Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

Lloyd Murdock grew up in Oklahoma, earned his PhD in soils at Virginia Tech, and found his way to the University of Kentucky while stationed at nearby Fort Knox. He has spent more than four decades there as Extension Soils Specialist, and is now Professor Emeritus at the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton, Kentucky. Lloyd helped make no-till wheat standard practice in Kentucky. He also...

Jeff Kleypas is Distribution Manager and Senior Agronomist at Advancing Eco Agriculture, based in South Texas. He began his career 20 years ago as a crop consultant walking South Texas vegetable fields that were sprayed weekly with insecticides and fungicides. He started working with biologicals in 2009 and joined AEA four years ago. He also runs a 1.5-acre market farm at home, where he tests new...

Wendy Mariko Johnson farms in Floyd County, Iowa, near Charles City. She grew up on an Iowa farm, left at 18 in the 1990s for an 18-year career in the Los Angeles fashion industry, and returned in 2010 with her husband Johnny Rafkin. Having watched farms close across Iowa in the 1980s, she came back determined to follow the three things that carried her parents through that era: diversification, l...

In this Podcast Extra, Brody Benton of Six B and John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, dig into why plants are shutting down weeks before black layer, what top dieback is actually telling you, and how nitrogen form, leaf temperature, and trace minerals decide whether a crop finishes strong or hollows out from the inside. John explains why the fungi behind stalk rot and crown rot — fusa...

Ed Baumgartner is a corn breeder and co-founder of Bass Hybrids in Olivia, Minnesota. His family has been in the seed corn business since the late 1930s, when his great uncles began producing hybrid seed as Troy Farms. Ed studied agronomy and plant genetics and spent 21 years and five mergers inside the commercial seed industry, much of it running winter nurseries in Puerto Rico and doing trait in...

Mike Omeg is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up on a diverse family farm in Oregon, initially producing cherries, hay, cattle, apricots, apples, and wheat. Over time, he honed in on fresh cherry production. He is currently the Director of Orchard Operations at Orchard View Cherries. Drawing on decades of tree-fruit experience and driven by a vision to keep his operation thriving for the next 10...

Join us for a discussion led by Heather Poutre of Agronomy Diversified LLC, Jeff True of True Potential Ag Consulting, LLC, and John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Ag. With nitrogen management remaining a central topic amidst heightened focus on water quality, Heather, Jeff, and John will dive into practical agronomic strategies designed to balance environmental stewardship with farm profitabilit...

Brody Benton is an agronomist and no-till farmer in Guthrie County, Iowa, specializing in continuous corn rotations and hoop-barn hog manure management .  Brody works with growers in Iowa and the midwest as an independent consultant through his company, Six B , using sap analysis and field trials to help growers reduce synthetic chemical dependency. To forward regenerative agriculture, Brody focus...

Mike Thompson is a fifth-generation farmer in West Texas who grew up in conventional "cotton-on-cotton" country. After leaving the farm for 16 years, he returned to face the region's harsh climate, hot winds, and declining water reserves. His perspective shifted during his first year back when his plow hit a patch of decomposing hay on pasture land, effortlessly slicing through moist mud instead o...

In this Podcast Extra episode, John Kempf joins Stefan Sobkowiak and his son, Zach, on the Permaculture Orchard Podcast . During the course of the episode, they discuss John's background growing up on an Ohio Amish farm ; plant biophysics, including seeds as living microbial inoculants and quantum mechanics in photosynthesis ; high-ROI grower tips like adding sugar to foliar sprays to cut nutrient...

In this Podcast Extra, Join John as he answers a wide range of grower-submitted questions covering challenges in agriculture. The discussion focuses on managing high summer leaf temperatures, optimizing organic nitrogen budgets, and navigating severe base saturation imbalances. John emphasizes the critical connection between precise crop nutrition, active soil biology, and the natural suppression...

Patrick Fabian and his two sons Andrew and Stephen operate a third and fourth-generation farm in Southern Alberta, Canada. Farming on 100% irrigated land, they specialize in producing a diverse range of pedigreed seeds, including cereals, flax, corn, alfalfa, canola, and peas. Their operation encompasses roughly a thousand acres and revolves around cultivating high-quality seeds that boast robust...

