The Meet Your Herdmates Sodcast

Carl Stafford is a forage and grazing management champion. A witness to the changes in agriculture.  Carl is a Senior Extension Agent serving Culpeper County, Virginia in Agriculture and Natural Resources, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech. He's served forage agriculture across the US. https://culpeper.ext.vt.edu/staff/stafford-carl.html Virginia Forage and Grassland Council - https://vaforages.org/ Graze 300 VA - https...

Ben Campbell is a: Third- & first-generation rancher; Recovering engineer; Conservationist; and Environmental advocate.

He's one of the guardians of the grasslands.

"Since 1970, 84% of grassland species have been lost."

"If you borrow something, you return it in better condition"

Grazed Right - https://grazedright.com/

"Guardians of the Grasslands" - https://guardiansofthegrasslands.ca/

"Guardians of the Grasslands" Launch Event - ...

"Since the '70s we've lost 87% of prairie obligates."

We've lost four football fields-worth of grassland lost per minute (from 2014-2018).

Kristine Tapley, Regional Agrologist, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Owner Operator Cow-Calf Operation, Old Shore Cattle Company, Langruth, Manitoba.

“The thriving beef industry that can compete on that landscape will keep wetlands and grass on the landscape. We also see that this message and that rela...

The wonder of the essential ruminant, the treasure of our grasslands.

Dr. Tim McAllister grew up on his parents’ cow/calf farm in Innisfail, Alberta.  He obtained a B.Sc. (Agr) and M.Sc. from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and a Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition and microbiology from the University of Guelph, ON.   He accepted an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 1991 and joined Agriculture and Agri-F...

Organic matter, soil health, soil biology, and soil ecology - the foundation!

Alan Franzluebbers is a Research Ecologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh NC.  He has more than 30 years of research experience starting with a master’s program in Nebraska, PhD in Texas, post-doctoral position in Alberta Canada, and as a full-time soil scientist in Georgia and now i...

Documentary filmmaker, podcaster, health coach, businessman. 

He graduated from UCLA with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and then turned to technology and sold an app company. He’s used his technical background and love for fitness & nutrition to also work as a Health Coach and be the co-founder of the health, media, and technology company SAPIEN (https://www.sapien.org),

Brian Sanders is the filmmaker behind the feature-length...

"If we are interested in ecosystem function, if we are interested in wildlife diversity, going on a 100% plant-based diet is absolutely the worst choice that anyone can make." 

Grazing expert, author, consultant, and speaker

Jim Gerrish is an independent grazing lands consultant providing services to farmers and ranchers on both private and public lands across five continents. Jim received a BS in Agronomy from the University of Il...

Professor, Extension Soil Specialist, Soil Science Department, North Dakota State University From Dr. Franzen's University of North Dakota webpage - https://www.ndsu.edu/snrs/people/faculty/dave_franzen/

"Until a few years ago, I was aware of historical loss of topsoil from North Dakota, but I was unaware of the huge scale of losses incurred, and the scale of ongoing losses. A voice-over YouTube PowerPoint presentation is now avail...

"Can Soil Health Equal Rancher Wealth? Adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing is regenerating soils, watersheds, critical ecosystem services and livelihoods in North America. Early data shows soil carbon is the essential currency for this vibrancy. We are building on these early results with multi-disciplinary research conducted with regenerative ranchers in different regions of US."

Dr. Richard Teague is a Retired Professor in the D...

Agriculture is a complex natural system. Keep the culture in agriculture Dirt's under our fingernails, soil's under our feet.

Associate professor of Animal Science (Michigan State University) and C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture , Dr. Jason Rowntree coordinates Lake City and UPREC AgBioResearch and Extension Centers where he addresses economic, environmental and social complexity in agriculture. He studys how grazing ...

From a multi-generational farm in Pennsylvania to respected forage researcher and educator.  Forages in Florida and beyond. Logical decisions don't always restrict our interests.

Dr. Lynn Sollenberger is Distinguished Professor and Graduate Coordinator of Agronomy at the University of Florida. His appointment is 50% research, 40% teaching, and 10% service in the areas of grassland ecology and management. He teaches four classes in ...

Forage Fanatic!

Dr. Jennifer Tucker is an Associate Professor of Beef Nutrition and Forage Management. 

Dr. Tucker was raised on a small beef cattle operation in South Central Kentucky where she grew up showing cattle, raising various crops including tobacco and vegetables, and helping to improve the pastures on her family's farm. Growing up Tucker was an active member of 4-H, FFA, and the Kentucky and National Junior Angus Associa...

Tangriani holds a doctorate in Agronomy at the Federal University of Paraná and INRAe -FR – Clermont-Ferrand. Her thesis was on nitrogen cycling in integrated crop-livestock systems. In 2015 she served as a visiting scientist in the Soil Management and Ecology team led by Dr. Alan Franzllubers at North Carolina State University. She is a full professor in the Department of Agronomy at the Federal University of Technology –  Paraná ...

Serendipity in life. Mentors in careers. Importance of forage breeding. Addressing bottlenecks in Southeast US forage agriculture. 

Dr. Joe Bouton earned his B.S. degree at Miss. State Univ., and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the Univ. of Florida.  He was a Professor (now Emeritus), Univ. of Georgia; and a Director, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. He now owns Bouton Consulting Group LLC.

Dr. Bouton taught courses in plant breeding...

Working "...to sustainably intensify smallholder livestock systems in order to improve the nutrition, health, livelihoods and incomes of the poor." Dr. Adegbola Adesogan is a professor of ruminant nutrition and director of the Food Systems Institute and Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems. His research focuses on sustainably increasing animal-source food production and consumption; improving forage production, qual...

Benjamin Bikman, Associate Professor at BYU. Author of "Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease - and How to Fight It". Dr. Bikman’s research focus is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that mediate the disruption that causes and accompanies metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and dementia. Driven by his academic training (Ph.D. in Bioenergetics and postdoctoral fellowship with...

Dr. Baltenweck is a development economist with twenty years of post-doctoral experience in agricultural systems in Africa, South and South-East Asia, with a focus on livestock value chains. Starting her career as a development economist with an emphasis on adoption and impact assessment studies in livestock systems, she has increasingly sharpened her skills in gender and social equity research, looking at how women and men’s needs ...

"The executive editor of “The Lancet” wrote, “this is a disquieting book about scientific incompetence, evangelical ambition, and ruthless silencing of dissent that has shaped our lives for decades…researchers, clinicians, and health policy advisors should read this provocative book.” A review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said, “This book should be read by every scientist…[and] every nutritional science professiona...