Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems

Whole System Regenerative Row Crops

regenerative row crops

The biggest paradigm shift that farmers use to find success in a regenerative row cropping operation is to think of their land as an integrated biological system, starting with their soil as the foundation. There is a tendency for people starting out to want to know the single one practice they can use to be “regenerative” without needing to change anything else. However, choosing one practice to promote soil health while doing other practices that disrupt it is often counterproductive. In the short run, it might not seem like implementing multiple practices is cost effective. But in the long run many of our farmers say it’s like putting “money in the bank.” The bank is your soil, and the time and money you put in pays off in dividends.

How to combine practices depends on multiple factors depending on your soil, your climate, what you grow, and what resources you have available. There also might be a little trial and error involved so, generally speaking, you would want to start with a small section of your farm, learn what works, and expand from there.

The general principles are:

  • Keep the soil covered (crops, compost, mulch, grass or cover crops)
  • Minimize soil disturbance (no till or minimum till)
  • Increase Diversity (multiple crops in rotation, multi-species cover crops, add pollinator habitat, support soil micro- and macro-fauna)
  • Keep living roots in the ground (no-till, leave residue in place)
  • Integrate livestock when possible

The best approach, however, is to learn from successful farmers and professional technical support or technical assistance providers. Let’s start with the following article featuring an interview with CRARS mentor-farmer Scott Park. He has successfully and profitably transitioned 34 conventional fields to regenerative ones in the last 35 years (as of 2023) in Meridian, CA.

Regenerative agriculture: a viable option for large-scale row crop farms?
Scott ParkIn this article by Vegetable Growers News, Scott Park goes into extensive detail about viewing his entire operation as a whole system, how he makes his decisions within that mindset, what success he has had, and where he has had to learn what would work best for his specific operation instead of following rigid rules. He also gives advice about how to move into regenerative practices with the least amount of financial distress during the transitional years. 

Mentor Farmers Growing Row Crops Regeneratively

Click on their photos to read firsthand accounts of what they've been doing, how it has been working for them, and what they advise for others.

Keeping the Soil Covered

Rather than allowing the soil to lie bare between planting seasons, regenerative farmers attempt to keep the soil covered with plants, mulch, or plant residue throughout the year. Covered soil is better protected from wind and water erosion. The water is less likely to run off and tends to infiltrate into the soil instead. The practice also keeps the soil cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, helps prevent weed growth and reduces the need for herbicides. As mulch and plant residue break down, it helps feed the soil biology and increases fertility.

Minimizing Soil Disturbance

The idea behind this principle is preserving the soil biology that is so important for soil ecosystem functioning. Tillage is the most disruptive practice to be addressed. Transitioning to no-till, leaving roots in the ground, and direct seeding in the soil residue is best. But sometimes it is not possible. In that case, targeted shallow or minimal tillage and avoiding compaction by too many tractor passes in addition to building up soil organic matter and nurturing the soil biology in other ways is a useful solution. Overuse of chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilizers, that kill or negatively impact the soil biology should also be avoided. Many farmers find that, over time, the use of a variety of regenerative practices reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides.

Increasing Diversity

Studies (see below) show that practices focused on increasing biodiversity result in multiple soil health and ecosystem benefits including higher yields and greater profits! Increasing the number of cash crops in a crop rotation, increasing the number of species used for cover crops, increasing habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects, and nurturing the biology of the soil through practices that safeguard and increase biological diversity in the soil all bring significant results for the health of the farm system as a whole.

Building Soils for Better Crops: Ch 11. Diversifying Cropping Systems
book coverThe basic premise of diversifying cropping systems is that by doing so a farmer creates more income and farm resiliency while improving health throughout the entire farm system. This chapter from the SARE book "Building Soils for Better Crops" is available online for free by clicking here. The focus is on crop rotation but the chapter includes other ways of increasing diversity that can be used together such as cover crops, agroforestry, alley cropping, silvopasture, and creating riparian buffers.
The Science behind the Use of Multi-Species Cover Crops

What Farmers Say About Multi-Species Cover Crops

Keeping Living Roots in the Ground

The best ways to keep living roots in the ground is by reducing or eliminating tillage and by growing either cash crops in rotation or a rotation of cash and cover crops all year, and planting those crops into the residue left behind by previous harvests. But why do living roots make a difference? The following videos explain it well.

Keep a Live Root in the Soil, or "A Radicle Idea"
Living Roots, Healthy Soil

Integrating Livestock

Diversified farms that raise both crops and a variety of animals used to be the norm. The benefits, when well managed, include greater farm resiliency, improved soil health, improved ecosystem biodiversity, and improved carbon sequestration. The most common ways regenerative farmers include livestock in a row crop system is by using animals to graze cover crops, excessive crop residue, and weeds. Manure produced on-farm can be applied to fields; crops grown on-farm can be used to feed the animals.

Research

Anderson RL. Synergism:A rotation effect of improved growth efficiency(opens in new window). Adv Agron 11:205–26. 2011. 

Bowles, Timothy M., et al.“Long-Term Evidence Shows that Crop-Rotation Diversification Increases Agricultural Resilience to Adverse Growing Conditions in North America,” One Earth,Volume 2, Issue 3,2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.02.007

Kelly, Courtland et al. Winter cover crops and no-till promote soil macrofauna communities in irrigated, Mediterranean cropland in California, USA(opens in new window), Applied Soil Ecology, Volume 166, 2021.

Huang, Yawen et al.Assessing synergistic effects of no-tillage and cover crops on soil carbon dynamics in a long-term maize cropping system under climate change, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volume 291, 2020

Mitchell, Jeffrey P. et al. No-Tillage, Surface Residue Retention, and Cover Crops Improved San Joaquin Valley Soil Health in the Long Term(opens in new window)California Agriculture, May 2024.

Montgomery, David et al. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming.(opens in new window) PeerJ. 10. e12848. 10.7717/peerj.12848. 2022

Tiemann, L. K.et al. “Crop rotational diversity enhances belowground communities and functions in an agroecosystem.” Ecology Letters, Volume18, Issue8, August 2015. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12453

Triberti, Loretta; Anna Nastri & Guido Baldoni (2016). "Long-term effects of crop rotation, manure fertilization on carbon sequestration and soil fertility(opens in new window)(opens in new window)". European Journal of Agronomy. 74: 47–55. doi:10.1016/j.eja.2015.11.024

Volsi, B., Higashi, G.E., Bordin, I. et al. The diversification of species in crop rotation increases the profitability of grain production systems(opens in new window)(opens in new window)Sci Rep 12, 19849 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23718-4

Yang, X., Xiong, J., Du, T. et al. Diversifying crop rotation increases food production, reduces net greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil health.(opens in new window)(opens in new window) Nat Commun 15, 198 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44464-9