The fall of 2021 started with a never-ending to-do list for Luke Jones. The pressure of the impending harvest was heavy, but Sept. 13 looked like the perfect day to haul hay from a nearby pasture to his farm in rural Astoria, Ill.

And it was. Until a semi smashed into the back of Jones’ open-cab tractor, sending him flying onto a nearby shoulder. In an instant, his back and ribs were broken, his lung collapsed, and his teeth were knocked out. By the grace of God alone, a nurse in oncoming traffic witnessed the impact, opened Jones’ airway and called 911.

He was life-flighted to Springfield, Ill., where friends and family feared the worst.

Jones was alive, but one thing was certain: His life would never be the same.

Questioning the status quo

Luke Jones was raised in a farm family that predominately grew corn and soybeans. After college he took a job in ag retail, knowing the farm was not large enough to support multiple families full time. Given his upbringing, Jones understood the needs and checkbooks of area farmers.

“If it weren’t for subsidies and crop insurance, many farmer-customers were breaking even at best,” Jones says. “Everybody in the production system seemed to be making money, except the farmer — and I didn’t like that.”

By 2016, he started looking into root causes instead of symptoms. Waterhemp wreaked havoc across the countryside, and chemical companies encouraged farmers to take on the “more” mentality: more herbicides, higher rates, more dollars. But Jones could see it wasn’t working.

Related:Soil health experts make case for regenerative agriculture

That winter, Jones planted cereal rye as a cover crop after corn. In just one season, waterhemp pressure dramatically decreased on those acres. The cereal rye created a weed barrier by starving waterhemp out of the post-corn high-nitrate environment.

“Then it hit me — this isn’t a chemical system, it’s a biological system,” Jones says. “Mother Nature bats a thousand. She’s going to figure this stuff out and adapt to it. We have to work with her instead of trying to suppress her.”

Despite his farm background, education and work experience, Jones realized he’d missed something. Was there a better way to farm?

Jones took to YouTube, where he found other farmers asking the same question. The answer he found? Regenerative agriculture.

What is regenerative agriculture?

Emily Heaton, University of Illinois crop sciences professor, says regenerative agriculture is a conservation approach to farming that restores soils, increases biodiversity and improves water quality.

She says the most common misconceptions about regenerative practices are that they reduce yield, they’re unprofitable, and they’re straightforward. She says none of these is true. Here’s why:

Related:How one Illinois farmer strip-tills into cover crops

Yield. After years of practices like minimum tillage or planting cover crops, farmers tend to notice improved soil health, better water infiltration and enhanced water-holding capacity. Improvements to topsoil lead to increases in yield and resilience in times of weather distress.

Profit. Increased profit can be realized from yield boosts, but also from decreased fuel and labor expenses as a result of fewer tillage passes and fewer crop inputs.

Learning curve. Adopting a new system often comes with a learning curve when planting new crops or adding livestock and fences to existing fields.

For Heaton, regenerative ag is all about increasing the health and wealth of Illinois communities and ecosystems.

“The current paradigm of corn and soybeans is arguably failing the Midwest right now,” Heaton says. “There’s a strong case to be made that the way we conduct agriculture right now is not making us healthier or wealthier.”

Jones agrees, noting that ag row crops acted as a constant withdrawal of his land’s environmental resources.

“Everybody’s bought into the corn-and-beans rotation,” Jones says. “It’s convenient, but it’s not nearly as profitable as thinking beyond the status quo.”

He says it’s farmer mindsets and practices, not the markets, that have led to such low returns for farmers.

“You have to figure out what you want your farm to be,” he says. “If it’s mass production, then go for it, but don’t complain to me about commodity prices or input costs when you keep raising corn and soybeans.”

A change in mindset

Today, Jones’ to-do list is shorter, and his priorities have changed. The accident hit a reset button for him, physically and mentally.

“When the accident happened, I was trying to do too much,” Jones says. “Life is too short to do everything in a hurry. I’ve still got a full plate, but I want to make sure I’m having a positive impact on our farm, family and community, while being more profitable.”

Jones renamed the farm Impact Family Farms as a nod to the farm after the impact of the accident. He also switched career gears, leaving ag retail to join Understanding Ag as a consultant to aid farmers in their regenerative journeys.

“I really shouldn’t be alive, but now I feel like I have a purpose here,” says Jones, explaining that his purpose is twofold: He’s intentional about his farming practices and soil health, while also taking mistakes and challenges with a grain of salt.

“Farm stress and farmer suicide are at an all-time high,” Jones says. “We’re demanded to be perfect and do more with fewer farmers, higher costs and lower incomes. That’s not agriculture to me. We have to change the script. Regenerative ag does just that by building life back into the operation in a positive manner.”

Crunching the numbers

From his injuries, Jones says his physical abilities will undoubtedly be affected as he ages. As the sole provider of a family of six, working smarter instead of harder has become the name of the game.

To utilize his land’s potential, Jones first planted cover crops to eliminate the land’s fallow period. Cover crops improved soil fertility and increased biodiversity as Jones began to notice more wildlife, birds and beneficial insects on the farm.

“This year the ladybugs and ants took care of my tassel aphid pressure,” he says. “By leaning solely on insecticides for every one pest killed, I was nuking countless beneficial ones.”

Jones’ next change came with the introduction of livestock. He fenced every acre to graze pasture, cover crops and cornstalks. Not only did grazing minimize his purchased livestock feed, but livestock manure started improving soil organic matter by fertilizing his acres.

“My favorite thing about the farm is the diversity,” Jones says. “Guys tell me all the time that diversification through livestock is how they made it through the ’80s.”

He’s opted for sheep rather than cattle or pigs, boasting that although they require more infrastructure, they offer a greater return per acre.

The improved fertility and biodiversity equate to real savings for Jones’ bottom line. He’s reduced herbicide use by about 50% and no longer applies fungicide or insecticide; all soybeans are untreated.

“If you really calculate your input costs relative to yield, you’ll realize you’re just turning dollars,” Jones says. “By dropping $20 to $30 an acre on herbicide and fertilizer, that’s a lot of money you don’t have to spend every year. I’m low enough input that if I do give up a little bit of yield, I’m not worried about it.”

Jones never intends to go 100% organic.

“I’m not a purist — I use herbicides when I need to,” he says. “As a farmer, I still need all the tools available in my toolbox if I need them.”

The next step for Jones was exploring value-added products. Today, he grows conventional soybeans, non-GMO corn, wheat and jimmy red corn, while grazing sheep and chickens. Next year he’ll add non-GMO soybeans, einkorn wheat and Australian white sheep for their premier meat quality.

The heritage seed varieties, like jimmy red corn and einkorn wheat, receive health food premiums when milled for meal or flour:

“I don’t want to farm bigger, I want to farm better,” he says. “I want to grow the best-quality food for my family and community — and make a profit while doing it. We live in a food desert and don’t even realize it.”