Jon Bakehouse wasn’t sure he wanted to become a farmer despite growing up on Maple Edge Farm, the farm that his great-great grandfather started and five generations of his family had worked. When Jon left to study journalism after high school, he was unsure about returning home to Iowa. It wasn’t until he was stuck in traffic on his way to work several years later that Jon realized he belonged on the farm instead of the highway.
Today, Jon is back on Maple Edge Farm, poised to take over the family business from his father, Bach Bakehouse. But Jon’s relationship with the farm is very different from his father’s or grandfathers’, and that means sometimes he and Bach don’t see eye to eye about how to run it. Bach is an adamant believer in pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Jon is looking for ways to use less of them. Enter cover crops.
Historically, farmers have used cover crops to improve soil, smother weeds and help control pests after cash crops are harvested, reducing the need for pesticides. And while many farms have moved away from the practice, some are now rediscovering it. Over the past few years, Jon has found a community among farmers who run these farms, many of them young, multi-generation farmers like himself. And like them, he has shifted his attention from only the crop yield to the health of the soil, expanding his business plan to include the farm’s long-term sustainability.
Conservation hasn't always been big in my mind, but in the last five years, it has become a very big part of how I want to farm and how I want our farm to function in the future.
To Jon, the benefits of cover crops are both tangible and spiritual. “When you look out across the landscape and see one field that’s green and lush, and another next to it that is brown and dry, the effects of cover crops are clear,” Jon says. “I think there’s something very basic about seeing something alive and growing that just really feeds your brain, your soul, your heart.”
Bach supports some of Jon’s experimentation with cover crops but isn’t sold on them like his son. But Jon is not alone in his commitment to sustainability or willingness to experiment. On a trip to southern Iowa to talk about cover crops, Jon says he drew crowds of farmers with similar concerns. He hopes that they’ll also implement the techniques he so passionately introduced.
In the future, Jon hopes that someone with similar conservation and sustainability goals will take over the farm, even if it’s not his son, who is currently 5 years old. He hopes it’s someone who ensures that agriculture continues to evolve in a way that is healthier for the soil, plants, animals and humans.
Jon Bakehouse is currently working with Practical Farmers of Iowa, a Walton Family Foundation grantee, to conduct research on new cover crop techniques.
