A local farmer is taking soil sustainability to the next level.
Laurent Van Arkel recently received an award for his work in sustainable soil, customizing equipment, and creating cover crop techniques.
"It's a passion I guess, to be interested in our soils and creating a sustainable agricultural system," says Van Arkel.
The Dresden based farmer has developed a method for planting sugar beets using a tool to inject manure into the soil, without creating much of a disturbance to the immediate area.
"It's probably costing me a little more right now," he says. "But just in the short time that I've been doing that, there have been noticeable changes in the earth worm counts and some other water infiltration and things like that - that are early indicators of better soil."
Van Arkel says his work with soil and cover crops started when he was a teenager.
"[It was] a 30-year process to try to eliminate as much tillage as possible and to incorporate a living root system in the soil at all times," say Van Arkel.
At the time of the award ceremony on December 12, Van Arkel had actually been a speaker at a conservation tillage conference in North Dakota.
Van Arkel often conducts tours of his farm and speaks across North America about his methods, but says his journey with soil and cover crops is still a work-in-progress.