Regenerative Agriculture:
Our Impact and Vision

1. Reduce disturbance to the soil
2. Maintain cover on soil
3. Living Roots and Biodiversity
4. Other Options (operation dependent): Based on your growing situation, you might be able to include these regenerative agriculture options in your program.
   a. Livestock integration
   b. Organic inputs

We are strongly committed to working with our growers to help them achieve their on-farm regenerative agriculture goals and driving a win/win situation for all involved. Our multi-faceted trial, laboratory, greenhouse, and on-farm field research results support our claims that using PhycoTerra^® can be a highly effective, cost-conscious approach to promoting the sustainable intensification of agriculture needed to support a growing population while also regenerating the soil along the way.

Simply put, the grower sees an improvement in soil quality and may even see an increase to their bottom-line profitability, and the public can rest assured that critical natural resources are not being used in an unsustainable manner.  When a grower can grow a crop using less water, fuel, and fertilizer inputs, we all benefit from the increase in efficiency and less excess or waste in the system overall.

This idea has been around for some time and is historically linked to conservation tillage practices. While tillage and fieldwork will continue to be key tools in agricultural production, there is increasing recognition that growers were leaning on their field iron a bit too much in the past, and this can negatively impact soil quality and make a field more prone to erosion.

With regards to the regenerative agriculture strategy, reduced tillage, or even a no-tillage program, will help keep soil in place and on the field where it belongs. Keeping soil on the field is critical to rebuilding and regenerating soil quality at the farm level.

Another key reason for reducing tillage is to maintain soil structure and the benefits of aggregated soil, such as improved water holding capacity and infiltration rates. Excessive tillage will slice apart soil aggregates, further reducing soil structure, which can make a field prone to erosion. Slicing and crushing soil aggregates also release carbon into the atmosphere, causing a net drawn down of your soil carbon, which can cause issues with nutrient exchange and water storage.

Covering your soil can be done in a couple of ways, but the end goal is the same: a covered soil can resist wind and water erosion as the impact of those physical forces is reduced significantly on the farm. For example, a covered soil is no longer exposed to the full power of a falling raindrop, which can beat up the soil and cause a loss in structure and could also drive erosion and runoff.

The same is true for wind erosion. Keeping the soil covered will cause more surface roughness, which decreases the erosive potential of a wind gust as it moves across your field. You can hide the soil in a few ways:

• Plant cover crops and cash crops on the field year-round and/or
• Keep the field covered in crop residue between crops.

Crop residue is an umbrella term for the “trash” that is left over after harvest and is key for keeping the soil covered when maintaining living plants is not feasible.

Living plant roots are key to the success of any crop. A good root system keeps the plant anchored to the soil and helps absorb water and nutrients to fuel aboveground growth. One aspect of plant roots that are just starting to be understood is their role in maintaining microbial communities belowground.

In this sense, plants ‘feed’ the soil microbiome (bacteria and fungi) with carbon molecules called root exudates. There is a strong connection between healthy soil microbiome and living roots. When a field is left fallow and bare, the microbial populations suffer as they no longer receive root exudates to sustain their population. Root exudates are secreted by living roots, and these exudates can come from the cash crop and/or cover crop. Furthermore, diverse forms of root exudates can also help support regenerative efforts and healthy soil microbes, and this can be achieved by crop rotation and multi-species cover crop mixes.

Based on your growing situation, you might be able to include these regenerative agriculture options in your program.

Livestock integration – Some growers have had success using livestock as a key component in their regenerative agriculture campaign. Adding livestock can help bring a different income stream to a farm, which can improve overall profitability and also consume excess crop residue and cover crops while they are on the field. As a bonus, the waste streams from the livestock can help return nutrients to the field and enrich the soil. This is not a viable option for all growers, however, especially those involved with the production of crops consumed by humans (e.g., leafy vegetables, nuts that are swept off the ground, etc.).

Organic inputs – Some growers insist that all inputs to a farm must be organically certified, but this is not always an option. If you prefer organic inputs, feel free to integrate them into your regenerative program!

Small plot growers can quickly employ small farming regenerative agriculture methods as they typically do not require extensive equipment for their operations and can avoid excessive soil disturbance. Small plot growers can also mix and match their cash crop types and cover crops because they are often not using specialized harvesting equipment such as combines, cotton pickers, tree nut shakers, alfalfa swathers, etc.

Larger farms, due to their field size and reliance on equipment, require more planning to incorporate crop mixes and tillage reduction practices into the fold, but it can be done. More and more large growers are seeing the benefit of regenerative agriculture practices and have embraced the planning and implementation aspect head-on.