Cover Crops and Soil Health with Ray Archuleta

thank you let's let's start off with a good afternoon because like you guys got I know this is a tough spot to speak at because you know what happens I tell people you never want to be a speaker you don't want to be the first speaker because you set the tone for the day or you may even set the tone for the conference you don't not want to be the speaker before lunch why everybody wants to eat you don't want to be the speaker after lunch why they gotta sleep you guys are in a protein coma you had all that sugar and we should have you run around all the darn room and then you don't want to be the last speaker right those who are speakers because everybody wants to go home everybody wants to go home they start off good afternoon I'll come on the southern country does better an act good afternoon there we go that's what we're gonna do we're gonna start off learning and having some excitement here how many of you farm full-time raise your hand alright how many how many farm but how many actually work outside the house out to home to support the farm isn't that disturbing that's very disturbing how many how many NRCS employees raise your hand Indian Arceus good okay you saw us you notice how slowly you put your hand up there how many I'm gonna accidentally yes employee yeah there's hope there's hope how many extension raise your hand excellent good to see our extension people how many district employees raise your hand excellent oh good see our partners how many private sector consultants beautiful good it's good how many here you just lost and lend it up get grabbing a sandwich some of us folks let me start cuz I got a lot to share and this is really about a three day course just recently we opened up a company babe Brown David Brandt and dr. Alan Williams we opened our company and you know we also a consulting company called soil health consulting and soil health Academy the purpose of this whole starting this is because we wanted to change the paradigm that's existing throughout the country and maybe throughout the globe how did it start for us it was for me it started about 12 years ago one word failure I was failing miserably as a conservationist has an agronomist farmers are going broke around me because I worked in four states started off my career in New Mexico worked to seven years designing irrigation systems a year and a half as a nutrient irrigation specialist in Missouri southern Missouri my wife's in Missouri what a quality specialist agronomist and at the last ten years twelve years as a solo health specialist and no matter where I went throughout the country in fact I was promoting I was promoting the system that was actually causing farmers to go broke and not becoming regenerative notice I didn't use the word sustainable I don't use the word sustainable because when people tell me ray how's your marriage that's sustainable I kind of sucked what I'm gonna talk about is how we can regenerate but somebody tells me my marriage is regenerative people look low I want one of those we're here to talk about regeneration about freedom but freedom ladies and gentlemen we're gonna talk about something that all of us do and I feel like all of us who wear t-shirt as we go into the airport and it says I am a biomimicry people go whoa what the heck is that mimic life we are teaching farmers how to emulate nature how to mimic life we're teaching producers to do that and they are saving huge amounts of money and they're able to bring their sons and daughters back into the operation there is a silent revolution happening globally and we were part of it and it started in the ashes of failure let's talk let's start going down this journey and before I do that let me make one more comment in 2016 just recently the center of Disease came out with a study that of the top 30 positions globally I mean in the United States jobs the Hawaiians that have the highest suicide rate are farmers and ranchers and I said woah why is that you think about the stress that they're having to maintain the water quality issues that they have the environmental issues the economic burden the stresses that they are dealing with on a regular basis is mind-boggling I have never seen a group of people like farmers and ranchers which have to have the greatest skill set of anybody because you're dealing with an incredibly dynamic living ecosystem you are dealing with something that's a life it changes every moment just like you change and try and make a living on it it is very difficult now let's talk about how this journey have we changed and how I change totally the way I've looked at things so how are we gonna bring this about what I teach is these principles and NRCS teaches four principles of soil health I teach eight would I ever get NRCS to embrace they'll do the grazing maybe we will accept five but they will I don't think they'll ever ever embrace the other three and the other three are more critical than the other five the principles I'm going to teach you ladies and gentlemen today if you apply them judiciously you will change your life you will change your soil when you change your soil you will change your life these are the ones I focus on and I'm going to go through them all of them these are the five towards the ecology these three are towards the sociology see if you do not focus on these three you can't do the other five you won't do them you will fail let's start down this journey let's explain first thing I tell people focus on principles principles the principles of soil health these are internal principles in the physical plane with ecology this is the way the natural system works I did not make them up I am not smart enough to make these up it is principles folks if you ever read any of his books dr. Nassim Nicholas Taleb he is he's a statistician wrote some wonderful books the Black Swan other great books New York best time brilliant mind he's a statistician I loved his quote the more data we have the more likely were to drown in it I want you to focus on principles see anybody can make their data say whatever they want but are you flowing with the principles of soil hell they said are you working with a natural system please don't misunderstand me data is important but it's not the Nexus it's understanding principles because if you understand the principles when the time gets rough you will follow through ok and they start off with the Khan texts my favorite English word context context context it is powerful you'll always have to understand context you have to understand your ecological context where are you in the region social and cultural context the most difficult thing to work and bring saw health into a community is the cultural and social context of the community if you go to southern Indiana a very Germanic area a lot of German farmers those farms are black the soil is black there's not one weed thus the homestead is you can eat off the pavement everything and it's in place and those who use cover crops and have that during the time with the other farmers are not doing you will be socially looked at as bizarre and strange in fact I had one rancher in Idaho he went to no-till he said rain when I would go to the coffee shop they would verbally abuse me and say you are degrading the resource we need to understand the biggest pressure we have is community social cultural pressures on the local area you start doing something new the pressure is intense the other aspect of it is the spiritual context if you go to Hawaii the whole wines to then the ecology is a spiritual thing as a professing Christian society it should also be for us context context context let me show you some of the things that impede and took to why I'm so focused on context this is the biggest problem right here I'll never forget this young Amish farmer young man in Pennsylvania Daniel we were doing