In regenerative farming, we are constantly on the lookout for new methods that help us take care of and improve our soil. Frederik V. Larsen, no-till agronomy consultant with Agroganic is one of those regenerative farmers who is experimenting with new, innovative solutions, and his current project is all about finding the optimal crop to use as living mulch. His research and field experiments so far have found that lucerne might be the ideal candidate.

But what exactly is living mulch? And why is it such a valuable tool in regenerative agriculture?

Leaving the soil bare after harvest, plowing or tillage can lead to adverse effects such as erosion from wind and precipitation and loss of valuable nutrients, as well as providing conditions for weeds to germinate and grow without competition. This is part of the reason regenerative agriculture aims to have the soil covered throughout the year. Introducing a living mulch to your fields is one way to do that. A living mulch is a cover crop that is sown either before or with the cash crop and kept as a living ground cover throughout the growing season and throughout the following crops in the rotation. Growing a living mulch can help with weed suppression, soil temperature regulation, evaporation, soil structure, erosion from rain and wind, as well as nutrient retention and addition.

Many annual species have been used as cover crops, but Frederik sees the potential in perennial living mulches (a perennial cover crop), which is why he started experimenting with lucerne as a living mulch in his cereal crops. Lucerne has an array of beneficial properties that makes it a great choice as a living mulch, especially in cereals; It’s perennial, it fixes nitrogen from the air, it has a taproot, it’s herbicide tolerant, and it might help prevent the spread of fungal diseases such as septoria.

No need to resow every year

Usually, cover crops are resown every year, and often during a time where there is much else that needs doing in the field. Every time you need to establish a crop it comes with risks. With a perennial cover crop, you avoid the stress of needing to make sure the cover crop gets sown and established every single year. With no-till techniques, you can keep the lucerne as a living mulch in the ground for years while establishing a new annual cash crop into it every year.

Decreasing the need for mineral nitrogen fertilizer

Like many popular cover crop species, lucerne is a legume, which means it has nitrogen fixing abilities, and not only that, but lucerne is especially efficient at it, providing high quality biomass to the benefit of the soil fertility. Both from an environmental and economical perspective, reducing the need for mineral fertilizers is desirable, and since lucerne is capable of fixing up to 400 kgN/ha yearly or 100 kgN/ha as an off-season living mulch, it provides valuable nitrogen to the cash crop.

Less root competition

Another desirable quality of lucerne is that unlike many other legume living mulch species, it has a deep taproot. Cereal crops have shallow fibrous roots and growing a cover crop that also has fibrous roots increases the competition between these crops, which causes decreased cereal yields. The taproot allows the lucerne to grow deeper, utilizing a different part of the soil profile than the cereal, resulting in less competition between the crops.

Doesn’t compromise chemical weed management

Lucerne’s powerful taproot makes it tolerate high doses of herbicide compared to other cover crop species with shallow fibrous roots, which makes it possible to still chemically treat grass weeds without killing the lucerne.

Prevents spread of fungal diseases 

Potentially, a living mulch like lucerne also has the capacity to reduce the infection rate of fungal diseases like septoria. Research is still being done to quantify this case in the field, but the theory is as follows; Septoria infects crops by being splashed up from the ground by precipitation. However, since septoria only affects its host species, the septoria spores will become inactive when landing on the leaves of a non-host. Since living mulch provides a year-round soil cover, fewer spores are being sent into circulation by rain-soil contact. Lucerne is a non-host, so the spores will become inactive when landing on the leaves, and since the perennial lucerne is already well established before the wheat emerges, lucerne has the potential to reduce the infection rate significantly.

In conclusion, lucerne has a lot of potential as a living mulch crop, and if you want to follow Frederik and his lucerne living mulch experiments, you can find him on X as @fredVLarsen and updates from his experiments under the hashtag #livingmulch.

If you are interested in getting started with living mulch, contact us at Agroganic today to learn more about how we can help you.

Farmers deliver food, feed, and fuel to the world, and while these services are essential, it is also necessary that they are provided in a sustainable way.

Your agricultural business, like every business, is deeply intertwined with environmental, social, and governance concerns, and this inseparable connection represents risks to avoid but also valuable opportunities to pursue if you know how to utilize them.

