A real treat for everyone (and a day early).
We got a chance to chat with Mark Shepard about the amazing work he did mass selecting a wide range of woody perennial food crop species to adapt to his challenging conditions and PRODUCE!.
Check out the episode on youtube, or subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.
That was great, thanks!
He mentioned Hugh Iltis and while poking around, I ran across this charming read: Serendipity in the Exploration of Biodiversity What Good are Weedy Tomatoes? - Biodiversity - NCBI Bookshelf
Another great podcast! Thank s for all that inspiration by very based people.
Mark Shepard, a farmer and seedsman in Southwest Wisconsin, shares his experience with agriculture and restoration, focusing on his real estate business and plant breeding. He mentions his influence from Johnny Appleseed and Luther Burbank, and emphasizes the importance of hyperprecocity and breeding plants for the local environment. He also discusses the benefits of planting trees using seedlings instead of mature trees, and the use of direct seeding and Korean Pines in forestry and reforestation. Shepard then talks about his breeding projects, focusing on chestnuts, hazelnuts, and perennial substitutes for corn and beans. She discusses her plant breeding program, seedling selection, and the use of fungi and animals to grow fruits and nuts in the same ecosystem. Finally, Shepard discusses his current project, hybridizing a South American species of pine with a local species to create a new strain of domestic pine.
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00:00:00 In this section, Mark Shephard shares how he became interested in agriculture and restoration after growing up in an industrial wasteland where factories dumped chemicals into a polluted river. His experience with cleaning up the river and witnessing the growth of plants led him to pursue a life of replanting degraded farms and land. Shephard has been in the real estate business for over 30 years, buying and restoring farms and natural resources to be harvested by humans and wildlife. He turns his focus to plant breeding as a means of ecological restoration, highlighting the influence of Johnny Appleseed’s mass selection of apple genetics and Luther Burbank’s work in plant breeding.
00:05:00 in this section, the speaker describes how they got into the seed selection process. They mention early influences such as Johnny apple seed and Luther Burbank and how they became interested in breeding trees and shrubs. The speaker also talks about their experience with covering crops and amending soil, and how these practices led them to select seeds that grow well under their local conditions. The speaker emphasizes the importance of hyper precocity, which is the first trait they look for in breeding plants, as it allows them to quickly turn around generations of plants. The speaker also discusses their experience with pest and disease resistance and how they incorporate these traits into their selection process. They give an example of training chestnuts to flower quickly in six months, but then noting that many of these seedlings die due to their sensitivity to cold temperatures, making them less practical for commercial growing.
00:10:00 In this section, Mark Shepard describes the extreme rainfall events and heavy clay soil in Southwest Wisconsin, which can cause significant erosion. The Creek Watershed project was the first Watershed-scale project to prevent erosion on agricultural farmland, and water management was the first order of business. Water was channeled across the slope, soaked in, spread out, and stored in pools to be used later for irrigation. The farm is primarily rainfed, with some irrigation of new tree seedlings in dry conditions. In this year, the farm had only 7 inches of rain (just over a centimeter), but it was still able to maintain green grass and never had to feed cattle any hay until they went off to freezer camp. The farmer then describes the hot, dry summer temperatures in Southwest Wisconsin, with temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit and over 40 degrees Celsius, sometimes reaching equivalent temperatures to those in subtropical Australia. Despite these extreme conditions, the selection process, which imitates nature, allows plants to thrive and adapt to the region. The farmer also points out the human differences in being active participants in the ecological system, observing for traits, and concentrating them to speed up the crossing of paths for desired genetic traits.
00:15:00 In this section, Mark Shepard talks about the benefits of growing trees using seedlings instead of purchasing mature trees and planting them in large holes. He explains that seedlings are cheaper and require less labor to plant, as they are typically smaller and can be easily knife-planted into the ground. Shepard also discusses the importance of maintaining trees, noting that mowing and pruning are the only regular tasks, making the labor required for this system minimal compared to traditional orchards. He highlights the use of animals, such as cattle and hogs, for grazing and nutrient cycling, further reducing the need for equipment and special skills. Additionally, he points out the advantages of natural systems, such as reduced pest and disease problems and improved soil health. Shepard emphasizes the importance of amending the soil with Idaho Rock Phosphate in specific cases where the calcium-magnesium ratio is imbalanced, but otherwise, he prefers not to amend the soil.