the demonstrations and all of a sudden real strong German acts and he goes all right I get it I said Daniel what did you get he says ray the problem is the compaction between my years I said Daniel bless your heart tillage can't fix that you got a Daniel the biggest issue that we have for failure of implementing a new system or understanding is your mind it is your own mind and your own heart and the way you look at the system you cannot bring your conventional thought process into an ecological living dynamic system well we were taught who was totally from a different premise let me continue so the biggest issue is this and I'm telling you my wife tells me all the time husband you're 99% of your problem she's right so the biggest thing we realized you're the problem it's the way we look at things let me show you some more here's another thing why the soil health revolution comes against great obstacles whether in government anything it is really tough to educate a man if the check depends upon it him not knowing there is an incredible incestual relationship in government and big large agriculture nobody wants to hear that but rarely is it for the resource and really the producer rarely now let me show you another thing that's very critical how our science was developed ladies and gentlemen humbly submit to you our science our agriculture science was build on the wrong premise premise means wrong foundation asking the wrong questions I had one of my supervisors tell me he says ray why are you so opposed to science I said really person that reads like a nerd all the time reading so ecology books and textbooks all the time and I'm opposed to science I said I'm opposed to saying that is build on the wrong premise asking wrong questions this is the current science model how could we increase the yield by forcing it genetically manipulating it spraying it controlling it the new science is how do you love it nurture it understand it collaborate with it understand its synchronise total different question let me show you the two Sciences this is the current science model force it control it this is the new science model emulate it nurture it we are moving from here to here somebody told me well Ray that's pretty extreme well if you lived at the neighborhood what everybody was black and you did that you would consider him to be extreme wouldn't you does not mimic natural systems mimic natural systems gathered like Buffalo we are running cattle like the Buffalo does not mimic mimic we are moving in this direction because now we finally understand and we mimic the natural system we can make money we're not forcing it we're not working against they takes a lot of energy to work against it ladies and gentlemen I realize I was a product of mindless obedience I had obedience to the current science model to the industrial model it was mindless I never asked critical questions am i working with the natural system which is designed and been beautiful and it's and it worked and has been here for many years see here's the thing ladies and gentlemen I had nobody after eight years of university study if I'd had one professor to said ray now look at me yours you're not a very bright boy your job is to emulate it able to just taking one semester of somebody teaching me Edgar ecology putting it all together in context say your job ray emulate it don't force it understand it it would have changed my whole career I have had to spend 20 years of failure giving bad advice and now I've had to make up for the last 12 years I've had people say but Ray who airs your documentation of science I said really although applications and principles and patterns of agriculture of nature and agriculture are well known see I didn't know see because I don't know what it is but it's when I looked at my little farm I looked at as the farm and I looked at nature separately no it works the same way because it was hewn out of the natural system it came out of a forest they came of a prairie it works the same way to know that but look at the brilliant scientists they knew a long long time ago but it's rarely applied it's after years and years of failure and people are getting sick and they're realizing what's wrong with the current model write this down whoever wants to learn more a youtube dr. Russell a cough brilliant one hour and 30 minutes on YouTube to teach you how to do systems-thinking see I wasn't taught to thinking systems you are an elegant system this man passed away but he was brilliant he's teaching me how to deal with the system you are dealing with a incredible ecosystem you are a system you are seven trillion cells walking together as a collective whole and the majority of your cells aren't even you they're bacteria let me give an example ladies and gentlemen what is that a picture of is that a picture of the car or parts of a car how many say it's parts of a car how many say it's a car it's a junkyard if I jumped on that tire and say get me to Albert Lee seed would it get me there no it won't if I jumped on the engine Tom would it get me there no it's the pieces collectively working together as a whole making up a car this is what you call reductionist science reductionist sciences you study the little pieces but you forget they're connected to the whole see reductionist science is mesmerizing it is powerful we couldn't have an iPhone we couldn't get to the moon we could build a car without it but here's the problem it does not work well in dynamic living ecosystems what are the two most sickest things happening in our country our medical field and our agriculture two parallel worlds trying to make the human body like a machine same thing with natural systems it does not work well that is Newtonian physics it's not a machine Aristotle came up with this Western thought process it's a machine it is not a machine it is dynamic just like you are then if it is and then we have to deal with the fact of relationship let me give you an example up to 32 years of my career going all over the country trying to promote conservation this is a product of reduction as science police notice this whole landscape when you walked into NRCS office it was like a cafeteria I would say what do you want mr. producer do you want a little nice buffer strip a little filter what do you want do you want a nice windbreak just like a cafeteria putting out pieces like a blind person and it's in the sad thing about it the only functioning feel soil in that whole picture is the filter strips the riparian corridor where you have living covers and plants 24/7 in the other part of the landscape where it's tilled there is no aggregate stability the water is running off the only functioning soil in that whole landscape now am i opposed to wind breaks and all those no we need them in fact they give us gives Nature space now I'd love to do this if I get an insect put it on my hand right here and I smash it audience what does it die of lack of space nature's the same thing and needs space we need these but we want to change that every part of that soil is covered 24/7 that field right here is not capturing energy let's go back here that field is not capturing Sun it's spilling Sun and leaking nutrients let's continue for things you have to really understand when you walk on your farm whether it's a pasture system rangeland system all of it this is kind of bite past me and I don't know who I wasn't taught this maybe I was just slow I have the call the for ecosystem processes of the soil for ecosystem in a simple way this is how the house works this is how the planet works these are four critical things when I walk in the field I better see these first one I gotta capture Sun my job is to convert send into liquid Sun second job is I got to make sure the water cycle is working water cycle is not complete until it goes into the soil not runoff I tell people we don't have a runoff