Spotlight Series
Helping Farmers Increase Efficiency and Share Their Sustainability Story
Born and raised in Paxton, Illinois, Dallas Glazik is very passionate about supporting both the producers and ecosystem in his area.
“If I have it my way, I’m going to die here in Paxton,” Glazik says with a smile. “It’s where I do my work as a biologist for Pheasants Forever and I have a family farm here.”
That family farm is a 1,000-acre operation that became certified organic in 2002. His operation utilizes a very sustainable and regenerative set of practices, including diverse crop rotations, the use of green manure cover crops and more.
“My professional work and expertise lead us down a very interesting path,” he said. “It’s helped me bring some stuff back to the farm, including ways to work w¬¬ith native ecotypes. That means trying to replace our legumes with native legumes that get stimulated by the use of prescribed fire.”
Grazing and prescribed fire are two key elements to the Central Illinois ecosystem, and Glazik works diligently to help bring that back to his own farm, as well as the farms he helps within his Pheasants Forever role.
Starting in 2018, Glazik has been serving as a Farm Bill Biologist with Pheasants Forever, working with producers that are enrolled in federal programs or have an interest in improving the wildlife diversity of their land.
“In his role, Dallas routinely supports the delivery of practices that improve wildlife habitat, as well as soil health, water quality and infiltration, and carbon sequestration benefits,” explains Brent Rudolph, Director of Sustainability Partnerships at Pheasants Forever.
Most of the practices he helps farmers implement are those within the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Specifically, he focuses mostly on grass-based practices, including pollinator plantings and prairie strips.
“When having conversations with farmers, I take them a step forward by looking at their farm profitability,” says Glazik. “As a farmer, I know just how important that is.”
Glazik uses precision agriculture data, pieced together with other information from a farmer’s operation, to generate a profit loss map. That map allows him to show farmers where they’re making money, where they’re breaking even, and where they’re consistently losing money.
When talking about this method, Glazik has a self-proclaimed ‘poster child’ project he likes to highlight. That project took place on a 160-acre farm that had some hard spots and low wet spots that were not performing well.
“I looked at the farmer’s budget and showed him that by taking those spots out of production and putting them into the Conservation Reserve Program, he would increase his net profit by about $11,000 a year,” Glazik highlights.
Glazik helped the farmer install a wetland complex that’s now providing a great benefit to nature and has improved the farm’s profitability.
“This farmer had initially come into the office to tile. Well, he talked to me instead and got something else,” Glazik recalls with a laugh. “Now he has a wetland complex that looks beautiful.”
“When having conversations with farmers, I take them a step forward by looking at their farm profitability,” says Glazik. “As a farmer, I know just how important that is.”
Glazik uses precision agriculture data, pieced together with other information from a farmer’s operation, to generate a profit loss map. That map allows him to show farmers where they’re making money, where they’re breaking even, and where they’re consistently losing money.
When talking about this method, Glazik has a self-proclaimed ‘poster child’ project he likes to highlight. That project took place on a 160-acre farm that had some hard spots and low wet spots that were not performing well.
“I looked at the farmer’s budget and showed him that by taking those spots out of production and putting them into the Conservation Reserve Program, he would increase his net profit by about $11,000 a year,” Glazik highlights.
Glazik helped the farmer install a wetland complex that’s now providing a great benefit to nature and has improved the farm’s profitability.
“This farmer had initially come into the office to tile. Well, he talked to me instead and got something else,” Glazik recalls with a laugh. “Now he has a wetland complex that looks beautiful.”
Dallas Glazik
Farm Bill Biologist
Pheasants Forever
“When having conversations with farmers, I take them a step forward by looking at their farm profitability. As a farmer, I know just how important that is.”
Dallas Glazik
Farm Bill Biologist
Pheasants Forever
Another great example of his work has been a project with the Kerchenfaut family, where he helped them install prairie strips. Knowing that it’s critical to find options that work best for each farmer’s particular needs, Glazik worked with the Kerchenfaut’s agriculture system to develop strips that best fit in their system. That meant planting strips every 120 feet so that they don’t interfere with their farm equipment.
During the first year after planting the prairies strips, they came up weedy – something that is typical for a native prairie seeding. However, that year, they had a six-inch rain come in about two hours and, according to Glazik, the results of the strips were astounding.
“It really showed how much those strips stop erosion across the field,” he explained. “There was an eight-inch bump built up between him and the conventional neighbor – he had collected eight inches of soil from his neighbor’s operation.”
“Since implementing the prairie strips, cover crops and no-till, we have seen a dramatic increase in insect and bird populations, as well as increased water infiltration,” says Rick and Aizza Kerchenfaut. “We have been fortunate to get to know Dallas professionally, as we rely frequently on his expertise with our movement towards regenerative agriculture.”
Through Glazik’s role with Pheasants Forever, he also hosts workshops and on-farm tours to help educate landowners about the importance of conservation practices that benefit wildlife populations and the environment.
“It’s important to open up the farmer mindset to recognize that you don’t have to react to an event by doing something – you can react by not doing something, and let nature do the work,” Glazik explains. “You have to show farmers that nature’s natural services are inputs and that they work. That dynamic has to be seen.”
When asked what he hoped his legacy would be, he highlighted that he wants to leave a positive impact on the community he holds dear. “I hope to see more farms, by doing conservation, able to pass down that farm to the next generation,” he says.
"We have been fortunate to get to know Dallas professionally, as we rely frequently on his expertise with our movement towards regenerative agriculture."
Rick and Aizza Kerchenfaut
Farmers
Illinois
