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Welcome to Regenerative Reflections, a podcast produced in partnership with the University
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of Missouri Extension.
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I'm Mikayla Voris, your host from the MU 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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Today we'll hear from Garrett Ryckoff, a farmer involved with our Cover Crop Incentive
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Payment Program.
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We have four cover crop programs part of the Missouri Climate Resilient Crops and Livestock
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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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Garrett believes the biological diversity that comes from some regenerative agricultural
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practices creates better soils.
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Let's hear from him now.
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I am at GR Farms, LLC right now with Garrett Ryckoff.
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Thank you so much, Garrett, for being on the podcast.
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You're welcome.
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It's good to be here and have a chat about the CIRCL project.
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So to start off, I just wanted to ask you, how did you first come in contact with the
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Center for Regenerative Agriculture?
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So I think my first touch was probably just a generic USDA email that they kind of send,
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I think, monthly updates.
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And I was perusing some of the headlines, and the CIRCL project was one that came to
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mind or popped up, I guess.
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And so I dove in and read more, and I'm familiar with working with the University of Extension.
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And so I decided, well, if they can help me with a cover crop program, I need to learn
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a little more.
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And so it just really through that USDA email blitz.
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Can I ask about the regenerative agricultural practices that you do on your farm?
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I know that you do the cover crop program with the Missouri CIRCL project.
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Do you do any other regenerative practices, or is that the only one?
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So we've been exclusively no-till for a generation now.
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I would say my dad incorporated no-till into his operation in the mid-80s, and just really
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only tilling areas on the farm where we've done either earthwork or there's some erosion
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that we need to remedy.
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So by far, we're exclusively no-till.
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And then in the last seven years, we've really started to work on intensely soil sampling
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and managing our fields fertility-wise by zone.
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And that's allowed me then to learn to split apply nitrogen, really reduce phosphorus and
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potash use through intensively managing and then subsidizing things with manure.
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And then lately we've added a lot of just-in-time, right rate, right time type fertility on our
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planter.
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And then I've had several landlords who incorporate livestock on their operations, have had cover
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crops of various species over the years.
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And I've worked with them farming their land and things have worked really well as far
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as the agronomic side, which is my, that's my gig.
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But on our farm, we're exclusively row crop.
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I really don't have any livestock to be able to mix into our row crop fields.
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And so a lot of my cover crop, I guess, previous notions have been through those landlords.
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And so this year I incorporated cereal rye broadcast after fall plant or fall harvest
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on quite a few of my acres.
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And it's been a good experience.
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What are the benefits that you're seeing of having multiple regenerative agricultural
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practices on your farm?
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So I'd say, you know, in the short run here, the overarching benefit is just reduced erosion.
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All our fields mostly are all terraced and so erosion has not been a major problem.
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But with a lot of these rains that we've been getting, seems like in the last five years
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when it does rain, it rains larger amounts and quicker.
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And that just lends itself perfectly to, you know, something to shield the ground from
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erosion.
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And so erosion is probably the number one thing.
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Secondly, I definitely see an advantage in weed control where we have cover crops, the
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weeds, especially the winter annuals, and some of
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the early generating summer annuals
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are reduced.
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I haven't gotten to the point where I'm literally reducing my herbicide rates or herbicide usage
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really yet.
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But I can totally see that coming as I learn more and we can incorporate this more on a
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wide scale basis, I can see the reduction of herbicide usage for sure.
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So really, you know, soil erosion, weed control, and just hopefully we see some general soil
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tilth.
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Those are the main benefits I think I'm seeing right away.
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What exactly does regenerative agriculture mean to you?
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We've kind of been tossing this term around a lot.
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It doesn't really have a solid definition, so it means something different to everybody.
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Is there a definition that you like to work with?
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It's a really good question.
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You know, it's regenerative and sustainable and, you know, a lot of these are emotional
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words, frankly.
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When we say the word regenerative, it does mean something different to me than sustainable.
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Because I would like to think that we're all sustainable because if we're not, then we're
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not sustainable and I don't think any of us deserve to be here if we're not on a number
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of fronts.
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But regenerative does hit home to me in that we are using the things that we're putting
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on our soil to create something else.
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You know, we're regenerating something.
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And so when we plant a seed, that seed generates roots and we terminate that root either through
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chemical means or mechanical or just natural maturing.
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What does that root then do for us?
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Does it bring up fertility?
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Does it create organic matter?
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Does it create a root pathway for the next crop?
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Does it create biological diversity where we're increasing our microbes?
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I think the answer to most cover crops, the answer is yes to all those.
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And so what are we doing to our fields today to substantiate what we're going to do next?
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And I think if we farmers have that idea in everything we put down, we then fall under
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the definition of regenerative because we're trying to use one domino to fall to hit the
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next domino to then just create that vicious cycle of great crop production.
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And unfortunately, I think for a while, years ago, maybe generations ago, we got into a
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rut of monoculture.
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And now I think society and the ag production community is getting to the point where we
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need to mix that up a little bit, whether that be from manure application or grazing
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of livestock.
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We need to mix that biological diversity up a bit to keep that soil churning and burning
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from a microbe and a micro-organic standpoint.
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So to kind of wrap this up, let's say that there was a farmer who has heard of regenerative
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practices but has never done them before and is maybe on the fence.
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What would you say to that person?
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Well, I would say start small.
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Find a field that's, I think every farmer kind of has a pet field, whether it be the
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field behind the house or one that's been in the family a long time, or you might operate
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a field that is owned by a landlord who likes to do new and different and wild things.
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Maybe pick that pet field, if you will, and just give it a shot.
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You'll really never know how any of these programs work for you until you do them yourself.
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Your soils, your farming practices, your management style is unique to you.
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And there's no one program that's going to work exactly like it says until you try it
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on your farm.
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You're never really going to know.
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But I think what you're able to gain by learning, it will help you for the future.
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Because part of these regenerative ag processes, in my mind, I'm getting my feet wet for what's
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coming in the future.
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You can't pick up an ag publication these days without seeing the newest, latest, greatest
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carbon trading program, sequestering carbon.
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Every co-op and every grain elevator, it seems at this point, and even some individual companies
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have programs available for growers to sequester carbon or carbon trading.
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And I do believe that no matter what your environmental aspect is, climate change or
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not, these programs are here to stay in some form or fashion.
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And I truly believe that cover crops and any type of regenerative practice, whether it
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be split applying fertilizer, grazing, different cover crops are going to be a piece, a heavy
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piece to that puzzle.
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So the greater we have experiences with these, the better you're going to be able to play
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in that circle, maybe 10 years from now, five years from now.
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Because I do believe those programs will be an economic gain for our farms and our farmers.
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And so understanding how it works before they're mainstream should give you a leg up when the
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time comes.
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So it's, it's really a dip your toe in the water.
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So when it's time to swim, you kind of have an idea of what you're getting into.
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A big thank you to Garrett for letting me come out to his farm and chat again.
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I'm Mikayla Voris, your host from the University of Missouri's Center for Regenerative 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 Act.
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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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This podcast is created in partnership with MU Extension.
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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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Music.