problem in this country we have an infiltration problem we'll talk about that in a second then nutrient cycling there's a reason why scientists call it the biogeochemical nutrient biological first then it's geological and it's chemical but it's biological first and then the last one diversity diversity is the ability of the natural ecosystem to pass nutrients and mass to one organism to another organism it is the conduit of life diversity is so the more diverse you have rotations and animals the more you flow energy into the system first one captures Sun so blasted critical which field is capturing Sun ladies and gentlemen that's Illinois is this one feeding microbes is it feeding microbiology is it storing nutrients it's at sequestering is it nurturing this has costing money and costing us billions in health it's not feeding microbes this one is my job living roots that is the conduit of energy going into the system see the ancients used to call plants the mouths of the soil okay let me see we take up your mouth how long you will survive plants were the mouth of the soil that's how it feeds it I say we taught soils totally wrong you cannot separate the plant and the microbes from soil because then you be do you have geology geology without plants and microbes you have geology this is the liquid carbon pathway there's a little simple test I did when I worked on the on the field day with producers this is corn this is a multi species mix in my backyard it's called the scum test by I used a modification from dr. Christine Nichols who is a soil microbiologist look at this white frothy material there's about 200 carbonaceous molecules produced from the plant converting it and changing the mod nucleoside sugars carbohydrates all these alien paths the chemicals it's the way plants communicate and it's the way it feeds biology look at the difference between these two look at that mix then I went and took that white frothy material sent to the lab had a hundred and seventeen parts of carbon and eighteen parts per million nitrogen leaking that was done in the winner leaking those carbonaceous compounds my job is he this graph somebody told me you know if you really look at the graph it's really trunk it should be a lot more truncated because we are not capturing energy so right now nationally globally we're not capturing Sun energy here we're not capturing Sun here or leaking nutrients here we're leaking nutrients here our job is to cover those gaps feed biology 24/7 as much as possible one of the things I look at when I walk into an operation and I and I sit there and I come up with my shovel and I listen to the producer after I watch his soil dig into the soil then my whole thing is here and I ask this registry my mind is this farm and ranch running on ancient sand light or new sunlight a majority of our Agri we are majority of our farms are running on this ladies and gentlemen see because we have convinced a lot of people it's all about yield the biggest impediment of change on your operation is yield you don't make money on yield you make money on how you can reduce your inputs I had a farmer that produced two hundred and seventy bushel corn in Arkansas and lost money it's never been about yield it's about synchrony collaboration understanding the system reducing your inputs because you heard the couple of speakers they say there's going to be a point where they keep growing too much corn and if you keep growing more corn and more so you mean the price to get more deflated but the ones that are going to do well is the one that's diversify and synchronize with the natural system because their inputs are low so it's in run on this or is it run on this pretty simple and the soil will tell you if you're doing that and the checkbook and mama she knows where the money is flowing water cycle okay if I cannot get the water in the ground in the soil I can't get nutrient cycling I'm not going to be capturing solar energy efficiently these are intimately connected do not separate these things let me show you a dysfunctional [Music] [Music] on the left we start with a tray of dry oil taken from a clean till field on the right we start with a slice of intact surface oil or a long-term no-till field this soil is not only protected with a mulch of cover crop residue it also has a stable forest lunch structure now years ago as a kid I remember you know you get these these big heavy thunderstorms in the summer it would just it would just watch the field and you'd end up with with mud down the road and I'm talking about but then you go over there it's better to scoop out way so the cars could go down the road what I'm seeing now is I'm seeing these heavy rainfalls and barely seeing a trickle coming out of the field after we simulate an extremely intense thunderstorm for five minutes the differences are obvious most of the water we apply to this soil has runoff into this jar carried away with it a thin but very significant layer of topsoil we dis applied an inch and a half a very intense rainfall to this bear tilled soil obviously we harvested very little for future plant use meaning okay class how this tillage question is so destructive so intrusive wasn't it gives my girls H severs - the big need you till you wake up bacteria called our sponges they're opportunists they eat the biotic glues they start could see the organic matter and then goes up into the atmosphere maybe stupid once they die they stimulate basically we just released Mexican please understand 40 percent organic matter it's dead Michael carcasses if I said the word organic matter of what are some of the things that goes to your mind what do you think you say organic that comes to your money quickly think about it tonight dead plants good now that will up the dark stuff light but how many will say Oh getting better is the expressions and secretions of life and death of microbes feeding on each other and then they create these incredible super molecules that quote the particles that can cross my right leg it turns to geology the sand silt and clay and I don't care if you're a Minnesota I'm Karen Michigan I don't care if you go to Mexico you all have sand silt and clay but it's different it's the climate of a bottom-up process which happens all over the globe it's sick recently the fusion I'll show you in a while does clues are gone in that conventional video doesn't have master systems between a continuously master suspicious or rotational breaks past you to really see the difference back sacked me out there during the heaviest thunderstorm of the year NRCS is the rainfall simulator to demonstrate the effects of infiltration versus run on facts tree services these bachelor samples will collect it from the actual textures just down the road from each other one represent continuous overstocked and outbreaks back streets the other represents our attention raised and rest of the bathroom all rainfall runoff was found in the collection jug from the demonstration ten this allows us to visually and by the end of the demonstration it's amazing to see how much more runoff occurs on continuous of the race bathroom versus the well-rested rotational various paths here you can see how much more action suits in absorbing the rotation of brands well-rested pasture and much more more actually runs off hey make sure you're not away make sure you're awake how come so much water came out of that of a great pastor ash come on confidence what happened you need tea lit it's not tilled look how look how much sediment came off sediment look how much infiltrated so what's going on what do you think no aggregation good good comment has the aggregation different from here to here if I did the slate test if I did a slaked in who they break up do you think it would hold together with a breakup you think so it would hold but you're right you'd have to take it to a lab to see the diminished aggregate