If you own farmland, it can be beneficial to begin your sustainability documentation to stay ahead of the curve and stand out to potential collaborators. More and more legislation that aims to protect the environment, as well as societal and governance sustainability measures, is implemented every year, and as a farmer, it can be difficult to keep track of what that means for your business. One of the newly implemented proposals for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), requires large companies to report on sustainability measures in their value chain. From next year, large companies will be required to report on sustainability in their value chain using standards developed by the EU.

That means that if you have an agribusiness that supplies, or wants to supply, produce to large companies like Nestlé, Orkla, or Unilever, or their suppliers, you have an opportunity to be more attractive to them if you have documented your sustainability actions and already know which further sustainability efforts you intend to focus on. Many farmers struggle with figuring out which sustainability actions to prioritize but that is what a “double materiality assessment” can help you with!

Sustainable development and ESG reports (Environmental, Social, and Governance) have come to stay, and Agroganic is here to help you navigate the possibilities that producing in a sustainable way and reporting on your sustainability measures offer.

What is a double materiality assessment?

A double materiality assessment is a type of sustainability and strategy analysis that will help you prioritize your sustainability actions and make it easier for you to decide which efforts to spend your time and money on.

This tool helps you identify which sustainability measures your business should prioritize while taking your specific risks and opportunities into account. The “double” in double materiality refers to assessing the importance of an activity’s impact in relation to BOTH the impact on environment and society AND the financial risks or opportunities associated with it for your company.

Sustainability actions can be taken to avoid risks of impacting the environment negatively (such as pollution), but they can also be taken to increase opportunities and to impact the environment positively. For example, if you are considering implementing regenerative farming methods in your operation, it can impact the environment positively as well as provide increased opportunities to work with big companies that demand regenerative crops.

Agroganic’s experts are ready to help

Agroganic’s team of consultants are experts in the field and have 18 years of experience with sustainability and strategy analyses from the agricultural and financial sector, and we are ready to help. Contact our strategy consultant Kirsten Marie Risbjerg at +4523225102 to learn more about how we can assist you with your double materiality assessment to prioritize your sustainability actions.

Running an agriculture business in the Baltics is not for the faint of heart. The enormous size of the large-scale properties takes hard work, determination, and a vast knowledge of the area to manage, and no one can do it alone.

That is how Agroganic made their entry into farming consultancy in the Baltics. Agroganic is a team of agronomy consultants that have been helping large-scale farmers in the Baltics for more than twenty years. Currently, Agroganic has clients all over the Baltic countries and helps manage almost 100,000 hectares of land.

Agroganic’s success is no coincidence, though. Our team of seasoned consultants knows all the ins and outs of dealing with the challenges that come with this type of farming and we know how to put that knowledge into action. Understanding the day to day work and the unique needs of every property is fundamental for creating financially thriving businesses.

That is why our consultants all have many years of hands-on experience with farm management. We understand how important every investment is and we know what worksand what doesn’t because we have tried it all. We have built our business on being expertsat rationalization and optimization as well as creating turnaround solutions for countless clients.

We believe that farming should be financially sustainable while being environmentally sound and that is why we have worked with regenerative principles since the very beginning. Our experience with no-till farming is unparalleled and we always keepup with the newest technologies and know how to implement them in the ways that will be most beneficial to the client.

Are you interested in working with Agroganic? Call us today at +45 2010 0096 to learn more about our work and how we can help you improve your agribusiness.

Soil microbes drive a myriad of beneficial processes that are essential for a healthy soil. Increased microbial activity leads to higher nutrient availability as well as nutrient retention in the soil and incorporating practices that encourage abundance and diversity of soil microbes improves soil aggregation, water penetration, and water retention and decreases soil erosion. All of these factors create more resilient crops as well as regenerate depleted soils.

There are billions of microorganisms for every gram of soil. The soil organisms are made up of a complex food web of primarily bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa which all impact soil health.

But what exactly makes them so important?

