This video responds to a lot of the comments and questions we got about our “Regenerate Soil Quickly Video” that we published a week before this one. There is a link in the description to the previous video. Thanks for watching.

Enjoyed this video. The critics should keep in mind that those big names in regenerative ag all have differences in how they farm but one characteristic they share is a willingness to think outside the box and do things different from what everyone else is doing. Any of them would tell you they are still learning.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

@lavenderlilacproductions

Жыл бұрын

They also should remember that the majority of those big guys leverage bigness to get free intern labor and a nontrivial income from speechifying and selling books.

@dutch1999

Жыл бұрын

@@lavenderlilacproductions Good point.

I very happy to hear the honest truth on starting a small scale farm.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. It’s not always fun but it’s enjoyable, challenging, and rewarding.

@billc3405

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms i think its great but all to often people get lead to disaster from not telling the bad and ugly.

First of all, I love your passion and really appreciate you documenting your process. Thank you so much for sharing what you're up to. Now, here are my thoughts. The guys you describe all were going broke and had to figure out how to do the most with the least. None of them started as green warriors or made some decision that organic matter needed to be built up. They just wanted to eat tomorrow and that led them down the path of regenerative agg. Greg Judy figured out that the most he would want to add was lime, maybe some potassium and hay. He uses the four wheeler to save money on gasoline, spread the hay/input, AKA fertility, quickly and to avoid the rutting that causes a lot of problems on ranches. He doesn't do any cover cropping like Gabe Brown because he wants the seed bank to provide the variety and over time, along with the mineral the cattle are eating, the nutrients in the soil help restart the diversity that was present for a millennia. The cattle break up the soil cap, they dung and urine and the cycle continues every 70 or 80 days. No need to have a tractor, to disc, to plant cover crop. Every year, the paddocks get more drought resistant as the organic matter increases, so less bales of hay to spread out during winter. Again, thank you for your amazing efforts and taking the time to put these videos together. I can tell you are passionate and having some fun with this process. No matter which way you go, I love the organic matter build up and know you are making a difference.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching.

@dutch1999

Жыл бұрын

You just explained what Judy does which is great but the scale is different between what he does and this farm.

@whitshane3511

Жыл бұрын

@@dutch1999 getting the most out of the least time and money works at any scale, right? If you only have a couple bulls and cows on 10 acres, then you are just shrinking down the paddock size. You have less inputs to buy since your property is smaller. You should get the same results. What am I missing?

@dutch1999

Жыл бұрын

@@whitshane3511 Well an ATV and bale unroller costs the same regardless of your scale. A no till drill costs the same regardless of your scale. This guy is using a paddock with annuals to get more productivity than you would get just rotational grazing perennials. It also serves as a sacrifice paddock to allow more growth in other areas. Greg Judy is dealing with hundreds of cattle and sheep and has well over a thousand acres to work with. What he's doing is great but it's less intensive which is harder to do when you get down to a really small scale. This guy is actually getting more out of those 10 acres with less time and expense than the Judy method but he's not doing exactly what a regenerative ag purist might say is the right way, and that's ok.

always a critic out there, I'd say your doing great, your using the knowledge you learned from multiple sources and adapting it to your situation none of the framer you mentioned would find fault with what your doing . every part of this type of farming is a start in the right direction away from conventional farming

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the encouragement and thank’s for watching. I think that many of the regenerative farmers would see good stuff and bad stuff that is being done, much like they have experienced for themselves.

Thanks for helping small farmers

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

It's my pleasure. Not sure how much it helps but thanks for watching.

So what your saying is, "All farms are different"

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Yes. With different goals, purposes, resources, sizes, etc.

From my understanding Judy didn't start out big and Perfect. I don't know how long it took him to get to where he's at now,but I suspect it took some time and adapting. I've watched a few different video's from a few different Regenerative people. It seems to me like Y'All follow mostly similar basics but adapted to what each person believes their current needs are as well as what each person has to work with including but not limited to size of operation and budget. My thought is as an American who likes to eat I want as many Americans as possible to successfully and profitably grow and sell decent edible food here in the USA.I think that would make it better for everyone. And I hope that most folks feel the same about wherever they live.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

Really nice and helpful video!

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

Greg Judy doesn’t use a tractor much or a no till drill. I kind of don’t get it? Yes, gabe brown has a no till drill.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Everyone has very different ways of doing things in their farms. Greg Judy has interns to help with labor and many many more cattle to help offset the cost of the overhead on his farm. Gabe Brown grows grains in addition to his livestock. Everyone is different and there are different ways of accomplishing our regenerative goals.

Where exactly do you buy these seeds for all these cover crops / soil producing crops?

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Mostly from our local farm coop. They usually order it for me and I use enough that I can 50 pound bag quantities are used.

i think you are doing it like them. You're coming at it from an different angle mind you, but you have the same goals. Good luck getting your goals!

