Farm Decisions and Activities during Harvest: Regenerative Soil Management

TL;DR/ Executive Summary:

Who is this article for:

• Ag Industry Segments:

  • Readers with limited agricultural experience, working in Ag Tech, Sustainability, Nature-Based Solutions, Regenerative Farming, Food System Transformation/ Investing, and related fields.

• Roles you might work in:

  • Primary: Sales, marketing, product development and management, and customer success.

  • Secondary: Business development, design, engineering, data science

Summary: 

• The mental frameworks by which conventional and regenerative farmers make decisions vary drastically, ultimately determining the short- and long-term outcomes for the farmer, soil, grain/food, CPG/Brand, and consumer.

• Regenerative farmers prioritize holistic soil health and profitability over short-term productivity to feed the soil which in turn feeds the crop

• Technological solutions must address complex ecosystem interactions, not just isolated metrics

• Soil management decisions require nuanced, context-specific approaches that go beyond traditional agricultural practices

• Deep understanding of soil microbiome dynamics represents a massive untapped market opportunity for improved testing and trusted advisor enablement.

How to best leverage this resource:

In the first two posts of this series we explored Harvest Logistics, Grain Marketing, and Soil Management from a conventional farmers perspective. In post 3, we discussed a regenerative farmers point of view on harvest logistics and grain marketing. If you haven’t already read those, consider reading both posts 1 and 2.

This article is part 4 of a 5 part series designed to provide a deeper understanding of the decisions farmers make during the harvest and post-harvest months. It’s geared toward readers with limited agricultural experience, working in Ag Tech, Sustainability, Nature-Based Solutions, Regenerative Farming, Food System Transformation/ Investment and related roles, such as product or project management, business development, customer success, sales, marketing, engineering, data science, or design.

Here’s the list of released and upcoming articles in the series: Farm Decisions and Activities during Harvest.

1. 📤Harvest Logistics and Grain Marketing

2. 📤Soil Management

3. 📤Harvest Logistics and Grain Marketing from a Regenerative Farming Point of View

4. 📬Regenerative Soil Management

5. 🔜Positioning Your Ag Solution During Harvest

Introduction:

Regenerative farming, like conventional farming, has its own benefits and challenges. During the harvest window, both will encounter similar decisions but the mental frameworks by which they process these decisions are vastly different. The final action may be the same (e.g. to till or not to till) but it cannot be overstated enough that the mental framework by which the decisions are made will ultimately determine both the short and long term outcomes for the farmer, the soil, the grain/ food produced, the CPG/Brand, and the consumer. 

So what decisions and activities does a regenerative farmer do that are different from that of a conventional farmer when it comes to soil management? Keep reading to learn more—or dive deeper with a customized insights session from Living Roots Ag that decodes the complex decision-making processes driving agricultural innovation.

Similar to the conventional farmer, a regenerative farmer will have the same three primary decision/ activity buckets including harvest logistics, marketing and storage decisions, and soil management as covered in the first post of the Harvest Series. Their approach to each of these decision buckets can change considerably. In this post, we will explore soil management and how growers make specific decisions about residue management, tillage, fall fertilization, soil priming, and cover cropping. Although not exhaustive, these five decisions have a major influence on soil life, soil loss, aeration/ compaction, carbon sequestration, water quality, and more. 

Residue Management:

What is it?

Residue management is the process of handling plant material left on the soil surface after crop harvesting, whether by removing, leaving, burying, or accelerating decomposition.  A regenerative farmer typically follows six primary soil health principles: understanding context, maintaining soil armor, minimizing soil disturbances, keeping living roots in the soil as long as possible, promoting diversity, and integrating livestock. Two informative articles that discuss these principles in detail are available from The Noble Institute and through Understanding Ag. The Understanding Ag article provides additional management guidelines for grazing; readers not interested in grazing practices can focus on the first half of the article. 

Two of these principles that significantly influence residue management decisions are: 

1. Minimizing Soil Disturbance (generally tillage) and 

2. Maintaining Soil Armor (residue and/or living plant cover). 

Knowing these principles guide a farmer’s decision-making process, regenerative farmers choose a different set of tools compared to conventional farmers. Rather than using tillage routinely, a regenerative farmer may only resort to it when necessary, such as managing erosion channels caused by extreme rain, incorporating soil amendments, or addressing severe compaction from wet harvests. When faced with a soil management decision, the regenerative farmer carefully evaluates whether tillage is the most appropriate tool for current field conditions. They also consider alternative practices that may be more effective both in the short and long term.

Why is it done?

Excess crop residue can cause planting issues in the spring. This can delay planting progress, reduce yields, and or cause equipment to malfunction. If this happens, a regenerative farmer will adapt their management strategies.They use tools such as biologicals, cover crops, and other soil amendments to address the problem at the root level. These farmers understand that tillage is unlikely to resolve the underlying issue and may even exacerbate it.