stability you're right but you can't do with a slate test from visual look at the difference the cottage cheese has gone it's been tilled it's gone it's over grace when you over graze you affect the biology when you till you affect the biology it takes a lot of energy see those aggregates only last 27 days you have to be feeding them all the time takes a lot of carbon to feed those it takes microbes it takes fungus earthworms let me show you that this field this lake test this is a six and a half percent organic matter this is half a percent same soil see what happens is there's no more biotic glues and the sands and silts and the Clay's they disassociate now they filled the pores now you have runoff you it does not have the glues does not have the integrity now biogeochemical nutrient cycle this is one of the reasons why we have so many leaky systems most people don't realize 90% of our nutrients nitrogen especially is biological it comes from the microbes they produce 90% see most people think that fertilizer feeds the plant fertilizer does not feed the plant you heard the speaker two speakers before from the guy from Europe 30 to 40 percent of that nitrogen only reaches the plant 60 percent is gone it's either leet leached off but a majority the mafia take it who's the mafia the microbes there the first feeders guys police understand they feed first they're the first feeders not plants they'll take the nitrogen and they'll release it back this is the paradigm I got out of soil science see this is where it starts changing see I was taught that biology the physical and the chemical all are of equal value and importance that's why the circles are all equal size do you agree with that chart how many are like with him how many agree with that raise your hand oh you're afraid to raise your hand aren't you he's right they're not equal value they were never equal value biology builds the structure builds the glues if that without biology you can't have organic matter you can't have those biotic substances and it's that that regulates the chemistry example Mars chemical physical earth chemical physical they're the both chemical physical what's the difference between the biology life life they are totally different they are not of equal value they will never be of equal value until that is absorbed in your mind that you your soil is a biological system you will not change the way you do business there's a great book whoever wants to muster the strength to read it it's called by a veiled emir of disky the russians were so far ahead of us he said the most powerful force that you can do in the globe is biology I'm sure yeah that is amazing I love that how many have seen that raise your hand you've seen it huh and that cool I tell farmers that's a compaction issue that's compaction so what if farmers do to break up compaction they get a plant let's break it up man diesel horsepower ladies and gentlemen I could never explain years ago why that happened I was sitting to go how does it do that ladies and gentlemen those trees are incredibly mycorrhizal fungi these fungus released these powerful enzymes dissolved the rock down bacteria can break rock down if it does that what is the most powerful thing I can stick in my farm right after corn and soybean living cover see your plow and disk can't leak these powerful enzymes and they cannot leak these assets tillage fixes nothing life does look how powerful it is ladies and gentlemen that is Australia you think you have it rough how would you like to farm that that's such I'm north southern Missouri it's pretty close to that where I live that's why I only spend $18 an acre because most of my land is rock and I'm good with that once I understand biology that's all calcium carbonate the seabeds so I have a question for you sir how come it's dark up here the power of biology we underestimate the power of it but been so busy doing the signs one night of terrine research paper I'm a brilliant scientist I come running out of my bedroom like I had fire on my hair as a wife I get it she goes what husband the plant in soil are one she rolled her eyes he goes oh my god that guy's disturbed I can't even take him back understand it's one the moment you get your coordinates oh you mean you make it one again cover crops are not optional when somebody tells me I don't want to do cover crops I smile say you don't know you don't know how to sew it works do you let me show you some more build my point this is what I want ladies and gentlemen this is why the corn does that soybean every living plant that is a root exuding liquid Sun into the soil they will leak 40 to 70% of their energy to feed microbes to make an association to say look I'll you give me liquid Sun I will bring zinc I'll bring phosphorus I will take it out of the rock I will make it available to you they're not doing it for free and the mum and I do that then the bacterias populate like crazy they replicate every 20 minutes from billions of them and they are so fast we are seeing when we put our co2 that they're like spontaneous that the co2 respiration just goes crazy in the after one rain after of 24 hours so the moment and then the other critters come and eat them that's what happens because you're wondering where all the nitrogen is coming from these are protozoa grazing around an air bubble and they're consuming bacteria see when the protozoa eats a bacteria and they have a higher carbon nitrogen ratio the bacteria so as excess nitrogen they excrete it so there's 17 to 117 pounds of Endon I didn't make that up dr. Patrick Laval by his book on Sol ecology powerful that's what we can do with biology this were nitrogen and what I love about it these bacteria and all these organisms do it at room temperature I don't have to put copious amounts of natural gas to make chemical fertilizer they do it there my little fertilizer bags this is the part I missed I missed this did not realize they run the nutrient cycle they've run the nutrient cycle they're part of the water cycle see if you have know a grits if the water does not go into the ground your water cycle is diminished I would have never thought that my kids are connected to the water cycle Wow now that when I see that beauty I get goose bumps that's what you're dealing with folks that's a Water Bearer it's an aquatic in us in our soil in our water systems it's a sub aquatic organisms oils are sub aquatic there's some aquatic they fork on water now people say well Ray if you have a residue problem you have a biology problem chemical fertilizers will not fix it this is a picture of just fungus and bacteria this would be common in as that is not healthy a good healthy system would have this bioturbation see people think I have to put my lime and I have to do and they would blame no-till saying well I'm never gonna get my nutrients to the bottom how I'm gonna get my calcium to go I don't worry about that these guys will take it down with roots living covers the biology will move the nutrients down the recent recent no till the old no-till studies said there's stratification well there's stratification because some of our no-till systems were not healthy and functional we promoted no-till out of context no-till does not work well without covers we forgot 50% of the story see in an organic system where you're tilling all this you're messing up of all that elegance you're breaking the house down and when you spray too much you're messing with the house you're messing with the factory workers they'll talk about that now that's an earthworm everything's big in Texas that is off a producer he's a lawyer John Ragan you heard me talk years ago he said ray I thought you were insane I am and I'm incredibly biased folks I've met one non-biased human being he was dead we're all biased I am biased towards life now I'm biased towards biology this man said ray I did this cover crops in