Tucker reaps benefits of regenerative farming

For the past 10 or so years, local farmer Steve Tucker has been focused on practicing regenerative agriculture, which aims to improve soil health and make farming better for the future.

Tucker has been farming for around 30 years. After learning about the importance of regenerative farming through conferences and food shows, he realized he had changes to make at his farm.

“A few years ago, the big term was sustainable agriculture, and that gets down to sustaining a resource that we already have,” Tucker explained. “If we regenerate it, that means we try and make it better than what it was, so it’s better for the future.”

Tucker defines regenerative agriculture as “trying to make things better tomorrow than what they are today.”

One of the most important foundations for regenerative farming is soil health.

Tucker aims to follow soil health principles as laid out by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. These principles are soil armor, minimizing soil disturbance, plant diversity, continual live plant or root and livestock integration.

According to Jay Fuhrer, NRCS Soil Health Specialist, soil armor helps control wind and water erosion, evaporation rates and soil temperatures. It also prevents compaction from rainfall on bare soil, as well as suppresses weed growth. Finally, it provides a protective habitat for the soil’s surface dwellers.

Soil disturbances can come in several forms: biological (such as overgrazing), chemical (such as over-application of nutrients and pesticides) and physical (such as tillage).

No-till farming is one of the ways Tucker started his involvement in regenerative farming. 

“No-tilling was big because it was efficient and freed up a lot more time,” he said. “It also helped preserve soil moisture, which is very critical in our neck of the woods. I started realizing that it’s not about how much rain we get, it’s about how much rain we get into the soil.”

Plant diversity is important, according to Fuhrer, because it takes the landscape back to its roots, where there was abundant plant diversity working together as a community to “provide forage for large herbivore populations.”

Diverse crop rotations provide biodiversity, and can be designed to include crops of many varieties, such as high water users, low water users, tap root, fibrous root, etc.

Tucker grows a wide variety of plans on his farm, including rye, wheat, triticale, barley, oats, peas, corn, millet and more.

Continual live plant or root allows carbon to be continuously fed into the soil food web, even in dormant periods. Cover crops are used to fill in dormant periods in between planting annual cash crops, and provide live root exudate, which is the primary food source for the soil food web.

Livestock integration is the final aspect of soil health, because according to Fuhrer, “Animals, plants and soils have played a synergistic role together over geological time.”

As Tucker explains it, providing a variety of plants for livestock to consume gives the animals a sort of “salad bar buffet,” so they can choose what to eat.

This results in the animals having similar microbes in their gut and in their waste to that which is in the soil itself.

Livestock also help with weed management, and utilizing livestock in such a manner reduces waste associated with confinement, which in turn helps manage water quality and nutrient management concerns, Fuhrer noted.

Besides soil health, another important aspect of regenerative farming for Tucker is regenerating local communities.

“Why is it we have to grow a product and ship it out of here?” Tucker said. “Why can’t we value-add to our own products?”

Since he has been involved with regenerative farming, Tucker has noticed his inputs have gone down drastically, and the quality of the soil has improved.

“I remember back when I was a kid, I never did see an earthworm. Now every year I can dig in the soil and find earthworms in it,” Tucker noted.

This, he said, is a good indicator of the full life of regenerative farming starting to work.

Tucker said he sees a need for people to start thinking about the future, and to be stewards of the soil to bring life back to the earth.

“We can do more with less,” he said.

Healthy Soils task force

In 2019, LB243, passed by the Nebraska Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Pete Ricketts, creating the Healthy Soils Task Force.

The Task Force is comprised of 15 members who were appointed by the governor. They represent the 

Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Nebraska Natural Resource Districts, production agriculture, agribusiness, academia and environmental organizations.

Tucker is one of the 15 members on the Task Force. Other members include:

Jerry Allemann of Wayne, Rich Bartek of Ithaca, Keith Berns of Bladen, Bob Bettger of Fairmont, Hannah Birge of Omaga, Ron Bolze of Chadron, Senator Tim Gragert of Lincoln, Lisa Lunz of Wakefield, Mike McDonald of Palmyra, Nathan Pflueger of York, Charles Shapiro of Wayne, Senator Julie Slama of Lincoln, Jeff Steffen of Crofton, Ray Ward of Kearney, Steve Wellman of Lincoln and Greg Whitmore of Shelby.

The goal of the task force, according to Tucker, was to see what can be done to improve agriculture, and provide guidelines for how we can implement soil health practices across the state.

“There is a big movement in agriculture right now that’s working towards those things, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface,” Tucker said.

The Healthy Soils Task Force submitted its report at the end of 2020.

Be better. Do better.

One of the things Tucker has noticed changing in the agriculture industry is an increase in markets where consumers want to know where their product is coming from.

Quinn Snacks, a snack brand created by Kristy Lewis of Boulder, Colorado, is one of the brands attempting to find sustainable, organic sources for ingredients for healthier snacks.

Quinn Snacks started with popcorn, and is expanding into other snacks, such as pretzels. Lewis reached out to Tucker and even visited his farm to learn about his regenerative practices.

Now, Tucker is involved in a test trial where he is producing 85 acres of white sorghum for Quinn’s pretzels.

“Healthy soil begins with plants,” Tucker told Lewis. “Once you grasp that concept, the whole game changes.”

One of the things Lewis likes about Tucker is that he is transparent. He likes that she cares enough about her customers to find out what the farmers do.

In fact, Tucker told Lewis she is the first food company to actually visit his farm.

The full interview can be found on YouTube, titled “Quinn - Be Better. Do Better.™ - A mission to support our farmers & regenerative agriculture.”

Together, Quinn Snacks and Tucker are working to create a better agriculture market, healthier agricultural practices and a tastier, more environmentally friendly snack.