Winter work days are much better for dairyman Cameron Turner this year. This is the second winter he and his family’s dairy will be milking cows with robots in an enclosed barn. Their new dairy was finished in the fall of 2023.

Surrounded by desert on a bluff above the Payette River sits Payette River Ridge LLC, a farm owned and operated by Derek and Chelicy Wanders. It’s hilly country, and that has presented some challenges.

For some farms, innovation means introducing conservation practices ahead of the curve. For others, it may look like growing crops outside the “normal” local rotation. Elsewhere, it may mean introducing cutting-edge technology. At Uhlorn Family Farms of Ferdinand, all three are at play.

How do we preserve the individual farm legacy while preparing the farm for future generations? It was this question that brought 10 potato farmers together in the late ’70s and early ’80s to attempt to operate a fresh-pack potato shed together.

In seven years, organic matter content in Matthews’ fields has gained a point and a half, and the curve is getting steeper now. “So it’s not taking us decades to make that organic matter change,” he says. “It can happen faster than people think. I mean, we’re farming in a desert, after all … but we’ve changed the soil. And you can change the soil, even in a desert.”