this no-till and look at after five years I have earthworms like that man I'd be scared to go on this place without a shotgun ladies and gentlemen this is Odette Bernards video I was blown away I didn't know that these earthworms are farming I didn't know that they were getting the residue bringing them down the little worm hole twisted they're right there so that the fungus and bacteria will break down and the aggregation of the biology were there and then they would consume bama this is amazing there's a special camera at night this is the reason I never go to my garden by myself I always take somebody with me look at that if you have a residue breakdown issue you have a biology issue they will take a forest floor down in a summer that is a molding that they pull these special plastics or whatever they pull for the molding material and they pour them in the worth wormholes does that impact infiltration what if you're running a pivot and you have biology like that it makes a huge difference whether the water stays on the surface and evaporates or it goes in and changes the infiltration rates huge difference and then those wormholes are laced rich in bacteria and phosphorus and then your soybean and corn go whoo thank you reduction of inputs let me show you what happens with the are abisco mycorrhizae fungus 90% of terrestrial plants are our abisco mycorrhizae fungi this is without the fungus look how much access of water and nutrients they have with this association look what they have this is what gets me through the drought this is what brings my Fosters my nutrients in my organic in its the underground network scientists now know in the forest that's how they communicate they have done some radioisotope carbon and injected on the plants and they wrap it in a plastic bag and wrap the branch and they follow the next day or the Geiger counter and the big day finding it all the way down this radioisotope carbon and they're finding out that the big trees are feeding the baby trees so when I put on the Goom out there and I'm intercropping my legume right next to my corn what do you think they're doing they're communicating to each other and gentlemen this is why we have guys growing 318 bushel corn with less than a hundred units it's through that complex network so what hurts those networks tillage fallow fungicides over application of manures and if you have over 200 pounds of pee you shut down those spores and set asides in fact everything is connected everything is one then you've effect aggregation fungus are critical for aggregation so if you keep spraying copious amount of fungicide you hurt the system then you have you have issues with phosphorous take up now did you hear me saying not to use these tools to say that at all let me show you how we're going to manage our disturbances geology life the secretions of life Cody now you have soil the fungus the bacteria all of them working in synchrony and collaboration create those biotic substances these soils were the same soils at one time monoculture tillage corn soybean rotation we took it from here to here and in our country we have a spectrum from there to here does it in fact our nutrient how we hold them it sure does once you start putting covers this is the no-till field this is a tilde field notice you cannot see it but from the sky the integrity of these soils the aggregates these aggregates these super molecules help hold calcium and hold the nutrients in place also when you use covers the soil temperature is warmer not colder I read a book like dr. Geiger he went all over the world brilliant scientist he called the temperature of the soil he said he went everywhere and he said the best way to regulate temperature moisture is what living plant I just saved you 400 pages look it here this is a conventional tilled soil this is a no-till soil sandy soil in France why is this one have less snow class why yeah it just snowed on one side of the line right I've had farmers say that all the time microbes the temperatures here the respiring the microbial biomass is huge by a minute so I'm in trouble ok let's go here this is very powerful that just came off the press this is dr. David Johnson oh ok but jeez ok thank you he was he's been watching Kenny and I'm making sure I'm in time I get too excited about this because it's just like a it's like a starving dog in the me house just go crazy dr. David Johnson came out with some recent research this is I think it's awesome when a guy at 50 years old goes back and gets his pH and graduates at sixty years old awesome some of the best scientists or the older scientists it's just amazing let me show you what he came up with we're gonna show you I'll pass this light here at a place okay his research has shown in the early stages of plant growth it is not nitrogen it is not phosphorus it's not potassium that actually or even organic matter that makes a difference in plant health in the early stages I'll say it again it's not nitrogen it's not phosphorus it's not potassium it's not organic matter give you an example here the organic matters slides missing this is a anybody that has a little bit of science background and our square of 0.01 how many know a little bit of stat raise your hand I like to see a zero point six or seven to show cuz not causality but there's something there nitrogen had nothing to do with plant growth in the early stages neither did potassium neither did phosphorus neither did organic matter what really made the difference anybody have a guess moisture not on the early stages there's the organic matter temperature it was fungus to bacteria ratios it is more critical in the early stages that fungus and bacteria ratios are right for plants to do well health-wise why do you think of that is Matt why is the fungus to bacteria ratios look at the heavy bacteria more fungus the chili plants did better replicated research once you think about it it makes sense what do you think what do you think see if you don't have the association with the fungus bacteria you cannot get the access to the nitrogen you can't get access to the phosphorus and the potassium in the organic matter that Association the biology is critical okay diversity this is what we're doing diversity is runs that engine we need more diversity in our operation rotational diversity and cover crop diversity we are designing our mixes to look this way I want the architecture on top I want the architecture in the bottom that's why prairies have hundreds of species that's why we are designing our cover crop mixes to look like the Prairie or the forest we are designing mixes all over the country that look like that so after corn after so you mean after wheat we have a multi species mixes feeding biology let me show you how powerful those mixes are it was in 2006 in North Dakota what we learned the power of diversity that's why I started throwing some of my books when I went to graduate school and threw it out about competition see I'm saying nature is more collaborative than she is competitive this competition happened yes but is that the overarching principle of the natural system no let me give an example 1.8 inches of rain these are test plots that were 1.8 inches give you perspective North Dakota they got about 100 some days they have 230 some days from Frost days very short growing season you get up to 100 inches of snow it blows how many of you been in North Dakota it's pretty brutal there I am a warm season cover crop I would win or kill there 16 inches of rain typical let me show you what these farmers and ranchers did in the district and energy s BC they planted some plots they planted in this plot lupine oilseed pasha purple cow peacock tail boom in in this last plot they took all these seeds and throw them into this plot remember this whole plot only got one point eight inches of rain let me show you how it looked I would expect that