Kenny Reichert

Brunswick, Missouri

Chariton County SWCD

Kenny Reichert and his wife Julie are parents of four living in Brunswick, Missouri. Kenny is currently the chairman of the Chariton County SWCD. He raises corn, beans, and wheat, and owns a cow/calf operation.

On his farm, Kenny does minimum tillage in creek bottoms and mostly no-till everywhere else. He started no-tilling corn in the early 1980s and no-tilling beans in 1993 to better control erosion. “In 1987, we started building terraces, but don’t get too excited about that anymore,” he told NACD.

In 2011, Kenny met David Brandt at a soil health meeting, and in his own words, “the rest was history.”

“It seemed we had peaked in our no-till program and David said the next step was cover crops,” Kenny explained. “We have since fallen in love with cover and our soil health has improved. I believe creating soil health makes you a better manager.”

Kenny has seeded hairy vetch and wheat cover before corn. When he first started using no-till, it seemed every year had a different challenge; a different weed, a different soil texture, etc. “In using cover crops we tried to find something that would work in Missouri,” he said. “I am still told no-till doesn’t work and I should bale that cover crop before it matures.”

A sizable portion of the farm was once in enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Kenny says he has used his experience with soil health practices and NRCS programs to talk to producers and “to make them think.”

“It is rewarding when a neighbor says he has been watching you and wants to know more,” he said.