This article excerpt originally appeared in the May 2018 Vol 48, No. 5 issue of ACRES USA magazine. It is written by Abbey and Spencer Smith. Readers may view and download a full PDF of this article. Introduction to Carbon Farming Loren Poncia stands in front of a room full of farmers. The high ceilings of
– This article first appeared in the July 2017 issues of ACRES USA Magazine. Written by Abbey and Spencer Smith In California, many farmers and ranchers are either drilling wells to get more water for their crops or putting in drain tile to remove water from their fields. It is not possible to make more
– This article first appeared in the June 2017 issue of ACRES USA Magazine. Written by Abbey and Spencer Smith In our courses and workshops, we meet many different livestock producers and graziers. We find that they come to our events to learn how to maximize livestock gains from forage. Holistic Management is an exciting
This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of ACRES USA magazine. It is written by Abbey and Spencer Smith, edited by Jody Butterfield. Readers may view and download a full PDF of this article. A key concept in Holistic Planned Grazing is recovery time. It is not about how many times cattle or
Kiss the Ground We are excited to announce that Kiss the Ground is sponsoring- Build Soil, Build Wealth. This collaboration will bring a regenerative agriculture course to Shone Farm, in Santa Rosa California. Kiss the Ground has been active in this space for a while and is a California-based 501(c)(3) environmental non-profit telling a new
Flood in the winter, drought in the summer This is a common enough thing to hear in seasonally dry environments, even farmers and ranchers will complain about too much rain in the winter and then lament about the long dry summers. Around here it’s California’s water scarcity problem that is often the topic of discussion. Few
Are you feeding in a sacrifice lot? All too often on ranches all over the west, people winter their livestock on feed grounds that end up looking like ground zero after a bombing. The soil is packed hard and when the growing season finally comes, all you can grow is Mustard and thistle. Does that
Savory Institute Online Courses I got my first computer when I went to college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1999. It was a Gateway. It was enormous. My roommate, Liz, and I had our own desktop computers and they took up about one third of our tiny dorm room. How times have changed.
Ever since visiting Dimbangombe Ranch in Zimbabwe, I’ve wanted to use livestock to grow crops. Cows in the cornfield? What? The Africa Centre for Holistic Management, our fellow Savory Network Hub near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe is where Spencer and I first witnessed the positive effects of using animal impact to improve the soil health of
Spencer and I signed the Soil Manifesto because we want discussions about the Earth and the future of humanity to place healthy soil front and center. The Soil Manfiesto is not a legally binding document. It is an expression of how many people value healthy soil and how important we all think it is to balance the
