Uncle Elmer Award to Keith Miller
Published: Friday, September 4, 2026
Keith Miller, a conservation-minded farmer from New Paris, is this year's recipient of the Uncle Elmer award. Miller will be honored next Tuesday during the annual meeting of the Elkhart County Agricultural Society. This year's meeting will be held at a new location, the Rock Run Creek Barn, 15829 C.R. 34, Goshen.
A second-generation farmer, Miller grows corn, soybeans, wheat, hay and cover crops on all 350 acres west of town. Cover crops are an essential component of the crop system, as he said they add organic matter to the soil, lower input costs and help the soil become more resilient to extreme weather events.
He added that cover crops are important both before and after harvest. They take the place of unwanted vegetation. If left uncovered, weeds will grow in the spring and fall. During winter, the wind will pick up the soil and blow it away.
"The Creator wanted the soil covered, and that keeps the soil biology alive," he said. "So, I guess I'm going to work with nature a little closer and grow the crop I want to grow instead of weeds."
Miller believes in conservation farming, a practice that doesn't involve any plowing or tillage activity. Miller said he hasn't plowed his fields for almost five decades, and his fields are better able to soak up large rain events. To illustrate that point, he showed a photo of two fields separated by a county road. On one side was a field with conventional tillage, and on the other side was a field with no-till. Water was ponding on the field with conventional tillage, but the no-till field had no standing water.
Over his 50-plus career in farming, Miller said he has noticed little differences like that. He has combined those observations with the information he has gleaned from books and educational sessions and has formed an opinion about how farming should be done. To say it simply, Miller farms with nature, not against it.
"Farming should be about biology," he said, "because biology is the study of life. Most of the time, what I hear is, 'How are we going to kill this insect? How are we going to kill this fungus? How are we going to kill this pest? How are we going to kill tar spot?' It's about killing something, when it ought to be about promoting life."
Now approaching age 80, Miller said one of his biggest regrets is that he didn't embrace conservation principles earlier in his farming career.
"I regret that I didn't learn things earlier and faster," he said. "I would have had so much more time to improve the soil and lower production costs."
Regarding the latter point, Miller said farmers can save on fertilizer costs by planting nitrogen-rich crops like alfalfa and other legumes.
After wheat harvest in July, he planted a 10-way cover crop mix that is now thriving at his farm along C.R. 46. The field boasts sorghum-sudangrass, hairy vetch, peas, sunflowers, Daikon radish and other carbon-building, nitrogen-sequestering crops.
The radish has long taproots that extend over two feet into the soil. He argues that tillage isn't necessary when thousands of radishes penetrate deep into the ground, creating pathways for water and air.
After the growing season ends, the cover crops will die and slowly decay, but the nitrogen stored in the roots will be available for next year's corn crop.
Through no-till farming, Miller says farmers can increase the soil's organic content by .1% per year. Over time, that builds organic matter and improves the soil's ability to hold moisture.
"The organic matter can take it all the way through like a cotton shirt or a sponge," he said.
Locally, Miller serves on the board of the Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District. Through his position on the SWCD board, he works to educate other farmers about the benefits of no-till farming, cover crops and soil biology. Sadly, he said, most farmers disregard that message, and at times he has felt like a lone voice in the wilderness.
"Town people receive the message a lot better than agriculture does," he said. "If John Deere would have been a biologist, agriculture would be different. But he was a plow-maker."
Miller laments that farmers have moved toward larger, heavier machinery that compacts the soil. With conservation farming, farmers can work with smaller tractors.
Regarding the Uncle Elmer award, Miller said he feels honored.
"Somehow they decided that I have modeled or promoted a way of farming that agriculture needs to consider," he said. "I think that's a great honor. We can do better. Not that the conventional way is wrong, but there can be an improvement."
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