An interview with Rick Clark about his efforts to develop varieties of soybeans, corn, small grains and livestock that are adapted to his own farm
Acres U.S.A. Why did you start retaining and breeding your own seed?
Rick Clark. About six or seven years ago, a major seed company called me, and they wanted to put a corn test plot in one of our fields. Because of the way we farm — no one in our area farms like we do — they were curious to see how their seed would do. And I said, “I’ll tell you what, I want you to do me a favor — I want you to check and see if you have three hybrids that I grew up with back in the 80s, and if you still have those hybrids laying around in a bag somewhere, I’d love for you to bring those hybrids and put them in the test plot, because I want to see what old genetics will do in our system.” And they said, “Yeah, we can do that.”
I kind of forgot about it, and spring rolled around, and they called and said, “Hey, can we do the test plots tomorrow?” I was getting excited because I was hoping they were bringing three bags of hybrids that I hadn’t seen in 25 or 30 years. But they showed up and they didn’t have them. And I was pretty disappointed. But they said, “No, don’t be disappointed! We’ve got the eight best hybrids that we have in our pipeline right now.” And I was like, “No, that’s not what I wanted. But go ahead. You’re here. Let’s put them in.”
Those eight hybrids were the worst-yielding hybrids on the farm.
Now that got me thinking — what’s going on here? Why would the latest and greatest technology be doing the worst in our system? Our system is no-till, organic, 100 percent cover crop, no inputs for nine or 10 years now. Well, I think it’s because these genetics are losing their associations with the mycorrhizal fungi.
So, that prompted me to start researching soybeans, because soybeans are the easiest thing to breed. For hybrid corn, you have to get a male and a female, and you have to detassel, and you have to do all these things. I wanted to start with soybeans because they’re self-pollinating. The USDA has a couple buildings scattered around the United States that house all of the seeds known to man or woman. For a small fee — about $100 — they will send you 50 seeds. I went into their catalog and looked at their inventory of soybean genetics that are off-patent. That means they’re available for anyone to purchase and reuse because the patent ran out — so this 100 percent legal.
I started looking at the Asgrow lineup of seeds because that’s a lineup I grew up with. And there was a number in there that I could not believe Asgrow had let go — the Asgrow 3127 soybean. It’s a seed from the 80s, so obviously it’s not a GMO seed. This variety of soybean was number one on our farm 30 years ago. So, I got that number, along with nine other numbers. But you only get 50 seeds, so you’ve got to plant them by hand and observe them and harvest them by hand. And then you collect that amount, and you plant them in season two again by hand, and then you’re starting to see which varieties are not cutting the mustard which are rising to the top. After year two, we cut it to five varieties, and 3127 was still one of the five.
The third year we still did not have enough seed to plant large acres, so we again planted small plots and kept them isolated. After year three, we finally had enough seed to plant 60 acres of production with those five varieties through our air seeder. I’m monitoring them through the growing season, and I like what I’m seeing. They’re really handling our system well. And remember — in our system we have no chemistry, no fertilizer, all cover crops, no-till organic. We have a few weeds in our system, but these beans are doing wonderful. It’s starting to prove what I thought was going on when we did that seed corn plot. That seed corn plot had started to make me realize that we were losing our association with the microbiome.
Now it’s harvest time, and I’m thinking to myself, “I don’t have five separate bins here to put these five varieties in.” But my goal was to find a soybean that was going to adapt to our system. This is called epigenetics. This is where I want the farm to be heading — it’s all about epigenetics. And I thought, “If we’re going to truly do epigenetics, then we’re going to harvest all five of these together and we’re going to create a landrace. We’re going to let the soybean decide who’s going to survive and who’s not.”
And that’s what we did. So, we now have a soybean variety that is a mixture of five varieties that we are letting adapt and change in our system. We’re now doing the same thing with our cereal rye, and we’re doing the same thing with our livestock. It’s all about epigenetics. You’ve got to keep the genetics within your own context so that it can constantly be adapting to your environment.
I can remember back in the late 70s, early 80s, and my dad was getting a wagon out. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and it was time to cut beans. And I remember thinking, “Why is Dad getting a wagon out?” I was just a little guy, so I asked him, and he says, “Son, we are going to harvest our beans for next year’s crop.” And I’m like, “Dad, why would you do that — you can go to the store and buy a new bag of beans from the dealer.” Well, I want these beans to be adapting to our system, like my dad was doing back in the 70s.
All this regenerative farming that we’re all trying to do — this is not new stuff. We’re trying to remember everything we’ve forgotten that we were taught. This is another example of that.
Acres U.S.A. Why doesn’t everyone do this? With corn it’s more complicated, but what you just described with beans or with rye — it doesn’t sound that that complicated.
Clark. Well, most farmers want the latest and greatest technology. Most farms have had mass destruction to the soil profile. They have no biology. They are pouring on copious amounts of fertilizer and chemistry. And, quite honestly, I’m not saying that the big seed companies have done this on purpose, but they are breeding their seed for that system. So, those kinds of farmers are going to say, “Why would I want to use 30-year-old genetics?” and I get that.
Now the folks who are trying to wean themselves off should by all means be doing this. But it’s vital to stress that this has to be done legally. You cannot replant beans out of a bin unless they’re off-patent. Most people, if not everyone, understand that GMOs are patented. But many people don’t understand that non-GMO beans are also patented. Yes, there’s no added trait, but the seed companies got smart and started to patent the genetics. That’s why you have to start with soybeans that are off-patent.
Acres U.S.A. How long do those patents last?
