The Whole Farm Podcast
For a lot of growers, regenerative agriculture and high-yield farming still sit in two separate categories. Russell Hedrick is proof that they do not have to.
Russell Hedrick is a first-generation farmer in the foothills of Hickory, North Carolina, where he farms JRH Grain Farms, LLC. Over the years, he has become known as one of the most progressive young farmers in the country, building an operation around soil health, reduced fertilizer inputs, direct marketing, and high-performance crop production.
In this episode of The Whole Farm Podcast, Russell joins Michael Pisciotta and Les Riley with CHONEX to talk about how he got started with no-till and cover crops, what he has learned from more than a decade of soil and plant testing, and why the future of agronomy has to move beyond outdated fertility models and into better timing, better biology, and better on-farm decision-making.
Russell’s story is not one of chasing trends. It started with practical farm problems.
He could not afford all the equipment needed for a conventional system right away, so no-till made sense. Cover crops came into the picture because he was trying to manage winter weeds and erosion. From there, he began learning about nutrient cycling, soil biology, and regenerative management from people like Ray Archuleta, David Brandt, and others who helped shape his thinking.
“We started luckily setting our baselines all the way back in 2013,” Russell says in the episode. That decision gave him years of data to compare how different practices affected soil biology, weed pressure, and nutrient cycling in the plant.
That long-term approach helped Russell refine what he uses before corn, what he uses before soybeans, and how he evaluates what earns a place in his system.
And eventually, it helped him challenge one of the biggest assumptions in agriculture: that soil health and high yields are separate goals.
The False Divide Between Soil Health and Yield
Russell won the North Carolina Corn Yield Contest in 2017, becoming the first person in the state to win using regenerative practices. In 2021, he set a state soybean record. In 2022, he set a dryland corn record with more than 459 bushels per acre.
What makes that story even more important is that Russell is not farming in the heart of the Corn Belt. He is farming in North Carolina, on acres that were not always considered high-performing ground.
The lesson is not that every field can grow 459-bushel corn. Russell is clear that every farm and field has different potential.
The lesson is that yield potential depends on more than a standard fertility recommendation.
In the episode, Russell explains that farmers have long been told a simple equation: apply a certain amount of N, P, and K, and expect a certain amount of yield in return. But after years of testing and tracking his own acres, Russell believes that mindset leaves too much out of the equation.
His argument is simple: the soil is alive, and biology affects what the plant can access.
“You can put all the fertilizer you want in a piece of dirt, and you’re never going to push the yield barrier past what is microbial available,” Russell says.
That is a major shift in thinking. It means that nutrient availability is not just about what is present in the soil. It is also about whether biology is functioning well enough to make those nutrients available to the crop when the crop needs them.
Measuring the Life in the Soil
One of the key moments in the conversation comes when Russell talks about learning what CO2 means on the Haney test.
When he first asked about it, Rick Haney explained that CO2 respiration is a way to measure microbial activity in the soil. Russell’s reaction was immediate: this sounded like a breakthrough.
Then Haney handed him a book from 1892.
The idea was not new. Farmers and researchers had understood for more than a century that soil biology mattered. What changed was the technology.
Today, Russell says, growers can measure CO2 in a matter of minutes and use that information to make fertilizer decisions quickly. That creates a very different picture of soil testing. It is not just a report about what is chemically present. It is a way to begin understanding how alive and active the system is.
Russell also talks about PLFA testing and how comparing his 2013 results with current results allows him to see changes in fungal activity, potassium cycling, phosphorus availability, and other biological indicators.
For growers, the takeaway is not that every farm needs to run every advanced test tomorrow.
The takeaway is that biology is measurable, and when growers start measuring it, they can make better decisions.
Why Plant Tissue Testing Needs a Management Decision
Plant tissue testing has been around for more than 50 years. But Russell sees a problem with the way many growers have been asked to use it.
A tissue test may tell you whether a nutrient is high, sufficient, or deficient. But Russell asks the next question: where is the management decision?
That question is what led him into work around AI-driven nutrient modeling.
As he explains in the episode, a tissue test showing 3% nitrogen in a V4 corn plant does not mean the same thing as 3% nitrogen in a VT corn plant. The plant size, growth stage, nutrient demand, and timing all change how that number should be interpreted.
The same applies to foliar nutrition. A pint of potassium acetate at V4 may affect the plant differently than the same pint at VT, because the size and demand of the plant are different.
This is where Russell believes modern agronomy has an opportunity to improve. Instead of simply looking backward at a test result, growers need tools that help them forecast nutrient demand and act at the right time.
