Charles Holt (Lincoln)

Groundswell is fast becoming an essential event in the farming year. It gives a platform to many gifted, committed and passionate farmers and scientists. Some of those presenting are both: research scientist and farmer.

One such is Dr Jon Lundgren, from the Ecdysis Foundation from North Dakota, USA. He started as a scientist with the US Department of Agriculture, but appears to have found himself out-of-step with Big Ag, and in particular with Big Ag-chem. So he quit – noisily.

He is one of those guys who hardly needs a microphone, such is the power of his voice and the deliberate certainty with which he presents his thesis. It was also clear that he had many avid followers in his audiences (yes, I heard him speak twice).

I particularly liked one of his quotes, from Albert Einstein: “no amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; but a single experiment can prove me wrong”. But he also said that: “science provides understanding, not truth. The conclusions of science are not black and white”.

Of course, science can be mis-quoted, the results selectively used, and conclusions can be obscured. The tobacco industry helped to revolutionise the art of obscuring data-driven discussions, by damning unhelpful studies, by funding a mass of supportive evidence, and by discrediting and intimidating inconvenient scientists.

Jon Lundgren’s science is both systems-level and data-driven. This means that it is conducted at a large scale, and that consequently the data collected comes from many sources, so has the potential to be more robust than that collected from one site only. Of course this depends on the quality of the data, the data collection methods, and its spread over time and place. But it makes it worth noticing.

He has 1000+ farms on his list, and measures a minimum of 500 data points per farm. He measures regen outcomes, biodiversity, climate change effects, etc.

One conclusion that resonated with me is that while cattle are responsible for between 4% and 14.5% of greenhouse gases (depending on whether they are confined or outside), he said that pasture regen farming can result in 40% extra carbon stored in the soil, compared with ‘conventional’ (non-regen) farming. This is huge.

On the Ecdysis ‘Regenerative Scoring System’, you score zero if you use heavy tillage, high agro-chemical use, no plant diversity and a lot of bare soil. Conversely you are doing best (and score 8) if you have no tillage, no agro-chemical use, constant soil coverage with vegetation, and integrate crop and livestock production. While a score of 8 may be difficult to achieve, a score of 5 or 6 should be in focus for many farmers. This implies minimal tillage, plant diversity, cover cropping, minimal agro-chem use and significant soil coverage.

It is especially noticeable that both he, and many other speakers and experts, realise that going ‘full’ regen is difficult. But moving towards it is absolutely possible, and well worth exploring on your farm.

Jon Lundgren is especially keen on dung beetles and the ecosystem services that they contribute. In one of his experiments, they found 38 different species of arthropods in dung pat samples. He found that high stocking rates leads to more insect activity, healthier plants, and less dung left on the soil surface. This may be counter-intuitive, but of course it also assumes no (or very little) anthelmintic use. In his attitude to dung beetles and soil biodiversity, he is no different to other exponents of regen farming principles. So, unsurprisingly, he is not keen on insecticides. That’s an understatement – he is virulently against their use. He stated that ‘good management is as effective as parasiticides at keeping cattle healthy’.

His Ecdysis Foundation is coming to the UK, soon. I think it is one to watch, as a lot of what he says appears to make much sense, even if achievement may not be easy.

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact Charles Holt at charlesholt@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office. You can also visit the Ecdysis website at https://www.ecdysis.bio.