Small Grains in the Corn Belt

Nov 29, 2022

The landscape across the Corn Belt is dominated by just two crops – corn and soybeans. This system is inherently leaky; crops grow during the summer months and leave the land uncovered the remainder of the year when soils are vulnerable to precipitation and wind. Extending the rotation with a cool season small grain (oats, wheat, rye, triticale) coupled with a cover crop can keep the land covered year-round and offer an essential unlock and speedier path to profitable regenerative agriculture farming systems.

Small grains were once a common part of Midwest cropping systems but are now scarce in the Corn Belt. Markets have disappeared as animals moved away from the farm and the feed system became optimized for corn and soy. Today farmers want to diversify and grow small grains but cite the lack of markets as their biggest barrier to bring small grains back into their rotation system.

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Video: No-Till vs Tillage: Why Neighboring Fields Are World Apart

“No-till means no yield.”

“No-till soils get too hard.”

But here’s the real story — straight from two fields, same soil, same region, totally different outcomes.

Ray Archuleta of Kiss the Ground and Common Ground Film lays it out simply:

Tillage is intrusive.

No-till can compact — but only when it’s missing living roots.

Cover crops are the difference-maker.

In one field:

No-till + covers ? dark soil, aggregates, biology, higher organic matter, fewer weeds.

In the other:

Heavy tillage + no covers ? starving soil, low diversity, more weeds, fragile structure.

The truth about compaction?

Living plants fix it.

Living roots leak carbon, build aggregates, feed microbes, and rebuild structure — something steel never can.

Ready to go deeper into the research behind no-till yields, rotations, and profitability?