We’re mixing it up a little today on the

AgEmerge Podcast.  We’ve just gotten back from the AgEmerge event in Monterey, California and we’re pretty pumped up from all the learning and exchanging of ideas that went on.  The venue and the food were pretty great too!  This episode is a recording of our panel discussion we held while at the conference. Three of our panelists are growers from California and the other three are their support team from California Ag Solutions.  This is a real, unprompted, unfiltered discussion centering around how they’ve chosen to adopt regenerative ag practices in their operations. They talk about how they felt implementing some of these practices and what might have made them reluctant to adopt some of these changes.

They discuss some trainwrecks along the way and what they’ve learned after making these bold steps toward change.

It’s a high energy discussion that’ll leave you excited about trying something new on your farm. We hope you'll take a listen and we look forward to this new year as we bring you speakers who are busting out of that old ag paradigm, building soil health and leaving a legacy.

Today on the AgEmerge podcast, Matt Foes joins us as we discuss the exciting work Matt’s doing on his own farm taking what he’s learned over the years and designing a systems approach to growing corn and soybeans as efficiently as possible. Matt is from north-central Illinois where he grew up on a corn and soybean farm. Matt has his bachelor's in chemistry and a master's in weed science and has contributed significant research and agronomic support in the seed and chemical industry. What’s exciting about the work Matt is doing is that he’s taken what he’s learned over the years and designed a systems approach. Matt is quick to point out the importance of working with other people and learning alongside them and then assembling that knowledge in a new and unique way. Our conversation looks at the challenges facing farms today everything from labor and working capital to rethinking passes across the field. Matt talks about applying the golden rule to growing crops, and oh yes my favorite, how 2019 messed up my spreadsheet!

Dave Williams joins us today on the AgEmerge Podcast. Dave is the Chief Commercial Officer at CalCom Energy. His business is focused on working on the economic side of energy with its customers. Dave talks about understanding energy consumption and where the opportunities are to make money in those energy markets.

Dave works on the Executive Team to implement CalCom’s strategic vision of being a leader in sustainable energy technology and financing solutions for agriculture and water. Dave’s team provides technical and financing solutions to save customers money and maximize returns.

Wondering what all the AgEmerge excitement is about? Monte and Kim discuss all things AgEmerge like all the emerging trends in agriculture, not to mention the great lineup of speakers including Dwayne Beck, Keith Berns, and Zach Bush. You won't want to miss this discussion and you won't want to miss AgEmerge 2020 in Monterey, California. Join us January 7th - 9th in beautiful Monterey for a conference that will leave you energized and equipped for breaking out of the old ag paradigm. It's not too late to be part of this awesome event!

For more info and to register, visit www.agemerge.com

Mallory Krieger, Director at Terra Elossa, joins Kim as they discuss how her background in conventional agriculture and other life experiences led to the work she's doing today. Mallory's work is transforming Midwestern agriculture using a holistic and integrated approach. Mallory uses social science-based strategies to develop systems that address the environmental problems that have resulted from industrial agriculture.

Check out more information at:

www.terraelossa.com

www.organicagronomy.org

www.pastureproject.org

Today Zach Bush, MD joins Monte and Kim on this episode of the AgEmerge Podcast. Dr. Zach is a triple board-certified physician and internationally-recognized educator on the intersection of the microbiome with human health/disease and our food production systems. His work is giving new insights into root-cause solutions in the sectors of farming, big pharma, and Western Medicine at large. Zach’s work in both for-profit and nonprofit arenas alike is creating avenues to foster collaborative action for all stakeholders in the global community, promoting a regenerative future of health for the planet and our children.

Learn more at www.zachbushmd.com

You’ve got data? Agriculture is full of data, collected from every tractor, planter, combine, plant, you name it, there’s no lack of data. On this episode, Monte and Kim talk about how blockchain can harness the masses of data in agriculture to wrangle everything collected into a useful system.

Then, Kim is joined with Erin Vincent, she’s a software developer, but more than that, she’s a proponent of blockchain and the possibilities in agriculture. She joins us on this episode of AgEmerge where we discuss not only what blockchain is, but the unlimited opportunities to harness data for future use in agriculture.

Join Monte and Kim today with their “State of the Union” as they cover all things soil health from their travels this summer, including the National Strip-Till conference and the Farm Progress Show. One key concept they discuss is how the soil health principles are solid and transfer uniformly across the globe but the practices are always local and can even vary from field to field, depending on soil types, cropping system rotations, irrigations, water availability, etc.

They discuss the compounding effects of what our rotational decisions make over time when we look at maximizing diversity. What does that diversity mean for soil health and what are some other benefits that can be gained by implementing that diversity.

Monte talks about a little painful learning process this year in soybean intercropping, adjusting their harvesting technology and the great things they discovered through a significant challenge in those beans.

They talk about the importance of soil residues, even where we’re producing vegetables. We don’t need to be killing our soil to meet food safety regulations. We need adaptable food safety regulations and residues that are safe for the crop we are growing.

On today’s episode, Tom Cotter joins us from his farm in Austin Minnesota. Tom and his family have been farming for more than a century. We discuss the ways they’ve developed effective soil health practices utilizing cover crops, interseeding, diversity, organic crops, and canning crops as well as grazing livestock on their farm, They’ve also ventured into the hemp market and are learning what that means for soil health and human health.

Tom joins us from one of his fields where he is sitting and reflecting on the soil and the bounty of cover that surrounds him. Tom says observation is one of the important keys to recognizing what’s happening on the land and in the soil. Take weeds for example - Tom looks at them not as weeds, but as signals indicating something is wrong in the system so rather than just getting rid of them,he investigates what he can learn from them.

Tom is focused on building healthy soils that in turn builds healthy nutritious food. So grab a glass of tea, relax listening to the natural sounds from the field and join us for a great conversation with Tom Cotter.

Bob Recker of Cedar Valley Innovation joins us on today’s episode. Bob is focused on row configuration oriented around sunlight harvest. His research is working on harnessing that sunlight to create the opportunity for improving soil health, utilizing cover crops and companion crops.

We talk about ideas where we can go beyond that 60” row and what we can do with the rest of that sunlight interception. Bob stresses that he is looking at advanced farming practices, generating ideas that are worthy of more investigation and practical research. Producers are taking the work Bob has done and using it as a baby step to identify what works in their individual operations.

You can learn more about the work that Bob is doing at http://cedarvalleyinnovation.com/