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Welcome to Regenerative Reflections, a podcast produced in partnership with MU Extension.
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I'm Michaela Voris, your host from the University of Missouri's Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
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Our mission is to provide farmers with the research, resources, and connections to implement
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practices that improve soil health, crop yield, and livestock systems.
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This week I chatted with Zach Tolson, a farmer part of our Nutrient Management with 4R Approach
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Incentive Payment Program.
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This is one of eight incentive payment programs part of the Missouri Climate Resilient Crops
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and Livestock Project, or CIRCL for short.
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The CIRCL project seeks to empower farmers and producers to add or maintain regenerative
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practices on their operations.
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To Zach, the most important part of this program is reducing inputs and revitalizing the land
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for the next generation.
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Before we talk to Zach, let's check in with Dr. Newell Kitchen, a soil scientist and agronomist
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and the owner of Agronomic, Geologic, and Environmental Sciences, LLC.
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He also works as a consultant for us at the Center for Regenerative Ag.
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Dr. Kitchen, can you give us some context on what this nutrient management practice
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is and why it's important to our agricultural systems?
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There are aspects of nutrient management that have a tremendous impact on soil carbon.
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Soil carbon is kind of at the heart of this whole project and being able to restore or
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preserve carbon in the soil is kind of the building block for soil health and for helping
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to store carbon relative to greenhouse gas kind of issues.
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So when it comes to nutrient management specifically, it has to do with nitrogen, so there is no
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other nutrient, fertilizer nutrient, that has as much impact on soil carbon as nitrogen.
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The nitrogen practice that we've come up with is one that we feel like is a practice that
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will help encourage increased nitrogen use efficiency and also help in some of these
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goals that we have that have been established relative to carbon.
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Thanks, Dr. Kitchen.
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If you have any questions about the nutrient management program, you can reach him
Load full transcript
at kitcheninatmissouri.edu.
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Without further ado, let's hear from Zach Tolson.
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All right, well, Zach, it's great to have you and it's great to talk with you today.
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Thanks for having me.
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So to get started, why don't we talk about a little bit about yourself and then also
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an introduction to your farm and your business?
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Yes, so my name is Zachary Tolson and I farm a couple hundred acres in Grundy County, Missouri.
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I've been doing that since 2015 and then I also work for an independent ag retailer.
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It's Butterfield and Associates here in Meadville.
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Can you give us an idea too about how you came across the Center for Regenerative Agriculture
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and Nutrient Management Practices?
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We have a 4-R certified advisor, Caitlin Dinsmore, who I've worked with a lot through this process.
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She's been a huge help as far as that goes and I've learned pretty well everything about
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these programs through her.
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So how long have you been doing nutrient management practices and what practices do you do on
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your farm?
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As far as on the nitrogen for corn, I've always done the split application and what this has
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kind of helped me do is look a little bit more at the amounts I'm putting up front and
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then also for that post-pass.
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With this program, pushing more onto the 25% on the top dress side of things, that's kind
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of made me look at my numbers again and kind of cut back on the initial amount of anhydrous
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that I'm putting out and look more of getting a little bit more of that nitrogen in the
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in-season portion.
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So are there other nutrient management practices that you've maybe tried that haven't been
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successful or are there some that have been more successful than others?
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As far as just on the conservation side of things, I've done no-till for a long time
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since ever since the very beginning and I've had great luck with that.
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And as far as on the other side of things, you know, just try to get a good amount of
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dry fertilizer out there each year and not over-apply by any means.
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I'd like to ask, so obviously the Center for Regenerative Agriculture
has Regenerative
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Agriculture in the name, can you kind of explain to me what regenerative agriculture means
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to you, if you even have a definition that you like to work with?
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Yeah, sure.
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So we only have what we have as far as the land and the fields and with my farm I'm pretty
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set and just with what I have I'm very happy with the amount that I farm, but I certainly
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wanted to continue to produce for generations to come.
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I have a son I'd like to pass it on to one day and I want to do the best practices possible
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to make sure that all this ground is just as good, if not even better, for the future
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generations.
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I know you mentioned earlier that you had certain goals for your nutrient management.
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Would you like to maybe talk about some of those goals?
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You know, any nitrogen that's put out there and is lost to leaching or anything is lost
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in revenue as well.
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We want to keep all that nitrogen there in the soil and so it is, you know, stabilized
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and there for plant uptake and, you know, completely available, not only for the farm
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and for environmental reasons, but also just on the revenue side of wanting to make sure
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that what I put out there is all used and is all put towards yield of that crop and
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not being leached away in the soil.
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Have you heard any success stories from maybe farmers around you or fellow co-workers who
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have tried a nutrient management program similar to this one or anything like that in terms
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of revenue?
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Well, as far as a lot of the ones around me and everything, this is kind of the first
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year for all of us, but so far in the process we've had several that have already got their
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top dress on and done and it seems like everything's working along smoothly, so definitely looking
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forward to getting some good success stories here, but for the most part, this is all still
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new to us.
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So how has the reporting process for this program gone for you?
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What have you been finding so far?
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Just like with anything, there's paperwork to it and kind of crossing T's, dotting I's
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as far as just getting everything lined up.
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As far as this goes, so far it's went pretty smooth.
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I already had all the maps and all the plans were in place, did that earlier when it was
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slower and to where this time of year when we're busy, got a hundred things going on,
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the only thing that was left to do was just turn in the information for the over-the-top
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nitrogen and so that's kind of all that was left and just been plugging away at that as
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we do it.
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So would you say that having all that documentation up front, your maps, has really helped you
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in this process?
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Yes, absolutely.
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Yeah, that's a must to already have all that in place, had all the farms and tracks and
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everything all recorded and having all that in place while it's slow, you know, earlier
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in the year before planting season and everything, already having all that in place was certainly
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essential to where now, you know, just trying to minimize the amount of time and paperwork
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during the busy time of year here.
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Gotcha.
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Okay.
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So to kind of wrap it up, what would you say to a farmer who might be on the fence about
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regenerative agriculture or maybe doesn't know where to start with regenerative agricultural
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practices?
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We want to make things better and going forward we want to build up our soils and also just
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kind of protect our return on investment for sure as well.
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We have resources to pass on to him just, you know, looking on the website and everything
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else there's lots of good information out there to definitely be looking into, but it's
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a good thing and kind of a good direction to head for sure.
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Thanks Zach for taking the time to chat today.
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Again, I'm Mikayla Voris, your host from the University of Missouri's Center for Regenerative
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Agriculture.
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If you have questions, comments, or any thoughts on this podcast, let us know by visiting our
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website at CRA.missouri.edu and go to the podcast page.
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You can also find us on social media at MU Regen Ag.
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This podcast is produced by the MU Center for Regenerative Agriculture and MU Extension.
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The music you're hearing is called Back to the Woods by Jason Shaw and we snagged it
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from the Free Music Archive.
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Watch out for another regenerative reflection and we'll see you next time.
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Music.
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you
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you