Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

Sometimes growers apply fertilizers to crops that don't respond to the applications like they're expecting. When plant health and vigor is in a decline, and nutrient applications don't move the needle, how can we reclaim the situation?    Through our consulting experience, we have learned that when nutrient applications bring little response and plants are going downhill, applying the right biolog...

Sarah Singla is a farmer, agronomist, and educator from Southern France. Her family farm has been in no-till production since 1980. When she took the reigns in 2010 she additionally pursued a wonderfully complex diversified cover-cropping, mixed species, multi-income-stream approach that is highly thought-out, yet fluid. Sarah has visited growers the world over in direct communication about their...

Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director of the ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO of Blue Dasher Farm. He received his Ph. D. in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004 and was a professional pesticide evaluator with USDA-ARS for 11 years. Jonathan's research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions f...

Soil analysis should be used as a milestone to monitor progress towards growing healthy crops; they should not be used as a goal. Every nutrient and soil amendment application needs to produce a strong crop response, not just a soil analysis response. When we apply this understanding properly it means that we will not apply uneconomical quantities of soil amendments to balance a soil analysis that...

Greg Pennyroyal is the Viticulture and Enology Coordinator at Wilson Creek Winery & Vineyards in Temecula, California. He is also the Professor of Viticulture for Mt. San Jacinto Community College. Greg has worked in many industries including medicinal organic herb production, traditional eastern medicine, and botanical medicine research and development. Greg has been active in researching neurode...

I've been asked a lot recently about how to manage vegetative growth versus reproductive growth. On the mini-episode this week, I talk about which nutrients drive strong vegetative growth, and which drive strong reproductive growth and development, along with the hormonal interactions which drive plant dominance. Nutrients in both categories interact with and synergize or antagonize certain plant...

Dr. Jerry Pollack is a pioneering water researcher whose work in structured water and cell biology has been described as being some of the most important research that will be conducted in the 21st century. His research creates a completely new paradigm of cell biology and nutrient absorption. He is recognized worldwide as a dynamic speaker and author, whose passion lies in plumbing the depths of...

On the mini-episode this week, I focus on why we should develop regenerative agriculture, how it is different, and why it is important. In the past 10 or 12 years, a lot of conversation has been had on sustainable agriculture. In this episode, I explore what it is that we want to sustain, why regeneration is important, and how regenerative farming systems impact the bottom line in a way that susta...

Steve Diver has earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Horticulture and has conducted research on fruit and nut production, and seasonal changes in elemental concentration in pecan fruit and leaves. He has served as the Extension Horticulture Agent in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, and has also worked as an Agriculture Specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.  In 2010, he est...

Professor Lynn Long has worked in sweet cherry research and Extension at Oregon State University since 1988. At that time, the main cherry variety being grown was Bing on a Mazzard rootstock, leading to disease and susceptibility to weather pressure. Lynn has been an advocate for diversity in varieties and rootstocks, maintaining a cherry variety trial since 1996, and evaluating nearly 100 varieti...

Dr. Kris Nichols has conducted innovative research on soil biology, understanding how to regenerate soil health quickly. She is the founder and principal scientist of KRIS (Knowledge for Regeneration In Soils) Systems Education & Consulting Services. Dr. Nichols has also been the Chief Scientist at Rodale Institute and a Research Soil Microbiologist with the USDA. In this episode, Kris and I discu...

Dr. Hatfield is the laboratory director for the USDA's National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment. He has also served on the faculty of the University of California-Davis and is a Past President of the American Society of Agronomy. In this short but very powerful episode, Jerry and I discuss the mechanics of improving plant efficiency in capturing water, nutrients, and light and put t...

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Larry Phelan , a professor at Ohio State University where he heads research programs studying the role of soil communities in plant health and susceptibility to disease and insect pests in biological farming systems. Larry also heads programs researching the identification and behaviors of plant secondary compounds and insect pheromones that affect...

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing a great farmer and friend of mine, Klaas Martens . Klaas has been farming for more than 30 years and has driven the adoption of sustainable farming practices through his work with numerous national organizations and advisory committees. This episode contains some really great information from Klaas's many years of experience developing sustainable farm...

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Groff , a farmer and cover crop pioneer who has also worked with the University of Maryland on extensive cover crop research. Steve founded Cover Crop Coaching in 2016 and has spoken to audiences across North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, and many other parts of the world on the use of cover crops across the full range of agricultural applic...

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Don Huber , a leading plant pathologist and Professor Emeritus at Purdue University. We discuss how to manage soil-borne diseases by managing crop rotations, and the management needed to grow 500 hundred bushels corn. Don shared intriguing observations on how soil-borne disease pathogen populations remain present in the soil constantly and ar...

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Matt Kleinhenz , a professor at the Ohio State University in vegetable crop physiology who has done research in many areas of horticulture and crop sciences. We talk about high quality food production, how growers and consumers view nutrient density, how farmers can influence the market, Matt's views on nutritional yield, and how growers can stay up-to-date on th...

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Tom Dykstra , the founder and laboratory director at Dykstra Labs, who also has advanced degrees in entomology and has worked with Dr. Phil Callahan. In this episode, we talk about plant and insect communications, and how plants can only see and feed on plants who are unhealthy (insects are only attracted to unhealthy plants) .  We also discuss Dr....

In this episode, I had an awesome time interviewing Dr. Michael McNeill, who is an agronomic consultant with several degrees in soil fertility, plant physiology, and quantitative genetics. We discuss how fertility and genetics impact plant response to disease invasion, what causes the suppression of soil health, Michael's experience quickly regenerating soil, how farming has changed since the gree...

In this episode, I interviewed Gabe Brown, a rancher who is a veteran no-tiller and the owner of Brown's Ranch in Bismarck, N.D.. We discussed Gabe's experience farming without applying any fertilizers, the ability to feed more people with regenerative agriculture than with the current system, the economics of grazing beef, and the tremendous opportunity of growing non-commodity crops. This episod...

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Robert Kremer , a microbiology scientist for the USDA who also works as a professor in plant sciences at the University of Missouri. In this episode, we discuss Robert's project with the USDA decomposing weed seeds in soil, native soil microorganisms and microbial interactions, and the implications of AMPA and glyphosate on soil biology. We a...