WHEN SOIL HEALTH PRACTICES DON'T WORK

A principles-based, tailored-to-you approach can alleviate frustration.

- Courtney Leeper Girgis

Adam Grady was not a stranger to no-till and cover crops when he met consultant Allen Williams in the spring of 2016.

He was skeptical, however. 

Grady, whose family has farmed on the coastal plains of eastern North Carolina since the late 1700s, had seen his father, Clegg Grady, turn to no-till in the mid-1980s. Tobacco was their king crop, with corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and milo added in 1999.

By 2005, Grady was no longer seeing benefits from no-till and switched to striptill. In 2010, he started planting a cover crop of wheat or rye behind tobacco and before a rotation of corn or soybeans.

In 2015, Grady quit tobacco cultivation and cover crops. He turned his focus to the pastured hog enterprise he had started about 10 years earlier.

What began with five gilts and a boar turned into a major income source once local word got out and chefs became repeat customers. Grady's restaurant connections gained him the attention of the pastured-protein wholesaler Joyce Farms. That operation wanted Grady to build up and supply its pork program.

The stipulation was Grady would need to allow Williams, a founding member of Understanding Ag and the Soil Health Academy, onto his farm to offer recommendations. Understanding Ag is a regenerative agriculture consulting firm made up of farmers and ranchers who provide whole-farm consultation and education services to other producers. Soil Health Academy is Understanding Ag's hands-on regenerative agriculture training program.

Some of Williams' first suggestions to Grady and his father were to go back to no-till and to plant a multi-species cover crop. Grady wasn't convinced these practices would do much, but eventually he tried the advice on 5 acres.