Bacteria make up the largest part of the soil microorganisms, both in number and volume. They live in the water film around soil particles and in the rhizosphere where they take care of many important functions. Bacteria are a very diverse group and can do anything from improve soil aggregation abilities and nutrient cycling to fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Fungi are important decomposers since they’re capable of breaking down lignin and other compounds that other organisms aren’t able to decompose. They also form symbiosis with plants and help them access otherwise inaccessible nutrients because their tiny hyphae allow them to take up nutrients from areas that plant roots are too big to utilize. Fungi do better in undisturbed soils where their long hyphae aren’t broken.

Nematodes directly impact nutrient availability as they consume nitrogen from feeding on bacteria and release readily available ammonium. They are also beneficial in the decomposition of organic material because their feeding accelerates the decomposition process.

Protozoa are the grazers of the soil where they feed on bacteria and fungi which releases plant-available ammonium. They consume more than 50% of bacterial productivity in soil and thereby enhance nutrient cycling to the benefit of crops.

Because of all these vital functions, taking care of soil microorganisms and improving their conditions can lead to healthier soils and more resilient crops. At Agroganic, we work WITH the soil and know the importance of taking care of the soil’s microbiome. Contact us today to learn more about regenerative farming and how you can take care of your soil’s microbial life and improve your soil health!

Companion crops are a secondary crop grown with the cash crop and are an important part of regenerative agriculture.

“When done right, companion crops can add nutrients to the soil, reduce pest attacks on the cash crop, minimize weeds, and save input,” our consultant David Hans Dresen states.

Choosing the right companion crops can be an excellent way to reduce the amount of money spent on input. Some companion crops allow you to use less fertilizer by providing nutrients for the cash crops. Legumes like clover or vetch can add N to the soil because of their nitrogen fixing abilities while phacelia is in a symbiosis with mycorrhiza fungi that can make soil phosphorus available. Other companion crops can be used to combat pests and weeds, reducing the need for insecticides and herbicides.

Choose the companion crop(s) in accordance with which issues you want to tackle. The companion crop can be sown together with or after the main crop but which strategy to use depends on the cash crop and the companion crop. It is important to make sure the companion crop doesn’t grow too vigorously, causing it to compete with the cash crop.

“Finding the right companion crop strategy is a delicate balance to get right and making sure the cover crop delivers the right benefits while ensuring it doesn’t outcompete the cash crop is essential,” David says and adds, “Companion crops are part of the future of farming whether we want them or not. We might as well get started with finding a beneficial companion crop strategy now before legislation forces our hand.”

Getting your companion crop right can be a challenge, but you don’t have to figure it out alone. Contact Agroganic today to hear more about how our experts can help you with your companion crop strategy.

The path to regenerative farming is a journey, not an overnight change, but it pays off in the end. Farming regeneratively results in more resilient crops, more stable yields, less work, and reduced input costs. But how do you get started?

Few people start out as regenerative farmers, especially on a large scale, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Generally, large scale farmers will approach the journey to regenerative agriculture either as conventional or organic farmers. Being regenerative isn’t an either-or-situation but rather a scale of how well you incorporate the principles in ways that make sense for each individual field.

Agroganic has a history of large-scale conventional farming and has worked with conservation agriculture (CA) for many years before choosing to be extra ambitious and take the next step towards regenerative agriculture.

As seen from this figure from the project ‘Design for Sustainable Agrifood Systems’ by Kristine Fisker and Sara Dømler, different types of farming systems can achieve better regenerative practices, depending on their starting points. Organic farmers can achieve better regenerative results by working towards less soil disturbance, while CA farmers can work on reducing their pesticide use. Conventional farmers need to work on both their soil disturbance approach as well as their pesticide use. All three farming methods are valid starting points, and the figure shows that different measures are needed to become more regenerative in different kinds of farming systems.

Regenerative farming is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each measure will affect fields in different ways depending on the field history, soil types, and local conditions like weather, and it can take time to achieve the desired conditions. Once you have though, nature takes over many of the tasks and makes it easier to be a farmer. The benefits speak for themselves, and regenerative farming increases the resilience of your crops as well as your agribusiness.

