Regenerative agriculture

[Telemark]

I've read quite a bit about this this year including Gabe Brown, Joe Salatan, Wendell Berry, Charles Massy. Also been watching a ton of you tube of Greg Judy, David Brandt and others.

I've been trying to figure out how to apply regenerative ag to food plots/habitat management. The key principles of regen ag include no chemicals, little to no fertilizers, and grazing with ruminant animals (cows, sheep, buffalo). I think food plots can achieve the first two but would miss the last major factor in regenerative agriculture (grazing). Grazing the land is important because it stimulates continued growth which puts more carbon back in the soil via the plant and there is also a ton of organic fertilizer being spread for free out of the back end of a cow/sheep/buffalo.

I doubt anyone would have enough deer to have the same grazing impact as a herd of cattle with managed grazing, but wouldn't that be nice.

I'd be interested in how you set up your farm for grazing with habitat management in mind and how it impacts your land and hunting. I hope to do the same someday. Good luck with it.

I think you do need a herd of animals on the land at least once per year to get the full effect of the regenerative principles. The entire ecosystem should be present for the ecosystem to work properly. The problem with deer is they take their poop with them when they leave the plot.

That said, Salatin and the others who do it professionally have a very intensive style which would not be necessary for wildlife applications.

And I don't think you have to run a herd of animals every year. I think you can put a few lambs and boilers out and rotate them around the plot one year and then be set for a while. Or as someone mentioned, let someone run his cows through the area for a few days to eat down a cover crop and poo it out onto the plot.

 

[Telemark]

I thought I could accomplish what I wanted without grazing stock. After a decade of using the first 2 principles you point to without grazing stock i am seeing the limitations of the approach.

What we have discussed for my property is rotating the cattle thru the woods for most of the year which has the tremendous benefit of keeping succession in the 'savanah ' stage or early succession then grazing my food plots twice a year when I would normally crimp and terminate anyway. So instead of crimping I would intensively for a short duration mob cows/sheep thru a field then move them on to replant. We will be getting very deep into releasing the native seed bank as well as what to plant in future discussions. Also he has me doing some different type soil tests which I will share later.

Its grazing the woodlands primarily with short durations in the fields that help make all this work for me.

That sounds like a great plan. Any chickens after, or just the ruminants?

 

[Baker]

I'm not convinced grazers are needed, grazers in this case being those we can see like cows, pigs, goats, or chickens. Every organism on earth has another organism ready to eat it whether alive or dead. Whether there is a single 1,000 pound grazer on the land, or 100,000 grazers that weigh .01 lbs (don't check my math) I think your impact would be the same. A powerful example of that would be maggots. A wolf may eat a big raccoon in a week. 10,000 maggots may also do it in nearly the same time.

Or how many hundreds or thousands of pounds of bugs and worms inhabit an acre of land? How much bug manure is produced in season where those bugs are born, eaten, and recycled into more bugs. How fast does that ecosystem turn over? That last book I read said an acre of worms will produce 30,000 lbs of castings in one season.

That's just stuff I think about.

You may be right but everything I'm studying suggests differently. What I'm beginning to understand is the symbiotic relationship between things in nature. Seems the more life forms present the more the individuals and totality flourish. Multi specie plantings work together to support each other and at the same time feed the soil micro biology more effectively and sequester more carbon than mono cultures. Cows and sheep when grazed together become negative vectors for parasites eliminating the need to worm either specie when grazed together.When an animal takes a bite of a plant the plant is wounded and sends signals to the soil biology that it needs extra nutrition. This increases the soil biology which provides extra nutrition to the plant to heal. And the examples go on and on infinitely .

So by short duration intensive rotational grazing ,grazing animals dramatically increase the soil micro biome with their grazing habits, their urine and manure, their saliva, even the bacteria shedding from their hair, which increases soil fertility which increases all things growing on the soil which supports more life forms above ground.The hoof action disturbing the soil releases the dormant seed bank which provides more diversity which feeds more diverse life forms. They are discovering seed germination and plant regrowth from the existing seed bank that have laid dormant for over a hundred years. These plants have many therapeutic and antiparacitic elements that benefit grazing stock. All this just touches the surface of the symbiotic relationships in nature. And the benefits accrue and increase constantly and faster as more diversity is present.

My vision is to add as much diversity to the farm as possible in the deep south. Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, bees.......Thus the tonnage of life per acre should increase dramatically with an ever improving effect on the farm.I want every square foot of the farm to be impacted. A goal will be to show the economic effects which will prove that farming does not have to be large scale mono culture, capital intensive, chemical intensive, farm bill welfare dependent to be successful. Rather, small diverse farms can provide a living income all while providing a lifestyle in tune with the rhythms of nature in spiritually coherent way.

And of course I expect this to help my deer herd as well.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I think the concept is great for long term soil health and I'm trying it in a small scale as best I can with my equipment. I've even created a hugel culture area with buried burned stumps and logs in a new food plot to see if that improves sandy soil over the long term. (So far it has sucked, but I'm in it for the long term in this plot because the barely buried stumps limit my options!)

