Jeremy Bunch: Shepherd's Grain

Join us in this dynamic and wide-ranging conversation with Chris Eckhart about diversifying his farming operation, increasing organic matter, monitoring soil biology, and creating a work-family-life balance, all while remaining profitable. Eckhart Farms is a multi-generational family farm in the heart of Wild Rose Prairie in Washington that focuses on soil health and diversity. He is passionate about family farming and has experimented tirelessly with diversifying crops on what was primarily a wheat operation. 

Chris and his family plant barley and alfalfa, among other crops; make use of cover crops; started researching biochar; and added livestock grazing. They have marketed locally and regularly monitor both soil biology and the time impacts of too much diversification. They have seen significant increases in organic matter in a relatively short period of time.  

“We’re seeing results carry over year to year, from having that cover crop in.” 

And it’s paying – “In our area, at least with what we have going on, it’s proving to be profitable by taking things out of rotation and seeing a 10-15% bump in yield year after year.” 

Chris speaks passionately not only about farming, but science. He first got excited about soil health when looking at bacteria and life under his microscope. He relies on science and experimentation to be as successful as he is.
 

He recognizes he has limited capacity and getting higher yields from fewer acres due to increased soil health allows him more time to focus on family and “going fishing.”
  

Chris’ advice to those starting out, “Find somebody willing to mentor you that has fruit on the tree, not just in farming, but also in their life outside of farming.”

Photo by Vo von Sehlen/Vo-tography

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

In this episode, we talk with Kirk Pumphrey, owner of Westwind Farms in Woodland CA, and Sat Darshan Khalsa, Assistant Professional Researcher at the University of CA Davis about their work integrating almond shells and hulls as organic matter in orchards. As Kirk says, “it’s a learning experience for all of us.” 

It’s a learning curve, but they are finding great success and working toward finding the sweet spot of applying not too much or too little in all different conditions. They’ve found that hulls’ and shells’ holding capacity of water is tremendous, but the application does make it hard for oxygen to travel to soil.  

Sat Darshan Khalsa notes that the story often in the media is around how many resources it takes to produce one almond. But the full story is that to get that almond a shell, hull, and tree are produced. How do we better use all of these resources and return them to the orchard? 

“Lots of this research is aligned with the Almond Board of California’s orchard goals, and we’re able to demonstrate we’re actually doing this, and this is the efficacy of doing so,” says Sat Darshan Khalsa. 

Both Kirk and Sat Darshan Khalsa discuss being pro-active without having fear of testing new technologies and trials. Kirk’s philosophy is “let’s try it!” 

“Working with soil and farming, you get to find out about real life and it teaches you patience. You have to observe,” says Kirk. And when Sat Darshan Khalsa is asked how to help farmers make changes, he notes “its about teaching courage. A lot of people have willingness to try something new; it’s about letting them know that there is support.”  

Learn more about the Western SARE project.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

In today’s episode we speak with Jonah Sloven, from Sweet Hollow Farm, a diversified organic farm in Victor, Idaho. Sweet Hollow Farm serves the neighboring Teton Valley community through their CSA, farm stand, and farmer’s market.

Jonah discusses how his travels from his environmental studies ultimately directed him to small-scale agriculture and its beneficial effect on communities. His ultimate goal is to connect people with their food.

“For me, it’s a lot more than growing vegetables. I really want to grow the community and connect people with their food.”

Sweet Hollow Farm’s crops include leafy greens, root crops, and greenhouse tomatoes. Jonah says the CSA is the main focus for Sweet Hollow. He enjoys growing directly for his customers, as well as getting to know them personally. In addition, the farm sells at the Jackson Hole Farmers Market and a few local restaurants.

We’ll hear how the seemingly intractable problem of bindweed can be suppressed through cardboard layer mulching. His Western SARE-funded project researching this practice is addressing three questions: does the cardboard mulching control weeds; is it financially feasible; and third, what effect does it have on the soil?

Jonah explains how the project’s preliminary results are very promising. Hand-weeding has already been nearly eliminated. The project will be expanded and replicated through a partnership with Central Wyoming College’s Farm Incubator Program.