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thank you.

My two cents says yes you’re 100% correct there’s a lot of ways to do it Greg Judy’s the real deal obviously so is Joel solid 10 however, a lot of new people watch some of his videos are their seminars and then they don’t understand the flexibility and agriculture. please do not include Mark Sheppard in that group he’s more of a salesman than anything else. He’s definitely not in the same class as those other people. We had Gabe Brown come to Michigan to our annual Forge conference that we hold every winter probably about 10 years ago and speak. He’s definitely the real deal as well. It’s just now you have a Lotta new non-farmers watching these people and passing on their information and they don’t understand how much they’re really don’t know yet and that those guys have spent a lifetime learning this information and that all those people actually learned their techniques from other old time farmers it’s not actually new information . As far as I am concerned also, an ATV would be extremely inefficient for me on my farm operation. I feed my hay like you do I do try to minimize waste and not waste a lot of it on the ground as 90% of the nutrients going into a cow get recycle. Great video keep it up.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much. I’m not real familiar with Mark Sheppard other than someone told me that I need to grow trees like him! The main thing I like about him is growing feed on trees for his pigs. Thanks for the encouragement and for watching the videos. It helps a lot.

I think the root issue here, it different definitions of regenerative agriculture. Most definitions include more than just regenerating the soil, but also developing a strategy where the output (grasses) are also regenerative. In your model, you are importing non-native grasses & planting annually. It's more commercial on small scale then regenerative, but either way it's a Hybrid option. Everyone has to find their own way.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

For the last 11 minutes you have got me thinking! Thank you. How one defines “regenerative is crucial.” Some of the annual grasses in the mixes are native some are not, particularly the Sorghum-Sudan grass which is a hybrid (but not genetically modified). Gabe Brown is probably one of the most well known leaders in regen ag, and much of his plantings are annuals. Greg Judy and Joel Salatin produce primarily animal based proteins - eggs, beef, pork, lamb, etc. And perennial pasture is their dominant feed source. If not relying on annuals is the standard, Mark Sheppard is probably the most truly regenerative from what I have seen, because even with his pork and poultry he is feeding from perennial forages whether grasses and forbs or chestnuts, apples, etc. I would say that I’m far more regenerative than commercial but I guess it depends upon what commercial processes we are looking at like row crops, livestock production, etc. Please know that I’m not being argumentative, just explaining my thought process. Pork and poultry industries whether pasture based or CAFO based rely on inputs from annual, monoculture agriculture for the dominant portion of their feed. For me, I’d rather grow as much of my pig feed on the farm, whether through acorns or a diverse cover crop mix of annuals that improves the soil, offers a diverse environment for insects, etc. while reducing my purchased grain inputs from monoculture agriculture. We have not used purchased synthetic or organic fertilizers (like Chilean nitrate) on our farm in three years now. We rely on soil life, pasture rotations, manure produced from animals on our farm, and cover crops. However, the seed from our cover crops and the some animal feed (hay for cows and grain for pigs) is imported and becomes manure and fertility. You still have me thinking a lot. I appreciate that.

@tritchie6272

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms My 2 cents. Study everybody and every thing you can including your own Farm. Adopt what you think you can,want and need from wherever it comes. As long as it works for you and is ethical, no need for it to be a competition. As a consumer who isn't yet in a position to grow my own food I want more people successfully growing food. And sense I'm an American I tend to prize that food being grown and sold in America extra. Besides, for some reason I'm find all of these Regenerative Farming video's interesting to watch for some reason. Relaxing as well.

Honestly you seem to be farming a lot like them. I think the difference is just your tools, which makes sense because you're two different sized operations. You use practically the same principles which is the main purpose, specifically context. In your operation, it's impractical to use the larger machines that they use so you adapt to using smaller more appropriate tools. I think that's the biggest takeaway I get from advocates of regenerative ag; it's not about following them exactly in regards to what they use,but rather about using the principles to scale appropriately with your operation.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. Thanks for watching.

If you could drop the details on that sorghum-sudan blend in a comment, with rates, I'd really appreciate it. My dad has been doing basically a double crop of rye and s-s across two growing seasons to capture all available growing degree days and he's been looking for ways to diversify both those mixes. We're in WI so very different situation but not a ton of guys are using s-s based covers so be good to see what works for you.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I have other videos that talk about the sorghum-sudan (SS for short) crop mixes. By itself a rate of 30-40 pounds per acre is pretty good, depending on your goals. I have found than slightly thinner rates produce larger stems. SS needs to be cut significantly in mixes though because it is so fast growing. I usually mix about 6-8 species depending upon what’s available. I usually cut SS to 1/10 the suggested rate, and the other crops to about 1/8 the rate. Sunflowers, okra, cowpeas, rape, buckwheat, and legumes like cowpeas or soybeans are what I usually plant. You will have a much shorter growing season for these than I do, but if you can mow or graze the mix, the roots of SS will increase dramatically. In terms of cool season stuff, I have no idea. Everything we plant here for winter would probably do well in Spring and Fall. Are yall grazing the cover crop mixes? If so, with what?