I just struggle going all in because my goal is to kill older bucks and I haven't found a regenerative Ag plan that can compete with my current food plot backbone of standing soybeans sprayed with round up.

The balance between improving soil and planting crops most likely to allow the killing of older bucks is a fine line on smaller properties and so far I'm struggling to meet both goals. I'm curious how others have balanced that in neighborhoods where you compete with conventional Ag food choices.

This is a good topic, I'm glad it was brought up for discussion.

 

[Skeeter]

You may be right but everything I'm studying suggests differently. What I'm beginning to understand is the symbiotic relationship between things in nature. Seems the more life forms present the more the individuals and totality flourish. Multi specie plantings work together to support each other and at the same time feed the soil micro biology more effectively and sequester more carbon than mono cultures. Cows and sheep when grazed together become negative vectors for parasites eliminating the need to worm either specie when grazed together.When an animal takes a bite of a plant the plant is wounded and sends signals to the soil biology that it needs extra nutrition. This increases the soil biology which provides extra nutrition to the plant to heal. And the examples go on and on infinitely .

So by short duration intensive rotational grazing ,grazing animals dramatically increase the soil micro biome with their grazing habits, their urine and manure, their saliva, even the bacteria shedding from their hair, which increases soil fertility which increases all things growing on the soil which supports more life forms above ground.The hoof action disturbing the soil releases the dormant seed bank which provides more diversity which feeds more diverse life forms. They are discovering seed germination and plant regrowth from the existing seed bank that have laid dormant for over a hundred years. These plants have many therapeutic and antiparacitic elements that benefit grazing stock. All this just touches the surface of the symbiotic relationships in nature. And the benefits accrue and increase constantly and faster as more diversity is present.

My vision is to add as much diversity to the farm as possible in the deep south. Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, bees.......Thus the tonnage of life per acre should increase dramatically with an ever improving effect on the farm.I want every square foot of the farm to be impacted. A goal will be to show the economic effects which will prove that farming does not have to be large scale mono culture, capital intensive, chemical intensive, farm bill welfare dependent to be successful. Rather, small diverse farms can provide a living income all while providing a lifestyle in tune with the rhythms of nature in spiritually coherent way.

And of course I expect this to help my deer herd as well.

That sounds like the pinnacle of regenerative agriculture and I hope you can get there. The end goal is noble but the journey is the fun part. I'd love to be able to more intensely manage my land for maximum benefit. If I ever get the courage to homestead my land, that level of management will be my goal. In my current situation I am happy with my level of improvement. The plan right now is to have more, bigger and happier deer. Over the very short time that I have been making changes to my property I have seen an increase in daylight deer activity. Admittedly it is a very short timeline that I have to look back at but I think it's trending upward. Just shows that, at least in my situation, some thoughtfully directed management is better than none, even if I can't implement every principle of regenerative agricultural. That's why I got so excited when I happened upon Jason Snavely's current material. He's a wildlife biologist that's applying RA principles to his food plotting system. It shows that even us non-farmers can do quite a bit to heal our soils and produce higher quality food (deer).

 

[Telemark]

I think the concept is great for long term soil health and I'm trying it in a small scale as best I can with my equipment. I've even created a hugel culture area with buried burned stumps and logs in a new food plot to see if that improves sandy soil over the long term. (So far it has sucked, but I'm in it for the long term in this plot because the barely buried stumps limit my options!)

I just struggle going all in because my goal is to kill older bucks and I haven't found a regenerative Ag plan that can compete with my current food plot backbone of standing soybeans sprayed with round up.

The balance between improving soil and planting crops most likely to allow the killing of older bucks is a fine line on smaller properties and so far I'm struggling to meet both goals. I'm curious how others have balanced that in neighborhoods where you compete with conventional Ag food choices.

This is a good topic, I'm glad it was brought up for discussion.

I've been working with hugelkultur and biochar for a little while now. You don't want Burned logs or stumps, as the char will protect them from biodegrading. Logs and stumps should just have dirt and compost piled up on them, and the decomposers will get in and break them down into a beautiful wood compost. For charcoal, the pieces should be as small as possible. I actually put mine through a blender if it is for the vegetable garden. The charcoal I throw out in the "food forest" gets crushed to approximately an inch or smaller.

Unfortunately, I have not yet seen anyone incorporating soybeans into regenerative ag, so I don't have any links to share with you. Regardless, there's no need to take a fanatical approach to regenerative agricultural, or anything else. If you get good results with standing beans, I would just keep doing that until you find something better.

 

[Skeeter]

https://droptine.libsyn.com/keith-berns-the-why-behind-drop-tines-regenerative-seed-blends

A good podcast for anyone interested.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I think the concept is great for long term soil health and I'm trying it in a small scale as best I can with my equipment. I've even created a hugel culture area with buried burned stumps and logs in a new food plot to see if that improves sandy soil over the long term. (So far it has sucked, but I'm in it for the long term in this plot because the barely buried stumps limit my options!)

