On the north shore of Lake Ontario stands a piece of land that is circled by bays and inlets of the great lake. It’s here where Eric Kaiser has farmed for more than 40 years. With 950 acres of cropland surrounded by Hay Bay, off the Bay of Quinte, Kaiser farms the heavy clay soils with his son, Max.

It’s not considered prime farmland. The area’s natural beauty and views of the lake has made it more of a home to cottages and summer retreats. Still, Kaiser has transformed it into productive no-till farmland.

In addition to no-tilling corn, soybeans and winter wheat, Kaiser has 26,000 laying hens and raises 100,000 ready-to-lay pullets. What pullets they don’t use, they wholesale to other farmers. They grow the grain, grind their own feed, sell the soybeans, buy soybean meal back and use all the manure in their operation on their farmland.

With the exception of a few inputs needed for the land or for the poultry, it’s a fully self-sufficient operation.

“This makes our operation about phosphorus neutral,” Kaiser says. “We spread the manure and grow more grain with it. The only fertilizer we buy is generally a liquid starter and nitrogen for the wheat and corn.”

The crop rotation is no-tilled corn, soybeans and winter wheat.

“It’s not as extensive as we’d like, but we’re really growing chicken feed,” Kaiser says. “We’re generally harvesting soybeans and no-tilling wheat at the same time. We hope to get wheat in by late September.

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