@danhoff4401

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms dad has a 40 head cow calf beef operation. He could graze if he wanted to but we feed 5x the hay you do so he has typically been putting the rye up wet and wrapping it and then planting SS around July 1 which gives him 80-90 days or so before he bales that and goes back to rye. The issue is that we have limited manure because there is very little feeding and like you mentioned on your red field the N demand on a pure grass mix vs 30-40% legumes is huge, Idk what MS has published but the UW recommendations are like 120 units vs 0 on perennial pasture for the same yield target. You have the same thing going on with the annual covers. He needs to work a legume into it somehow either by adding a rotation or diversifying the mix and grow the N. Especially at fertilizer prices right now. The soil health benefits of diversity are there but I think you're getting most of that pie by limiting disturbance and keeping a year round cover.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

So a grow period of 90 days right? That’s essentially one cutting off of it. Our extension service recommendations for nitrogen seem really off to me. We don’t use any nitrogen and the SS will grow on its own without it. It will produce root exhudates that help it grow. The main difference is that it sounds like y’all are baling yours and we are grazing ours so you dont get the manure or above ground biomass left onto the soil. SS tends to grow much better after our first grazing. In the fields where we did not use any N, it took the SS a year or two of growing it to get good results. The very first year I planted a small patch of it, I used 5 lbs of nitrogen per acre at planting and that was all. I’m not sure how baling it would work out, but cowpeas and soybean would probably not bale well. I don’t have experience there. But he could probably use a Ladino type clover with the warm season mix that far north.

@danhoff4401

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms yep, 90day ish window for the SS. Correct haying is significantly more intensive than a well managed rotational grazing system. SS is some amazing stuff, I think the answer for him long term is going to be to diversify the rotation and add a legume blend after rye for a year. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

@davidkottman3440

Жыл бұрын

Peas should be an excellent addition to a rotation in Wisconsin, with or without oats.

I’ve got several areas this winter because we’re having such a warm winter that I’m tearing the living. Hell out of feeding. Hey those areas I’ll be hand broadcasting annual ryegrass probably end of March 1 of April. One thing is, you’re definitely not seeing all the failures that these other people have on video I’m sure they all have trampled overused areas. Gabe Brown is actually very open about all his failures he was going broke. That’s why he had to change his farming practices.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Are you in Michigan? I’m in Mississippi. I ask because I think that March and April might be a bit late for rye grass here, but might try it if you are farther south. I usually broadcast ryegrass whenever in my area. Thanks.

@michiganhay7844

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms yeah I’m in Michigan and ryegrass is either a cool season annual or perennial so it would need to be pretty early and that for us would be about that time of year when there’s still a little bit of frost that helps heave it into the ground a lot of the areas I’m gonna be broadcasting. There’s no way to rock. Roll it or work it into the ground. Steep hilly train undrivable, inaccessible to equipment. I hear a lot of people down south growing ryegrass. Actually, I see on KZread people planting it as an annual as far south as Texas I think they do it there during the winter, so it does seem likely in Mississippi you could get it to work.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

We do grow a lot of rye grass here. We have some perennial rye grass that pops up, but mostly its an annual.

@michiganhay7844

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms there’s perennial ryegrass forage varieties that go into hayfields. There’s a tetraploid or Italian, which is kind of a bi annual to perennial and then there’s a regular annual ryegrass that sometimes will recede itself, depending on how cold are winters are that comes up extremely fast it’s a little bit courser of a product. Generally that comes up on areas that I can broadcast by hand, heavy traffic areas and pastors and then I’ll also use that as a cover crop in new hay seedlings .

What summer cover crop mix you use?

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Hey Josh. Sorghum Sudan is the work horse of the mix, but we also include okra, sunflower, pearl millet, buckwheat, a brassica, cowpeas, and last year we included a forage soybean.

@joshward9835

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms you make the mix up yourself or you buy it already mixed in seed bag?

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

@@joshward9835 I mix it myself depending on what’s available.

