Episode #37: 45Z Explained: How Farmers Can Get Paid for Soil Health Practices with Mitchell Hora

Episode #37: 45Z Explained: How Farmers Can Get Paid for Soil Health Practices with Mitchell Hora

After nearly four years of delays, the USDA has finalized guidance for the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit, and it's opening up real financial opportunities for corn and soybean farmers. Mitchell Hora, seventh-generation Iowa farmer and founder of Continuum Ag, breaks down how a farm's Carbon Intensity (CI) score works and how lowering it through cover crops, no-till, and better nitrogen management can add up to premiums of 10-50 cents per bushel on corn. We cover what documentation you need, how the audit process actually works, and why farmers who already delivered 2025 crop into the biofuel supply chain need to act now. Mitchell also shares how to calculate your farm's CI score for free at https://topsoil.ag/, so you can find out if this program is worth pursuing on your own operation. As Mitchell notes, the program is still in its early stages, with real uncertainties around exactly how much ethanol plants will share with farmers, whether nearby plants will participate at all and other risks but overall the program opens up new opportunity that could radically increase adoption of soil health practices across the US.

Episode #36: Dale Strickler on Making Every Growing Degree Day Count

Wheat harvest isn't the end of your growing season, it's the start of a new opportunity. In this episode, Keith sits down with longtime cover crop expert Dale Strickler to talk through what to plant after wheat comes off, and how to turn those acres into high quality forage and free nitrogen for next year's crop. Dale breaks down the best species for summer grazing versus winter stockpile, how to fix the maximum amount of nitrogen, and how to time planting after harvest for maximum weed suppression. Ready to build your own mix? Try our SmartMix Calculator at https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com/ or contact our team to talk through your options. 402-469-6784Learn more and work with Dale Strickler: https://www.regenerativewisdom.com/

Episode #35: Perennial Genetics for Better Animal Performance with Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas has spent 30-plus years in the grass seed industry, and today he ranches south of Enid, Oklahoma with his wife Annette — raising 100% grass-fed beef on a system built around diverse annual and perennial forages. In this conversation, Keith and Mark dig into some of the most practical questions in regenerative grazing: How do you integrate perennials with annuals? When does it make sense to convert crop ground to grass? And what's actually happening in the rumen when cattle graze a diverse mix versus a monoculture?

Episode #34: Why Weed-free Horse Pastures Might be Hurting Equine Health with Allison Lepanto

Allison Lepanto of Aterak Nutrition started out wanting to improve the quality of horse feed. But after seeing the prevalence of metabolic issues in younger and younger horses, surviving her own herbicide health crisis, and stepping onto farm after farm with dead soil and overflowing supplement shelves, she started connecting the dots. Pasture quality and the practices land owners are implementing is directly impacting their horses' quality of life.In this episode, Allison and Keith dig into how degraded and chemical laden pastures make horses sick, what regenerative grazing actually looks like in a horse operation, and what a two to three year soil restoration plan looks like from the ground up. It's a conversation that draws as many parallels to human health as it does to horses, and it's a good reminder that you can't supplement life back into a broken living system.Check out Allison's website to learn more: https://ateraknutrition.com/

Episode #33: A Deep Dive into Warm Season Cover Crops with Zach Louk

Green Cover sales representative and seed buyer Zach Louk joins Keith for an in-depth conversation on warm season cover crop species. The conversation covers legumes, brassicas, broadleaves and grasses with a specific focus on sorghum-sudan grass traits and characteristics. This episode will give you a greater understanding of which cover crop species are best fit for your goals this summer growing season.Got questions? We're hosting a live Ask Me Anything webinar on this exact topic on Wednesday, May 27th at 12:00pm CST. Be sure to register to have your questions answered live: https://zurl.co/2E796Or, check out the recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel later on.