I just struggle going all in because my goal is to kill older bucks and I haven't found a regenerative Ag plan that can compete with my current food plot backbone of standing soybeans sprayed with round up.

The balance between improving soil and planting crops most likely to allow the killing of older bucks is a fine line on smaller properties and so far I'm struggling to meet both goals. I'm curious how others have balanced that in neighborhoods where you compete with conventional Ag food choices.

This is a good topic, I'm glad it was brought up for discussion.

I think you can still find a balance with early maturing non gmo soybeans and broadcasting covers into them a couple weeks before leaf drop.

 

[SD51555]

I think the concept is great for long term soil health and I'm trying it in a small scale as best I can with my equipment. I've even created a hugel culture area with buried burned stumps and logs in a new food plot to see if that improves sandy soil over the long term. (So far it has sucked, but I'm in it for the long term in this plot because the barely buried stumps limit my options!)

I just struggle going all in because my goal is to kill older bucks and I haven't found a regenerative Ag plan that can compete with my current food plot backbone of standing soybeans sprayed with round up.

The balance between improving soil and planting crops most likely to allow the killing of older bucks is a fine line on smaller properties and so far I'm struggling to meet both goals. I'm curious how others have balanced that in neighborhoods where you compete with conventional Ag food choices.

This is a good topic, I'm glad it was brought up for discussion.

I've always wanted to see someone try throw and mow beans into 6' rye as soon as it puts out a seed head. The mow is the hard part, cause I think if a person could flail mow it a foot high, that'd put enough thatch down to germinate them, and the remaining stalks would be a deterrent from deer putting their heads down to grab the small beans as they start growing. Evenly distributed duff is an expensive process.

I made the mistake of not doing rye the first year on moved dirt. My plot finally filled in later this summer, but I missed out on the window to use rye to really move things ahead that first year. Didn't make that mistake this year. I put down a hot rate of rye on that spot, and some new ones I created last weekend. Gonna make soil starting the goal for the first year, and then next year pivot more towards deer and soil.

 

[SD51555]

I've been working with hugelkultur and biochar for a little while now. You don't want Burned logs or stumps, as the char will protect them from biodegrading. Logs and stumps should just have dirt and compost piled up on them, and the decomposers will get in and break them down into a beautiful wood compost. For charcoal, the pieces should be as small as possible. I actually put mine through a blender if it is for the vegetable garden. The charcoal I throw out in the "food forest" gets crushed to approximately an inch or smaller.

Unfortunately, I have not yet seen anyone incorporating soybeans into regenerative ag, so I don't have any links to share with you. Regardless, there's no need to take a fanatical approach to regenerative agricultural, or anything else. If you get good results with standing beans, I would just keep doing that until you find something better.

I built a little 4x6 hoog in the yard at camp. I dug it down about a foot and then put raised sides up to 15 inches and mounded it up. It was a combo of oak and poplar, some a year dried, some pretty rotten. I really packed in the wood, and then layered chunks of sod in between them, then topped with topsoil from within my sod pile. It's been tough looking this year for how dry it was, but I figured it would due to the amount of wood as well. I did get some rye and pumpkins and other assorted stuff to come, but lots of bald spots yet. I just covered it in an annual clover mix last weekend. I really need to get some grass to cover it again. If it turns around this season yet, I'd like to put some garlic in before winter.

 

[Telemark]

I made hugel raised beds from pallets, and I have a mound. I just whammed a bunch of stuff into the raised beds, based on what I got for free from work and whatever seeds I had left over from last year. What really made it all take off and grow like gangbusters was a layer of Berkeley compost on top. Probably about 4-6 inches. I start my compost at about a cubic yard, and it's ready to use in less than 3 weeks.

 

[Telemark]

Holy cow. Snavely is using Norwegian kelp on his food plots. I guess I'm going out to harvest some kelp this weekend.

 

[Skeeter]

Holy cow. Snavely is using Norwegian kelp on his food plots. I guess I'm going out to harvest some kelp this weekend.

I'd look at the age of that video. He may not be advocating its use since adopting regenerative wildlife agricultural practices.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

An organic co-op down the road sells a liquid kelp product.

 

[Telemark]

I'd look at the age of that video. He may not be advocating its use since adopting regenerative wildlife agricultural practices.

Well I won't be buying extracts. I'll just go down to the sea and get some kelp. I talked to a buddy of mine here who is really into compost, and he says it's legit. Just have to rinse it like crazy to get the salt off it. I think I will get a bunch and throw it in my Berkeley compost next week.

 

[H20fwler]

A buddy of mine is big into similar;

https://www.ocj.com/2014/02/cover-crops-can-boost-profitability/

https://www.freep.com/story/enterta...1/12/michigan-cover-crop-ranch-meat/93487708/