00:20:00 In this section, Mark Shepard discusses planting trees on his home farm, specifically focusing on using a high density planting method to increase yields and improve genetic diversity. He mentions that by using a spacing of 18 inches between trees, he was able to produce a dense pile of chestnuts that produced reasonable yields in three to seven years. However, he then realized that this method wasn’t practical in the long term as the trees would eventually grow too tall and the branches would start to compete with one another. He then decided to select the best trees based on their characteristics and cut down the others. He used the branches cut down to inoculate the soil with mushrooms, improving yields without having to care for the trees as much.
00:25:00 In this section, Shepard discusses direct seeding, a technique used in the Conservation Reserve program to encourage farmers to plant trees. He highlights the importance of weed control and the use of herbicides to keep weed populations under control. Shepard also shares his experiences with direct seeding on his farm and how his Korean Pines flourished in an area where it was previously established. Shepard also talks about his breeding projects, mainly focusing on chestnuts and hazelnuts as perennial substitutes for corn and beans due to their high carbohydrate and protein content.
00:30:00 In this section, Mark Shepard discusses the process of grading plants based on yield and productivity. He uses a one to five scale to evaluate the hazelnut plants and identifies the heaviest bearers as ones that have produced nuts every year, with growing numbers of nuts on the bushes. The focus then shifts to Asian pears, with the goal of finding edible trees that can grow in colder climates. Shepard sources his original material from nursery catalogs and talks to people to find a wide range of genetics, confident that the plants will adapt to local conditions over time. He notes that once genetics are established, it becomes easier to produce seeds and see a higher success rate.
00:35:00 In this section, Mark Shepard discusses the issue of seedling stock from nurseries not maturing and producing as quickly as desired. He believes this may be due to his plants being hybrids from multiple nurseries, as well as the fact that they are muts. Shepard expresses his preference for performance rather than scientific discoveries, and discusses a study in Africa that found an increase in crop yield when there were three termite mounds per hectare of agricultural field. He also talks about the importance of having healthy, nutritious plants, and how certain compounds found in pest-resistant and disease-resistant plants can benefit human health. Finally, Shepard discusses his wish to work with coffee and cocoa species, and the importance of finding high-quality variants from different climates.
00:40:00 In this section of the YouTube video, Mark Shepard discusses his interest in breeding coffee and cocoa plants that are adaptable to cold climates. He mentions Quercus, an oak species until recently considered a tropical genus, as an example of the hybridizing and cold tolerance that occurred during an Ice Age. Mr. Shepard also talks about the possibility of transforming certain species, such as papayas and hazelnuts, to make them more suitable for temperate climates. He cites Dr. Hugh Ilus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who he met with and conversed with on several occasions about the potential for mass selection in these species to recombine and produce new genetic variations.
00:45:00 In this section, Mark Shepard discusses the seedling stage of his plant breeding program, where various species are grown in different places. The seedling pool contains a composite population of all the hazelnuts that have gone through this program, and cuttings from certain ones are cultivated as a separate breeding plot. Elite seedlings are also grown in their own breeding plots, and their pairing is based on their characteristics to improve their chances of success. The program has exceeded the performance of the controlled crosses over the years, and the original controlled cross seedling line no longer performs as well as the general population after over a decade.
00:50:00 In this section, Mark Shepard discusses the concept of using different fungi and animals to grow various types of fruits, nuts, and berries in the same ecosystem. He also emphasizes the importance of water management, stating that his third book, “Water for Any Farm Engineering Field Manual,” provides guidance on how to set up a rainfall runoff management system on one’s property. Shepard also encourages people to learn more about his work and share their experiences with restoration agriculture and tree planting.
00:55:00 In this section of the podcast, Mark Shepard discusses his current project, which involves hybridizing a South American species of pine with a local species in order to create a new strain of domestic pine. Shepard highlights the importance of air and water for pine trees and thanks his listeners for their support of his project.
https://www.summarize.tech/youtu.be/lPDMLjSc7_M?si=L2ZkE0obZqmzTf02
Mark is da man 
Some years ago I have watched his forest ecology course online (I am pretty sure that it is no longer available) and it has been extremely valuable pack of knowledge for those who prefer to work with natural succession rather than to impose human influence over natural patterns.