Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 192: Breaking Up Compaction with Roots Instead of Steel with Lloyd Murdock Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

Lloyd Murdock grew up in Oklahoma, earned his PhD in soils at Virginia Tech, and found his way to the University of Kentucky while stationed at nearby Fort Knox. He has spent more than four decades there as Extension Soils Specialist, and is now Professor Emeritus at the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton, Kentucky.

Lloyd helped make no-till wheat standard practice in Kentucky. He also contributed research behind the soil penetrometer and developed an algorithm for variable-rate nitrogen in wheat. For the past decade or more, he has focused on breaking down fragipan soils with annual ryegrass. He still consults with farmers.

In this episode, John and Lloyd discuss:

Why fragipans leave many eastern U.S. crops growing on just two feet of soil above a concrete-like layer.
How annual ryegrass roots break down the fragipan at 3/4 of an inch to 2 1/2 inches per year.
A farmer who broke through more than a foot of fragipan with only four ryegrass crops in seven years.
How most roots stall above 300 psi of soil resistance, and why annual ryegrass can push through.
Why subsoiling only pays when more than 30% of a field has significant compaction.
How Kentucky's state average wheat yield climbed from the 40s to 70 bushels by doing small things right.
Why many farmers fear annual ryegrass, and how drones make fall seeding into standing crops easier.
How chlorophyll sensors and a high-nitrogen reference strip help fine-tune wheat nitrogen rates.

Additional Resources To read the University of Kentucky's guide to fragipan remediation with annual ryegrass, please visit: https://publications.mgcafe.uky.edu/agr-250

To learn more about Lloyd's fragipan research, please visit: https://news.mgcafe.uky.edu/article/researchers-believe-fragipan-breakthrough-horizon

To read about Dave Fischer's annual ryegrass system at Fischer Farms, please visit: https://www.agproud.com/articles/46700-beef-on-rye-at-fischer-farms

Learn more about AEA: https://www.advancingecoag.com

About John Kempf John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow

Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture. AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.

AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 191: Tar Spot, Tip Back, and Real-Time Plant Data with Jeff Kleypas Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

Jeff Kleypas is Distribution Manager and Senior Agronomist at Advancing Eco Agriculture, based in South Texas. He began his career 20 years ago as a crop consultant walking South Texas vegetable fields that were sprayed weekly with insecticides and fungicides. He started working with biologicals in 2009 and joined AEA four years ago. He also runs a 1.5-acre market farm at home, where he tests new tools himself.

Jeff works with row crop growers and dealers across the Midwest and South, many of them now in year three or four of a full AEA program. This season he helped calibrate the CropTix sap sensor on cotton and corn and ran live demos at Midwest grower events. He uses FieldLark and other AI tools to turn sap, soil, and imagery data into faster recommendations.

In this episode, John and Jeff discuss:

A 3,000-acre Illinois corn farm that saw 5% of the tar spot with Pinion compared to its conventional fungicide check.
How cutting P and K too hard led to tip back in Illinois corn.
How the Croptix sensor returns full sap results in minutes.
A grower with a 58-bushel soybean break-even who is averaging over 80, with some spots near 100.
Pinion results from Jeff's own cut flowers, including a full month without disease.
Why AI should make farmers better at seeing patterns in data, not replace them.
Why sugars give a much bigger response at much lower rates in biologically active soils.
A biological in-furrow program that beat a 2x2 of 40 units of nitrogen by 25 bushels.

Additional Resources To learn more about FieldLark, please visit: https://fieldlark.ai

To learn more about Pinion, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/product/pinion/

To learn more about Croptix, please visit: https://www.croptix.ag/

To listen to Jeff's earlier podcast short, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/podcast-short-10-breaking-away-from-traditional-agronomy-with-jeff-kleypas/

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 190: What the 1980s Farm Crisis Should Have Taught Us with Wendy Johnson Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

Wendy Mariko Johnson farms in Floyd County, Iowa, near Charles City. She grew up on an Iowa farm, left at 18 in the 1990s for an 18-year career in the Los Angeles fashion industry, and returned in 2010 with her husband Johnny Rafkin. Having watched farms close across Iowa in the 1980s, she came back determined to follow the three things that carried her parents through that era: diversification, low cost of production, and little to no debt.

Today Wendy runs two businesses from the same land. Jóia Food & Fiber Farm carries 160 ewes, 25 cows and their calves, plus hogs, chickens, and ducks across roughly 130 certified organic acres, alongside 15 acres of Kernza and more than 6,000 trees planted over the past decade. Jóia Sleep turns the farm's wool into comforters, mattress toppers, and pillows. She also co-manages Center View Farms, her family's thousand-acre commodity operation, and serves as vice president of the Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative, co-founder of 99 Counties, and chair of Iowa's USDA Farm Service Agency state committee. Her current question is how to take what she has proven on 130 acres and extend it across a thousand.

