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Third Leaf Farm says momentum for regenerative ag solutions is at a tipping point

A regenerative organic-certified apple grower says on-farm data is helping guide how he transitions management practices.

Kyle Rasch tells Brownfield Third Leaf Farm became one of the first farms in Michigan to earn the certification about two years ago.

“Organic says, don’t put anything that’s synthetic, don’t do X, Y, or Z, and regenerative is really taking that baseline organic and saying, okay, don’t do these things, but what are the good things we’re replacing with that?” he explains. “So, trying to do as little disturbance to the soil, increasing organic matter in the soil.”

The third-generation farmer says his experiences working on farms outside of the U.S. gave him a different perspective on how to adapt his orchard to growing climate and pest challenges.

“Can we reframe what we think an orchard has to look like, and can we redesign that looking at how can we create an orchard that’s resilient that we’re not just planting and keeping for 20 years because it’s no longer healthy at that stage?” he questions. “We’re trying to grow an orchard that we can pass on for generations.”

Rasch says eliminating herbicides is just one example of where he’s seen a difference.

“As we started to get more and more data building up over the past few decades, we’ve seen that that’s degraded our soil immensely under the trees,” he shares. “It’s created more diseases and pests that actually thrive in that environment. It’s also just started to kill the trees. The trees have started to decline and some winters you lose half the orchard.”

Rasch says collaboration between farmers and researchers, along with access to rapidly developing technology, is helping build healthier soils and ecosystems that can sustain farms for generations.

Brownfield interviewed Rasch during the recent Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day hosted at the Michigan State University Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor on Wednesday.