How to move towards regenerative agriculture

There are many steps you can take already today to get started with turning your agribusiness regenerative and you don’t have to do it alone. At Agrogaric our consultants are experts in regenerative agriculture and have many years of experience with helping large scale farmers work with regenerative principles. Contact us today to here more on +45 2010 0096 or at contact@agroganic.com

Your first question might be: what exactly is an ESG report? ESG stands for Environment (E), Social (S), and Governance (G), and to make an ESG report is a way to document the sustainable development of your business. In this article, we explain how ESG reports can be beneficial to you and how it works.

Farmers deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world. Sustainability can be defined as minimizing impact on the planet while meeting the needs of consumers and communities. Your agricultural business, like every business, is deeply intertwined with environmental, social, and governance concerns and the subjects represent possibilities to pursue as well as risks to avoid.

If you own and farm land it is an advantage to begin to document your sustainable efforts and areas of actions in an ESG report sooner rather than later. ESG-reporting can help point out business opportunities as well as risks for farmers and landowners. At the same time, it serves as documentation of current sustainability efforts and progress. The documentation functions as a sustainability assurance and risk assessment to your stakeholders.

What are the components of the ESG report? 

The E in ESG, environmental criteria, includes the resources your company takes in, the waste it discharges, and the consequences for living beings as a result. For an agricultural enterprise important areas to focus on include water and air quality, nature and biodiversity, soil fertility, and optimal resource use. Not least, E encompasses carbon emissions and influence on climate change.

S, social criteria, addresses the relationships your company has and the reputation it fosters with the people and institutions in the communities where you farm the land and do business. For agriculture, S translates into areas such as employee well-being and working conditions, livestock health and welfare, as well as local anchoring and interaction with the local community.

G, governance, is the internal system of practices, controls, and procedures your company adopts in order to govern itself, make effective decisions, comply with law, and meet the needs of external stakeholders. Working actively with company strategy, a thorough risk management scheme, and third-party certifications, like Global GAP, are ways of establishing good governance of your company.

A strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposition can create value for you in five essential ways:

Top-line growth: A strong ESG proposition helps companies tap into new markets and expand in existing markets, while it also drives consumer preference.

Cost reductions: Resource efficiency is a step in the sustainable direction while also optimising economic outcome.

Productivity uplift: A strong ESG proposition can help attract and retain quality employees which is very desirable as employee turnover lowers productivity significantly. At the same time, it can enhance motivation and instill a sense of purpose.

Investment and asset optimisation: When it comes to ESG, it’s important to bear in mind that a do nothing approach is usually an eroding line, not a straight line. While investments to update your operations can be substantial, continuing to rely on less sustainable stables, equipment, or practises can be the most expensive option in the end. The rules of the game are shifting all the time: Bans or limitations  on less sustainable production will likely  introduce new constraints. Consumer preferences shifting market shares towards greater sustainability will affect market value of production facilities including farms that are not up to date.

Regulatory and legal interventions: Company behaviour considered unsustainable by society is prone to taxes and penalties, like carbon emissions. On the other hand, measures towards greater sustainability are sometimes subsidised by the government or the EU like subsidies for investing in green technology or eco-schemes, part of the EU CAP reform, which aim to encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

The benefits of ESG reporting are many, and at Agroganic, our consultant Kirsten Marie Risbjerg has great experience on the topic and is ready to assist you with creating your ESG proposition. Contact us here to learn more about what ESG can do for you and how we can help you.

At Agroganic, we are lucky to have Jeppe Grabow as the newest addition to our consultant team. Jeppe has many years of practical experience with large scale farming in Estonia where he was in charge of management of fields and machinery at a 2000 ha property.

Jeppe is an expert in optimizing operations on large scale agribusinesses and is passionate about helping farmers improve their practices.

“My greatest strength as a consultant is the amount of practical experience I bring to the table. I know what works in the field and what doesn’t because I’ve tried most of it. I have the advantage of being able to relate to the farmer because I know the ins and outs of the day to day work in the field.”

In Estonia, Jeppe also facilitated cooperation with machinery dealers to arrange machine rentals, so he has a lot of experience with all types of farm machinery. He became an expert in identifying issues, figuring out solutions, and outsourcing assignments to make operations run as smoothly as possible. Now Jeppe has returned to Denmark to use all his knowledge in a new context.

