In the not-so-distant future, the key to building a resilient and profitable farm operation may require farmers to see their system as a pyramid that that uses biological tools to build and manage healthy, productive soils and produce nutrient dense food.

Regenerative agriculture encompasses many different practices, including no-till, cover crops, adaptive grazing management, polycrops and intercropping.

If you've ever been to a meeting that requires a quorum — a minimum number of representatives attending in order to make a decision, you’re on the way to understanding “quorum sensing” as it relates to soil health.

The challenge ahead for farmers is to produce more food on a declining land area, with soils and ecosystems that are continually being degraded — all while using less water, energy and natural resources under difficult economic circumstances.

Canadian no-tillers often complain their growing season is too short to add cover crops to their rotation or diversify their cash crops.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with farming, but that’s a major reason Tom Cotter did the opposite of that and turned to no-tilling and interseeding cover crops to rejuvenate his farm.

With many regions of the U.S. low on forage, demand has driven forage prices up and it’s a good time to think about opportunities for raising cover crops for that purpose, says Scott Wohltman.