Recent research by Claire LaCanne and Dr. Jonathan Lundgren notes that while regenerative agriculture may have lower yields (29% on average), the profitability is consistently higher--with an average of 78% greater profit.
Of particular interest, regenerative agriculture also provides greater ecosystem services which also allows them to create pest-resilient systems that outperform farmers who are using chemical treatment. In fact, pests were 10-fold more abundant in insecticide-treated corn fields than on insecticide-free regenerative farms.
The research notes that to attain these kind of positive benefits requires "a systems-level shift" on the farm. In other words, if producers apply certain regenerative farming practices within their current production system, they are unlikely to produce the same results as noted by farmers who have achieved the results noted in the study. For this reason, HMI focuses on ecosystem function analysis in all our training, to help producers understand how nature functions and how management practices can help agricultural producers reap more benefits by working with those ecosystem processes rather than fighting against them with reliance on fertilizers and pesticides.
Holistic Management practitioner Gabe Brown has actually found that he has higher corn yields than his neighbors and has considerably more than 78% greater profit. Read his case study here.
To learn how to integrate livestock with grain crops, check out HMI's Holistic Management® Cropping Manual.
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