@joshward9835

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms man I would love to have some too for my deer plots. Let me know when you mix some up and I’ll help you with cost

It isn't a matter of scale as you claim. The principles of not disturbing the soil and not tilling still have the same validity. We are all in a journey, and need to keep learning.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

We are all on a journey indeed! The principles of regenerative agriculture are valid across the board. I agree whole heartedly. The follow up video “Why I don’t farm like Joel Salatin, Gabe Brown . . .” Explains many of the goals of the field. This field is not destined solely for perennial pasture, though most of our pastures are. The purpose of this 10 acres is to provide nutritional weaknesses on the farm, like good quality grasses that finish our beef without grain. Annual sorghum sudan grass does that while also supercharging soil health much faster than a perennial pasture ever could. However, our greatest nutritional gap is providing high quality feed for our pigs. We can import 40-50 tons of grain to finish 100 pigs on pasture. But if we want to reduce the imported grain that comes from a mono culture agriculture, we need to be able to grow forages that meet the nutritional requirements of pigs. The quickest way to do that is with annual forages like clovers, legumes, and brassicas. Perennial pasture won’t do it year round on our farm for pigs. The least amount of soil disturbance is with a no till drill. Paying for and operating a no till drill are a matter of scale. If the no till drill is not an option for us, we can disc or till the top 1-2 inches of soil, just enough to break up the unproductive sod that is there. This allows good seed to soil contact that enables the forage cover crops to grow. So we can let the animals do it do more disturbance than they normally would when we establish the cover crops, or we can let the pasture continue to grow unproductive forages for our livestock. I’m not sure if you have ever used a sorghum sudan cover crop before, but it is a powerhouse of nutrition for ruminants and feeds the soil dramatically several feed down. And we dont have to fertilize it with chemical fertilizers. Please understand, I agree with your premise, but for me, a one time disturbance is worth the payoff in the long run. Especially if you think of the amount of grain that we are pulling from monoculture agriculture.

@davidkottman3440

Жыл бұрын

Old guy with experience & education & a lifetime of farming here. Repeated tillage is the problem, extended fallow seasons are a problem, and perennials, cover crops, reduced tillage, no till, etc are solutions. However, if a tillage trip solves more problems than it causes then it may be justified. It doesn't make a guy evil, ignorant, insensitive,& anti-social to pull a plow or disk out occasionally; or (in some communities) to be a no-tiller, or grazer. We need a much wider understanding & acceptance of differences. The pressure to conform (farm) to community standards whether right or wrong can be nearly overwhelming. That's not good.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

@@davidkottman3440 There are a couple good, moderately priced ($10-15,000) 5-6ft no till drills that would be very effective for our farm. One day, I hope to justify that on our scale.

@davidkottman3440

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms yes I saw a beautiful example this fall at a local dealer. Often used 12 - 15' machines are even cheaper and will work well, perhaps budget for some repairs. Currently I farm with a CaseIH 5400 Coulter cart & drill. Replaced all the disks over 2-3 years & still have no more than $10,000 invested. Of course bigger stuff requires bigger tractor. Many counties also have rentals available at the Soil Conservation District office.

If you look at the model of *Management Intensive Grazing* that Alan Savory has been advocating for decades; it's a very flexible model that has been successfully implemented in virtually every part of the planet that once had large numbers of migratory, ruminant animals grazing on grasslands/prairies/pampas/savannas/etc. In addition, it has been successfully implemented in the tropics, and the temperate regions of the Northern & Southern Hemispheres. It works regardless of whether you live in Zimbabwe where the wet season is only a few months long, with a prolonged dry season; or in Mena, Arkansas where there is approximately 59 in./150cm. of annual precipitation spread out across the majority of the year. What people watching *regenerative agriculture* videos posted on KZread can fail to take into account is that there are only a handful of men posting regen ag videos on KZread with anything approaching a comprehensive, year round look at what it takes them to farm/ranch in a holistic, regenerative manner. It's really easy to hold these guys up as *gurus* who have all the answers. They will all tell you that they hate the guru label, and are quick to point out their faults, and the many mistakes that they have made over the years. That being said, they all have something to offer, if nothing more than what you might want to consider not doing on your particular part of the planet that you have chosen to farm on.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Indeed. Most of the Management Intensive Grazing (MIG) models apply to livestock production, specifically mostly on ruminants. Thus, it does not address vegetable and grain production. Thanks for the encouragement and for watching.

I don't understand why a small operation without tillage equipment would use annuals like sorghum sudan or brassicas instead of developing permanent pasture.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

We have well over a hundred acres of permanent pasture. We use the annuals to improve soil, provide feed for pigs, and to finish our cattle on. We can get by without annuals, but they help a lot.

