After helping tend his family’s garden for many years, Riley Reinke decided to start farming for himself in 2016. His goal was to provide fresh, nutritious food to consumers in local communities.
RIley grew up around conventional agriculture and never expected to end up as a regenerative specialty crop farmer. But while he was studying to be an engineer in college, he came across a book about organic mini-farming. What he learned led him to transfer schools and soak in as much agricultural knowledge as he could.
After a few years of experimenting on a garden-size scale, he started Broken Arrow Farm, now Cottage Hill Farm, outside Filley, Nebraska. On his diverse, small-scale produce operation, Riley practices regenerative farming and emphasizes the importance of local distribution.
“Regeneration is the process of bringing more life/resources to an area than it previously had, which aligns well with my belief that a farmer’s first goal is to leave the land far better than they found it,” Riley said. “Freshly harvested food has the most flavor and nutrition. Distributing locally allows consumers to have the best experience possible, so I have distributed through multiple farmers markets as well as wholesale outlets.”
Over the years, Riley has improved his farm through several conservation practices such as planting cover crops on 100% of the land every winter and planting walkways with perennial cover crops, allowing for year-round cover.
“This improves soil organic matter, benefits microbial life, and reduces erosion,” he said. “I’ve also implemented biological products and stimulants to reduce outside fertilizer needs. Crops are rotated each year to reduce pest and disease pressure while also ensuring that the ground isn’t mined of certain nutrients, as different crops require different amounts of nutrients.”
Riley learned about the Center for Rural Affairs Beginning Farmer Fellowship from 2023 fellow Katie Jantzen. When presented with the opportunity to learn new farming techniques as well as partner with a mentor to help implement a conservation project on his operation, he applied for and was happy to accept the fellowship.
The program began in 2022 with eight individuals, plus mentors. The most recent cohort began in spring 2024 with eight beginning farmers, including Riley.
“Katie and I work together quite a bit, so I was able to see her project happen last year and even helped with a couple parts of it,” Riley said. “Through the fellowship so far, I’ve learned about conservation from various viewpoints, and about biochar and other practices that farmers in the area have implemented. I’ve also picked up more information about government conservation programs and what they have to offer.”
As part of the program, conservation fellows design and implement a project on their own farms or land they are farming. They present their findings at a farm tour to their mentors, project partners, and other beginning farmers.
Riley’s project involves evaluating the potential of three legume cover crop species for use in a no-till organic system. The project began with fall seeding cover crops and testing for soil nitrogen. In the spring, he will compare weed suppression of the cover crops, nitrogen fixation, and their ability to be killed via roller crimper (a type of farm implement that helps crush the walls of the stem to facilitate drying down of the plant).
“The goal of this is to eliminate nitrogen fertilizer needs for certain transplanted crops, weeding in those beds, tillage for a season, and increase water infiltration,” he said. “I picked this project because conventional produce production is hard on soil. It often involves high amounts of tillage, bare soil, and a lot of hand labor to weed crops. Implementing a no-till system for transplanted crops will eliminate those challenges while also increasing soil health.”
His project has been going well so far, despite having almost no rain during the growing season. The farm did get nearly 4 inches from late October through November, which helped establish the cover crops. Riley hopes this will ensure survival over the winter months.
His project includes six beds, each 3-by-100 feet. In the future, Riley plans to expand to include at least 25 beds, which will allow nearly one-third of the farm to be no-till.
His mentor has been key in helping Riley get his project up and running.
“It's great having the ability to partner with a mentor and implement a new project simultaneously,” Riley said. “My mentor has been very helpful in providing an outside perspective, which improved the project.”
Riley said he has two main goals: to leave the land far better than he found it, and to cultivate human and environmental health through regenerative farming.
“Future plans are determined by those two outcomes and those outcomes are ever-changing as I learn more and try new farming practices,” Riley said.
For more information on becoming a 2025 fellow, visit cfra.org/beginning-farmer-conservation-fellowship-program.
The Beginning Farmer Conservation Fellowship is a program of the USDA-NRCS under agreement number NR243A750003C010 Conservation Outreach: Equity Conservation Cooperative Agreements.
