Regeneration Without Borders: Will Groeneveld’s Closed-Loop, Full-Spectrum Approach to Regenerative Agriculture

When people talk about regenerative agriculture, it’s often in the context of livestock. But Will Groeneveld is a grain farmer who’s challenging that narrative. He doesn’t own a single animal, yet his operation might be one of the most integrated examples of regenerative practice in the province.

What makes Will’s farm so compelling isn’t just that he’s checking every box on the BMP list—it’s how those practices interact and reinforce one another, creating a closed-loop, living system that mimics nature. His approach doesn’t rely on any one tool. It’s the network of decisions, feedback loops, and relationships that makes this system regenerative in the truest sense of the word.

Perennials and Rotations That Work Together

Will’s cropping strategy is deliberately diverse and dynamic. His rotations include more than four crops, ranging from legumes to small grains and oilseeds. He regularly includes perennial forages in annual rotations, using them not only to rest the soil but to build deep-rooted structure and biological activity. Fall-seeded crops play a key role, allowing him to reduce spring soil disturbance while increasing ground cover during vulnerable periods.

Cover Crops with Purpose—and Partners

Cover cropping isn’t an afterthought on Will’s farm—it’s foundational. Every few years, he devotes entire fields to multi-species “cocktail” cover crops, designed to be grazed by his neighbour’s cattle. The grazing is tightly managed using adaptive multi-paddock techniques, a form of regenerative grazing that builds biomass and recycles nutrients back into the soil.

This collaboration allows Will to integrate livestock into annual crop systems, without owning the animals himself. The manure and hoof action return fertility and organic matter to the soil, while the animals get high-quality forage from diverse species mixes. This is livestock-crop integration at its finest—collaborative and efficient.

Mulching, Seeding Green, and the No-Till Foundation

In line with his soil-first philosophy, Will is committed to no-till management, avoiding soil disturbance that disrupts microbial life and accelerates erosion. He often seeds green into existing crop or cover crop residue, and uses seeding green techniques to maintain living roots and continuous ground cover. This keeps the soil microbiome thriving and reduces evaporation and erosion.

Biological Amendments

Thanks to his grazing partnerships, Will has cut back dramatically on synthetic nutrient inputs. Instead, he relies on manure and biological amendments—like vermicompost compost extracts as a seed treatment.  He has also experimented with vermicompost extract as a in crop spray applied on-farm. By closing the nutrient loop, he’s demonstrating that productivity doesn’t have to mean dependency on external inputs.

From Intercropping to Innovation

Will’s fields are also a hub of experimentation. He regularly intercrops and companion crops, such as oat and flax with fava beans or peas with canola. Some of these are cleaned and separated on-farm, while others are sold as full-spectrum feed blends to cattle producers. This not only diversifies income but improves resource use efficiency, as different root systems access different nutrients and soil layers. 

Rejuvenating Forage, Extending the Grazing Season

As part of optimizing his land use and ecological function, Will seeded areas of cropland that had trees, wetlands, and sandy soils to a mix of perennials with legumes. These spots weren’t well suited to annual cropping, but adding perennials helped protect those sensitive areas. The legumes boost soil health, and now it’s easier to hay around the wetlands and trees. Plus, the hay regrowth provides extra grazing for livestock. 

Diversity of Practices and Plants

Every decision Will makes considers the role of legumes, both in his cash crop mixes and cover crops. By building legumes into his forage stands and rotations, he’s capturing atmospheric nitrogen naturally—cutting fertilizer use while feeding soil microbes and companion crops. He also is bringing together what many see as a multi-species cover crop (italian rye grass, german millet, phacelia, red clover, plantain and chicory) with his multi-species intercrop of oat, flax and fava beans.  He also has starting bringing grazing into with hay fields as an alternate harvesting mechanism that helps deliver nutrients back to the hay field.

A System, Not a Checklist

What’s clear on Will Groeneveld’s farm is that regenerative agriculture isn’t just a set of practices—it’s a system of relationships. Between crops and cattle. Between plants and microbes. Between farmers who choose to collaborate instead of compete and a family who sees and supports innovation of practices as a centre piece of long-term sustainability.  

Will’s success isn’t the result of a silver bullet—it’s the result of stacking practices intentionally. Each BMP on its own offers some benefit, but together, they create something much greater: resilience.

In a time when climate volatility, input costs, and ecological degradation are pressuring producers from every side, Will is showing us what’s possible when we return to the basics of biology, ecology, and community.

He may not own livestock, but regeneration runs deep through his fields—and across the fence line too.