Meet the Board: Joe Hamilton

What brought you back to Delaware County, and how did that lead to your role on the SWCD board?

When I moved back to the farm in 2015, I was coming off a 17-year career in engineering in Detroit, Chicago, and Cincinnati. I enjoyed the work, but I was tired of the cubicle life. My dad was also slowing down and thinking about downsizing the farm. There was no pressure from him, but I realized that if I didn’t come back then, I might not get another chance to keep the operation going.

Once I was back full-time, I started looking for ways to make the farm more sustainable—both environmentally and financially. I converted to no-till and experimented with cover crops. 

To help with the cost, I reached out to the Soil and Water Conservation District for support. That experience really opened my eyes to how much the District can help farmers, and when a board position opened in 2019, I saw it as an opportunity to return the favor.

How did your background in engineering influence your approach to farming and conservation?

I really believe that engineers make good farmers, and farmers make good engineers. Engineering is all about optimizing systems and solving problems, and farming is no different. 

You’re trying to grow a crop profitably, manage equipment, and make decisions with limited data and resources. I approached farming like I would any engineering problem: what variables can I tweak, how can I reduce inefficiencies, how do I measure success?

You’ve said you wanted to make changes when you came back to the farm. What kinds of changes, and why?

Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, our farm was very conventional—lots of tillage, lots of inputs. When I came back, I saw how much money we were spending on labor, fuel, equipment, fertilizer, and chemicals. I wanted to improve profitability by cutting some of those costs.

No-till seemed like the biggest opportunity. I knew it would reduce wear and tear on the machinery and save a lot of time and fuel. But I also knew it came with tradeoffs—primarily, a potential yield lag for the first couple years. 

I had read and heard that cover crops could help the soil recover faster in that transitional first couple of years of no-till, so I started integrating them too. By 2018, I was 100 percent no-till. And by 2019, the majority of my acreage was in cover crops.

Was it a difficult transition? What helped you succeed where others might hesitate?

It was challenging. I did see a yield drop the first year, but things started to recover in year two, and by year three, I was outperforming our previous benchmarks.

 A lot of farmers hesitate because they can’t afford to take that short-term hit. Margins are tight, and it’s hard to ask someone who’s barely breaking even—or operating in the red—to take a risk that could make things worse for a couple years.

What helped me was looking at the whole system. I didn’t just stop tillage. I also changed when and how I applied fertilizer. I tried chicken litter. I shifted from pre-plant nitrogen application to side-dress. I sought out government cost-share programs. I looked for specialty crops that were more profitable. 

It wasn’t one change—it was a full system overhaul. That complexity makes it hard to pinpoint what made the biggest difference, but I think it’s also why the transition worked.

What motivates you to serve your community in this way?

Right now, I serve on the boards of the Delaware County Farm Bureau, the Delaware County Drainage Board, and the Chamber of Commerce. 

Most of those are volunteer roles. I just think that if you want to see your community improve, you have to get involved. Whether it’s agriculture, infrastructure, or economic development, it’s important to have people at the table who care about long-term outcomes.

Serving on the SWCD board has introduced me to so many people I never would have met otherwise—people working on conservation, education, community improvement. That’s been one of the most rewarding parts.

What are you most proud of in your time on the SWCD board, and what’s your vision for the future?

We’ve had a great board during my time—people with shared values and energy. That’s allowed us to grow our outreach and programming. We’ve hosted field days, brought in expert speakers, and worked directly with farmers and landowners to implement conservation practices. I’ve also been involved in the Mississinewa and White River cost-share initiatives and the White River branding project with the Ball Brothers Foundation.

What I’m proud of is that we’re not just focused on ag producers. We also support non-agricultural conservation and community-based projects. 

Moving forward, I hope we continue to grow—both in terms of reach and financial resources—so we can keep offering real solutions that benefit landowners and the broader public.

What keeps you personally committed to conservation?

My daughter, Grace. She’s five years old and already loves helping in the garden, feeding the cattle, and seeing how things grow. 

I want her to grow up with the same natural beauty and opportunity that I had—or better. I want her to be able to walk along the White River and experience the Greenway. I want her to have the option of taking over the farm someday, and if she does, I want to hand it off in better shape than when I took it over.

That means building a farm that’s both economically and environmentally sustainable. It’s been a learning process, but it all goes back to the same idea: leave things better than you found them.