His crops aren’t particularly unique (mostly corn, soybeans, and wheat) but his novel cover cropping tactics make his practice unconventional. In the mid-’90s, his farm started using several mixes of cover crops whose roots could break up the soil better than tilling while regenerating the chemicals, such as nitrogen, that are paramount to healthy soil. It was a breakthrough: less input was getting him more output, and his soil was as rich and wormy as ever. In his three-and-a-half decades of farming, he’s drastically decreased his use of fertilizers, fungicide, herbicide, and insecticide, and his land blooms in the offseason with all sorts of vegetation — sunflowers, radishes, various grasses, and more.
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The Brandt family operates Walnut Creek Seeds to provide education and materials to other farmers (including backyard gardeners) on cover cropping, and aims to prescribe farmers the best cover crops for their land. He hopes, if anything, that his digital stardom gets more people interested in regenerative farming. “Dupont and Bayer don’t care about you or your soil or our wildlife,” he says.
