TJ Kartes Farm

Cover crops play a big role in TJ Kartes’ life. After seeing how successful cover crops were with improving soil health on his uncle’s farm, TJ got into the cover crop seed business and is now using cover crops to try to rebuild carbon and soil structure on land with sand and gravel below the surface.

TJ took over farming operations on the land in 2021 after sand mining and grading activities reduced the quality of the thin soil surface. The land is highly susceptible to drought conditions, so TJ is trying to improve the soil quality through less disturbance and intense cover cropping. This includes:

• Seeding sorghum-sudangrass, flax, Berseem clover, and kale crops that have been harvested for livestock forage.
• He plans to interseed soybeans into winter camelina in spring 2023, which will be harvested as a relay crop.
• After soybean harvest, winter cereal rye or Triticale will be no till seeded and later harvested for seed.

TJ has worked on cover crops with producers in the region since 2009, selling cover crop seeds for Saddle Butte Ag. Inc. He is also the owner-operator of Kartes Seeds, which specializes in providing cover crop seed and technical assistance to farmers.