@practicalsheepman

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms OK Gotcha! I am more into permaculture myself. Everything is in permanent pasture and I would hate to plow any of it up. However, I don't have pigs.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

@@practicalsheepman Some of out other videos will help give you a better picture of the whole farm. There’s a lot of value in permaculture. However, swine nutrition is very demanding and is almost impossible to meet a significant portion of their needs on permanent pasture, in our area at least. Annuals provide some of the best nutrition for pigs, particularly brassicas and legumes. There are a few breeds of swine that perform better on pasture - like our Mangalitsas - but they still need significant supplemental nutrition (check out our two videos 1. Can pastured pigs be regenerative and 2. Are mangalitsas right for your farm and you will get a little bit of an idea). In underperforming soils, simply planting permanent pasture can be problematic with inputs of lime, fertilizer etc. unless you drastically improve soil health. Sorghum Sudan grass does a phenomenal job of improving the soil so that permanent pastures can perform much better. Thank you for your comments. It is really interesting to me to see where other people are coming from.

I understand you perfectly sir. Them guys may be great for showing results of grazing in paddocks. But it manly depends on the part of the country you are in that has a different setup. Like don't get me wrong they are some nice people learn some things from them, but reality it seems at least to me inerways, they seen so afraid of having bare spots in their pastures. Which that's where they should just top dress some seed here and there. We have a small scale farm to we can't graze or feed hay like they do. For 1 we have hills that are tall and steep among with some trees, where they don't at least they don't show any. So how we feed during the winter is we feed our cows round bales and with a feeder but only able to pick and choose your feeding spots on the hills tops and that way depending how many cows you have with a feeder you can feed on the same area twice especially if theirs snow so they ain't making lots of mud than sure may take a couple years for all the hay and poop to break down good enough, than forages comes up dark rich green and the animals loves it. During the summer they have 3 septic pastures they graze in one at a time, for like every couple weeks depending the growth of the forages/ rain than repeat the cycle. Until it gets doughty than we feed hay on the more steeper sides of the hills so it's not wet compared to full or winter, but the biggest thing of the old saying goes is "if you know what you are doing and know how to do it". Inerways than stuff lays and rots to build up compost and grow more grass and other vegetation. But inerways that's my opinion I guess, inerways nice looking animals, sorry for the long comment just explaining my thoughts and opinions.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I like hearing how other people are doing things. We don’t have but one decent slope on our farm!

Whatever you do it has to fit with your operation. You'll get it figured out I have no doubt. Lots of cash flow in pigs I love pigs but don't raise them on my farm.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I love pigs as well. In Mississippi most people eat more beef than pork so they don’t go quite as fast. Thanks for watching. I appreciate the feedback.

Not a farmer here,so what do I know?Seems that pigs or sheep are better suited for small acreage. You need about 3 acres per beef cattle so your pretty limited. There's a Joe S. Video on doing pigs on 20 acres. Looks to be a lot less trouble than your going thur. Good luck on your journey.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

The 10 acre field is a small portion of the farm that we are regenerating intensively. There’s about 160 acres of pasture and that much more of wooded land. This video was a follow up to another video that showed more of the farm. But you hit the nail on the head. It’s a lot of trouble😀

KZread gold Sir... Farm on

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Wow. Thanks.

Pro tip: Mud fest 4x4 party in March to prep the fields.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

You made me laugh thinking of my high school days. In high school I’d have done it, but that’s more disturbance than I want and lots of compaction.

P,s we also let our cows turn up some mud in our pastures, cuz 1 it roter tiled the ground to break the shod up to so the ground is soft/ loose for new seedings to spread their roots or like if "having chewed ground in the pasture is a bad thing" than why has God for millions of years blow over up rooted trees in the forest? Oh right to loosen up to ground so when the stump rots the future new baby tree has soft/ loose dirt to spread it's roots in. But that's my opinion also I guess.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Yep, cows can indeed turn up some soil to help plant.

You have to be careful with the S/S hybrid. Prussic acid can be an issue. Millet doesn't have the same problem. Just fyi

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Yeah. That’s it’s downside. This past year the cows did not graze it due to drought but we let the pigs into the SS. Thanks for watching.

Youre doing it right,just takes 5-10 years for real transformation of pastured land. Buildinging that 8 inch soil layer is key.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Thank you and thank you for watching.

Greetings from Tennessee. I watched this one after commenting on the Regenerating Soils. I'm not sure how things are around your area, but neighbors still help neighbors around here. No one can do everything, or afford the equipment even if they could, which is why I mentioned bartering with the neighbors. I can't weld, so I take my welding needs to one of my neighbors. I turn, I drop off a bag of fresh garden veggies now and then and take him fishing once in a while. It doesn't cost any more to take him fishing since I'm going anyway and it's good relationship building. Also, a good cheap nitrogen fertilizer, believe it or not, is D.E.F. It's basically a 46-0-0 made from urea and I spray it in the spring to jumpstart thick green growth. 1gal. to 20gal. water is a 4.6% nitrogen solution. God bless you and your family and good luck "down on the farm." Just had an afterthought; put a pig in the ground and invite well chosen neighbors over for a pot-luck cookout. You know, the farmer with the big "doolie" John Deere, the other one with a wheat drill, and maybe the mechanic that works for the tractor dealership. Just not the crackhead 3 doors. Ya know there's one everywhere you go these days.🤔🤨😏🙄

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Lol. We have really good neighbors and friends and we help each other out too. We have our share of drug heads too.