with one point inches of rain death look at the other monoculture oilseed but look what happened the moment they threw all the seeds together you could see the brown plots right there how did that happen oh it's only North Dakota God loves North Dakota you know how many times I go all over the country and the first thing you said by reg you don't understand you don't understand our claiming you don't understand our soils Oh so biology stops in Minnesota state line is this Mars write this down the stress gradient hypothesis by dr. Brown he says in Accra a natural ecosystem as this natural system becomes more stressed it does not compete it collaborates it's a meta-analysis of all the research mark Burton is you can get that in ecological letters we saw that in life everybody got that down it's called the stress gradient hypothesis when nature gets stressed it collaborates pretty darn cool wait science book but there's only happens in North Dakota let me show you Canada monoculture grass multi species mix side-by-side oh but Canada it is happening everywhere ladies and gentlemen the power and synergy of biology that is so darn cool now how do we reduce this one of the principles how do we reduce the stress how do we reduce the stresses in our system because I'm telling you if you do not get a grip on this I don't care how much cover crops you do I don't care how much diversity you do you are never gonna get past first base you got to manage your chemical and physical and biological stresses let me give it perspective how many were born before eighty six raise your hand do you remember Chernobyl do you guys remember all of us I remember that remember I was not very old look and when that happened they said that we were going to have a disaster it was gonna be death nobody was ever gonna live in that place ever the scientist is is the biggest disaster is that what you learned guys you remember that oh yeah we remember in the news it was like whoa in fact eight kilometers death this radio ice radioactive material got everywhere toxic they had to clear cities it was a disaster thousands of people lost their life got cancer and died do you remember that look at it now how did that happen how could it permanent this should be a moonscape there should be nothing but death out there do you know why it's recovering exactly you beat me to the punch line there is no man there we have more possibility of healing Chernobyl than our typical agriculture field see because it gets recovery time it gets rest see we're continually spraying fungicides insecticides and chemicals and we're saying that's okay yeah and see the neat thing is these other predators are kicking in they were shocked scientists were shocked that there wasn't as much mutation as they thought they thought death was going to prevail the reason I show you guys it's learn how to manage your stress is because there's camps of saying oh we can't use glass of fame and there's cams up tillage I'm in the camp of facilitate life and careful with your disturbances let me show you these is a salt now let me give one of you guys a bath in salt what would happen to you yeah you would die lets you eat a huge amount of salt let me spray us this is what I'm saying is and not one time did you hear me my presentation not saying to use these tools use them with an incredible wisdom let me show you what I'm talking about this is a mic this is a food web of a prairie system if you impact the mycorrhizae you in fact this organism this organism all organisms others you impact the whole system the system collapses what I'm saying to you everything's connected quantum physics all is one theology all is one ecology all is one do not think you don't have unintended consequences when you go out there and do something this is my acronym I use for managing disturbance fist the reason I put a fist is because this is what we've been doing to nature we're gonna force you here's what I tell you about disturbance is a physical chemical and biological watch the frequency of your disturbance the more frequent you do still the more frequent you spray chemicals the more you hurt the system please understand the difference between chronic stress and acute stress every one of us were designed to handle stress you cannot handle chronic stress but you can handle an acute stress if you lift weights and you build muscle that's a stressor you need it our bodies are designed that way but it was not designed to handle chronic stress chronic stress is when you keep eating bad food never sleep eat and continue eating poorly you will get sick same thing with natural systems understand the differences between the stressors can the system handle an occasional tillage yes it can and but it also deals with the intensity of it the scale of it and the timing of it how about an occasional roundup it can handle it but not all the time the problem is that we spray it like water and you're gonna they've lost it it's just a matter of time you heard the two speakers before it will mutate it will change that's why I love the concept of agroecology Agri ecologies is the bridge between conventional to organic my goal is I don't want the producers to do any event so he makes more money you heard the lady young lady talk about the more you have less of these chemicals the more you will be rewarded and rightly so because people are paying for your understanding and your integrity that's what they're paying for the more your intense your tillage the more you're gonna mess things up if you kill one small part of the farm versus the whole farm it makes a huge difference and then when you do your tillage and when you apply your chemicals this is the way we do chemicals right now insecticides this is how we manage it Matt there's Matt right there what if I told Madison Matt now I want you to take a little bit of chemo just in case you get cancer you think Matt would be would enjoy that that's the way we do insecticide right now and fungicide Oh producer calls them in I got an outbreak here instead of doing the scouting and looking at that field I just framed that one field but no it may spread to the next field I want you to get that field of that field and that field and then the neighbors watch then you spray the whole thing then you hurt biology in life and now it costs you money timing is everything some people say well ray one to ITIL if I am an organic farmer I would tell when it's colder the microbes are not gonna eat your lunch so badly I say roll cover crops stop the tillage as much as possible look at the chemist look what happens this is the diverse scene Costa Rica this is South Africa this is an Iowa cornfield Michigan is right next to it and a soda is right next to it this is the diversity this diversity we need nature's self-healing self-regulating insects multiply every two hours ladies and gentlemen I have a question for you why are we overrun by insects do you think we could actually control all the insect population really no stinking way nature self healing self regulating how come you all of us don't have cancer cancer is just a cell gone crazy no self-healing mechanism now why don't we all have cancer seem natural system is designed to be healthy guys let's make it very clear about tillage this is a discussion that we should we should they new than the 30s that tillage destroyed aggregates we knew that dr. Dwayne Beck all tillage destroys soil structure I don't care all of it does all tillage destroys impedes water infiltration it reduces organic matter and it stimulates weeds that is the beginning of secondary succession tillage is not your buddy you have to careful how you use it reduce it as much as you can I went to go speak in the organic group and the guys said to me ray thank you for not beating me up with with tillage I said no they said you taught me something very important this is I want you to