606 Putting the News back in Newsletter
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#RealisticRegenAg | I love reading and staying up to date with agriculture news. I use Feedly, an RSS feed reader, that keeps track of news stories from over 75 agriculture news sites. I also employ an AI bot to help me find relevant information in climate and regenerative news from other sources that I might have missed.
With that being said, I’ve been thinking about how to refresh my newsletter. I’ve been sending it out for over five years now. It has changed over the years but lately it has primarily focused on my content and my business. However, I've decided to shift the focus more towards the regenerative agriculture news space, while reducing the emphasis on my business.
Welcome to the sixth season of Plants Dig Soil, a podcast about #RealisticRegenAg. I’m your host, Scott Gillespie, and I’m an agronomist from the western Canadian prairies specializing in climate-smart agriculture. I discuss scientifically proven practices that benefit the planet and, just as importantly, farmers' economic sustainability. Be sure to visit my website, www.plantsdigsoil.com, for resources and information about the services I that I offer for farmers and agribusiness.
I’ve updated my website to more clearly list everything on the home page. In each monthly email I’ll highlight just one aspect of my business at the top, with the rest dedicated to sharing interesting content I come across. If you'd like near-daily updates on what I'm seeing, you can check out my WhatsApp channel. Almost everything I share there will also be included in this newsletter, although I aim to keep the email length manageable.
Transcript:
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/podcast/putting-the-news-back-in-newsletter
Newsletter signup:
https://mailchi.mp/plantsdigsoil/newsletter
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6944029544697802752
Realistic Regen Ag Channel (WhatsApp):
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaBofw37NoZxtgHSRl3S
Practical Regeneration: Realistic Strategies for Climate Smart Agriculture
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/books
My consulting packages:
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/pricing/#consulting
Speaking, Teaching, & Workshop Design:
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/speaking
My funding service offerings:
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/pricing/#paperwork
SCAP program details https://www.alberta.ca/sustainable-cap.aspx
OFCAF program details https://rdar.ca/funding-opportunities/ofcaf
My course: Profitable From the Start: Cover Crops for the Prairies:
https://plantsdigsoil.thinkific.com/courses/cover-crops-prairies
Email: scott@plantsdigsoil.com
X (aka Twitter) (Scott): https://twitter.com/scottcgillespie
X (aka Twitter) (Company): https://twitter.com/PlantsDigSoil
LinkedIn (Scott): https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottcgillespie/
LinkedIn (Company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/plants-dig-soil
YouTube: (Company): https://www.youtube.com/@scottcgillespie
Podcast Subscription Apps: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottcgillespie
Business Highlight
My podcast has been going for over five years now. I’m in my sixth season. I discuss scientifically proven practices that benefit the planet and, just as importantly, farmers' economic sustainability. The great thing about a podcast is that it is platform agnostic; meaning that you can listen on Spotify, Apple, or any player than can find the feed.
It started as a way to convert blog posts to audio. I listen to a lot of podcasts while driving, and I know a lot of farmers and agronomists do too! It’s a free way to get to know me and learn some things.
Every episode is still a blog post, so, if you choose, you can read it or look up any of the references. A year ago I started recording with the camera on and putting it up on YouTube. It’s the same audio, just in video form.
Now you can read, listen, or watch!
605 Water Efficient Plants
Surviving another drought means making our plants the most water efficient we can. While some of the things can be done immediately, most of the things require a long-term plan. I’ve heard it said the best time to plan for a drought is when the last one breaks. We might be on the cusp of this one breaking with the recent snowfalls, but it’s too early to tell. In this episode I’ll go over all the ideas I have to make our plants more water efficient in hopes you can apply some of the easy practices now and start planning for the future this season.
https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/podcast/water-efficient-plants
Scientists studying other benefits of rotational grazing
“There’s a lot of anecdotal information about rotational grazing being better for soil carbon storage and better for soil health, but there isn’t a lot of numbers behind that,” said Kari Dunfield, the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Microbiology of Agro-Ecosystems and a U of G professor in environmental sciences.
https://www.producer.com/livestock/scientist-says-jury-still-out-on-rotational-grazing/
Saturation point: Australia’s best known carbon-neutral farm can no longer offset its emissions
“Trees and soil on Jigsaw Farms in western Victoria have now passed peak sequestration – reflecting the challenge for the broader red meat industry.”
Covering the Bases with Cover Crops
I had the pleasure of meeting Ryan this winter at a conference. He’s got a very realistic take on how to use cover crops based on years of farmer trials. Don’t worry about the fancy mixes, just use what you’ve got. In their high rainfall area the data clearly shows a 10% yield gain on potatoes. https://spudsmart.com/covering-the-bases-with-cover-crops/
Cover crops can pay despite challenges
Interesting article about cover crops in Texas. They can pay when you get a big dump of rain and you capture the water instead of it running off.
https://www.farmprogress.com/cover-crops/cover-crops-can-pay-despite-challenges-
2023 Plot2Farm Results
Lab tests and plot trials seem to die in the field! No matter the hype it seems the real world runs on different rules. Once again field scale plots show that nearly every new way to tweak the system doesn’t seem to pay in the field. Almost all trials had non significant yield effects. While plant stands were often higher with new products the end result was the same. There’s only one person guaranteed to make money. And it isn’t the farmer. https://www.albertagrains.com/plot2farmupdate/results
Beyond Meat suffers another massive loss
Back 25 years ago while in university I was out for supper with friends and a person saw a veggie burger on the menu and said “I’m sorry, but if you’ve given up meat, you have to give up those flavours too!” It seems people are seeing it that way too. Many of the products are so highly processed most vegetarians are saying - let’s just eat good plant based things rather than try to replicate meat.
https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/25636-beyond-meat-suffers-another-massive-loss
Applegate to transition all beef hot dogs to regeneratively sourced
There seems to be a change out there, of accepting that meat can be a part of your diet and not be a “planet killer”. If they are willing to pledge this I think there is hope for regenerative land to support regenerative animals.
Stopping Late Blight in Potatoes Naturally
This looks encouraging. It may not stop it if it’s a high disease pressure year but could catch it before it’s a problem. It would be interesting to see how well it works in soils already high in selenium.
https://spudsmart.com/stopping-late-blight-in-potatoes-naturally/
A different way to incentivize regenerative agriculture
This program pays farmers who are already doing the practices. There’s no additionally - meaning you don’t have to be new to the practice to qualify. I’d still want to read the fine print about data usage but it’s a step in the right direction in my opinion.
https://www.farmprogress.com/soil-health/a-different-way-to-incentivize-regenerative-agriculture