Tom Vaske

What are you doing to practice and promote soil and water quality?

We utilize strip-till, no-till, cover crops, waterways and buffer strips in our operation.

What needs for soil health and water quality do you see in your region/county?

We're addressing soil health in general. Soil doesn't seem to be alive anymore. And I think with that aspect, if you bring the soil back, I think you're going to get a lot better water filtration, better use of the nutrients and just better long-term stability for the agricultural land.

What could be done with more public funding for soil and water quality?

There isn't one particular practice that will do it all. We need A/B research to understand what methods help soil health more because there isn't a silver bullet. We need to figure out the appropriate practices for a wide variety of soil types and weather.