Farmers spend much of their time thinking and talking about yield.
Results from a U.S. study suggest they should dedicate more time and energy to soil health because that variable could be the key to profitability.
A study published late February in PeerJ, an academic journal, found that farms who practise regenerative agriculture were 78 percent more profitable than farms using conventional methods.
Regenerative agriculture includes practices like zero tillage, cover crops and a focus on soil health.
The regenerative ag farms in the study were able to cut back on inputs and make more money because their soils were healthier.
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“Regenerative fields had 29 percent lower grain production but 78 percent higher profits over traditional corn production systems,” the article noted.
“Profit was positively correlated with the particulate organic matter of the soil, not yield.”
The authors of the paper were Claire LaCanne, a University of Minnesota extension educator, and Jonathan Lundgren, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist.
The researchers identified farmers practising regenerative ag in North Dakota and Nebraska and then compared the performance of those operations to neighbouring farmers using conventional methods. They focused on corn production because corn is the most common crop in the United States.
“Then we went out and sampled their farms,” said Lundgren, who now runs Blue Dasher Farms in South Dakota, where he studies sustainable ag practices.
The scientists gathered information on insect communities on the farms, soil quality, production costs, yield, profitability and other factors.
The regenerative farms had 29 percent lower corn yields but higher profits because costs were lower.
“The relative profitability in the two systems was driven by the high seed and fertilizer costs that conventional farms incurred and the higher revenue generated from grain and other products produced (meat production) on the regenerative corn fields,” the paper said.
Yield wasn’t the key determinant of profitability, the authors added. Instead, it was directly related to the amount of organic matter in the soil.
“(That) was counter-intuitive to us, as well. We were very surprised by that,” Lundgren said.
“People are so interested in bushels per acre, they’re forgetting the cost … on getting those bushels per acre.”
Besides cutting costs, the study found that regenerative farmers received additional sources of revenue, such as beef production by grazing the corn land.
If the farmer was regenerative and organic, there were price premiums in the organic market.
However, regenerative farmers who are not organic usually do not get higher prices for their grains and oilseeds.
Brooks White, who follows regenerative practices on his Lyleton, Man., farm, said the financial benefits come from cutting input costs rather than higher prices.
“I think that (price) premium will come, in time. How long it’s going to take, I don’t know,” he said.
In the paper, Lundgren dedicates many words to how they found fewer insect pests in the regenerative farms. However, there is no mention of how the regenerative farmers controlled weeds.
To reduce seed costs many of the growers planted non-genetically modified corn, meaning they didn’t use glyphosate in-crop to kill weeds.
Lundgren said regenerative farmers use other tactics to control weeds, such as cover crops, tillage and intercropping.
“All of the regenerative farmers out-competed the weeds with cover crops,” he said.
“But they would use other herbicides, as well.”
Thousands of farmers in Western Canada and the northern U.S. Plains practise zero tillage. Lundgren said that isn’t regenerative farming.
True regenerative farming is multiple strategies, such as cover crops, reduced tillage and the use of livestock to cycle nutrients in an effort to restore soil health.
“It (zero tillage) is not enough. Just cover cropping is not enough. Abandoning insecticides is not enough,” Lundgren said.
“You have to adopt a system.”
It’s unclear how many farmers in the northern Plains are using a regenerative ag system.
The Northern Prairies Ag Innovation Alliance, a group of farmers in North Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, was dedicated to improving soil health and developing sustainable farming practices.
The group didn’t hold its annual meeting this winter and it likely has disbanded.
However, there will be a regenerative ag conference in Manitoba later this year. The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association is hosting the event, which will be held in late November in Brandon.
