When USDA quietly selected a small group of farmers to help roll out a new $700 million regenerative agriculture pilot program, most producers never knew the meetings were happening. Missouri farmers Jon and Brittany Hemme did, because they were invited into the room, sitting face-to-face with two cabinet secretaries and hearing firsthand how Washington plans to reshape soil health policy.
“We are very average farmers,” Hemme says. “It was a very humbling experience that we were chosen. My biggest takeaway is that I truly believe they’re trying to do the right things, bringing better health options to people through the way food is produced.”
Reinventing a Small Dairy to Stay Viable
Jon is one of three Hemme brothers continuing a dairy operation their father started 30 years ago. Today, the Hemmes operate the only dairy left in Saline County. Survival hasn’t come easily. As small dairies disappeared, the Hemmes reinvented their business model, adding on-farm processing and direct-to-consumer sales.
“That’s where our direct market part of our business came in, the creamery,” Hemme says. “Being able to go to processing and then direct market that end product has made us a viable operation yet as a small dairy.”
Their Hemme Brothers cheeses are now sold throughout Kansas City and central Missouri, but what also caught the attention of USDA was how they manage their land.
“We started planting cover crops the first time in 2017, got really aggressive by 2018 to where we tried to have all of our acres covered in one way or another,” Hemme says.
That shift began at the request of a landlord nearly a decade ago. Hemme says it pushed him to learn what regenerative agriculture really meant and how it could pencil out.
“We initially started just looking to try to reduce inputs to where we could keep a little more of our income,” he says. “For quite a few years we managed them that way trying to reduce our herbicide and we were successful, but that takes a lot of time and management. Here recently we’ve kind of mainstreamed it to where the main reason for them is erosion control.”
A Text Message From USDA
That work that started nearly a decade ago led to an unexpected invitation from Washington.
“We got a text message on Dec. 8 saying: ‘Would you and Jon want to come to USDA and be a part of Secretary Rollins’ announcement?’” Brittany Hemme says. “Thought it was a joke maybe at first, because it was so random. But we were on a plane the next morning and then with them in D.C. on Dec. 10.”
In the midst of the madness of the holiday season and school activities for their kids, the Hemmes went ahead and said yes, knowing this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
A First-of-its-Kind $700 Million Pilot Program
Not knowing exactly what USDA was going to unveil, at the event, USDA and HHS announced what they call a first-of-its-kind, $700-million Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program, administered through NRCS. The goal is to test a farmer-first model that improves soil health while maintaining long-term farm viability.
“We’re doing things a little bit differently than typical Washington, D.C.,” said U.S Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins during the announcement at USDA. “We have encouraged the states to think differently and creatively as our laboratories of innovation about how to solve the many health issues facing America ... but really today is about the next step in making America healthy again, and that is talking about regenerative agriculture.”
During thee announcement, Rollins said the focus of USDA and HHS for the new pilot program was on protecting soil and is critical for farm productivity and longevity.
“Protecting and improving the health of our soil is critical not only for the future viability of farmland, but to the future success of American farmers,” she said. “We must protect our top soil from unnecessary erosion and boost the microbiome of the soil.”
But it wasn’t just USDA unveiling the new program. Rollins was standing beside Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called the program a milestone tied to promises outlined in the MAHA Report.
“Among the recommendations of the report was the promise to make it easier for farmers in this country, farmers who are dependent on chemical and fertilizer inputs, to give them an off-ramp,” Kennedy said in December. “An off-ramp where they can transition to a model that emphasizes soil health. And with soil health comes nutrient density.”
An ‘Off Ramp’ for Farmers
When “U.S. Farm Report” recently caught up with the Hemmes to get their reaction, Jon says one of the key takeaways from the announcement is the structure of the pilot program and why that matters.
“It’s a five-year program, a five-year contract,” he says. “You can address multiple things in the same contract that you want to address. The farmer gets to pick his goal. They’ll develop a plan to help them achieve that goal, and then they’re going to quantify it with a soil test up front and one at the end.”
Along with the announcement, the Hemmes then had the chance to take part in a closed-door roundtable discussion with Rollins, Kennedy and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who serves as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Kennedy.
“They notified us that we would be in a roundtable discussion with Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins and Dr. Oz; that made us pretty nervous,” says Jon, laughing.
Brittany says one word stood out during that discussion.
“He said ‘off-ramp’ several times,” she says. “I really appreciated that, because this is voluntary. There’s nobody forcing anyone to do this program. It’s not all or nothing. You can work with USDA NRCS and come up with a plan that is going to work for you on your farm, in your context.”
With no cameras in the room, Hemme says the conversation felt genuine.
“They wanted some feedback from farmers,” he says. “They allowed us to each go down the line and explain our operations, our motivations behind using regenerative agriculture, and then they followed it up with some really good questions.”
Those questions included market access and how long the transition takes.
“You could see him, the wheels turning,” Hemme says of Kennedy.
What Was (And Wasn’t) Discussed
Before Kennedy joined the cabinet, some farmers worried his focus would be on restricting tools like glyphosate. The Hemmes say that never came up.
“It’s been more voluntary, putting something out there instead of coming in with a stick,” Jon says.
“There was mention of tools in the toolbox, and there was no mention of taking any of those tools away,” Brittany adds.
As Brittany has watched Jon’s regenerative journey on their own farm, she says regenerative agriculture is often misunderstood.
“Some of the negative connotation has come in from an all-or-nothing mindset,” she says. “They demonize certain tools in the toolbox, and that’s unfortunate. True regeneration is what works in your context.”
Lessons From Their Nearly Decade-Long Journey in Regenerative Ag
For Jon, this really isn’t unconventional or something new. He says regenerative ag, to him, all comes back to building resilience in your soil.
“It is conservation, but it’s also trying to build resilience into your soil,” he says. “If you follow the soil health principles, minimize disturbance, keep residue on the surface, a living root in the soil, you will start to build carbon. You’ll hold more water, perform better in dry conditions, and handle weather shifts.”
But in the nearly 10 years of diving into regenerative ag, Jon says that journey didn’t come without mistakes.
“I was very aggressive when I started out, and I kind of set myself back,” Hemme says. “If I were to give any advice, it would be to start slow and safe.”
He points specifically to cover crops. He says by trying to put cover crops on every acre at the start, he learned the hard way that if you let those cover crops get too tall, it can actually negatively impact crop production.
“If you’re too aggressive up front, you almost constipate your soil,” he says. “Eventually that residue has to leave.”
As the Hemmes say, they still want to pinch themselves over a trip that seemed like a dream, it was those direct conversations with President Donald Trump’s cabinet members that made them believe USDA’s support of regenerative ag will be a practical approach and one any farmer can try or do.
What else should you expect when it comes to regenerative ag? That’s exactly what “AgriTalk” Host Chip Flory asked Richard Fordyce, USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, just last week.
