Out of the Blue: Hunger for knowledge leads to new career

EUREKA, Ill. — Growing up on a Pennsylvania dairy farm, Lynn Hoover was always curious and hungry to learn.

Hoover would eventually join a partnership to operate a dairy farm in the Keystone State and that curiosity and his yearning for knowledge ramped up even more.

“In the partnership I was in charge of agronomy and all of the feedstuffs, all the way through to the feed bunk,” Hoover said.

“One of the books I was reading was ‘Fertility from the Ocean Deep’ by Charles Walters. He explains the value of ocean-sourced nutrition in land and livestock.

“We found Sea-90 and started incorporating it into dairy rations and even offering it in free choice and the cows responded very positively to it. We took it out to the field and experimented with crops and just kept going from there.”

Sea-90 is comprised of ocean minerals that restore soil fertility, enhance the nutrient density of plants and pastures and improve animal health and vitality.

Hoover continued to learn more about improving soils and, in turn, plant health.

“I actually did not go to college. I have a 12th-grade education. I’ve just poured into all kinds of different reading and studying on my own,” he said.

All-Star Sources

Hoover’s list of sources for more information looks like a who’s who in the realm of regenerative agriculture. He poured through books and literature from renown experts on the subject.

He studied through Acres U.S.A. that offers classroom and online platforms to educate farmers and ranchers on the principles and practices of economical, ecological agriculture.

Acres U.S.A. is North America’s oldest publisher on production-scale organic and sustainable farming.

For more than 50 years, its mission has been to help farmers, ranchers and market gardeners grow food profitably, regeneratively and without harmful chemicals.

Other sources of information were gleaned from Carey Reams, Arden Andersen, Maynard Murray, William Albrecht, Charles Walters, Nicole Masters and Elaine Ingram, among others, many of whom focused research on soil, plant, human and animal health, food quality and fertility sources.

When Hoover and his wife moved to Oklahoma seven years ago, it was an opportunity for him to start his own business, Ocean Blue Agronomics, where he helps farmers and dealers with agronomics. He also became the national field adviser for Pro-Soil and Sea-90.

Ocean Blue Agronomics focuses on soil chemistry, biology, ocean minerals and specific plant energy requirements to help crops achieve their full genetic potential.

Pro-Soil manufactures and distributes natural soil nutrition and liquid plant food that are touted to enhance the effects of fertilizer and stimulate plant growth.

“As a dairy farmer you get a report card every day, so I’ve been messing with this stuff for decades. I saw it was working so good and had such an excitement about what we were seeing and we were so successful,” Hoover said.

“The reason I chose to move west was really because of urban sprawl and our dairy processors were moving out the area, so they put quotas on milk. I told my partners I wasn’t going to fight that fight the rest of my life and I thought with the understanding I have of agronomy that could help farmers and dairymen and cattlemen alike that I was going to go west where there was more wide open spaces.

“That was part of my dream anyhow, so that’s really what pushed me west. The town where live in Oklahoma is where my wife grew up and she has family there. I just travel around from there to where I’m needed.”