Meet your mentors: Kyle Richardville from Understanding Ag
Kyle Richardville is a soil health consultant for our mentoring partners Understanding Ag.
Kyle grew up on his family’s farm in the United States and now lives in East Anglia, working with farmers across the country to help them grow profits and produce nutritious food by improving soil, plant and animal health.
"I grew up in Indiana on about a 6000 acre, vegetable and grain operation, growing the traditional commodities of the Midwest - corn, soya and wheat,” says Kyle.
“I grew up in a very conventional farming landscape. It was high tillage, high fertiliser, high pesticide use and it just wasn't attractive to me. When I think back on my childhood, I think about our soil as dry dust blowing, not that kind of moist chocolate cake that we think about when we look at healthy soil.
Kyle Richardville from our mentoring partner Understanding Ag
“I thought about going to college and studying to be a doctor, but I got really interested in how nutrition affects human health and eventually went on to get my Masters in soil microbial ecology and how nutritious food is grown from healthy biologically active soil.
“That for me is where my heart lies: How can we grow more nutritious food in a sustainable way?
Money in the bank
"A lot of soil scientists talk about organic matter and nutrient levels now as a bank account.
“Nature built up that savings account over hundreds of millions of years in a very efficient process. Society has been drawing on that savings account and bleeding it very, very quickly.
Kyle at work in Norfolk
“Only now are we seeing that the savings account is starting to dwindle and we need to do something about it. Regenerative agriculture starts to slow that process of drawing from the savings account and starts building up the current account as well.
‘Allowing natural processes to regenerate’
"I look at regenerative agriculture as restoring the four ecosystem processes; regenerating the water cycle, regenerating the nutrient cycle, regenerating the energy cycle and diversity.
"Those four processes have been interrupted and the efficiency has decreased greatly over time through agriculture. It is, by definition, an interference with those processes. So where's the line between allowing these processes to happen but also feeding ourselves? That’s a really, really difficult challenge.
“Practices like cover crops and minimising soil disturbance fill some of that gap between the interference we're causing by also giving back to nature.
“Yield does not equal profitability, which is what farmers have been fed for decades now. ”
“With grazing I think it’s quite a bit easier to follow those processes and when you have adaptive, rotational, multi-paddock grazing, we're seeing more of these perennial species coming up, and the diversity and richness of plant species return. That's indicating that we're allowing the natural processes to regenerate.
“Nature is extremely efficient. So the more that we can regenerate those processes and mimic biological systems, we're going to become more energy efficient, we're going to become more efficient with our water, our nutrients and energy.
‘Yield does not equal profitability’
"I think regenerative agriculture connects us to the land in a really fulfilling way.
“Gabe Brown talks about how he used to wake up, figuring out what he wanted to kill each morning. Now he wakes up and thinks about what he can bring to life. That is such a shift in mindset.
Kyle on a farm walk in Northumberland
“Which practices do you implement where you see improvements in health? Do you see more life? Do you see the earthworms coming? Do you see more birds? A better soil structure? Once you see that, you can do more. It’s about reading the land.
"Yield does not equal profitability, which is what farmers have been fed for decades now.
“When you look at the statistics, many farming operations in the UK are not profitable. Without government subsidies these operations wouldn't be able to continue.
“But there are a group of farmers that are doing it differently and making more profit per acre.”
Becoming more self-reliant
“As a farmer you tend to be pretty self-reliant, so this message of regenerating your land and becoming more reliant on your own resources and less on external inputs is very attractive.
“Farmers are seeing an increasing reliance on things out of their control”
“Our approach is to work with those who are ready and willing to make changes or experiment. And as long as we can prove that these methods are profitable and pragmatic we believe that people will start to see those results, ask questions and begin to make changes themselves.
“I don't want to downplay anyone who is farming conventionally. There are many legitimate reasons and challenges to implementing regenerative practices. It's not just changing one or two things, it's changing the whole ethos of the system and that's daunting for most people.
“Understanding Ag are here to support farms and ensure that the regenerative transition is successful and profitable.
“Farmers are seeing an increasing reliance on things out of their control”
“Regenerative agriculture is about understanding these larger ecological and biological principles and then applying that to your land. It’s a whole new way of thinking that farmers weren't taught how to do either by their family or by universities.
“Farmers are seeing an increasing reliance on things out of their control like rising input prices.
“Resources of phosphorus or potassium to make fertiliser are only going to decrease over time. The whole system is built on cheap fossil fuels. That, by definition, can't last.
“By continuing on this external input method of farming, you're at the mercy of so many things out of your control.
Building stronger communities
“One reason why I enjoy regenerative agriculture is because of the connections and the relationships I can make with farmers, no matter what type of practices they are using.
“People do what they know how to do and what they were taught. My parents started out in a trailer home when they got married in their teens.
“They worked their tails off and they put their kids through college. I don't have anything but respect and humility for what they've done and the farming system that allowed them to do that.
“I don't see it as saying they're wrong and I’m right. We just need to work out what we can all do best and work together.
“Regenerative agriculture is about regenerating social connections and relationships in agriculture. The community within regenerative agriculture brings a lot of help.
“Farming is an industry with a large number of suicides per capita, as farmers feel the pressure of debt and they feel the pressure of loneliness, because farming can be a really lonely occupation.
“Regenerative agriculture has been a blessing in my life, watching this community of farmers being able to link up and talk about issues and talk about what works on their farm and what doesn't work on another.
“Farmers say to me all the time, ‘I'm having the most fun I've ever had farming by farming regeneratively’. Can you put a price on that?”
How could improving soil health help your farm?
Get in touch find out how Regenerate Outcomes supports UK farmers to cut costs, increase farm resilience and produce quality food.