Soil Sense

• The Art of the Possible With Jeff Rowe and Matt Wallenstein

  Introducing: season eight of Soil Sense! Co-hosts Tim Hammerich and Dr. Abbey Wick are excited to bring another season to the show, this time sponsored by Syngenta. Season eight explores soil health at scale, featuring farmers from all around the world.  Science and innovation have unlocked incredible gains in agricultural productivity and sustainability over the years. But there's still so much potential out there, especially if we're able to leverage a better understanding of soil science. We're joined today by Syngenta CEO, Jeff Rowe, and chief soil scientist, Dr. Matt Wallenstein. They challenge us consider the art of the possible when it comes to the future of soil health.“ For most farmers, a lot of farmers in the world, the land is their most important investment. And in some ways, historically, it's been what we understood the least.” - Jeff Rowe Jeff Rowe is the CEO of Syngenta group based in Basel, Switzerland. But the other hat he wears is that of a family farmer. These two vantage points, as an agribusiness CEO and a farmer, make him an excellent guest to kick off this season.  “ Because we hadn't given as much attention to the soil, that now represents the biggest opportunity we have to increase productivity and sustainability in the next decade.” Matt Wallenstein, Ph.D.Dr. Matt Wallenstein joined Syngenta with a background in research at Colorado State, and as an entrepreneur. He launched a startup to commercialize some of this research. He was recruited by Jeff to lead the company's soil health efforts. Jeff and Matt discuss the potential for soil health to advance agricultural productivity and sustainability.This Week on Soil Sense:Meet farmer and Syngenta CEO Jeff Rowe and chief soil scientist Dr. Matt WallensteinExplore how scientific advancements in soil science can lead to opportunities for farmersConsider the importance of resilient soil, the balance of traditional and modern farming methods, and Syngenta's commitment to supporting soil health globallyThank you to Syngenta for sponsoring this season of the Soil Sense podcast. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there!

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• Building Soil Health for Soil Function

  In this episode we wrap up season seven of the soil sense podcast with a well known and well respected farmer and long-time soil conservationist, Barry Fisher. Barry recently retired from his career at the USDA, where he most recently worked in the soil health division. In that capacity he met and spoke with farmers about soil health throughout the central part of the US. Since retirement, Barry manages his family farm in Greencastle, Indiana and has a consulting business where he does training and soil health education for organizations through Fisher Soil Health LLC. Barry discusses soil health principles, important considerations for transition to regenerative practices, and the essential role of a knowledgeable advisor. “If you really think about it, our current crops are only feeding the biology June, July, a little bit of May, and maybe a little bit of August. That's a very small percent of the total year… We did a lot of talking about no till as far as protecting erosion, but when we added cover crops to it, that was a game changer in that now the cover crop immediately fed more biology longer. That biology immediately started providing aggregate stability which absolutely helps the surface infiltration of soil, the aeration of soil. You know you start getting better structure to the surface of the soil and that can happen in as little as one season when we add cover crops.” - Barry Fisher One visual Barry has used to help demonstrate soil health to producers is what he has called the “fence row effect.” Previous fence rows can illustrate the value and yield potential when incorporating the four principles of soil health. There is a reduction in disturbance, added diversity of plant life, maintained living roots in the soil and because of that the soil is kept covered. These four principles can allow producers to see a bump in yield in these areas. Barry goes on to explain how to generalize some of those principles on an operation-wide basis.  “Generally there's some farmer in the front row that says, “Okay Fisher, that's great, but, my landlord wants me to farm the whole farm, not just the old fence rows.”... I can show those aerial photos where management on one farm had the four principles kind of in place and the management on the farm right next to it did not. And the aerial photo is very telling that yes, we can manage beyond the fence row. We can get that fence row effect across the entire farm.” - Barry Fisher This Week on Soil Sense: Meet Barry Fisher a current Indiana farmer and retired USDA soil conservationist Explore what Barry calls the “fence row effect” and how that can be applied to demonstrating the four principles of soil health Discover Barry’s recommendations in transitioning tillage and cover crop practices Thank you to the Soy Checkoff for sponsoring this Farmers for Soil Health series of the Soil Sense podcast. This show is produced by Dr. Abbey Wick, Dr. Olivia Caillouet, and Tim Hammerich, with support from the United Soybean Board, the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Health Institute. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there. Check out the Farmers for Soil Health website at FarmersForSoilHealth.com.

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• Farmer-to-Farmer Soil Health Education with Mike Lewis