Never in the history of KZread has a comment section proved the main thesis of video more 😂. Of course there are additional things that you could be doing differently to regenerate your patch even more, but if we’re not farming/homesteading/etc 100% regeneratively should we just give up and eat our CAFO beef and pork on our white bread? No- of course not! If we all waited until we could achieve absolute perfection (I’m looking at you, “ruts in the field” shamer!), we none of us would try at all.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

There were a couple other people that were less than civilized in their responses that were banned. It’s funny, that video prompted some really negative reactions and it was the first video where I got negative comments. However, after three months I look back and smile. It’s an unfortunate reflection on society’s tendency to judge what they do not understand in others. At the same time, they may contribute to things much worse than ruts in a field through their food choices. Yes, some comments were quite entertaining!

Everyone that you mentioned that you didn't farm like, would all agree that everyone has to modify their regenerative principles for what works for them - because everyone is in a different situation! Each one of these individuals have stressed this point over and over in their seminars! So, please don't put them down!

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I hope it did not sound like I was putting them down. There are several principles that I use from each of those farmers. I just modify what I do. For example, gabe Brown’s emphasis on cover crops is so helpful, but I can’t plant them with a no till drill, so I put pigs to work as Joel Salatin does, but in a different way. I meant to respond to people who say do it like Salatin or Brown. Anyway.

Gregg Judy is a prime example of not giving you the whole picture while trying to sell you a product you don't need that waste hay. Also, a monkey with a welder could build that poorly constructed hay unroller for a 1/3 of what he's asking 😈 According to Google, he's leasing 1400+ acres along with 200 acres he actually owns while only having 300+ head of cattle. On top of that, he admits to contracting out his hay production! This is a hobby farmer folks where other sources of income are footing the bills 🤑 No professional farmer can afford to pay someone else to do their work for them unless they enjoy being buried in debt. Farming isn't that lucrative of a business unless you're catering to some local niche market which can be quite profitable but that isn't the norm 😉 If he'd bump his cattle head number up to 1,200+ and still unroll his round bales out onto the ground, he'd be purchasing hay and the financial results would be quite different! After 88 years in the dairy business and NEVER dipping a toe into debt and now running beef cattle for 7 years, I think we've got a real good handle on what works and what doesn't after 4 generations hence the reason were still in business 😁 Most of the multi-generational farmers see right through this bullshit while the new farmers fall for it hook line and sinker 💩

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Experience is key, but its also really expensive if we don’t heed other people’s experience. Some practices pay for themselves and some do not. Unrolling hay is time consuming and I don’t have the time or money. My goal is to avoid feeding hay, which can be done in Mississippi many years with careful management. Thanks for the response.

I listen to people like Greg and Joel, but I do what works for me. Sounds like you are the same.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

Yes, indeed. We use a lot of principles from each of those people and others. We apply what we can to our farm and figure out additional stuff as well.

@8:00 BINGO! You're the second video I've watched in the last three years of watching regenerative and small farming videos on KZread that realistically identify land costs. You are just beaten by about 5 days by Rowon channel it's $27k/year video. As I have commented in his video, so many of the videos I watch close to 95% with regenerative sustainable farming never identify the land costs. In the 5% of the time where land costs are discussed, it is usually with just a couple sentences or the information or is dated by two decades And the bingo is: I think you called out Greg Judy on who he's crapping because though I liked him and watch him I'm never going to have 1,600 acres under my control which to run hundreds of heads of cattle in hundreds of heads of sheep. You're making it happen I just a 10-acre plot according to your words. The guy with the $27,000 is doing it on 3/4 of an acre according to him. So yes: you can give out the "Who yah crappin'" to those you identified at the beginning of the video. People in my situation haven't bought land before the prices went through the roof the last 5 to 10 years. And one video I watched which was dated about four years ago, they were talk about leasing land for $30 per acre. $30 is not even going to get one foot square Illinois cropland at current $12,000 per acre prices or $350 per --month-- EDIT: "Growing Season. " HOGWASH!

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

$350 per month. Wow, that’s high. Thanks for watching!

@michaeldunagan8268

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms My mistake! In both cases, I should have said for the growing season and not monthly. The correction is that the $30 per acre seems to be for the year and the $350 per acre for the growing season. The rents in part in Illinois Indiana from what I can tell are affected also buy how much revenue the acreage yields to the farmer.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

That makes sense but it’s still pretty high.

