Episode 157: Farmers of Life, for Life with Grant Breitkreutz

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Science, Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 548 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Grant Breitkreutz is a farmer from Minnesota who transitioned from conventional practices to a soil health–focused approach. Alongside his wife Dawn, he transformed their farm through no-till, diverse cover crops, adaptive grazing, and continual learning. He's known for asking "why," experimenting boldly, and sharing openly what's worked and what hasn't.

Grant is a key voice in agriculture because he proves what's possible when farmers take ownership of their decisions and data. His operation is profitable, resilient, and community-driven. He mentors others, helps lead the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, and focuses on farming for life, not just for yield or labels.

In this episode, John and Grant discuss:

The pivotal role of questioning assumptions
Developing a seven-grain blend for chicken feed that improves bird health, which created a profitable niche market
The power of adaptive grazing and how walking cows across a field can accelerate soil health regeneration
The importance of local adaptation in regenerative farming
How nitrogen management impacts not just yields but weed pressure and overall profitability
The growing importance of farmer-led communities like the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition

Additional Resources
To learn more about Grant's work at the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, please visit: https://www.mnsoilhealth.org/

About John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow
Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.

AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.

AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, friends, this is John. Welcome back to the regenerative agriculture podcast. You know the types of conversations that we have here. And if you don't, they're all about regenerating soil health, ecosystem health, the health of the plants and the livestock, the crops that we're growing, and ultimately having an impact on people's health and on public health. These are all important pieces that are integrally tied together.
0:22.2	I'm very honored to have a conversation today with Grant Bright Crites.
0:25.5	Grant is someone whose work I've admired from a distance for a long time.
0:30.3	I really enjoy the conversations that I have here on the podcast with scientists and with innovators.
0:35.4	We have lots of fun conversations.
0:36.6	But ultimately, where the rubber really meets the road
0:40.3	is in practice and having conversations with growers
0:43.3	reporting things into practice.
0:45.3	And there is no replacement for depth of experience,
0:49.3	which Grant and his family and the people that he works with
0:53.3	bring to the table in spades.
0:55.4	So Grant, thank you for being here. I've really been looking forward to this conversation.
0:59.0	Great honor and a pleasure to be here, John.
1:02.0	Can you tell us a little bit about your story, your background? What's your farming context? What does your operation look like? and how did you get to where you are today?
1:19.8	Our farming operation started in 1997. It's kind of a unique story. My mom and dad, when they got married, they made a commitment to each other at age 50. They would decide if they had made it
1:27.0	farm in or reassess life,
1:28.8	reevaluate life in general. To my amazement, at age 50, their decision was that quit farming. And I mean
1:37.3	quit. My dad bought a truck, went coast to coast for a while. My mom had a job in town
1:41.7	and gave Don and I the opportunity to buy them out and start
1:46.3	farming here. So at that time, it was quite the step. In farms, you don't realize how you lean on
1:56.4	older generations to help you with decisions. And when my dad was gone and he didn't have a cell phone, there was nobody to back us up. So we made the decisions on her own. And honestly, it was a blessing, John. My wife was not from a farm. Dawn's not from a farm. When I met her, she didn't know how to run a riding lawnmower. And she constantly asked why.
2:18.1	Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? You know, she'd get done work in a field. And I'd say, well, it looks pretty good, but let's work it again. And she's like, why? You know, you're going to get seed-to-soil contact here. So that really kept me questioning things. And obviously we were doing things what I would call the very
	...

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