keep think of tillage guys when you're out there tilling it better hurt like you're running over your favorite pet then I know you understand and you'll figure every way how to reduce it that's understanding that's where I want you to be this is dr. Johnson this is Las Cruces this is a soil that has been tilled to death and no Harleen no organic matter that's a clot that's not a rock a majority of our soils in this country are carlin depleted everywhere organic farm no-till multi species mix and an occasional Roundup herbicide the only the separate same soil types look at the difference same soils see ladies and gentlemen it's never been about organic it's about regenerative AG I have been in some of the most organic fields absolutely destroyed and eroded same thing with no-till sprayed to death does it impact everything yes it does look at the even our grazing system look at them look at the rotational grazing look at the colors this is South Dakota look at the infiltration rates look at hail and another thing is very very destructive to the soil it's hainan look at the infiltration rates in a hay field why is that look at the coloring you're taking from the factory workers you're always removing always taking so how do you fix it by new land take it from the neighbor right by your hay I buy my hay I never take my I used to raise hay never again I will buy it now somebody said well ray aren't you taking from them they need the money I rather than them not do it cropland continuous look at that rotational grazing continuous grazing let the cows do whatever they want like a cropland look at the infiltration rates same soil types okay so if you have problems with weeds there's anybody in here and not have problems with weeds and you hardly have any weeds on your farm raise your hand I didn't think so when I know that producers have problems with weeds in their pasture they're over grazing if farmers have problems with weeds in their farm they're over there over there doing too much tillage poor rotations nature's healers and scabs are the wheat I call them the first responders when you impact that system you diminish the biology anytime you see these scabs out there they're telling you something they're the healers there's a book I recommend for everybody it's called guardians of the soil by dr. something just write the word free guardians of the soil I have changed completely the way I look at Meade's guardians of the soil okay now we're getting close how much time do I have Kenny two minutes let's go quickly okay now the other three synergize covers living roots okay remember I told you by a biomimicry everybody I would write her name down her name is Janine Benyus TED talk she gives the most awesome TED talks on biomimicry mimicked life that TED talks are awesome she says man nature's got 3.8 billion years of research and development in fact some of our most awesome research has come from some of the most incredible inventions have come from nature itself velcro Janine Benyus just type the word the biomimicry she'll come up she's amazing speaker to love I bought her book I they have a institution of biomimicry can you imagine going to school what do you do well I'm a biomimicry very cool velcro was designed and engineered found out its design and he knew from the it was stuck to his dog's fur and the name of that engineer is millionaire billionaire we are mimicking termite mounds ladies and gentlemen right now we are mimicking those termite mounds because they are incredible for regulating temperature we are now put in our buildings and reducing it by 90 percent we're mimicking elephant trunks weight the answer is the natural system she argues well if the answers in the metro system how come we don't farm like the prairie in the forest she's right that's what we're starting to do that's called agro ecology biomimicry has been around for a long time ladies and gentlemen it's biblical that's the Beast they will tell you how many of you just recently in the last six months have just actually walked up on your forests and just sat there and contemplated and observed it's hard when we're so distracted and so disconnected from it do you know why I missed it eight years of university study I forgot nobody taught me to be an observer this is the goal and let me show you how farmers are doing it now this is what we're mimicking the forest floors we're making the architecture on the top and we're also mimicking the armoury if you walk in the forest what do you see all the time leaves armor I want my soil armored and I want green growing out of it let me show you what we're doing the same in the prairie if you walk in your lawn you pull your blonde aside and guess what you're gonna see brown that's called the detritus sphere it's always present look what engineer look like our farmers are doing or designing mixes to do this and we're putting them out there so we can bring diversity because if we bring diversity we bring stabilization of all the insects the natural natural predators oh by the way just recently research came out just yesterday that I saw fungicides are hurting B populations that's pretty devastating now we not only know the neo Nicks but the fungicides are hurting our bee population and the number one money producer per acre is honey so if I bring this is what farmers are doing how many have actually seen one of those when I went to the organic conference they said one of the people in the organic conference of Pennsylvania said that's a cancer whooshing I said that cancer machine is a cover crop machine also blowing core I mean cover crop seed on standing corn farmers are building this people have asked me what are the big operators catching on absolutely I had one guy and it came to one of our schools convert thirty thousand acres into covers no till one soil demonstration look at that dropping it why do they do that why are they willing to invest in that because of this ladies and gentleman they want living cover capturing Sun they understand soil function now this is spreading through the country this is going to be farming in the future I'm so excited about it look at this this farmer is capturing water cycles working he's capturing sentient to the last minute the nutrient cycling that's a multi species mixed with legumes he is diversity he is planting corn and we also plant soybean we have hundreds of thousands of acres through the country doing this this is in Tennessee he is capturing he is following all the ecosystem processes to the last minute no roller needed we designed the right amount of veg about 2 to 3 pounds and help lay it down and we love sir your eye we plant our corn right into it and those planters are amazing cut right through it this is Adam Daughtery one of our best DC's in the country there he's pulling the corn away that young man a lesson three years forty percent of his County is covered when I Drive you know what I see bear bear bear bear bear bear fields neck it feels his County is covering covered covered this amazing to be in a place that there's a cover I was exciting we're doing it in cotton look at the weed suppression we were losing the battle in the south of Arkansas farmers were giving up farmers because pigweed was over coming up they were roundup resistant there was nothing to control the peg weed cereal rye in combination with chemistry we have brought farms back they have been resurrected from the death they have come back to life through covers we were able to control it pigweed hates syria rye is a leopa the-- it does not affect corn people say well it's affected corn it's not true we've done thousands of acres when you have a round you have a problem with Syria rye it's a nitrogen issue please understand they will steal all the nitrogen out of the soil it's designed to do that yes sir yes well no we've seen we've we've had great success with it here's the