Brand Dairy Farm is Farming for the Future

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Brand Dairy Farm

The Brand Dairy Farm in Waterloo exhibits a steadfast commitment to land stewardship, demonstrating the four Rs to a T.

The right nutrient source, at the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place provides the framework for the Brand family’s nutrient plan on its grain and dairy farm. Their generations-long obligation to this effort, which balances environmental protection and societal concerns with their livelihood, garnered this northeast Indiana family the Fertilizer Institute’s 4R Advocate Award, recognizing their adherence to the conservation method. Similarly, they have earned the Indiana River Friendly Farmer Award and the Conservation Farmer of the Year Award.

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“Our goal is to leave the land better than it was when we first got it,” says owner and operator George Brand, who represents the farm’s second generation. The family grows corn, soybeans, wheat and hay on 2,500 acres and milks 400 Holstein cows three times daily. “That’s sustainability. You can use the soil and make your living and leave it just as good year after year.”

Brand Dairy Farm

Past, Present and Future

George’s wife, Christine, manages the farm books. His son, David, works alongside him and oversees technology. David’s wife, Kim, raises their four kids and helps with bookwork, too.

With all the grandkids under age 10, time will tell whether the fourth generation inherits an interest in farming as a career. Regardless, the farm’s soil fertility and conservation methods will benefit the next stewards of the land, whoever that may be.

“Farmers were the original soil conservationists,” George says. “They were doing a lot of conservation practices before it became popular and government programs came about to encourage them.”

Brand Dairy Farm

George’s father, Jim, bought the family’s main farm in 1972. He planted grass in waterways, which are the areas where water moves across a field. He also established field borders and filter strips along ditches and streams before these practices entered mainstream agriculture or earned financial incentives from government conservation programs. The grass slows movement of rainwater across the soil and filters nutrients and sediment before the water enters lakes, rivers and streams.

The 4Rs for Farmers


The Brand family and other farmers follow these four steps for keeping their farmland sustainable for generations to come.

1. Right nutrient source
2. Right rate
3. Right time
4. Right place

By 1990, the Brand family adopted no-till (which is short for “no tillage”) on every acre they farmed. The opposite of plowing in the 1970s, no-till practices leave the soil undisturbed before planting and after harvest. This keeps tillage tools in the shed and eliminates two or three tractor trips across the field. That, in itself, generates cost savings in labor, machinery and fuel.

Meanwhile, residue from the previous year’s crop sits on the soil to reduce soil erosion, improves its level of organic matter, and keeps nutrients in place and out of groundwater. Many farmers share similar practices, including former Indiana Farm Bureau President Don Villwock, also a longtime no-tiller.

Brand Dairy Farm

Technology Improvements

The Brand family devotes much attention to nutrient management of their soils through cover crops, nutrient testing and variable-rate technology applications.

A few years ago, they started to plant cover crops, which act as a soil blanket from late fall through winter when the land typically rests barren. A combination of cover crops such as ryegrass, radishes, and crimson clover grows in late fall to hold nutrients and improve soil tilth. By spring, the cover crop yields silage, a high-moisture feedstuff for the cattle.

Brand Dairy Farm

George says the family uses about half of the crops they grow for the cattle, whether as feed, straw, hay or silage. In return, manure from the cattle serves as what he calls a “perfect, natural fertilizer” to meet about half their soil fertility needs annually.

Management of this full-circle cycle – from the soil to the cattle and back to the soil – has improved with modern technology. George and David test the cattle manure two times per year to determine its precise phosphorous and nitrogen content. They also implement grid-soil sampling, which uses global-positioning satellites to track nutrient content of soil at 2.5-acre increments within a field. During the growing season, their agronomist samples leaf tissue from corn plants to determine the crop’s exact nitrogen needs.

Brand Dairy Farm

With all of that information, the Brands apply their fertilizers at variable rates across a field using site-specific satellite guidance to meet the soil’s and crop’s needs at precise locations.

“I think we’ve done a good job through our conservation tillage and fertility not to underdo it or overdo it,” George says. “That’s part of the four Rs. We try to protect the soil and make it better for the next generation. My dad taught me a long time ago that it’s a real good goal to have to farm it for so many years and leave it better than it was. It was not only taken care of, it was improved.”

3 Comments

  1. Gerald Girardi

    May 25, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    What a great publish, summer2016. As soon as Isaw the cover I had tears a flowing because I grew up on a dairy farm in northern Michigan and had that friendly love with our cattle.
    At 74 years young I remember the hard work and the good times growing up on a farm.The story family is so graced to have the love of the land and the love of tomorrow.

    • Rachel Bertone

      May 26, 2016 at 8:33 am

      Hi Gerald,

      Thanks for your comment! We’re glad you enjoyed it and love hearing from our readers!

      Rachel Bertone
      editor, My Indiana Home

  2. Jaxen Brand

    July 20, 2020 at 8:53 pm

    So I’m the Boy on the cover and I enjoy reading it over the years I have the paper copy still.

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