Mark Schatzker's path into food science and journalism began in 1997 when an unforgettable Chilean steak completely changed his perspective on taste. Armed with a degree in philosophy, he became obsessed with understanding why standard North American food had lost its flavor. This curiosity sparked a decades-long global journey investigating the deep connection between soil quality, plant genetics...

Jim Dunlop is a senior agronomist with Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) whose journey into agriculture began after serving in the Marine Corps. He used the GI Bill to study biology and chemistry at CSU Stanislaus. While there, he started a CSA farm in the Yosemite foothills, which grew significantly as he collaborated with organic growers. Jim later managed a pasture livestock operation on Californ...

In this Podcast Extra, Join John as he answers a wide range of grower-submitted questions covering challenges in agriculture. The discussion focuses on managing high summer leaf temperatures, optimizing organic nitrogen budgets, and navigating severe base saturation imbalances. John emphasizes the critical connection between precise crop nutrition, active soil biology, and the natural suppression...

Cole Mannix is a multi-generational rancher from central and western Montana who serves as the founder of Old Salt, a vertically integrated startup enterprise. Coming from a background rooted in mountain grazing and extensive holistic management, Cole spent decades working alongside his family and regional producers to optimize ecological function, riparian health, and predator coexistence on thei...

Peter Henry is a first-generation farmer who manages a diverse, seven-hectare operation in the mountainous terrain of Puerto Rico alongside a dedicated four-person workforce. He transitioned to agriculture during the pandemic after a successful career as a tech executive and startup vice president, initially purchasing the abandoned land with the intent of establishing a shade-grown specialty coff...

Tom Cotter is a third-generation farmer from Austin in southeast Minnesota who operates a diverse operation alongside his family and brother-in-law, Tony . He began farming with his dad in 1994 under a purely conventional system characterized by full tillage and routine chemical applications . Tom's journey into soil health began unexpectedly when his father purchased a tile plow and they noticed...

In this Podcast Extra, John Kempf joins the Soil Strategies podcast, hosted by Roy Thompson of the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, to break down a radically different operating system for agriculture that transitions away from traditional NPK mindsets toward biological agronomy . In this episode they discuss: How high-salt index, electrolyte-based fertilizers interrupt plant signaling and crea...

In this Podcast Extra, John joins the Soil Talks Podcast to break down a radically different way to think about crop health, soil biology, and system function. In this episode they discuss: • Why pests may not be attacking your crops but reporting a deeper issue • How soluble fertilizers can create long-term dependency • The hidden relationship between plant immunity and soil microbiology • Why mo...

In this Podcast Extra, Join John as he answers a wide range of grower-submitted questions covering real-world challenges in regenerative agriculture. The discussion focuses on the practical application of biologicals and biostimulants, nutrient management strategies for specific soil types, and the use of AEA products to improve crop resilience. John emphasizes the importance of synergistic "stack...

Bob Kinford is a veteran stockman and grazing consultant who has spent a lifetime observing and refining the way we interact with livestock. His journey began as a child watching cattle scatter while sheep and goats remained bunched, leading him to question the conventional belief that cows lack decision-making capabilities. Through decades of working alone, he developed a unique approach to manag...

Alex Udermann is a fifth-generation farmer from Minnesota who operates a dairy farm alongside his brother, parents, and wife . He began his career farming full-time immediately after high school and currently manages a diverse operation that includes milk cows, steers, and row crops . Facing significant financial struggles and equity erosion in 2016, Alex transitioned the farm toward regenerative...

Bob Tillman is a former electronics professional who launched Alta Colina Vineyard & Winery in 2003 on the steep, mountainous terrain of Paso Robles, California . Managing thirty-two acres of grapes, he has spent two decades transitioning from conventional methods to a biological approach centered on the natural resilience of his native ecosystem. He eliminated tillage in 2006 and moved away from...

David Stelzer is the founder of Azure Standard, a company born from a 1970s family health crisis that inspired a switch to organic farming . When a major processor dropped their organic grain for conventional wheat in the 1980s, David began delivering his own crops directly to co-ops in a pickup truck . This grew into a massive independent distribution network that now manages roughly 12,000 SKUs,...