Episode 93: Growing Organic Wheat, Cotton, and Peanuts with Kelton Coleman

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Science, Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 548 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kelton Coleman has been farming since 2011 in the panhandle of Texas. He farms with his dad, grandfather, and father-in-law. He started with conventional agriculture in 2011 but shifted to organic peanuts and wheat in 2013, followed by organic cotton in 2016.

His initial journey into organic farming was based solely on economics, rather than soil or plant health. That has since changed, and now Kelton is deeply vested in his crops' health. He first got connected to AEA through the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast and then through personal connections in his community. He now uses several programs and products from AEA, and he is seeing many successes on his farm, such as reduced nitrogen usage, 20% more yield on his cotton (including a large increase in 6-lock cotton bolls), and better protection from root rot in his peanut crop.

In this episode, Kelton and John discuss:

Memorable failures that led Kelton to where he is today
The unintended consequences of inputs on microbial organisms, insects, and plants
How he implemented regenerative practices on his farm
Working with AEA and their products
Improvements he is seeing in peanuts and cotton
Improving drought and heat resilience
Crop-wide nitrogen reduction
Improving no-till organic systems

Additional Resources
To learn more about developments of no-till organic systems, listen to this podcast episode featuring Helen Atthowe: https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/episodes/episode-87-helen-atthowe/

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/

VIDEO: To learn more from John Kempf about regenerative agriculture, watch this conversation between John and three AEA grower partners about how regenerative agriculture is changing lives and conventional farming: https://youtu.be/n9U6GwbYPDk

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi friends, this is John and welcome back to the regenerative agriculture podcast where we talk about all kinds of fun stuff, but particularly the fun things that are related to agronomy and cultural management practices and making regenerative agriculture effective out in the field.
0:14.0	All those aspects of managing plant health and soil health and human health and livestock health that we care about.
0:20.0	My guest for this episode is Kelton Coleman, who I've been looking forward to and soil health and human health and livestock health that we care about.
0:26.7	My guest for this episode is Kelton Coleman, who I've been looking forward to having a conversation with for some time.
0:32.4	I've heard about this innovative farmer who likes to ask puzzling questions.
0:37.5	And so Kelton, thanks for joining us here in the podcast.
0:41.8	And just for our listeners, I've actually, I've heard snippets and I've heard rumors,
0:44.0	but I've never had a conversation with Kelton before.
0:46.6	We haven't had an extensive introductory conversation.
0:48.7	So I'm going to be learning right alongside you.
0:56.1	So, Kelton, tell us a little bit about your story and context, your is your farming background, what crops are you growing, and what are you working on today?
1:00.6	So I started farming in 2011.
1:04.0	I farm alongside my dad, my granddad, and brother-in-law, but I kind of head up the farm,
1:09.7	and they run the irrigation business but it is a
1:12.6	family farm we all work together start out in 2011 conventional in 2013 i started farming organically
1:19.3	organic peanuts and wheat and then started growing cotton organic cotton in uh probably 2016 we're in a major cotton production area uh we're in a major cotton production area.
1:31.3	We had good crops. We had bad crops.
1:35.3	All the bad crops that we ever had were taken out by either disease or insects.
1:41.3	And I got to the point about two years ago we had got wiped out by bugs last
1:47.3	year on cotton and I began to pray and ask God for to show me what to do about it and I did
1:56.0	that for about two months and randomly because I am a person that listens to podcast and these were, you know,
2:04.6	a mainstream farming podcast and I had one pop up by Tannio. And so I started listening there and
	...

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