From healthy soil to healthy waters

Rachel Sankey

Past Staff

December 27, 2023

STURGEON BAY – It’s about to come full circle at Lindal Fisheries in Door County.

The fishery, Owner Dan Lindal said, is in the process of using excess parts of its commercially caught fish to create fertilizer, which will then be used for regenerative farming.

“At this point (we’re) brainstorming,” he said. “Starting in the spring is when we’ll start working with our consulting group and we’ll start the soil samples and the whole process.”

Throughout the last 15-plus years of business, Lindal said it has been his intention to have a small retail store where “I can sell fresh and smoked fish directly to the public.”

However, Lindal said making that decision is about much more than just opening a store – it’s also ensuring the right decisions are made for both the future of the business and the community.

This continuous commitment, Lindal said, prompted his participation in the 100% Great Lakes Fish Pledge.

Fisheries that sign the pledge commit to using 100% of each commercially caught fish by 2025.

“We’re already doing it to some degree,” he said. “Not to the degree that I plan on doing it, but we turn our fish waste and anything that we don’t use that we can sell, we (give) to Dramm Corporation and then they turn it into fertilizer. We have very, very little waste here to begin with.”

By the spring, Lindal said through the partnership he has with Understanding Ag – a regenerative agricultural consulting company – he hopes to be making his own fertilizer, which he will in turn use on his 90 acres of land for regenerative farming. 

What is regenerative farming?
Regenerative farming, Lindal said, “is kind of the next big thing.”

“It’s going to replace more of the corporate farming and the big factory farming,” he said. “It’s just going back to the fundamentals of farming.”

Through talking with Gabe Brown, a partner with Understanding Ag, Lindal said he learned that “if we can convert 60% of the farms in the world to regenerative agriculture, we can solve the greenhouse gas problem and climate change.”

“(It’s) just sixth-grade biology,” he said. “It’s photosynthesis – it’s pulling carbon from the atmosphere and putting it in the soil where it belongs.”

Examples of regenerative farming practices, Lindal said, include no-tilling, no use of synthetic fertilizers, chemicals or herbicides and the planting of cover crops.

When Dan Lindal realized the farm he leased his land to was using synthetic fertilizer that ran from the creek on the land into the waters in Green Bay – where Lindal Fisheries harvests its fish – he said he needed to make a change, and looked to regenerative farming. Photo Courtesy of Lindal Fisheries

“You get your soil health back, and then with that, you can grow almost anything,” he said. “The whole background is based on nutrient density… whereas factory farming is all about yield, how many bushels per acre and stuff like that.”

To put it into perspective, Lindal said Understanding Ag used a common citrus fruit as an example of how the chemicals and current farming habits have negatively impacted our communities.

“If you ate an orange that was from 1950, and you compare that with an orange today, you would have to eat four oranges to get the nutrients (you would have received from an) orange from 1950,” he said. “That’s all based on soil health. The organic matter in the soil is the catalyst that drives everything.”

Before learning about regenerative agriculture, Lindal said he used to lease his land to farmers who used synthetic fertilizers. 

When he discovered the runoff from his tenant flowed to Green Bay and discharged in the waters where Lindal harvests his fish, he said he knew things needed to change – and it was in his hands to do so.

“I have a creek that runs through the property,” he said. “When I leased this land to the farmer, he (used) synthetic fertilizers and put on glyphosate and pesticides (which ran into the) creek (and then) ran down to Green Bay… where I was harvesting my fish from… Four years ago, we determined that we’re going to terminate the lease, take the land back and start doing something positive.”

By working with the team at Understanding Ag, Lindal said he will be able to know the best cover crops to use with the soil on the property to have the best soil health.

“They’re going to take soil samples on my property, and then once they acquire the data from the soil samples, they’re going to give me a list of cover crops they think would be ideal for what I want to do in this climate,” he said. “We’ll get our cover crops in the spring. (Understanding Ag) is going to ride this path along with me.”

Where does fish fertilizer come in?
While Lindal Fisheries focuses on selling fish filets to customers for consumption, Lindal said there is lots of potential for the other parts of the fish to be used.

“There’s a potential to make a fish compost,” he said. “The other one is a fish hydrolysate.”

To put it into easier terms, Lindal said creating a hydrolysate involves storing the fish remains – guts and all – to let it ferment and allow the enzymes to start breaking down. 

Once it reaches a certain point, which will “be determined by somebody smarter than me,” the liquid from the mixture will be extracted.

“The words they use (for it) is pure gold,” he said. “You have this highly concentrated hydrolysate that you can be diluted with water and sprayed on. From that point, it has all kinds of potential to go in different directions in a liquid form.”

Not only is fish hydrolysate an organic and sustainable replacement for synthetic fertilizers, but, according to the Dramm Corporation’s product details, fish hydrolysate maintains the integrity of naturally occurring amino acids, vitamins, hormones and enzymes essential in feeding soil microbes, earthworms and plants.

However, leaving hydrolysate in liquid form becomes “a heavy, bulky item to transport,” which Lindal said ups the shipping costs. 

Which, he said, leaves a third option he could take – freeze drying. 

“(There’s) potential to use a freeze-drying process where you can keep all the nutrients, but just remove the moisture,” he said. “Then you have more of a powder-type substance that can be transported easily.”

No matter the route he chooses to go with, Lindal said it’s great that he’s able to try all these methods “literally in my backyard.”

“I think it could become a profitable enterprise for me,” he said. “They have the data on conventional regeneration of farms. If they took a farm that was formed conventionally for 40 years, and then they switched to the regenerative process, they know what that timeline is when you get your organic matter back up in your soil – whether it’s four years or eight years – they have that data.”

Lindal said he would like to see what “adding this fish fertilizer will do to that timeline.”

“I’m also positive it will expedite it,” he said. “But to what degree, I don’t know (yet). The fun part for me is the folks at Understanding Ag and I are going to approach this, really at the same level. This is all experimental… We’ll just see what works.”

The benefits
The most direct impact people will see, Lindal said, is environmental.

“Having access to the fish and being able to make either a compost or hydrolysate just tires right into that regenerative agriculture nicely,” he said.

No longer dealing with chemical runoff from synthetic fertilizer, Lindal said, means healthier, better fish for customers as well.

Once the cover crops are placed on the land, he said he and his wife would like to try their hand at having cows.

“My wife and I want to try raising some grass-fed cattle,” he said. “(We would) do rotational grazing. You have paddocks set up, and then you physically move the cattle every day – because ideally for the crop, you allow the cattle to graze on it and let them take 30-40% of the crop height. Then you rotate it and then that paddock they were on begins the healing process.”

If, at the end of the day, Lindal leaves his property and business in better shape than when he bought it, he said that’s all that matters.

“I don’t want to be part of the problem,” he said. “I want to be part of the solution.”