Episode Details

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing a great farmer and friend of mine, Klaas Martens. Klaas has been farming for more than 30 years and has driven the adoption of sustainable farming practices through his work with numerous national organizations and advisory committees. This episode contains some really great information from Klaas's many years of experience developing sustainable farming systems.

In this episode, we talk about the cultural practices that form the basis of weed control, how Klaas thought he had discovered a pathogen that could become a new herbicide, and what it turned out to be, how to see and monitor field variables, crop rotations, and how Klaas has managed the weed control on his farm in upstate New York for the past 30 years.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow

This show is brought to you by AEA, leaders in regenerative agriculture since 2006.

If you are a large-scale grower looking to increase crop revenue and quality, email hello@advancingecoag.com or call 800-495-6603 extension 344 to be connected with a dedicated AEA crop consultant.

Episode 8 - Klaas Martens - Highlights

2:50 - Going from conventional farming to completely organic

3:40 - Having to unlearn some things from a university education

4:20 - Klaas was noticing that his observations in farming were contradicting his learned models and assumptions

5:15 - What have been the memorable moments that have lead Klaas to where he is today?

• Learning that cultural practices form the basis of all weed control - chemicals are auxiliary only
• Cultural practices are everything you do in the tending of your fields - what you do to set up the situation the crop is growing in
• What happens if you abandon a field? See the crop rotation in nature

10:20 - Why was Klaas looking for info in books written before 1945?

• These chemicals were all recent - agriculture had existed long before
• Knowledge was lost when chemicals came long

12:00 - How does this relate to how Klaas manages crops and weeds on his operation?

• Klaas realized work today will have results later
• Reframing from "How do I kill it?" to "Why is this here? What is its function?"
• Klaas started to study what various weeds and pests actually did in the soil - How do you read what the soil is trying to tell you?

15:00 - The weed that frustrated Klaas and made it seem organic farming was going to be impossible

• Pests were moving in because they were attracted to unhealthy weeds

18:00 - John's experience with Canadian thistles

• There is an organism that lives on the deeper roots of Canadian thistles that it needs to survive - it can only live in anaerobic soil

21:30 - What advice would Klaas give to growers to emulate some of his success?

• Shifting soil biology leads to shifting weed populations
• Changing the microbiology of the soil

24:50 - Wh