Episode Details

In this episode, I had an awesome time interviewing Dr. Michael McNeill, who is an agronomic consultant with several degrees in soil fertility, plant physiology, and quantitative genetics. We discuss how fertility and genetics impact plant response to disease invasion, what causes the suppression of soil health, Michael's experience quickly regenerating soil, how farming has changed since the green revolution, and how to develop a plant profile that protects against disease.

Mentioned In This Episode:

N. A. Krasil'nikov SOIL MICROORGANISMS AND HIGHER PLANTS

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Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, Episode 3 Timestamps:

4:10 - Michael's background

• Michael's seen the transition of his farm going from all horses, to the GPS guided tractors they use today.
• He sees a need to bring back certain aspects of the type of farming he learned from his grandfather, especially In terms of improving soil health and maintaining soil fertility.
• Michael's operation has gone completely organic.
• Around 42,000 acres of organic crops in Michael's area, with farmers ranging from 320 acres to 15,000 acres of organic area.

6:50 - Michael's professional work

• Michael left the farm for a few years for a degree at Iowa State University, majoring in agronomy for a B.S. degree in soils and soil fertility. Michael has a masters degree in plant physiology, and a PhD in quantitative genetics.
• After university, Michael studied the impact of diseases as weapons and how to defend crops against diseases.
• Michael learned about how fertility and genetics can create environments that can defend against pathogenic invasion.
• Michael had experimented with GMO's and moving genes from different species into plants, which he chose to step away from. This lead to focus on a quantitative genetic approach, and more into soil fertility and health.
• Michael has moved into agricultural consulting as well

11:00 - What is the scope of Michael's work?

• Most of Michael's work is working with soil health and soil fertility.
• Michael says soil health never used to be a big issue compared to today

11:30 - What has changed with soil health?

• Michael noticed plants in old photos looked much healthier
• Michael asked: what changed from back then? He says it's due to use of herbicides.

14:30 - Production dropping on farms

• Michael has observed a drop from 200 bushels per acre to 70-80. Michael has seen this across many farms.