First Harvest: Regenerative Agriculture at Boyle Park (3rd post in the series)

In mid-May, Dave Otto, of Otto Farms, stopped his tractor and seeder (that NEVER happens during seeding) and stepped from the field onto our yard to enthusiastically talk about the “Regenerative Agriculture” approach that he was piloting on the land rented from us.

We immediately recognized the potential of Dave’s new passion. As a businessman, my first question was: “does the spreadsheet work?” (I’ve seen too many enterprises that had idealism but little hope of profitability). Dave immediately responded “absolutely!” He then expounded further and returned, during his next seeding step, with a couple of great books: “Dirt to Soil” by Gabe Brown; “Growing a Revolution” by David R. Montgomery.

As I read I realized how “Regenerative Agriculture” could address the two business fundamentals of: 1) income exceeding expense, and 2) adding value to the assets.

In other words: 1) it’s ok to take a short term reduction in income, as long as the expense decreases by a greater amount, and 2) it’s a great idea to dramatically improve the natural productive value of the soil!

A traditional aspect of farming is “pride of clean.” Bev and I both grew up with Dad’s who liked to parent by saying “let’s go take a look at the crops.” They praised “clean fields” (those with no weeds). However, with Regenerative Farming, enhancing the asset and enhancing profitability are more important than pride. We definitely did not have a pristine clean field in front of our house this year! (allowing some weeds may add to profit through reduction of the cost of herbicide — and weeds add fiber as well as anything else!)

There is a great article in the June 11, 2021 issue of the Toronto Globe & Mail that further explains how the approach works.

Here is an excerpt:

““In essence it means working with nature as opposed to working against it,” she says. “It’s a set of farming principles and practices that regenerate the health of the soil.”

These practices include cover cropping (planting to cover soil rather than harvesting), promoting crop diversity, doing more to protect watersheds, minimizing pesticides and integrating livestock into farms rather than having the animals graze in separate fields.

Many farmers are also practising no-till farming – placing seed and nutrients in a relatively undisturbed seedbed to protect the soil surface and prevent erosion.”

Dave indicates that the next steps are to: