Nebraska Examiner: Farmer/advocate pitches ‘regenerative agriculture’ practices during farm tour

Farmer/advocate pitches ‘regenerative agriculture’ practices during farm tour

Christensen says such practices can reduce nitrate pollution in groundwater and rivers, resulting in healthier soil for future generations

By: Paul Hammel – August 20, 2024

Graham Christensen explains the regenerative agriculture practices employed at his family’s farm east of Lyons to produce crops with less intensive use of pesticides and fertilizers during a farm tour Saturday. (Paul Hammel for the Nebraska Examiner)

LYONS, Nebraska — You don’t notice anything really different about the Christensen Farms as you drive to the farm entrance.

Thick stands of corn, powered by abundant rains in this corner of northeast Nebraska, have resulted in stalks 8 feet tall, swaying in a late summer breeze. No different than cornfields down the road.

But a closer look reveals the innovative practices employed by Graham and Max Christensen to reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizer and to build up the soil naturally on these rolling hills.

They’re using cover crops and filter strips along the nearby Bell Creek to avoid chemical runoff into the waterway, and low-growing vegetation in the corn rows to help reduce erosion.

Crops are planted using “no-till” practices, which reduces tillage and fuel expenses and utilizes the crop residue to hold the soil in place. Commercial nitrogen fertilizer use has been reduced, in part due to the conservation practices that prevent the nutrients from washing away.

Crop-dusting planes don’t typically spray pesticides on these fields like others nearby; instead, they’re used to spread seed onto the cornfield in mid-September so cover crops get an earlier head start into the fall.

This is “regenerative agriculture,” a way to avoid nitrate pollution of groundwater and streams that flow eventually to the Gulf of Mexico, Graham Christensen tells about 40 members of the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club during a farm tour on Saturday.

It’s also a way, Christensen said, to ensure that future generations can continue to farm and prosper on farms like this, which has been in his Danish family for 156 years.

Roots form ‘soil armor’

The cover crops and the filter strips create “a soil armor” of roots in the soil year round that not only protects against erosion and fertilizer runoff, but also holds moisture and mitigates the temperature of the soil during hot summers and frigid winters, he said.

Unlike the clean rows in more traditional cornfields using GMO-modified seed and glyphosate, vegetation is allowed to grow between the rows at Christensen Farms. (Paul Hammel for the Nebraska Examiner)

Current agriculture practices that are heavy on pesticides and fertilizer and focused solely on corn and soybeans are unsustainable, said Christensen, who believes that regenerative agriculture is a practice that will pass on healthier soils and cleaner waters for future generations, as well as deal with the warming climate.

“We can’t continue to mine the soil instead of taking care of our land,” he said.

Besides the farm, Christensen, a former public affairs chief for the Nebraska Farmers Union, founded GC Resolve, which consults with farmers and others about wind and solar energy and educates others about regenerative practices.

The organization advocates at the State Capitol and in Washington, D.C., for friendlier policies for farmers seeking to transition to regenerative agriculture, which can take a few years to pay off.

He’s also involved with a collaborative called “Regenerate Nebraska,” is working to place a wind farm in Burt County and consults with Cargill about his findings in using more regenerative practices.

Permanent, rather than pilot-project, incentives for using filter strips and cover crops would help more farmers make the transition, he said.

Trial and error

On the family’s 800-acre farm, it has taken four years of work — and trial and error — to change farm practices, Christensen said.

He considers the farm to still be “in transition” to more regenerative practices, which is an ongoing process. He cited six main practices:

• No-till farming.
• “Permanent roots” in the soil via cover crops and filter strips.
• Increased biodiversity, which includes introducing legumes and grains like barley and rye into cover crops, and planting hazelnut trees and black cherry bushes in windbreaks and unused areas of the farm.
• “Ecosystem context,” which he said means “respecting” and honoring the unique character of your local ecosystem instead of trying to “reengineer” it.
• Integrate livestock into the operation, for grazing of cover crops in the fall and spring and to naturally spread fertilizer, via manure, into the soil.
• Learn from our ancestors and use technology “in the right way,” to increase soil health and decrease use of commercial fertilizers.

So far, Christensen said he and his brother have reduced the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed on the farm by about 40 pounds per acre.

About 65% of the electric needs at Christensen Farms is provided by two solar panels. Graham Christensen said that percentage would be higher if the rural electric utility provided a more generous payment for any excess power generated. This panel generates 20 kilowatts of power. (Paul Hammel for the Nebraska Examiner)

Because they market only non-genetically modified corn and have, until this year, grown only non-GMO soybeans, they get a premium price for their crops, ranging from an extra 45 cents to $2 per bushel.

This form of farming carries added expense. He said seeding cover crops using an airplane or drone, and using divergent cover crop mixes, has pushed the cost of planting and applying seed to about $30,000 on their 800 acres.

There’s also a learning curve, Christensen said, pointing toward a field of soybeans that became choked with weeds last year because they had planted a non-GMO variety used in food, and eschewed the use of herbicides.

This year, perhaps only for a year, he said, GMO-modified soybeans were planted so weed control chemicals like glyphosate, marketed as Roundup, could be used. Christensen said a robotic weed mower-like device, which runs down the gaps between the rows to cut weeds, may be deployed next year as weed control.

Three to five years of work

Bruce Johnson, an agriculture economist emeritus from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that more farmers haven’t adopted regenerative practices because it can take three to five years before they pay off financially.

“That’s too long a time for many farmers and landowners to take the risk,” Johnson said.

In addition, the federal farm bill puts its main focus on “a few major crops,” Johnson said, and, in the past, farmers could lose crop insurance if they incorporated a cover crop in their corn/bean rotation.

Christensen said that despite the advocacy work done by GC Resolve and others interested in regenerative agriculture, efforts to change state and local farm policies have been frustrating.

This year, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law involving regenerative agriculture, but it provided incentives for farmers to employ a “biotech” coating on seed, which Christensen believes is unproven and sidesteps proven regenerative practices.

He said that real changes in farm policy in the future will have to be driven by consumers who want to be assured their food is being produced in a sustainable way without excessive chemicals. Farm groups interested in regenerative agriculture don’t have the power to do it alone, Christensen said.

“It’s got to be consumer-led now,” he told those at the tour. “We need your help pretty bad to shift the course.”

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Paul Hammel

Senior Contributor Paul Hammel covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. Previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun, he is a member of the Omaha Press Club’s Hall of Fame. He grows hops, brews homemade beer, plays bass guitar and basically loves traveling and writing about the state. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he is vice president of the John G. Neihardt Foundation. Hammel retired in April but continues to contribute to the Nebraska Examiner.