In this episode, John and Wendy discuss:

What carried her parents through the 1980s farm crisis, and why it still applies
How direct marketing made her a price maker instead of a price taker
Why the thousand-acre corn and soybean farm is becoming obsolete
How Kernza thrived through a 10-inch drought year and a 12-inch rain month
Why she hires custom operators instead of owning machinery
What it would take to treat agrarian labor like the skilled trades
Whether the next generation wants land ownership or just land access
Why she would rather be paid on practice and nutrition than on yield
Four years of silvopasture planted over field tile

Additional ResourcesTo listen to the podcast episode featuring Austin Unruh on integrating trees into working pastures, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/episode-97-integrating-trees-into-working-pastures-with-austin-unruh/

To learn more about Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, please visit: https://www.joiafoodfarm.com/

To learn more about Jóia Sleep, please visit: https://www.joiasleep.com/

To learn more about 99 Counties, please visit: https://99counties.com/

To learn more about the Perennial Promise Growers' Cooperative, please visit: https://perennialpromise.com/

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

About John KempfJohn Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Podcast Extra: Why Corn Is Dying Early with John Kempf & Brody Benton Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

In this Podcast Extra, Brody Benton of Six B and John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, dig into why plants are shutting down weeks before black layer, what top dieback is actually telling you, and how nitrogen form, leaf temperature, and trace minerals decide whether a crop finishes strong or hollows out from the inside.

John explains why the fungi behind stalk rot and crown rot — fusarium, rhizoctonia, pythium — are saprophytes that navigate by electrical charge, and why they only attack cells the plant has already given up on. Brody brings the 2026 weather data: 43 nights above 68°F in Polk County, Iowa (vs. a 28–29 night average), 35+ in York County, Nebraska, and record dew points that opened the door for tar spot. Put those together and you get a plant burning protein for energy, converting rubisco and PEP carboxylase back to ammonium, robbing amino skeletons out of the leaves, and dismantling its own photosynthetic engine during grain fill.

From there the conversation goes well past stalk rot: front-loaded nitrogen and electrolyte overload, chloride and sodium from manure histories, herbicide and fungicide effects on fungal-to-bacterial ratios, the depletion of microbially active carbon under corn-on-corn and corn-soybean rotations, molybdenum and nitrate assimilation in soybeans, EDTA chelates that pull one nutrient out while adding another, plant sap pH targets, and how humic substances turned a manure pit into liquid gold.

Additional ResourcesIf you farm in the midwest and would like to get in touch with Brody, please reach out to him via email, brody.benton@gmail.com To listen to the Podcast conversation with Mike Omeg, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/episode-188-eliminating-ground-applied-urea-with-mike-omeg/

About John KempfJohn Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 189: Why Your Nitrogen Program Is Costing You 50 Bushels with Ed Baumgartner Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Ed Baumgartner is a corn breeder and co-founder of Bass Hybrids in Olivia, Minnesota. His family has been in the seed corn business since the late 1930s, when his great uncles began producing hybrid seed as Troy Farms. Ed studied agronomy and plant genetics and spent 21 years and five mergers inside the commercial seed industry, much of it running winter nurseries in Puerto Rico and doing trait integration work for major companies.

At Bass Hybrids, Ed breeds non-GMO corn using a shuttle breeding model borrowed from Norman Borlaug, cycling material between Puerto Rico and Minnesota for three generations a year under deliberate heat, drought, and disease stress. Working in 18 identified genetic families rather than the industry's two, he has selected for native insect tolerance and broad stress resilience and found those selections also produced plants with unusually strong microbial association and markedly lower nitrogen requirements. His current work includes nitrogen rate trials across genetics, interseeded cover crop studies in three states, and a 148-acre discovery farm dedicated entirely to regenerative research.

