1996-2026: Center of Excellence marks 30 years

Last summer’s Center of Excellence Field Day at BakerLads Dairy near Clayton attracted dozens of growers from both sides of the Michigan-Ohio line to learn about cutting-edge conservation practices from growers who’ve tried them, like Blaine Baker here and his brother Kim.

Date Posted: July 16, 2026

Jeremy C. Nagel, Michigan Farm Bureau

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Center for Excellence, a conservation program eagerly taken up by some committed Farm Bureau leaders down near Michigan’s southern boundary. Since 1996, Lenawee County’s Blaine Baker and Tom VanWagner have hosted annual, daylong programs showcasing what innovative conservation practices on their farms look like in real life — and to what extent they’re worth implementing.

Along with Blaine’s brother Kim Baker, the trio have made names for themselves experimenting with a long roster of conservation practices designed to minimize pollution and preserve the three core natural resources most farming relies on: air, water and soil.

The stage was set when the 1985 Farm Bill outlined strategies for working with highly erodible land (HEL) and Monsanto was developing Roundup-Ready corn. By 1990, filing conservation plans was mandatory for loans or crop insurance for fields with as little as one-third HEL. In Lenawee County, some 150,000 acres required measures to minimize soil loss, from simple crop rotations to cover crops and no-till or strip-till systems.

The Baker brothers’ dairy farm, BakerLads, is a living laboratory for conservation innovation, with highly erodible soil, various tillage systems and a closed-loop, wastewater sub-irrigation system. On-farm demonstration plots will show the effectiveness and economy of conservation tillage and related systems.

This year’s Center of Excellence Field Day takes place Aug. 12, with hundreds of attendees expected for a daylong agenda of in-person sessions and group tours of new conservation features in place on the host farms: BakerLads in the morning, then the nearby Raymond and Stutzman farms for lunch, afternoon programs, and featured speaker Keith Reinholt.

Prospective attendees can register online or on-site at BakerLads beginning at 8 a.m.; lunch is included and both RUP and CCA credits are available. A companion event next January will review yield data and how it was influenced by the stewardship practices in place.

Reach out to Lenawee Conservation District (517-263-7400, ext. 5) for more information.