OPPORTUNITY ALERT: Do you work with residue management solutions? If so, have you considered the following points for your marketing, outreach, and product development?

1. Residue breakdown is primarily controlled by soil biology. When key organisms in the soil food web are missing, the decomposition process slows down. Think of it this way: if your gut is out of balance, your body can't properly digest food, leading to uncomfortable symptoms like bloating and belching. Similarly, poor residue decomposition in agricultural fields is a symptom—like bloating or belching—of an imbalanced soil microbiome.

2. Microbes require the right nutrients and food to decompose residue effectively. Adding soil amendments such as amino acids, dextrose, sugar, molasses, kelp, hydrolyzed fish, humic acid, and more can provide a well-rounded microbial diet.

3. If you are an account manager or work in customer service, consider visiting fields with your farm customers. Show them how residue from past seasons still lingers in the soil. This can be especially eye-opening for conventional farmers when you dig up old residue and discuss how burying it only hides, rather than solves, the problem. Relating residue management to planting efficiency, crop emergence, and stand consistency can help you actively address a significant challenge for your customers.

To Till or Not to Till:

A regenerative farmer often contemplates the use of tillage: “Will this decision benefit my field both now and in the future?” This thought process helps them evaluate whether tillage is the right tool for the job under specific circumstances. In some cases, tillage is beneficial; in others, it can be detrimental. Conditions throughout the growing season impact these decisions, and rigid adherence to a never-till or always-till philosophy can lead to long-term negative consequences. Making this choice isn’t straightforward, so having a flexible mindset and framework to weigh the benefits, drawbacks, and alternatives is essential.

OPPORTUNITY ALERT: If you're a marketer, account manager, client relationship manager, or product manager working with biologicals or soil amendments, consider developing a decision-making guide tailored to your products. Compare your solutions to tillage practices under various field conditions or challenges indicating the right microbe for the job. Use relatable language based on the farmer’s archetype and position based on what resonates with them. Interested in diving deeper? Contact Living Roots Ag today!

Fall Fertilizer:

What is it?

Similar to conventional farmers, regenerative farmers may apply fertilizer in the fall to prepare the soil for the next crop. The key difference is that regenerative farmers generally understand that most soils contain abundant nutrients, but they are often locked up and unavailable to crops. By utilizing natural soil biology or biological inoculants alongside microbial food sources, regenerative farmers work to restore nutrient cycling and reduce, or even eliminate, the need for synthetic fertilizers.

Why is it done?

Releasing plant nutrients requires multiple mechanisms, including healthy soil structure, water availability, active biology, and specific chemical reactions. Regenerative farmers aim to identify the root causes of poor nutrient cycling and may use fall fertilizer as a supplement when these mechanisms alone cannot meet crop needs.

OPPORTUNITY ALERT: Regenerative farmers typically apply little or no synthetic nitrogen in the fall, as they are aware of the potential environmental impact and prefer to wait until spring when the crop can better utilize the nutrients. If your company sells soil amendments like humic acid, molasses, sugar, compost, or biochar that improve nitrogen use efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing soil health, think about your product positioning. Highlight the cascading benefits: a regenerative farmer will focus on soil health improvements and long term ROI, while a conventional farmer may prioritize yield or current year ROI alone.

Soil Priming:

What is it:

Soil priming is a practice of reintroducing microbes and or microbial food sources to revitalize the soil's native microbiome. 

Why is it done? 

In doing so, the priming effect leads to a more active soil workforce from the point of application moving forward. Results of soil priming include improved residue decomposition, improved soil structure, increased nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, disease and insect management, plus more. Producers who leverage successful soil priming applications can also experience reduced fertilizer costs, improved crop growth, and increased yield for the following crop. 

PRODUCT PERFORMANCE TIPS:

Below are some suggestions for building long-term relationships with new or interested customers. Show them what they need to see, don’t assume they’ll notice it on their own:

1. Conduct a side by side trial AND walk with the customer through the field in the spring prior to planting. Highlight differences in residue decomposition on either side. Show them what they need to see

2. Analyze Downforce Data: If your customer uses a downforce system on their planter, review the planting maps together. Compare how much downforce was needed for proper seed placement in treated versus control areas. Less down pressure indicates better soil structure, reduced compaction, and improved planting conditions.

3. Pre-harvest field walks are great for seeing how much residue remains on the soil surface. In addition counting the number of earthworms per shovel full is a great macro-indicator of overall soil microbiome health.

Fall Cover Crops:

What is it?