Clark. Twenty to 25 years. Again, it’s all about epigenetics. It’s all about creating a variety or a type of seed that is adapted to the local system. We do this with cattle too. We do not bring in outside genetics. We’ve got cattle and we’ve got sheep, and we pick our sires from within the herd and keep the genetic pool intact, because we are trying to get a specific phenotype in our system. For example, in the sheep, we are looking for the strongest ones; we don’t want the ones that that get parasites and get sick. We don’t use ivermectin; we are naturally raising these animals within this system. It’s all being done through epigenetics.
Acres U.S.A. Just so people have a point of reference — for better or for worse, everyone cares about yield — what are you looking for in that regard with your soybeans?
Clark. I don’t talk much about yield, but I will tell you this: these beans that we have created outyield anything we’ve planted that was engineered in the last five or six years. They’re gonna outyield them — in this type of a system.
Now, we’re doing the same thing in corn, but I’m using open pollinators. That is more like a variety. It’s not a hybrid. The genetics on open-pollinated corn are about a thousand years old. So, we can replant that corn, and it still has just as good a yield potential. We’re trying to find a variety that is going to work within our system.
And the third thing I want to talk about is that we’ve created a “maslin” with our cereal grains. I’ll define that in a minute. I am all about diversity. But, we’re a Midwest farm, and when it’s November and we’re just wrapping up harvest, what options do we have to plant for a cover crop? Not very many. The main staple is cereal rye. Well, that’s not much diversity; matter of fact, that’s a monoculture. So, about three years ago, I decided we needed to create a multi-species of cereal grains out of barley, rye and wheat, and sometimes triticale.
We plant our soybeans green into this maslin, but we don’t roll it down. We let all of it grow together. The soybean and the maslin grow together, and we’re taking advantage of their synergies. Then we harvest all of this together at the end of the season, when the soybeans are mature, and then we separate this maslin away from the soybean with a cleaner. Then we sell the soybeans to company A and the maslin to Company B.
Now, we’d been doing this for a few years and I had no idea it was called a maslin. But you know how we’re always told that the big brother’s not listening? Well, one night at the dinner table, I’m talking to my wife about this idea — that we’ve created this mixture of grains, and that this is all legal because none of them are on-patents. And the next day my Facebook feed has an article on a 3,000-year-old tradition called “maslin.” And I’m like, “What in the world? Why is this popping up in my Facebook?” And I get to reading it, and I realize this is what I was just talking to my wife about. Three thousand years ago, that’s what they did — they planted various grains together, and then they harvested it together and ground it into flour, and they made a bread out of this maslin — this highly nutrient-dense food. It’s giving you diversity on the farm, and it’s checking all the boxes off.
I know you can look at opportunity cost, but right now on our farm, the maslin approach alone — by keeping our own seeds, cleaning the weed seed out of it, using that same seed to plant a cover crop — we are saving about $240,000 that we used to spend, just with the maslin. On the soybeans, we’re saving about $240,000 in seed. And on the corn, we’re saving about $520,000.
Acres U.S.A. And remind us on what scale this is.
Clark. Seven thousand acres. The amount of savings is unbelievable. And, we’re building species that are adapting to our system.
Acres U.S.A. So, this maslin — all the species that are in it are all winter hardy; you’re planting them in the fall, right after corn?
Clark. Yes. I’m trying to move away from total monocultures. We no longer plant cereal rye alone. We are planting this maslin across every acre where that next crop requires a cereal grain. And, if you call me up next spring and want to know what our rotation is, I might say the word “wheat,” but what I really mean is we’ve planted this maslin into a field that is going to be classified as a wheat field. In other words, it’s only going to be harvested in July as that cereal grain, and then we will pound it with a warm-season cocktail and then get ready to put legumes in it to have corn the next year.
This is the best way I know of, in a state that gets cold, to create the environment you need for your corn crop the following year. You have to get your legumes planted in August if you truly want to have success raising corn or milo, or even wheat, for that matter — any species that requires nitrogen. Like I said, we have not bought synthetic N, P or K in 10 years now, so we have to raise all of our own nitrogen, and we’re doing that through the legumes fixing the free nitrogen out of the atmosphere. If you truly want success doing that, you have to get those legumes planted in August, or the first week of September.
Acres U.S.A. Can you give folks a rough estimate of how much of what goes into your maslin mix?
Clark. Yeah, I can give you some percentages — although the mix changes over time. When I started this mix, it was 60 percent rye, 20 percent wheat and 20 percent winter barley. This was three years ago. But now, the wheat is starting to become more like 50 percent of it. I don’t care which one rises to the top; who am I to say that we need to be planting species XYZ, when in fact it might be species ABC, right? I am allowing the seeds to adapt to what Mother Nature says we need in our system, in our context.
Please do not take what I am saying right now and try to do this anywhere across the world. You have to live within the context of where you are. I’m always willing to help! My social media handle is farmgreen13, and we’ve got a consulting company at farmgreen.land. Please call or email and ask questions, because this is important stuff. I think this is the future. We all have to learn how to not be raising monoculture crops. Even if you’re going to plant corn, plant fava beans with it. If you’re going to plant soybeans or peas, plant wheat with it.
Acres U.S.A. You hear these horror stories of people who get sued for this. That could happen theoretically from pollen drift from a neighbor, right? How are you protecting yourself against that?
Clark. Yes, we have to delay our planting. And that’s okay because everybody in our neighborhood wants to plant in March these days. I will never plant corn until after Mother’s Day. So yes, we are our planting around our neighbors so that their corn has pollinated. The pollen has dropped and has dried up before any of our silks come out.
Again, I want to stress that this has to be done legally. Do not plant either GM seeds or non-GMO seeds that are still on-patent.