In this episode, John and Ed discuss:

Why corn inbreds developed before heavy nitrogen fertilization still carry the genetics for nutrient efficiency
How some Bass hybrids produce 200 bushel corn on 50 pounds of applied nitrogen, and drop to 150 bushels when nitrogen is pushed above 200
Why Y-drop nitrogen placed too close to the stalk causes a yield hit on biologically responsive genetics
The plant characteristics that signal high biological receptivity, including pubescence, leathery leaves, multiple ears, and heavy pollen loads
Results from interseeding nine species of cover crops at V3, where the highest yielding treatment came with nitrogen cut by 25 percent
Why Bass asked its seed producers to apply AEA's Pinion this season in place of conventional fungicide
How AEA's fertility guidance gives growers an off-ramp from high nitrogen and an on-ramp for soil biology
What germinator trials revealed about fungicide-treated seed versus seed grown without fungicides

Additional Resources

To listen to John's first conversation with the BASS Hybrids team, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/podcast-extra-john-kempf-bass-hybrids-on-the-future-of-corn/

To read the University of Wisconsin research on nitrogen-fixing corn in Mexico, please visit: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2006352

To learn more about AEA's Pinion, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/product/pinion/

To find Charles Walters' book Eco-Farm, please visit: https://bookstore.acresusa.com/products/eco-farm?srsltid=AU7gw4XfkT_GNsryakPAWEYC5avS6GxN3ikUv9nbqaG0cJXfyZIq3Y8_

To learn more about BASS Hybrids, please visit: https://www.basshybrids.com/

About John Kempf

John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 188: Eliminating Ground-Applied Urea with Mike Omeg Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Mike Omeg is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up on a diverse family farm in Oregon, initially producing cherries, hay, cattle, apricots, apples, and wheat. Over time, he honed in on fresh cherry production. He is currently the Director of Orchard Operations at Orchard View Cherries. Drawing on decades of tree-fruit experience and driven by a vision to keep his operation thriving for the next 100 years, Mike has spent the last 13 years collaborating closely with Advancing Eco Agriculture to challenge the conventional .

Currently, Mike is implementing management practices to maintain high cherry yields while drastically reducing input costs . He has completely eliminated dry nitrogen ground applications, shifting toward targeted fertigation and carbon-based energy sources to optimize tree metabolism . By focusing on biological precision and custom blends, he is growing firmer, higher-quality fruit while successfully testing new methods to control severe powdery mildew pressure without relying on conventional fungicides .

In this episode, John and Mike discuss:

How eliminating dry nitrogen ground applications improved overall tree health and nutrition .
Boosting calcium absorption by 45% using Advancing Eco Agriculture custom blends .
Turning large cherry crops into high-yield, premium-sized fruit while lowering harvest labor costs .
Utilizing carbon and targeted sugars as energy sources to expand leaf size and drive tree vigor .
Testing AEA's Pinion to manage severe powdery mildew without applying conventional fungicides .
Maintaining a strict twenty-dollar-per-acre budget for foliar applications .
Supporting multi-year crop loads without sacrificing branch strength or tree vitality .

Additional ResourcesTo listen to the podcast episode featuring Jim Dunlop, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/episode-183-overcoming-the-ammonium-death-spiral-with-jim-dunlop/

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture. AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most. AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Podcast Extra: Building High-Efficiency Fertility Systems for Row Crops Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a discussion led by Heather Poutre of Agronomy Diversified LLC, Jeff True of True Potential Ag Consulting, LLC, and John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Ag. With nitrogen management remaining a central topic amidst heightened focus on water quality, Heather, Jeff, and John will dive into practical agronomic strategies designed to balance environmental stewardship with farm profitability.

Topics in this webinar that are discussed include:
Navigating evolving water quality focuses and proactive nitrogen management.
Building a practical fertility program designed to maximize nutrient efficiency and profitability.
Implementing management practices that address root causes rather than relying on bulk fertilizer top-ups.
Actionable strategies for cutting conventional commercial fertilizer dependence while maintaining yield.
Utilizing biology, humic and fulvic acids, and amino acids to improve nutrient uptake.
Maximizing Return on Investment (ROI) by lowering unit costs per bushel through smarter nutrient delivery.

Additional ResourcesClick here to watch "How Excess Nitrogen Creates Yield Drag"

For Iowa/Midwest growers who want to reach out to Heather or Jeff, contact info is below:

Jeff True, True Potential Ag Consulting, LLC. 641-431-0436 Jeff serves the NW and SE corners of Iowa
Heather Poutre, Agronomy Diversified LLC

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 187: Clearing Nitrogen "Constipation" in High-Yield Corn with Brody Benton Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

Brody Benton is an agronomist and no-till farmer in Guthrie County, Iowa, specializing in continuous corn rotations and hoop-barn hog manure management . Brody works with growers in Iowa and the midwest as an independent consultant through his company, Six B, using sap analysis and field trials to help growers reduce synthetic chemical dependency.

To forward regenerative agriculture, Brody focuses on restoring soil fungal communities, accelerating humification, and keeping living roots in the ground year-round through cover cropping . He advocates replacing synthetic fungicides with targeted trace mineral nutrition to resolve plant nutrient backlogs, boost photosynthesis, and rebuild natural crop immunity .

