Episode 69: Rain, Risk & Regeneration on the High Plains

Tillery welcomes Texas A&M AgriLife’s Katie Lewis (soil scientist) and Todd Bauman for a wide-ranging, practical look at West Texas agriculture in 2025. After a season of timely rains and minimal hail that buoyed research plots and grower morale, they confront the tough flip side: depressed commodity prices across cotton, corn, sorghum, and beans. Katie traces her path from South Texas farming roots to 11 years of High Plains research on optimizing systems—cover crops, reduced/no-till, crop rotations, and fertility beyond just nitrogen (notably persistent potassium issues in cotton). The trio spotlights long-term trials at the Dawson County farm, cross-university collaborations, and pest/disease work (including nematodes). They unpack why diversification is hard here—specialized cotton infrastructure, water limits, and economics—while noting cotton’s drought tolerance and the rising interest in animal integration/grazed forages as a risk-management tool. Soil biology takes center stage: carbon’s functional benefits, microbe-driven nutrient cycling, and field work with biologicals like free-living N fixers and MyLand’s on-farm algae systems. Throughout, they stress that “regenerative” isn’t a one-size recipe; success is site-specific, farm-level, and must pencil out. The episode closes with a call for life-size, long-horizon trials replicated across soil types—and closer grower–consumer relationships over checkbox certifications.