“What excites me most about the position in Agroganic is to get the opportunity to work with passionate and knowledgeable colleagues who I can learn from. I’m eager to dive into the new position of going from a hands-on approach to a consultant and I hope I can use all my experience to make a difference for other farmers.”

Jeppe will primarily work with our Danish clients in Jutland, but will also work with our clients in Estonia and the Baltics, where his experience will be invaluable.

“My favorite thing is to help farmers optimize their processes and when they can see that my recommendations help their business. Many countries don’t have independent consultant services, so the prospect of giving advice from a farmer’s perspective and not a profit or sales perspective, is very interesting to me.”

Many agribusinesses are increasing in size, and Jeppe predicts that this can cause management issues if the farmers aren’t properly prepared for it. He wants to help farmers be prepared for the future and the challenges it might bring. That is also why he has worked with regenerative approaches like no-till whenever possible, especially in oil seed rape and winter wheat.

“When it makes sense, why not do it? It’s less work and it’s good for the soil and for nature. I’d like to see agriculture develop in a direction that leaves more room for biodiversity.”

In the future, Jeppe will be working with precision farming as well, joining our other experts in helping clients get started with precision farming.

We are excited to have Jeppe on the team and we hope you will give him a warm welcome.

View the whole team here.

Direct drilling is a convenient way to establish your crop. It can save time and costs, and it’s good for the soil. During direct drilling, seeds are placed in the stubble of the previous crop without any prior soil cultivation. This leaves the soil pores intact, conserves soil moisture, and prevents germination of the soil seed bank. Minimum soil disturbance is a key principle of regenerative agriculture and is a great way to cultivate a healthy soil.

Direct drilling has many benefits but how do you make sure the conditions are optimal?

“Typical issues farmers face when they want to do direct drilling are problems with wet soil, cold soil temperatures because of the layer of straw from the previous crop that prevents the soil from heating up as fast as a plowed field, and that the crops emerge later” crop advisor Kristian Thomsen states.

Luckily, there are ways to work around all of these issues.

To use direct drilling, the soil needs to be dried up enough, so the soil pores won’t be damaged when driving in the field and create water-logging. It is better to wait until the soil is dry enough than to establish early and risk closing the soil pores, preventing water from draining.

You can reduce the risk of wet soils in the spring if you make sure you have a good soil structure with a large earthworm population to create macropores, which will reduce waterlogging and create better drained fields. Establishing a good cover crop with taproots in the fall will also help draining the fields in the spring.

If you have problems with cold soil because of residual straw from the previous crop, it can be beneficial to remove the layer of straw with a straw rake, allowing the soil to warm up more quickly.

“Direct drilling can cause the crops to emerge a little later than in plowed fields but this can be made up for by increasing the number of seeds when sowing. The individual plant might grow less bushy, but an increased number of plants will compensate for this” Kristian explains.

Preparing a good seedbed is essential for a well-established crop when using direct drilling to make sure the seed is placed precisely and has good contact with the soil. Choosing the right seed drill for the field is important. There are two types of direct seed drills – tine drills and disc drills. With a tine drill, a seed tine is pulled through the soil and the seed is placed behind the tine. With a disk drill, a roller disc cuts a groove in the ground where the seed is laid and the groove is pressed in again. There are pros and cons to both types.

An advantage of the tine drill is that it works well to place seeds underneath the surface of crop residue, which increases the likelihood that it will be placed in direct contact with the soil. The tine drill also creates mineralization in the groove which can help earlier germination of the seeds. The cons, however, are that there is a risk that residual plant material on the field can be dragged along with the drill, and that the tine causes slightly more soil disturbance, risking larger germination from the soil seed bank.

With disc seed drills, a disc cuts through both crop residues and cover crops, which makes it better suited for fields with larger cover crops, but there is an increased risk of hair-pinning (crop residue being pushed into the seed slot) which can compromise the seeds’ contact with the soil.

If you are just starting out with direct drilling, it can be a good idea to start with crops like peas or fava beans that have large seeds and lots of germination potential since they are less sensitive to seedbed issues. Spring barley on the other hand requires very precise drilling and optimal conditions to become well-established.

Are you eager to get started with direct drilling or do you have questions about the methods you are currently using? Contact crop advisor Kristian Thomsen at krt@agroganic.com if you would like to know more.