@michaeldunagan8268

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Yah-but that's just kind of the price of poker in the flat rich soil plentiful rain lands. Last year was probably the first year that made my eyes pop out on corn profits. For The last 5 Years I would rather grow alfalfa or install a motocross track rather than growing corn. But last year's profits are somewhat of a high water-mark in the last decade's corn profits. Last year was so good that the government didn't pay subsidies. However, rental prices are bouyed by governmental subsidies and ethanol plants" demand resulting in rental prices being artificially bit up in to gain control of acreage in order to plant the holy corn.

Those dudes wanna make a living telling people the right way to farm. This guy wants to make a living farming lol

@DowdleFamilyFarms

4 ай бұрын

Thanks!

So, why claim you are a "regenerative" farmer then?

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

We are regenerating the farm dramatically. In some areas it is improving faster than others. We just don’t use the same techniques as one farmer because our situation is different. We do apply principles from each of those farmers mentioned. None of those regenerative farmers operate the same way as well.

@enderwhitekey7238

Жыл бұрын

@Dowdle Family Farms look forward to seeing these practices in the future. We all have our own understandings and journey to our goals, I guess.

@robertensign8786

Жыл бұрын

All farmers are “regenerative” in one way or another. Duh. If you farmed you’d know that

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

@@enderwhitekey7238 we have some videos of forage cover crops and soil improvement in other areas of the farm if you want to see some of what we’ve done. We will have more later on this spring to follow up with this.

@enderwhitekey7238

Жыл бұрын

@Robert Ensign sorry I triggered you, but no, you aren't correct. Agriculture generally is the most destructive enterprise we humans do. It's why I got into/am still getting into farming and ranching in the 1st place. "Regenerative Ag" has gotten so watered down recently, as more traditional farmers and ranchers are trying to get in on the action without actually fundamentally changing their relationship to their land and ecology. I intend to be sure it actually means something different.

Shame on you for driving on such wet fields.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I agree that it is shameful to drive on that wet acre, but the field and I both are a work in progress, attempting to make a difference in our small corner of the world. That shameful mistake, however, pales in comparison to mistakes that much of the developed world has promoted. Our farm is not perfect, our lives are not perfect and we are learning, but we are learning and making our mistakes and growing from them in order to make a long term difference.

@kellychamberlain6093

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms More excuses. Smarten up.

@Gods-Elect

Жыл бұрын

@@kellychamberlain6093 How rude.

@shaungiesbrecht4697

Жыл бұрын

@@kellychamberlain6093 go away

@davidkottman3440

Жыл бұрын

Sometimes a guy has to get to the other side! We do try to keep our road & ruts in one place rather than drive every where...

I appreciate you trying to take a stance on something but I think your video title and information that your passing off is in the best case scenario misleading. You offer really virtually no innovative or new farming strategies. You also said you don’t farm like those icons but strip grazing, cover crop planting, and utilizing multi-species livestock is exactly what Gabe, Joel, and Greg all teach. I’m sorry but this video seems like a viewership grab and you’ve lost a lot of credibility in your quest for agriculture authority. This was a bad video that you should really consider taking down.

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I appreciate your candid response. I apologize that you feel misled by the title. Are you a farmer or rancher? I think a little bit of context might help. Perhaps I should retitle the video "Why I Don't Farm Exactly Like". The pinned comment and the video intro if this video both state that the video responds to people now who, after watching the first video, said that "you should use an atv and a bale unroller" or "you should move the cattle every day" or "plant with a no till drill" like Gabe Brown rather than discing, etc. None of those individuals farm the same way, because they have different production systems. Gabe Brown, for example, plants many annuals with a no till drill and large equipment while Greg Judy's farm prioritizes permanent pastures and does not even plant annuals. Perhaps more importantly, I know of only two farms that raise pork by trying to plant annuals in their pastures, which is what I am attempting to do with this particular field. A future video should explain more, but the reason I am not farming like the icons in this field is that they are not doing what my goals for this field are - annual pasture for pigs that reduce imported, monoculture raised grain. I do state this in the video. Honestly, I'm find it humorous that some people see this and claim that I'm more "conventional ag" than regenerative, while some people like you suggest that I'm farming just like them. I really do not mean that harshly or mean. It's just interesting, depending on your perspective I guess. In terms of offering no new farming strategies, I do not disagree, with the exception of beginning the process to transform this field into annual forage cover crops for pigs. However, what I can tell you is that when I started growing cover crops, I had no equipment other than a borrowed tractor and a tiller. I read, searched, watched videos and found little information to help a smaller farmer doing cover crops, especially if attempting to do them no till. Many of my videos are designed to help small, part time farmers like me, get started. If you watched the initial video "How We Regenerate Soil Quickly without Costly Equipment" it might help frame this video better. If you read some of the remaining comments (some people deleted their comments), you might understand this video better. Anyway, thank you for your honest response.

