George Krom, who has been nominated for the Joe Kroft award, is shown inspecting beans on his farm. Photo provided by Megan Malott.

By Megan Malott
Executive Director FCSWCD

ROCHESTER — Fulton County Soil and Water Conservation District has nominated George Krom III for the Joe Kroft Award. The award is after Joseph Kroft, who served on the districts board for over 52 years. They choose someone who is conservative-minded and engages in conservation practices. Krom humbly accepted the award with a statement of there are others more deserving.

“I don’t like the statement I am making it better than it was” stated Krom, a local farmer with many different soil types on his farm. When Krom got out of school, he started chisel plowing the farm. Through college connections, he became interested in no-till. He purchased an Allis-Chalmers, a no-till coulter, in 1974.

Krom uses minimal tillage and is a long- standing participant in cover crops which is working well for him. He and his family co-hosted the 37th Farm Progress Show in 1989 with an estimated 300,000 people in attendance that year. Before and during the show, Krom furnished the equipment for three big terraces to be built on his homestead. After the show, Krom, with his dad’s blessing, the farm went total no-till, which was around 33-34 years ago.

Krom purchased his dad’s original farm in 1996. His father bought his first and only Farmall tractor in 1945. Krom’s farmstead operates now with more cropland focused farming.

Since then, he has expanded his farming acreage to 2,500 acres, half through purchasing of land and the other half through renting.

“The landlords have been satisfied with no-till. It’s been a positive and not a negative” stated Krom, who is proud of the soil samples recently taken from his farm. “They were better than I thought they would be” stated Krom.” You can gauge a farm’s soil health by how many earthworms you dig up with a shovel. You will see two to three times the number of worms if your soil is healthy than when it is not.”

Along with no-tilling, Krom transitioned all the open ditches on fields he farmed to have filter strips. Then when the Lake Manitou group determined where the water was being polluted. When asked what encouraging advice he can give to someone who has not tried no-till before George said, “Be positive and patient. Start on one of your best fields and compare. Issues, like row space, weed control, population, and fertility adjust, can vary. Good equipment is needed and a planter setup for no-till.

Getting new crops established is basic. Krom thinks soybeans are easier to get started no-tilling than corn.

“It allows you to get your crop out earlier and with less labor and is better on the natural health of the soil”, stated Krom.

When asked what his favorite part of it all is, he responded: “I just enjoy it all, planting and harvesting the crop.”

Krom would not be where he is today if it wasn’t for a lot of cooperation from the support his family, he has good family help, good landlords, and good friends.