From Our Experts

A Compelling Case for Local Ag

For the past several decades, the food industry has experienced significant consolidation. This is especially true with the meat processing sector. According to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, about 85% of all fed cattle are purchased and processed by the largest four beef packers in the U.S. That leaves only 15% of the fed cattle […]

“Growing Hope and Possibility”

In my last post, I wrote about regenerative agriculture’s Christmas gift for all and how the hope of regenerative agriculture provides “Common Ground for Common Good.” I genuinely believe that in this New Year, and on this common ground, sprouts real hope and possibility-IF we resolve to grow regeneratively together. I believe this because every […]

“Common Ground for Common Good”

It is depressing to listen to the news these days. All we hear is stories of how tough things are today. From inflation to supply chain issues, to racism to immigration, to crime, society is being torn apart. You would think nothing positive is occurring. We, at Understanding Ag, believe otherwise. We believe that most […]

Growing Resilience Through Regenerative Agriculture

What are the key factors for building climate resiliency? How can each of us participate in that endeavor? In our October article, we shared examples from the Chihuahuan Desert that illustrated how regenerative practices can significantly improve productivity and resiliency in such an arid environment. We received quite a few comments on that article, but […]

The Devastating Impact of CRP on Our Rural Communities

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has been an extremely popular agricultural program that has been around for 35 years. Landowners are paid to enroll their land into this federal program to supposedly “conserve” it for the future. To qualify, landowners have to take cropland and plant it to some kind of grass that prevents erosion; […]

Regenerative Rainmaking

There is an interesting and thought-provoking quote from Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher renowned for his natural farming, that is quite pertinent to climate resiliency. The author of The One Straw Revolution, Fukuoka states, “It was in an American desert that I suddenly realized that rain does not fall from the heavens – […]

Nature’s History Matters

At Understanding Ag and the Soil Health Academy, we teach a concept called Historical Ecological Context. Basically, the concept involves examining what an ecosystem was like at least 400 to 500 years ago along with the influences on that ecosystem, and then determining what that ecosystem can be like today under regenerative management. We try […]

The Farm Bill’s Impact on Land Prices

The Farm Bill’s Impact on Land Prices By Eric Fuchs, Understanding Ag, LLC. I often wonder what the true value of farmland is in the U.S. I hear instances where Iowa or Illinois dry-land farm ground is going for $20K-plus an acre, and I wonder how that pencils out? I saw instances where pastureland in […]

The Hidden Hand Of U.S. Farm Policy

Earlier this summer, I was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a consultant with Understanding Ag, LLC. As part of my training, I have been shadowing others within the organization as they consult with clients from around the country. Do date, I have had the opportunity to travel to South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas. Coming […]

Practical Genetics: Knocking out the Props

By Allen Williams, Ph.D. Genetic selection is something that is often complicated and confusing for many livestock producers. There are numerous trait measurements that we try to decipher, including breeding values and EPD’s that we pour through and try to interpret. We like to use weighted or adjusted values for various traits. In the past […]

The Accrued Benefits of Adaptive Grazing

The problems of many current conventional grazing systems can be avoided by ecologically sensitive management of ruminants across the landscape. Wild ruminants, by the hundreds of millions, have existed for millennia on the North American landscape and are responsible for the tremendous fertility and soil carbon that amazed our ancestors as they moved across this […]

How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health

How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health by Stephanie Seneff Introduction Glyphosate is the most common herbicide in the world. The United States has been using glyphosate in agriculture since 1974, and it is also popular as the formulation Roundup to control weeds in residential maintenance of lawns. Starting in the late 1990s, a […]

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Where in the World is Understanding Ag?

“When I was a young kid, my grandfather had a painting of a Gaucho riding a horse at full gallop chasing down a cow in the Patagonia Steppe. The Gaucho was swinging a set of ‘boleadoras; above his head, which is the traditional tool to help them wrangle cattle. Ever since I first saw that painting, […]

Closing the Soil Health ‘Knowledge Gap:’ Lessons from the FFA Convention

We recently had the privilege of attending the National Future Farmers of America convention in Indianapolis, Indiana to represent Understanding Ag. Mingling with a sea of over 70,000 kids wearing the classic blue and gold FFA jackets with their home states emblazoned across the back is an unforgettable experience. It brought back memories of my […]

Our Broken Water Cycle and What Can We Do About It

“It’s not how much rain you get but how much rain you can keep.” As I write this in late Oct 2024, we have had no measurable rainfall for the entire month here in west-central Indiana. If you look at the August-through-October total rainfall here, we have not been this dry since 2010, and we’ve […]

A Real Solution to the Cattle Industry’s ‘Methane Problem’

The headline in The Washington Post article, published August 25, 2024, proclaimed “Scientists may have found a radical solution for making your hamburger less bad for the planet.” The article, written by Shannon Osaka and Emily Wright, examined research currently being conducted at the University of California-Davis using gene editing techniques on rumen microbes to […]

Part 2 Erosion: How Much is it Costing YOU?

In part one, I outlined some of the societal challenges linked to soil erosion and poor soil function. Now let’s take a look at some of the economic costs and benefits of addressing erosion on farms and ranches. To determine the cost of erosion, first we must assign a value to soil. In truth, topsoil […]

Part 1 Erosion: How Much is it Costing US?

Soil erosion has been one of the most persistent challenges humanity has faced since the advent of agriculture over 10,000 years ago. Loss of productive capacity of the supporting land base contributed to the collapse of numerous civilizations during that time. Poor grazing practices and tillage were the main causes of land degradation historically and […]

A Better Way to Grow Agave Leads to World’s First Certified Regenerative Tequila

Life is short so embrace change.” That’s the “distilled” philosophy Rodrigo Mestas brings to his tequila business, his regenerative agriculture management style and his outlook on life. In the acres he’s transitioned to regenerative agriculture, Mestas allows naturally occurring cover crops to emerge between the rows of the agave, and then grazes livestock- including […]

A Satellite Image Exposes the ‘Bare Facts’ About Conventional Ag

I pulled this image up on GoogleEarth yesterday. The photo below shows an area 12.5 miles wide, by 6.5 miles vertically, much of it in Rock Dell Township, Minnesota where our farm is. Hayfield is in the upper left-hand corner. The green area in the middle is along Hwy 30, and at the top is […]

From Symptoms to Solutions: Addressing the Underlying Causes of Water Quality Degradation – Part 5

In Part Four, I discussed the importance of keeping living roots in the soil and avoiding overapplication of nutrients at the wrong time. In this final post I will examine nitrogen sourcing options and how plants acquire nutrients in a healthy soil. To understand what the ‘right source’ of nitrogen is, we first need to […]

Will I Really Benefit from Grazing My Cover Crop?

God designed the world to function as a perpetual motion machine. If done right, it should always be building fertility, not extracting it. But you have to understand the principles of soil health, and the four ecosystem processes, in order to achieve that outcome. While many individuals are content with simply “growing a cover crop” […]

From Symptoms to Solutions: Addressing the Underlying Causes of Water Quality Degradation – Part 4

In Part Three, I reviewed the concept of using marginal nitrogen use efficiency and zero N check strips as tools to evaluate application rates. Now I will shift the focus to problems with overapplication, how to determine the right timing for application, and the consequences of not doing so. The fastest way to diminish the […]

From Symptoms to Solutions: Addressing the Underlying Causes of Water Quality Degradation – Part 3

In business, it all comes down to profit. In farming, profit comes down to things we can’t control like the weather and the markets, and the things we can control like our management decisions. One of those key management decisions is determining how much nitrogen to apply to our crops. In part two of this […]