  Throughout this series, we have featured a lot of large scale commercial farming operations, but soil health is just as important to farms that operate on smaller acreages as well. Mike Lewis is a farmer, military veteran, and the senior manager for the National Center for Appropriate Technologies. Mike farms in southeastern Kentucky on a small farm in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. His farm consists of 126 acres, 12 of which he uses to grow fresh market vegetables and the other 114 is a forest-based pasture system where he raises cattle, pastured pork and pastured poultry.  “For me, soil health is the most critical thing to the success of our operation… One of Wendell Berry's quotes is, “What I stand for is what I stand on.” And I think that soil is what we all stand on. And it's the foundation for all life and sustenance on this planet. So there's nothing more important than healthy soils.” - Mike Lewis As the senior manager in the sustainable agriculture and rural communities division of NCAT Mike focuses on building resilient communities and supporting farmers in sustainable production systems. The Armed to Farm and Soil For Water programs are two of the many programs he contributes to. Mike also opens up his own family farm to other producers to demonstrate some of the soil health principles he has incorporated on his operation. “I think that one of the things that we're really focused on is being able to have a place where we can show other producers other alternatives to production, right? We open our farm up three or four times a year for other producers to come on and look at our hog production system and to learn how we've reduced our feed inputs by timing of our farrowing and our pasture management skills.” - Mike Lewis This Week on Soil Sense: Meet Mike Lewis, a Kentucky farmer, military veteran, and the senior manager for the National Center for Appropriate Technologies Discover Mike’s journey from the farm to the military and back to the farm to raise his family Explore the Armed to Farm and Soil For Water programs and the opportunities they offer producers Thank you to the Soy Checkoff for sponsoring this Farmers for Soil Health series of the Soil Sense podcast. This show is produced by Dr. Abbey Wick, Dr. Olivia Caillouet, and Tim Hammerich, with support from the United Soybean Board, the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Health Institute. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there. Check out the Farmers for Soil Health website at FarmersForSoilHealth.com. 

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• Theory vs Practice in Soil Health with Frank Rademacher

  Eisenhower famously said “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.” That resonates with a lot of farmers who know the theory of farming doesn’t always directly translate to the practice. Farmer and agronomist Frank Rademacher joins us to talk about what’s working on his farm in East Central Illinois, and the work he does as a conservation agronomist with The Nature Conservancy. Frank discusses the theory vs the practice when it comes to soil health, what has worked and what hasn’t worked on his farm, how they’ve arrived at some of their current practices, and a little bit on Frank’s work with retailers on behalf of The Nature Conservancy.  “What we kind of found is we were doing diverse mixes, kind of buying into some of that messaging that diverse mixes are always best. And again, I think that's kind of where the theory versus in practice discussion happens because we would have some harsh winters and no snow cover. And so some of those species would not overwinter. And so, we start off on a bad foot if we're really depending on cover crops and we can't get the consistency. So what we've really tried to build over time is a portfolio of cover crops that perform consistently.” - Frank Rademacher Frank found a passion for agronomy while in college, and started helping his father implement some conservation practices on their farm. Over the past 10 years, Frank and his father have gone 100% no-till and insecticide-free on their 600 acre farm. They’ve also ramped up their cover crop program which includes using a roller-crimper and high biomass cover crops. Frank also works as a conservation agronomist with The Nature Conservancy, where part of his focus is working with ag retailers and other farmer advisors to add conservation advice to their business models.  “I understand what some of the environmental goals that Illinois has set out are and I also understand that some of these things are difficult to do at the farm level. And so, how do we scale conservation? That's a lot of what we look at now is not only shaping that cover crop mix to be a little bit more flexible, depending on spring weather, but also just understanding the operation as a whole.” - Frank Rademacher This Week on Soil Sense: Meet Illinois farmer and conservation agronomist Frank Rademacher Explore the balance Frank is finding between operational success and incorporating conservation practices Thank you to the Soy Checkoff for sponsoring this Farmers for Soil Health series of the Soil Sense podcast. This show is produced by Dr. Abbey Wick, Dr. Olivia Caillouet, and Tim Hammerich, with support from the United Soybean Board, the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Health Institute. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there. Check out the Farmers for Soil Health website at FarmersForSoilHealth.com. 

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• The Swine to Soil Connection with Jamie Burr

  When you think about soil health, you might picture a soybean field or a corn field.  It may not be immediately apparent how many other industries rely on soil health, like pork. National Pork Board Chief Sustainability Officer Jamie Burr joins us to share about the importance of soil health, conservation, and sustainability to the pork industry. He’s been in this particular role for about six months, but has spent most of his life in the pork industry.  “The reason that the pork board is so involved in that is if you look at all of our footprints, whether it be carbon, land or water, a vast majority of our footprint has to do with making feed. So those crops are as much as 60 to 70 percent of each one of those footprints.” - Jamie Burr Prior to the pork board, Jamie spent almost 24 years at Tyson Foods in various environmental and sustainability roles, most of which were on the live production side in both pork and poultry. Jamie shares how he defines sustainability, why the pork board prioritizes soil health for people, planet and pork, how the industry is striving forward in key areas of sustainability and conservation, and how they’re leveraging data to tell that story to consumers.  “The goal that we have as a pork industry is a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. And that's the farm gate emissions. So that would be from the time the grain is grown til the pigs leave the farm gate…So we have stood up a platform to begin collecting that data so that producers can enter data and then we can start publicly reporting on those metrics from a transparency perspective. Without that data, it's hard to tell a story.” - Jamie Burr This Week on Soil Sense: Meet National Pork Board Chief Sustainability Officer Jamie Burr who shares about the importance of soil health, conservation, and sustainability to the pork industry Explore the sustainability priorities of the Pork Board and the oversight they offer producers Thank you to the Soy Checkoff for sponsoring this Farmers for Soil Health series of the Soil Sense podcast. This show is produced by Dr. Abbey Wick, Dr. Olivia Caillouet, and Tim Hammerich, with support from the United Soybean Board, the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Health Institute. If you are interested in what soil health looks like in practice and on the farm, please subscribe and follow this show on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review while you’re there. Check out the Farmers for Soil Health website at FarmersForSoilHealth.com. 

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