What works for small time producers like Joel and Greg would not and does not translate over to what large scale commercial or seed stock operations out west operate. You aren’t going to go move cows daily with a hot wire when you got over 300pairs running in the mountains on blm government grazing lease. For small time producers east of the Rockies it’s probably a sound practice though. I always find it comical to read the comments from non farming folks giving tips to burn and raised farmers and ranchers. Just cuz KZread said so, don’t make it so

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I’m not real familiar with blm government grazing leases other than what Tony Malmberg mentions in his book “Green Grass in the Spring”. It’s not the focus of his book though. Honestly, the only western producer I’m familiar with is Gabe Brown and not real familiar with his primary work. From what I gather he is planting annual cover crops to feed livestock, which is not an option in most arid environments with hilly terrain. Do you farm (or ranch) out west?

@brucemattes5015

Жыл бұрын

One of the so-called *gurus* of regenerative agriculture is *Will Harris* of *White Oak Pastures* in *Bluffton, Georgia, USA* He stresses in many of the interviews of him posted on KZread, including his recent interview with Joe Rogan; that the Alan Savory model of Management Intensive Grazing that he practices on just over 5,000 acres in southern Georgia, which is a few miles north of the Gulf of Mexico; *is not* scalable, but *it is replicatable.* He states that his 5,000 acres is about as large of a Management Intensive Grazing operation that will work under the Savory Institute model. His advantage over virtually all other regenerative agriculture farms/ranches in the United States, which took an enormous amount of financial risk to implement, is a large animal abbatoir for processing cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, & rabbits. And, a matching poultry abbatoir for processing chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and Guinea hens. Both processing plants are located on land within the 5,000 acres that his family owns, and are FDA approved. His two abbatoirs generate approximately 9 tons of animal waste each week. This unmarketable waste is ground up, treated with lactobacillus, anaerobically composted, turned once, allowed to cure for 6 months, and applied to all fields to return nutrients back to the soil. For me, this is the missing component in so-called Regenerative Agriculture. If the animals are sent off of the farm to be butchered, then regardless of how regenerative of a model that you might be practicing, those lost nutrients cannot be made up. Applying someone else's hay to your animals/fields, is not the long-term solution to regenerating soil lacking in carbon. It's just another example of *Robbing Peter, to pay Paul.*

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

@brucemattes Bruce, I think you hit the nail on the head with several things, particularly importing nutrients off the farm (offal from abattoirs for example) that are then treated as waste rather than resource. Similarly, importing hay onto the farm does bring nutrients onto our farm, but its not helping the hay land (i.e. your robbing Peter to pay Paul metaphor). We return the nutrients to the farm that our family consumes. I process them on farm and dispose of nutrients on farm. I cannot do this for animals that we resell, and frankly isn’t practical at this point. We farm on 300 acres of land, and in the last 20 years, much of the farm land around me has gone to housing development. For many other reasons, White Oak Pastures in not replicable for me. I am recording another video that should come out in a couple weeks entitled: “Why Pastured Pork?” (Or something like that). I mention that I love raising pigs on pasture because the pastured pork is profitable and pays for itself, but the greatest benefit is that I am being paid to improve my soil with pig manure. This is better than the manure being pumped to a sewage lagoon. However, the pig applied nutrients to the farm relies on imported nutrients off the farm, much like the hay with the cows, to improve the soil. We do import a lot of other nutrients onto our farm, mostly in the form of old mulch hay, leaves, fall pumpkins, and expired milk. However, all of these nutrients would have been sent to the landfill or, for the milk, disposed of through a sewage type treatment plant. These nutrients would have been wasted and taken up precious landfill space. My priority is to reduce grain imports from monoculture agriculture for our swine. The overwhelming majority of pastured pork relies on monoculture agriculture. While there is a difference between organically produced grains, non-gmo grains, and conventional grains, they pale in comparison to the benefit of growing pig feed in a much more balanced diverse pasture of grasses, legumes, forbs, and brassicas. That diverse mix is great for the pigs, for soil health, for insects, birds, and a host of other wildlife. Personally, I think this is the most important missing component of regenerative ag.

@jedidiahlarabee8313

Жыл бұрын

Ian Mitchel, Greg's friend raises cattle on South Africa on 10,000 acres with same principles as Greg. I believe techniques may change to scale to your model but soil principles remain the same.

@robertensign8786

Жыл бұрын

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Ranch. Beef cows. Purebred Simmental’s and Herefords. We run Angus bulls on em to produce F1 hybrid sim angus and black baldies.

If you don’t have TIME to be a GOOD STEWARD of the LAND AND ANIMALS then you have NO excuses, as you should NOT be a steward

@DowdleFamilyFarms

Жыл бұрын

I agree. Thanks for watching.