“Earthworms make me happy,” Ryan Britt says as he turns over a handful of dark soil. “You see that?” He points to an earthworm before returning it safely to a field of cover crops. “It didn’t look like this 20 years ago.” Twenty years ago, Ryan and his dad set out to restore the health of the soil on their family farm with regenerative agriculture practices. It’s a journey that continues today.
Starting the Soil Health Journey
Ryan Britt knows that farming is a marathon, not a sprint. His family has been farming in north-central Missouri since 1865. Today, the rolling green hills of Britt Farms stretch out for miles. While the farm has changed and grown over the years, the family’s commitment to caring for the land has remained steady.
“Our farm has worked through the years to focus on regenerative agriculture,” Ryan says, noting there are a variety of buzzwords when it comes to farm practices, such as conservation or sustainability. “For us, it’s about more than sustainability,” he explains. “I can be sustained on bread and water alone, but I sure feel a lot better when I have some steak,” Ryan adds with a chuckle. “To improve and to grow, we need more nourishment. It’s the same with our farmland. We want to improve it for the next generation.”