John Heermann is 28 years old and grew up on the family farm. The operation has changed over the years from a summer fallow/tillage/wheat system to a no-till system in the last 10 years, and then in the last 5 years a continuous living root cover rotation. John left the farm for a short while after high school to get his degree in Agricultural Economics. That degree eventually helped him to discover soil health. The education led him down the path of reducing costs, and evaluating profitability in the operation.
Jim Johnson serves as a soils and crops consultant in the Agricultural Division's consultation program. He joined the consultation program in 2000 after working in the division's agricultural research group in 1999.
Allan Savory, born in Zimbabwe and educated in South Africa (University of Natal, BS in Zoology and Botany) pursued an early career as a research biologist and game ranger in the British Colonial Service of what was then Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) and later as a farmer and game rancher in Zimbabwe.
In the 1960s he made a significant breakthrough in understanding what was causing the degradation and desertification of the world’s grassland ecosystems and, as a resource management consultant, worked with numerous managers on four continents to develop sustainable solutions.
Josh has been using No-till Systems to regenerate soil on his farm in North Central Kansas for over 15 years. His crop rotation is Wheat-Wheat-Double Crop or Cover Crop-Corn or Milo-Soybean-Soybean. A Cow-Calf operation was integrated back into the operation 2 years ago as a way to provide short-term income from cover crops. Josh is Ex-Officio of No-till on the Plains.
Sarah Singla is a farmer from the South of France. She took over the family farm in 2010; the farm has been in a no-till system since 1980.
Sarah was Nuffield scholar in 2011 traveling the world to enhance her knowledge about soil fertility, no-till systems and holistic approach to agriculture.
Dr. Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004, and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years.
Lundgren’s research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for regenerative food systems.