Timing May Be More Limiting Than the Nutrient Itself
One of Russell’s strongest points in the episode is that growers are often applying nutrients at the wrong time.
He uses nitrogen in corn as an example.
Modern agriculture often points to peak nitrogen demand between V6 and V10. But Russell says too many growers focus on the big peak at V10 without thinking through everything that has to happen before nitrogen is actually available to the plant.
If nitrogen is ground-applied, it has to get into the soil. It needs water. It needs microbial activity. It needs carbon to support the biology that helps drive the nitrogen cycle.
If all of those pieces do not line up early enough, the plant may miss the window.
“You’ve wasted your money,” Russell says. “That is more of a yield-limiting factor than the nitrogen itself.”
That line captures a bigger point from the episode: nutrient management is not just about pounds applied. It is about timing, biology, water, carbon, plant demand, and whether the nutrient is available when the crop is asking for it.
Foliar Nutrition and the Rise of Drones
Russell’s approach to foliar nutrition is built around efficiency.
He is not talking about throwing expensive products at every acre and hoping something works. He is talking about small, targeted passes based on crop stage, nutrient demand, and return on investment.
For high-yield corn, Russell says that between V6 and V10, the plant may need nitrogen and potassium moving at a one-to-one ratio. In very high-yield environments, he says the plant may need a large amount of potassium in a short window. That is where foliar applications, including potassium acetate, have become part of his system.
But Russell also points to a later window that many farmers miss: R2 to R5.
During that reproductive window, he says corn still needs significant amounts of sulfur, zinc, magnesium, and copper. For Russell, drones have made those later passes more practical because he can apply micronutrients without running over the crop.
He estimates that a drone pass may cost around $5 to $6 an acre and says he has seen 5% to 10% yield increases from getting late-season nutrition right.
The bigger message is not simply “buy a drone.” It is that application timing and access matter. If a grower can get the right product on the crop at the right stage without creating unnecessary crop damage, there may be meaningful yield and ROI opportunities.
Test It on Your Own Farm
For growers who are regen curious, Russell does not recommend changing the entire farm overnight.
He recommends testing.
His challenge is straightforward: take 5% of your acres and try something new. It could be a foliar pass, a biological in-furrow, a different nutrient program, or another management change.
The important part is to test it on your own farm.
Russell says he often brings ideas home from other farmers, tries them as recommended, and then modifies them alongside the original version to see what works better under his own conditions. He tests across different field types: his worst farm, a couple of middle-performing farms, and his best farm.
That process helps him decide what gets more acres the next year and what gets removed from the program.
This is one of the most practical takeaways from the episode. Growers do not need to adopt every new idea. But they do need a way to evaluate new ideas in their own soil, with their own equipment, under their own management.
Profitability Beyond the Commodity Market
Russell’s operation is not only focused on yield. It is focused on profit.
In the episode, he talks about putting a portion of acres into non-GMO and open-pollinated corn, building markets with distilleries, and eventually creating more value from grain through Regen Mills. He also discusses using his grain in bourbon production through a partnership with Foothills Distillery.
That part of the conversation points to a bigger opportunity in agriculture: moving beyond commodity pricing by improving quality, documenting production practices, and finding markets that reward differentiated products.
Les sums it up well in the episode. Improving soil health is not only about improving yield or input efficiency. It can also improve the quality of what a farm produces, which may open doors to more value.
For farmers facing tight margins and rising input costs, that matters.
Farm Hard. Pass It On.
At the end of the episode, Michael asks Russell what he would put on a bumper sticker.
Russell’s answer: “Farm hard” and “pass it on.”
That captures the heart of the conversation.
Russell’s system was not built by following a single prescription. It was built by asking questions, testing ideas, learning from other farmers, measuring results, and being willing to change when the data pointed in a better direction.
It is also clear that Russell sees value in sharing what he has learned. He credits farmers like David Brandt and others for helping him avoid mistakes and shorten the learning curve. Now, he wants to do the same for other growers.
For CHONEX and The Whole Farm Podcast, that is exactly the type of conversation we want to bring forward: practical, field-tested, grower-led insight that helps farmers make better decisions.
Because the future of farming will not be built on one practice, one product, or one test.
It will be built by growers who understand that the crop, the soil, the biology, the timing, and the economics all work together.
Listen to the full episode of The Whole Farm Podcast with Russell Hedrick to hear more about soil biology, foliar nutrition, drones, value-added grain, and what it looks like to farm for both yield and profit.
Watch the full episode of the Whole Farm Podcast with Russell Hedrick to hear the full conversation.