Clark: Transitioning to Organic Farming Takes Time
Published: Friday, March 7, 2025
Rick Clark, a fifth-generation farmer from Warren County, Ind., outlined how his farm has been transformed to a regenerative, certified organic system. He spoke during the Cultivating Resilience Conference, hosted by the Ottawa and Allegan Conservations Districts. The sold-out event was held last month in Hudsonville, Mich.
Clark cares deeply about the health of both soil and humans and how the two are interconnected. The principles of soil health are the foundation of his regenerative, organic approach and include minimal soil disturbance both physical and chemical, maximum diversity and using living roots of cover crops to armor the soil, livestock to add fertilizer, and farming in context with the area and its natural climate. He has been no-tilling for 18 years and using cover crops for 14.
The 5,600-acre farm has transformed to 100% certified organic production, gradually eliminating all commercial fertilizer, fungicide, seed treatments and insecticides through careful cover crop use and management, incorporating livestock into the rotation, soil testing using the Haney test, and building on plants that are suited to his location. It's been six years since chemical interventions have been used on his farm.
"But I am not telling you to go and stop using fertilizer and chemicals all at once. It is a gradual transition to make in increments as you are generating soil health," Clark said.
"Farming green—it's difficult, it's very hard," he said. "Basically, I am trying to remember things that we've forgotten in the way our ancestors used to farm. But I am not reinventing anything, and I don't do anything that hasn't been done in years past.
Before chemical pest control and genetically modified seed, a farm was divided into four parts and rotated with corn, small grains and hay. Manure was fertilizer and hay sometimes doubled as pasture. Pest cycles were broken naturally. The common model of a two-crop system is entirely different from Clark's nine-crop rotation which includes corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, peas, buckwheat, cover crops, milo, sheep, cattle and a regeneration or regen field.
The regen field is one which has gotten out of step with the balance and nature's cycle on the farm. It is removed from production for a year to rest and regenerate.
"I know it's hard to imagine not making an income from an acre for a year," he said.
"Livestock is the quickest way to move the needle on soil health, but I know livestock isn't for everyone," Clark said. "Sometimes the best livestock belongs to your neighbor—creating a plan to benefit both of you and letting the neighbor keep them alive through the winter back in their own barn and pastures."
Cocktail mixes of multiple cover crops are targeted at problem areas. He believes that multi-species prescribed cover crop approaches toward weed problems are an important piece of the future for a society desiring a return to greater health.
"As the soil becomes healthier, the nutrient density of the crops also increases," he said.
Epigenetics has become one of Clark's core components for a successful regenerative system during the past six years.
"My dad was saving soybean seed from the best fields back in the '70s when that was legal and told me we did so because the seed is adapting to our system. At 14, I thought we should just buy the seed from the big company down the road; at the time I didn't see the wisdom in his thinking," Clark said.
A USDA owned facility near Champaign-Urbana, Ill. houses every seed variety ever known. Clark browsed the catalogs, purchasing 10 off-patent soybean varieties. After trialing, the selection quickly narrowed down to the five top performers, and they began planting them all together.
"We can identify the different varieties in the field, but nature is telling us what our system really wants and gradually one or two of the varieties are becoming fewer in the field. Our system is creating what is right for us, and we are going to be raising all our own seed in the future. I don't want to buy anything," he said.
Corn mixes are next up for the epigenetics plan, and Clark says that modern genetics no longer works on their farm.
Yield is the common measure of success among farmers. Clark prefers to measure success by income, even when it means less yield.
He compared the trajectory of some input categories on his farm between 2011 and 2023. In 2011, the farm used 30,011 gallons of diesel fuel compared to 16,147 gallons in 2023, a 46.2% drop in use. His synthetics use is down by 100%. Horsepower use is down by 64% and unneeded equipment was sold. Total input savings during that time amount to more than $2.7 million.
"You can see why yield is not quite as important when we're starting with a $2.7 million head start on paying the bills," he said.
"Take a few ideas from here, another from someone else; plant a cover crop with legumes that fixes 120 pounds of free nitrogen and take 30 units of N out of your synthetic mix. That's all I'm talking about is small steps," Clark said. "We can't all drop to zero synthetic inputs, but we can all probably save 30-45%."
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