Cover cropping involves planting a single species or a blend of species on fields that would otherwise lie fallow, typically between the harvest of one crop and the planting of the next. This practice allows farmers to simultaneously implement multiple soil health principles, such as increasing biodiversity, maintaining a living root system, and providing soil armor. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) division of the USDA offers an excellent collection of resources ranging from basic guides to advanced management strategies, decision-making tools, and how-to manuals. For an introduction to cover crops, visit SARE’s Cover Crops for Sustainable Rotations page, which also includes links to numerous other helpful resources.

Why is it done?

Cover crops are used for multiple reasons dependent on the context of the farm or ranch. Some of these reasons (also known as resource concerns) include improving nutrient cycling, enhancing soil structure, managing water, disease and pest management, erosion control, additional grazing, and carbon sequestration. When managed effectively, cover crops can greatly accelerate a farmer’s progress toward regenerative goals. However, poor planning and management can lead to significant setbacks. I can attest to this firsthand, having experienced substantial yield losses on farms where we delayed cover crop termination too long, assuming rain would come or that disease pressure wouldn’t be an issue. Instead, drought conditions set in, or the corn was infected with yield-robbing diseases, both of which hurt us significantly. Now, I plan as if I might be wrong, leveraging elements of the Holistic International planning processes to ensure I have a backup plan when needed.

Important Considerations:

Advocating for cover crops is a good endeavor and they tend to greatly increase carbon sequestration but it is critically important to be aware of the management complexities involved in this decision. Although cover crops can and do address multiple soil health principles while solving many long term challenges, they are still a tool that must be adapted to a growers management capabilities, geography, climate, resource concerns. 

PRODUCT PERFORMANCE TIPS:

Does your team or business offer a cover crop solution or leverage cover crops as part of a sustainability program? If so, have you considered the following in your messaging?

1. Do we have the right resources to help farmers select the right species for their resource concerns, geography, climate, and goals? If not, here are some starting points. (Smartmix, USDA Cover Crop chart, Midwest Cover Crop Council, NE/ SE cover crop selector, & Western States Cover Crop Resources

2. Do we address the economics of cover cropping including direct and indirect benefits as well as implementation costs in our messaging?

3. Do we know what synergistic products have multiplying effects on cover crop growth and performance?

4. Do we communicate best management practices and what to do when unexpected results are unfolding?

5. Do we have local experts or have we identified local experts growers can turn to with questions?

Cover crops are a wonderful tool in the tool box for addressing multiple challenges on the farm or ranch. Management is complex but when done well, will yield compounding results. Set the correct expectations up front and understand that soil cannot be regenerated overnight. This is a long-term solution and it may take years to see certain results UNLESS paired with clear goals, synergistic tools, and adaptable management. Can we see year 1 benefits and cost savings, YES, but management must be in alignment with the context of each function of a farming or ranching operation.

Concluding Insights: Your Next Steps

The regenerative agriculture revolution isn't just about changing practices, it's about transforming our entire approach to food production. Every decision during the harvest window, from harvest logistics to soil management, represents a strategic opportunity to reimagine agricultural systems.

Want to dive deeper? Living Roots Ag specializes in translating these complex regenerative principles into actionable strategies for Ag Tech innovators and organizations developing regenerative programs. We don't just discuss challenges, we help you develop breakthrough solutions that can fundamentally reshape agricultural technology and long term adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. Contact us today!

Glossary:

1. Biologicals: Products that contain living microorganisms growers apply to fields in order to help plants and soil function better.

2. Compaction: The pressing of soil particles leading to the reduction of pore space which limits air and water flow into the soil.

3. Crop Rotation: The planned sequence of crops grown on the same field over a specific period. For example, planting corn in 2021, soybeans in 2022, and wheat in fall 2022 would constitute a corn-soybean-wheat rotation.

4. Downforce Data: Information collected by modern planter sensors that measure the downward pressure (in pounds) required to plant seeds at the correct depth. Higher pressure can indicate soil compaction.

5. Erosion Channels: Small valleys or grooves formed when water flow removes topsoil, often reducing land productivity.

6. Fall Fertilizer: The application of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers in the fall to enrich the soil and prepare it for planting in the next growing season.. 

7. Fallow: Leaving the land barren for a period of time between cash crops.

8. Nutrient cycling: The ability of soil (through microbiology and chemistry) to decompose residue and release needed nutrients for a cash crop.

9. Resource Concerns: Challenges that impair the longevity of natural resources. 

10. Soil Amendments: Synthetic or organic inputs added to the soil to condition it for a specific use.

11. Soil Amendments: Organic or synthetic materials added to the soil to improve its condition, structure, or nutrient content for specific agricultural purposes.

12. Soil Food Web: The interconnected community of living organisms in the soil, including microorganisms, fungi, insects, and other fauna. Its complexity is influenced by management practices, biodiversity, and soil health.