Where there’s a Will, there’s a McCoy

In the 1880s, William McCoy settled in Nebraska.?Later on, Vance McCoy’s father was named after his grandpa.?Today, McCoy’s grandson has William as his namesake as well. While the honor of the name William has been passed down through generations on the McCoy family farm near Elsie, Neb., a will to always ask questions and change for the better is living on too.?

In 1988, when McCoy was 16, his father passed away, leaving he and his mom Maggie to manage the farm, “I was the only boy and had three sisters.?That was how it worked out from the beginning.?Everyone just knew I was going to be a farmer.?I had planned to leave and come back to the farm, but when dad passed away, that put me on the fast track.”

When McCoy was growing up, the family raised mostly corn and operated a cow/calf operation.?Today, he and his wife Ronda’s two grown sons, Tyler and Tanner, farm as separate managers of their own endeavors.?McCoy continues raising corn and soybeans, but has also found a passion for soil health and regenerative agriculture.?In addition to the farming business, McCoy also started Triple Creek Cover Crops, named for the three creeks that still cross the family farm.?His daughter, Meredith, helps with the cover crop business.???

“Tyler and Tanner were born to be farmers too,” said their father.?“They both earned two-year degrees though.?Tyler in ag business and Tanner went through a diesel tech program.?When they first came back, I had expanded quite a bit, so they worked for me at first.?Then we found some good ground to rent and since have split off into our own operations.”?

His sons returning around 2012, was one of the reasons McCoy began to seriously look at changing the farm, “I had bought my farm when I was 30, and when I was 40 had the sons coming back to farm with me already.?We had to find a new way to make that work.?We had to look at the expenses in a different way as well as our risk.?That is when I really fast-forwarded into a new way of doing things.”?

McCoy wasn’t novice at seeking out new ideas though.?He had been inquisitive his entire life, “I was always one to ask questions.?When I very first started farming even, it’s kind of funny, but the first planter I bought was set up to do ridge till.?I didn’t know anything about it.?But then I learned how.?Ridge till at the time was different from what most people were doing those days.”?

“It’s kind of interesting, one of my first experiences with ‘regenerative ag’ was when I was custom planting for a guy,” he went on.?“I really noticed everything was different on his farm and I asked him a lot of questions.?He was a dryland farmer and had been no-till for a long time.?One day we got three-and-a-half inches of rain, and I asked him, ‘When do you think we will be planting again?’?He said, ‘This afternoon if it dries out enough.’?I didn’t believe him, but we were planting corn into wheat stubble that afternoon.”

Seeing how the basic practice of no-till led to more moisture efficiently soaking into the soil, McCoy was hungry to learn more, “We are mostly growing corn and soybeans still, but I have added a lot of things into the rotation.?I grow cover crop seed and one of the most interesting plants I like to grow is hairy vetch.?I guess I was blazing my own trail with vetch around here and it can really be a gold mine if you do it right.”?

“We have integrated the cover crops very well on the irrigated land and on dryland are finding some success and still trying to work on that.?The biggest success on dryland is planting multi-species and custom grazing some of my sister’s husband’s cows,” he added.?“Our spring grazing mix is based with oats and will have forage peas and usually some kind of brassicas.?I especially like turnips, rapeseed, and radishes.?The summer mix is a forage sorghum of some type, millets, cow peas (for drought tolerance), Sunn Hemp and safflower.?When the cows start eating the safflower, it’s time to move them.?I like using that plant as an indicator for grazing.?Our overwinter mix is always based with rye and usually forage collards because they will survive a little deeper into the winter.”?

When it comes to corn, McCoy said his son is a seed dealer and he has typically purchased from the companies he promotes.?However, he admitted it can be difficult to find conventional, non-treated seed, and that is what led him to Nate Belcher with Hybrid85, “I planted some Hybrid85 after two years of hairy vetch and following three years of legumes.?That field of corn looks really good.?I also planted Hybrid85 on a more conventional field too and that is also looking well.?I was talking to Nate Belcher yesterday and told him I gave my daughter the only Hybrid85 seed corn cap he had given me.?I told Nate if this corn is as good as it looks now by harvesttime, I will need several of those caps in the future.”

McCoy said raising popcorn a few years back, also really made him think about farming corn differently as well, “It was a successful popcorn crop and caused us to remember we could still farm without Roundup?.?That’s when we really started thinking we could start trying conventional corn like Hybrid85 on our fields again.” ?

Looking ahead, McCoy said he is always excited about new experiments, “It’s kind of like my mid-life crisis is trying so many things on the farm before my time runs out.?I had a local blacksmith shop make some roller crimper machines that go on a rolling stalk chopper.?So, I will be trying that next year.?Three years ago, I just used the rolling stalk chopper and rolled down rye on some dryland corn ground.?It went really well.?I have had wrecks too.?I tried that on some irrigated corn and rolled the rye just before the corn came up.?That time the rye didn’t die.?Timing is everything, but I am not giving up.” ?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way is a theme underlying the persistence of the McCoy family.?He credits his parents and grandparents for being ever-forward-thinking, something he knows not everyone has in their farm business situation, “Usually what I hear is, ‘I want to try new things, but dad won’t let me.’?I try and say, ‘Well surely dad will let you have at least a pivot corner or small plot to experiment on.’”

Just giving things a try is everything, like the 25 acres he is experimenting on in an irrigated field.?McCoy enjoys sharing his trials and triumphs on Facebook through videos and photos with posts outlining the real-world scenarios he is testing, “I try and be humble about it.?I was lucky because dad was always forward-thinking.?That’s another thing I tell people, ‘You have to respect your dad because he didn’t get to where he is at by being stupid.?Be patient, there are probably some things you need to learn from him too.’?But, I also remind some of those dads that if their fathers had not allowed them to make changes, where would they be today?”?

Another major motivation beyond soil health and plant health is community health, “My wife Ronda is a registered nurse and sees so many people who are chronically ill.?I think the public is really starting to look at the health side of things when it comes to some ag production practices too.?Ronda and I are always looking at different ways of taking care of ourselves better as well.”

“I had a guy kind of trolling me on the internet,” McCoy said in closing.?“He kept saying, ‘You can’t do that.’ He did that over and over on my posts about cover crops and new practices until I asked him, ‘Why not?’?When I asked him that, I never heard from him again.?Asking questions and getting answers will get us someplace.?Don’t preach.?Ask questions.?It’s the best way to learn from somebody.” ?

Follow Triple Creek Cover Crops on Facebook at www.facebook.com/triplecreek.covercrops | Vance McCoy at: 308-352-6031