Not a farm, a decades long experiment with regenerative farming.
This was one of the most transformational calls I've had, with such an educated, open minded farmer. I'd like to tell a story, not describe an interview, but don't think I can paint his picture in well enough detail. I'll leave it up to your own interpretation and use A to describe the farmer I was talking to, to protect his identity.
What is the main problem you see that prevents conventional farmers from
going regenerative? What are the biggest hurdles?
The problem is the transition can't be done in piecemeal. It could
have huge positive impacts for the environment, local community, and farmer.
But, it's very complex because there are so many forces with vested
interest that dont want change to occur. It can be possible to impact one
(sector), but not another.
Universities, state, corportions, AND the CONSUMER (consumer hesitates to pay any more for better food) are all huge players. With relevance to a farmer, the main issue is "who's gonna pay the difference when the yields are less or the farmer can't grow as much as he transitions?".
What farmers really want is better INSURANCE. They want an umbrella to protect them, giving them the space to venture out and experience different ways to farm. Moreover, practicing regenerative agriculture isn't just having cover crops. Spraying pesticides all over your soil even once, will instantaneously revert all progress you made in cultivating soil microbacteria. So, it's got to be all or nothing.
There isn't a lot of data to support regen ag. Professors will kill (him) - but too much of research is deductive reasoning: asking questions like, "what is the impact of nitrogen on soil?". It's too piecemeal.
On A farm, he considers everything. Their borders, their timing, their planning. Sometimes stuff he does has an impact 6 years later, which is hard to measure. He's curated a system that reduces inputs and lets his system develop naturally, using long term thinking thats impossible for farmers that are optimizing for crop yield, harvest by harvest.
A major problem of our system is that everything instant gratification. Landowners want as much money as they can every acre every year. If farmers aren't yielding high, the lease owners will give the land to someone else.
What is your background? Did you have any formal training in agriculture? This is his 50th year farming. He switched to regen ag in 1985 when he saw the ground was getting worse and worse. He began with just putting wheatstraw into the soil and was 100% serendiputous. A says he learns more from mistakes than victories, and it can be really hard to draw conclusions in farming: "what was the factor that made my crop do X that year?" His farms always has trials going, doing comparative analyses with one type of practice vs another. They almost went bankrupt, twice.
He plays with the ideas of minimalism vs manipulation, which is what most farmers do. They sterilize the whole environment and create what you want through inputs, with no trust in the natural system.
The best way to start the transition to regeneration is to get away from sterile environment. Try creating live roots, and add biomass. The soil and ground should be spongy. You don't need all the nitrogen fertilizers you think.
He started regen farming 37 years ago, and had done everything with no support from the state or university. With decades of initiative, he made relationships with professors from UCDavis, UC Berkeley, and UC Extension schools to share his knowledge and progress the field of regen ag.
What is the main motivator for a farmer to start the change, from conventional to regen?
a huge surprise to me: some conventional farmers dont even see worms in their soils. they dont remember, know, or feel what it means to have healthy, microbial enriched soils.
farmers need to see hard numbers from someone they trust. It can take 3-4 years for the ground to change, so they cant depend on the instantaneous result anymore.
how bad is tilling for our soils? if so, why does it have such an extensive history, indicating its benefit for soil? With some organic/regen farms, people are throwing it out. If you only maintain 1-acre, you can pull out weeds yourself or get volunteers to help. But it really matters at scale: no-till on any size is almost nonexistent.
On his farm, he uses targetting tilling: only killing what you need to and till everything shallow (2-3 inches). A only uses tilling to a) kill weeds or b) make a seedbed. He doesn't depend on it, like other farmers do, for fertility and yields. His tractors run on the same path for 12 years, reducing the amount of ground getting disturbed. o make this work, he builds soil structure with other methods: putting compost out, biomass, and tending to the roots. True, weeds reduce naturally over time. Their older organic fields are their cleanest ones. But this isn't bulletproof; forget about insects, disease, and fertility: A's biggest spend is on weeds, and is the only thing holding them back from going no-till.
*Quick reflection: These write-ups are to make my conversations with farmers more accessible and shareable. The writing is unpolished, but it allows me to work faster, so I hope the reader doesn't mind !* A is bestie.