kick he is something you have to walk you have to I if you have a chance between standing it or rolling it I prefer rolling it but because you're so far north you're just gonna do it standing we don't have those issues but please understand where the struggle is you're having soils now that filtrate that hold water they're functioning I had a young farmer call me one time he says from South Dakota he was so frustrated he emailed me and game and said Greg rheya I do the no-till under the covers and I integrate animals and my corn looks like crap we got 25 inches of rain all in one month I emailed him back this is my neighbor's corn look great my looks terrible its yellowing I'm gonna plow the whole stinking farm I ain't mailing back as I don't the water ran off all your neighbor's fields two months later he emails me he's is all exciting says ray I want the fields every one of my neighbor's fields were overcome with weeds we went into a drought my corn looks great I said do not mimic your neighbor you'll go broke you go observe luckily said I wouldn't blow my field I said I'm glad thank your brother he stood in front of the plow there's the covers notice a difference it's worth 30 years of no-till this county has been no-till for 40 years 80% of the county's no-till this young man took it from this is regular no-till this is no-till enroll covers area gets 50 inches of rain these guys are averaging to 50 to 60 bushel easy are they as good as oils as Iowa know what they're doing look what we've done with our soils in less than three years no-till without covers that's the way the soils look like stratified oxidized they had layers of compaction look what happens with three years of covers two hundred and seventy nine percent changes respiration the microbes are going they consume huge amounts of food they will do if you trip in those fields are there you'll be dissolved they are cycling the soil scores jumped up fifty percent in less than three years we are using the Gandhi seed box this is Indiana as they're harvesting corn that thing is dropping cover crop seen amazing opens - here is my buddy Tom Patrick Wisconsin Watertown he's been doing planting green for the last two or three years and I've been all over Wisconsin talked and I said Tony why didn't you let me show that slide wouldn't want people to get all I don't want people think I'm crazy now he's got a large group of farmers following him he's got a huge group they have soil health communities where they're doing planting green and this year you said the rains came my neighbors were drowned out because we have heavy soils I did not drown out because those covers saved my bacon it rained and it rained and they suck the water out and I was able to get out there and plant and my corn produced two hundred and sixty bushel catching mimic nature how much time do I have Kenny three minutes well since I got such bits so much let me let me get down to the punchline cuz I got three minutes okay here we go good way to end this young man is pretty impressive how many have been to Arkansas by the way my place looks like the moon love the people in Arkansas but they were taught like the rest of us I would before I left I was responsible for Arkansas they do soil health and Luke in Louisiana this young man is pretty impressive he got his master's from Mississippi from from Arkansas he farms about 9,000 acres of cotton he now has over 8,000 acres in covers Adam I said my gosh what did why did you do this is this Ray we weren't desperate I knew we kept going this way we were bleeding a pig we was killing us it was destroying us these guys get 50 to 60 inches of rain guys and they still irrigate 60 inches of rain and they irrigate the soils are so destroyed that all the water runs off majority I said Adam what changed you he says desperation ray I watched you and David Brandt and game on YouTube I was one night of surfing and I had to find answers because we were bleeding financially we couldn't take this anymore so they want it and I said my gosh so what did your professor tell you when you started using covers he said ray he told me that we were gonna go broke and I said well how did you respond because he what did he tell you he says well you're gonna be invaded by insects you gonna take all this pass you're gonna bring all this disease because you covers I'm gonna do that and I go whoa does he believe in beneficials that there's 1700 beneficials for every past so how did you respond to him he said ray I told him my brother and I don't get our research money from Monsanto we get it from ourselves he's now Lord his debt from five point four million dollars down to two point seven in five years no-till covers is there animals of sheep he's so excited he says right now we're good we're gonna do all kinds of other things I'm gonna have my dad paid for Adam would you go back never I'm making money now I am flowing with the system I'm working in collaborating with nature it's changed everything for him it's changed his whole life ladies and gentlemen the last one this young man Russell Hendrick if you ever get to Russell hit drink watch him on YouTube this young man knows how to manage nutrients he lives in North Carolina why is he such a good farmer he never grew up on the farm he was a fireman wanted to farm started with four acres forty acres now he's farming a thousand to twelve hundred acres people are saying rest of what you for in my place I said Russell what did you do he watched our YouTube videos now he's no-till cover crop last year 2016 he won the yield contest dry land for North Carolina 318 bushel of dry land yield with a hundred and forty units of end no-till multi species the Rick Haney test and he too puts test plots all the time can you please tell me which corn is the zero rate half rate full rate of fertilizer anybody which was the half rate which is the full rate these are plots right next to each other half rates in the middle and the right it's actually the opposite you you you're right about this way zero nitrogen half rate nitrogen full rate only a seven bushel difference between these two if you are not doing check strips on your place everyone should do a check stripper zero rate half rate full rate you do your own testing this is the County average of this place one hundred and twelve bushel he's consistently 214 he won last year's 318 bushel and wrap it up he's I said Russell how are they responding to you well Clemson State NC State in ARS is doing research plots this year I said how did that go she asked went really well he is plots consistently you consistently yielded higher but their income was a hundred and fifty one hundred and eighty dollars higher than the other researchers plots so here's what I'm going to leave you the last message ladies and gentlemen for many years I had no hope for agriculture I did I was really really worried I was concerned no matter what I would travel I would see it I said why are farmers having to work so hard why do we have to farm so many acres why can't we make a living just on 500 acres well now ladies and gentlemen I have hope and I see an exciting future for regenerative AG and it is growing and producers are catching on and you know what I love about this this whole system you make the majority of the money that 318 bushel corn is a non-gmo corn producers are paying for that people want it farmers are making more money and there's an exciting future and I want to thank every one of you that came today because it says a lot about you that you really cuz you really want to learn thank you for having me appreciate it [Applause]

Channel: Albert Lea Seed

Views: 24,099

Rating: 4.9274611 out of 5

Keywords: Ray Archuleta, cover crops, soil science, soil management, farming, regenerative agriculture

Id: OBnsgzeNIng

Length: 92min 22sec (5542 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 19 2017