crop Adviser program.

Martin is a big proponent of conservation management, which he says increases nutrient efficiency and crop yields, reduces sediment and nutrient losses and makes farms more resilient to extreme weather conditions. As an ASA representative for Illinois, he hopes to bring the news about the benefits of sustainable conservation practices to a wider audience. 

One of the most important and easily-adapted conservation practices a soybean farmer can employ is the implementation of no-till or minimal tillage, according to the north-central Illinois farmer. 

“Any time you can cut back on input costs and reduce trips across the field, it’s a win for farmers,” Martin told Farm World. “I think no-till soybeans are one of the most amazing things in farming, planting into all that residue and having the types of soybean yields we’ve been having.”

Additionally, no-till farming can help mitigate the effects of wind-driven dust storms from farm field erosion, along with high-intensity rainfall events, according to Martin, who recommends farmers grow cover crops, when feasible, as a deterrent to dust storms.

“If you plant cover crops you’re going to hold the soil, moisture and the nutrients in place,” he said. “We’re also seeing weed suppression with no-till and cover crops, because you’re not stirring up that weed-seed bank and helping it to germinate (like) when you’re doing tillage.”

Establishing cover crops can lead to better pest and disease control, enhancing both environmental and economic sustainability, the new ASA director said. However, more and better incentives will need to be offered to producers in order to dramatically increase the percentage of farmers who plant cover crops. 

“I’m a cooperator for the PCM-Precision Management Program and they have helped me get in touch with some of the carbon sequestration programs and grants available to farmers for doing no-till and cover crops,” Martin said, recommending others follow his lead. “We’re also investing farmer checkoff dollars for a lot of different research projects related to cover crops and the carbon programs.”

Martin is one of many farmers who are investing in a pattern-tiling project to enhance drainage, specifically in regard to ponding. This can greatly reduce the amount of nitrogen lost through water ponding in fields, studies have shown. 

“In one field, on my side with patterned tile it stayed dry after heavy rains, versus the neighbor, who had ponded water,” said Martin, whose field tiling is patterned in 60-foot intervals. “I showed a picture of this to an agronomist, who was amazed by the difference. In our heavier soil types, pattern tiling works well. I am always getting questions from farmers in other states and other countries about how this tiling system works here in the Corn Belt.” 

To help promote conservation and sustainability on farms, Martin is a participant in ASA’s Conservation Champions group, Also sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation and United Soybean Board, the group serves as a think tank for conservation issues in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.