In this episode, John and Brody discuss:

The historical shift over the last 50 years from naturally maturing green corn to crops dependent on continuous synthetic inputs .
How late-season cover crops feed soil biology with exudates to increase organic matter and boost cash crop yields .
The severe impact of chemical herbicides on soil fungi and how proper planting depth protects biological inoculants .
How AEA ReBound trace minerals and PhotoMag clear nitrogen backlogs, lower plant nitrates, and reactivate photosynthesis .
The success of Pinion as a fungicide alternative that suppresses tar spot without harming soil biology .
How trace mineral nutrition prevents phantom yield loss by maintaining a reducing internal environment in the plant during grain fill .

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Episode 186: The Power of Precision Management and Multi-Species Covers with Mike Thompson Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Mike Thompson is a fifth-generation farmer in West Texas who grew up in conventional "cotton-on-cotton" country. After leaving the farm for 16 years, he returned to face the region's harsh climate, hot winds, and declining water reserves. His perspective shifted during his first year back when his plow hit a patch of decomposing hay on pasture land, effortlessly slicing through moist mud instead of pulling up massive dirt clods.

Today, Mike manages a resilient operation by rotating corn, wheat with summer cover crop mixes, and cotton, while dividing his pivot irrigation fields into thirds to optimize water efficiency. By incorporating livestock grazing and multi-species covers like sunn hemp, he has built rich soil structure, eliminated synthetic plant growth regulators, and produced his highest-yielding cotton crops even during severe dry spells.

In this episode, John and Mike discuss:

Navigating landlord relationships by splitting fields into thirds for consistent annual cotton income and incorporating vegetable species in cover crop mixes.
The crucial role of deep pre-watering before planting to build subsoil moisture reserves for late-summer heat.
Haney soil test results showing 57 pounds of available nitrogen remaining after harvesting a heavy three-bale cotton crop.
Plant physiological changes under regenerative management, including dark green, dinner-plate-sized leaves that act as massive solar panels.
Using AEA sap analysis to track how a targeted spring boron application activated a massive mid-season surge in boron, calcium, and magnesium uptake.
Testing handheld Croptix sensors for instant field data and utilizing FieldLark AI to analyze root zone nutrient mobility.
Mike's advice on the intense scouting, preparation, and attention to detail needed to succeed in regenerative agriculture.

Resources To learn more about Croptix, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/news/how-the-croptix-platform-is-changing-plant-nutrition-and-disease-monitoring/

To learn more about FieldLark AI, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/land/fieldlark/

To learn more about plant sap analysis: https://advancingecoag.com/plant-sap-analysis/

To learn more about Green Cover, please visit: https://greencover.com/

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Podcast Extra: John Kempf on Soil Biophysics, Plant Immunity & Foliars on the Permaculture Orchard Podcast Jul 31, 2026

Show notes

In this Podcast Extra episode, John Kempf joins Stefan Sobkowiak and his son, Zach, on the Permaculture Orchard Podcast . During the course of the episode, they discuss John's background growing up on an Ohio Amish farm ; plant biophysics, including seeds as living microbial inoculants and quantum mechanics in photosynthesis ; high-ROI grower tips like adding sugar to foliar sprays to cut nutrient inputs in half , planting eight plant families to trigger quorum sensing , and avoiding excess nitrogen and potassium to prevent pest outbreaks and extend storage life ; and Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA), the company John founded to offer living, non-suppressive fertility inputs alongside AI agronomy tools like FieldLark.

Host Stefan Sobkowiak uses The Permaculture Orchard Podcast to give growers access to cutting-edge insights on ecological agriculture . Through the podcast, resources like the Permaculture Orchard Blueprint ebook , and his work transforming traditional monocultures into diverse permaculture ecosystems , Stefan demonstrates how hands-on testing, non-chemical weed management, and multi-family ground covers build long-term soil health, fruit quality, and farm profitability.

Resources To listen to more episodes of the Permaculture Orchard Podcast and learn more about Stefan's work, please visit the links below:

YouTube Channel : www.youtube.com/c/stefansobkowiak POP Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@PermacultureOrchardPodcast Permaculture Orchard Masterclass: https://permaculture.study/ Talks: Stefan Sobkowiak Les Fermes Miracle Farms & Courses: miracle.farm

Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesfermes.farms Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefansobkowiak/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-sobkowiak-91694442/ Ma Chaîne Française YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-fKD72AtioxXV2C9oZf6ZQ

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

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