(photo by Jonah Sloven)

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

In today’s episode, we talk with Sara Wood of Wyoming Heritage Grains and Wyoming High Desert Malt, near Ralston Wyoming. Sara is a fifth-generation regenerative farmer and the operator of the state’s only commercial flour mill.

Located in the dry high mountain desert east of Yellowstone, Sara’s and her family’s operation has the distinction of being in one of the first large water projects in the country, started by Buffalo Bill Cody.

Sara’s family began homesteading in the area around 1908. The land had previously been part of Buffalo Bill Cody’s country club. Now, her 250-acre farm produces beef cattle, alfalfa, a variety of heritage grains, and native corns. Acquiring a large stone mill manufactured in Austria, her operation now mills a variety of flours for baking, using heritage and heirloom grains.

Sara sees her farm as part of a larger mission to bring regenerative, holistic, and ecosystem-based farming approaches to produce sustainable, nutrient-dense food while enhancing biodiversity on the land.

“Producing a good high-quality crop will pay you leaps and bounds over pushing the boundaries on yields,’ says Sara. “So important to look at these more native varieties… instead of providing for a commodity market, provide for your community.”

In this talk, Sara discusses how her heritage flours can be eaten by gluten-sensitive people and describes the farming practices that are making a difference in her operation and allowing her to remain profitable. And she also addresses the financial and personal stresses today’s farmers are experiencing.

Photo credit: Vo von Sehlen

View Western SARE’s photo essay of Wyoming Heritage Grains

Resources mentioned in podcast: Ray Archuleta Soil Health Academy, Gabe Brown, Dale Strickler

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

Today’s guests are Tangy and Matt Bates who operate Blue Creek Livestock in Delta Junction Alaska. They aim to provide their community with fresh, natural meat – beef, lamb, and pork. Since the beginning, Blue Creek Cattle has been building soils and herds. 

Tangy and Matt talk about the opportunities and challenges of farming in Alaska.  The opportunities are plentiful, providing farmers and ranchers with room for creativity and profitability. The infrastructure, however, is not what it is in the lower 48. For example, there were challenges getting replacement heifers and custom butchering. The Bates faced a “huge learning curve” with the need to process and market their meat. With no one local to handle their volume for processing, they built their own butcher shop. 

“It has gone extremely well, and it just took that bottleneck out for us.”

As they found their input costs higher than their revenues, Matt began researching cover crops and intensive grazing, and it made sense to him. Some in Alaska thought it wouldn’t work there, but it has been very successful – with great forage producing fat cows, as well as lowering input costs.

Next, they plan on burning bones from the butcher shop to make biochar.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

Dan Macon is a University of California Farm Adviser and also the operator of Flying Mule Farm in Auburn California. Ryan Mahoney is a fifth-generation sheep and cattle rancher who operates Emigh Livestock, in Rio Vista California. Dan and Ryan are also participating in a Western SARE project demonstrating and evaluating how information from both electronic identification tags and better understanding of sheep genetics could be improve sheep production economic viability.

Emigh Livestock produces “climate beneficial wool.” They put together a carbon farm plan – carbon emissions minus carbon sequestration. Through this they no longer sell in the bulk auction and receive a price premium. The end product is sold as 100% American processed fiber.

“It’s neat to see your wool in that finished product, says Ryan.”
Flying Mule is also seeing changing markets.  Dan is beginning to work with a stronger market for replacement ewe lambs that can fit for targeted grazing operations to manage weeds or for reduce fuel loads.

Other opportunities and changing demand face the sheep industry. According to Dan, “real opportunities have been this shift during the pandemic in people eating and preparing food at home.” There is a rebound in interest in lamb at retail level and this has driven opportunities to ramp up production. Additionally, the non-tradition market of selling whole lambs, which are smaller than those sold in the commercial market - primarily due to California’s ethnic diversity has been part of producers’ attempts to adjust to drought and other conditions.

Learn more about the Western SARE project.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

In Episode 4, we talk with Zach Thode and Elizabeth Black.

Zach manages a large cattle ranch in Livermore Colorado. Elizabeth is an artist in Colorado and manages a Christmas tree farm. 

