The Business Decision of Regenerative Transition

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Farmers considering a transition to more regenerative practices have to consider the ramifications to their business. While there is a lot of interest in asking farmers to change their approach for the good of the planet, it’s still the farmer who is ultimately taking the risk. Joe Bassett is the CEO of Dawn Equipment.

Bassett… “We have to accept it farms are businesses. These are financial decisions. And I think a lot of people don't empathize with the extent to which these are just businesses making business decisions. And you have to really make an argument that this is going to be a more profitable long-term strategy for a particular farm. And that's easier said than done, but the positive thing is I think that there's a lot of mechanical innovation that can happen.”

Bassett said farmers are being encouraged to plant cover crops and reduce tillage, often from outside parties who don’t have to deal with any negative unintended consequences.

Bassett… “There's a lot of non-crazy reasons why farmers would not adopt practices like that. Because it is going to make it harder to produce the same yield objective. But it's not impossible. And it can definitely be done. And the space in between is an engineered solution. And that's where I want to be.”

Dawn sells equipment for farmers all along a broad spectrum of farming practices.