Bill Kellogg turned repeated gully erosion into a decades‑long program of soil protection, precision practices and selective adaptation. The family operation now spans about 8,000 acres and serves as a demonstration site for conservation techniques.
Precision tools — grid soil testing (since 1999) and banded nutrient placement — cut fertilizer use while keeping yields.
The farm opened to visitors after the 2014 Toledo water crisis, joined demonstration projects, and won the Ohio Conservation Farm Family Award.
# The problem that started it
Bill Kellogg began farming at 14 and managed 700 acres by his senior year of high school. Repeated gullies cutting through the family's rolling fields convinced him the way the land was being worked had to change. That realization set a decades‑long shift toward conservation and farm redesign.
# How the farm changed
What began with grass waterways and sediment basins evolved into a wider, integrated system. The Kellogg operation now covers about 8,000 acres in Hardin County, with roughly 1,800 acres owned and the rest rented. The conservation toolkit includes no‑till and strip‑till, precision nutrient management, grid soil testing, cover crops used selectively, buffer strips, subsurface drainage, pollinator habitat and about 60 acres devoted to waterways.
Grid soil sampling began in 1999. The data made nutrient movement and soil responses visible, allowing the family to stop broadcasting fertilizer across whole fields and instead band nutrients where crops can access them. Strip‑till became a visible practice: fertilizer placement in bands reduced total fertilizer use while maintaining or improving yields.
# Flexible, not formulaic, conservation
# Financial resilience and farm growth
Shane Kellogg later joined the operation and accelerated the move toward precision agriculture. Today Shane manages day‑to‑day operations while Bill and multiple family members remain involved, including Jacinta Burd and their families.
# From local demonstration to statewide recognition
Service demonstration project after the 2014 Toledo water crisis, which raised attention on agricultural contributions to water quality. They later partnered with H2Ohio and began opening the farm to students, officials and journalists. Those outreach efforts and visible conservation results led to the Ohio Conservation Farm Family Award.
# Practical takeaways for other farmers
# What's next on the farm
The family continues to evaluate input costs and nutrient sources. Rising phosphate prices are prompting a re‑examination of past practices like using chicken litter. The operation remains multi‑generational and open to adjustments that fit both the land and the farm's financial reality.
In 1988, Ohio attorney Neil McKown quietly purchased 155 acres without first telling his wife, Pamela. The property was overgrown, rundown and neglected, but what initially looked like a risky decision eventually became the foundation of a nearly 500-acre family farming operation.
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