Elizabeth is also the project leader for The Citizen Science Soil Health Project, partially funded by a Western SARE grant and Zach is a producer participant in that project. The Citizen Science Soil Health Project is a grower-driven project which uses the collective knowledge of diverse participating growers to apply local solutions to soil health implementation conundrums.

In addition to raising cattle, Zach grows forage crops which can be challenging in the high elevation and alkaline soils. 

Elizabeth was concerned about climate change and started learning about carbon sequestration. This led her to focusing on soil health and taking soil measurements to show what is working. 

The Citizen Science Soil Health Project originally aimed for 30 growers. The project now has 48 growers who all take soil samples for 10 years. The group is diverse – small organic vegetable growers, ranchers, and large commodity producers. 

The collaboration brings together agencies such as NRCS, academics, producers, policy makers. “It’s a great opportunity for all of us to learn from each other so that we don’t all have to fail in our efforts,” says Zach.   

Building soil health is a complex problem without a simple answer or map. “We’ve tried a lot of things. It’s not easy, but we’re getting better.” It’s important to have recommended best practices backed by on-the-ground data. Letting the data speak for itself helps build trust between producers and agencies.

Learn more about The Citizen Science Soil Health Project.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

In this episode, we talk with Don McNamara and Donna Rae Faulkner from Oceanside Farms in Homer Alaska. They raise a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, berries, and chickens, ducks and turkeys. They grow all of their produce and nine varieties of Alaska Certified Seed Potatoes without the use of synthetically based chemicals, pesticides, fungicides, or fertilizers.  The farm serves their local market.

Don and Donna Rae practice Small Plot Intensive Farming (SPIN) and started out borrowing space in neighbor’s yard and selling their produce on surf boards places on saw horses. They now have land near a road for their farm stand and built 10 high tunnels with drip irrigation. They have an honesty box at the farm stand and also sell to the local market through the Alaska Food Hub.

They have worked in Kodiak Island villages, which typically has expensive imported food available, to set up hydroponics and growing their own food. Donna Rae, “They’ve gone from in many cases no in community veg growing to producing quite a lot of food” some are old airport sites

They are enthusiastic about Korean Natural Farming, creating their own videos for others to learn from. “We want to be soil farmers as much as plant farmers”, says Don.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

Today’s episode features Bashira Muhammad, founder of Zoom Out Mycology as she talks about “Driving Sustainability with Fungi!” Zoom Out Mycology is a fungi farm based in Southern Oregon.   Their mission is to apply mycology towards a sustainable future.

When asked “How does fungi save the planet,” Bashira lists “so many ways!”  She and her team focus on medicinal mushroom teas for holistic health, small batch sawdust production so their local community can grow their own food, and community education. They grow 18 different species.

Bashira also leads a Western SARE Farmer/Rancher project, Mushroom Farming Research and Education to Bring Greater Equity and Diversity to the Food System. This project  educates farmers about outdoor reishi mushroom cultivation and researches the most water efficient ways to grow reishi mushrooms.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu

Austin Allred, talking about his family's Royal Dairy in Washington,  proudly states that rather than contributing to climate change, Royal Dairy shows that farms like his can be an impactful part of the solution — in part by preventing the formation of greenhouse gases and boosting the capacity of his soil to draw down and sequester atmospheric carbon.  

In this episode, Austin shares his passion and knowledge about the relationship ruminants have with the soil, which effortlessly leads to regenerative and sustainable farming. 

You'll hear about the importance of ruminants converting rotational crops to proteins valuable for human consumption. Austin also discusses carbon sequestration and how regenerative farming is the process that brings carbon into the soils. We need to bank carbon in our soils, and the role ruminants have in this process is significant.

And you'll hear how Royal Dairy captures 70% of their animals' urine and manure and runs the liquid manure through 8 acres of worms combined with rock and wood chips to capture usable water and  high value worm castings.

The family's long term approach has led to fewer inputs  and more outputs with the worm and compost farm.

____________

Thanks for listening to Fresh Growth! To learn more about Western SARE and sustainable agriculture, visit our website or find us:

· Instagram

· Facebook

· Twitter

Contact us at wsare@montana.edu