Working Cows - Regenerative Ranching to Maximize Profitability and Soil Health

Ryan Griggs has been on a difficult journey from vegan to the tragic loss of some very close family members. Ultimately, his path led him to involvement helping on farms and a radical shift in his diet and his spiritual life. We discuss all that and more on this episode of the Working Cows podcast.

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If we want be the kind of leader others want to follow we need learn to lead ourselves. Habits are a powerful tool to help us develop personal integrity which can help others want to follow us. Josh Kerpan has been on a journey of learning to lead himself with integrity and that has been a huge help in leading his business to the point that he was able to replace himself.

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You have done the work of successfully grass-finishing your animals. Now what? One often overlooked step is the processing phase. Great meat can be ruined during this crucial step. Dr. Allen Williams joins us today to discuss his tips to maintaining the quality of our grass-finished beef through the processing phase.

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One of the major determinants of ranch profitability is the amount of hay fed every year. One way to avoid feeding excess hay is to develop quality stockpiled forage for winter and dormant season grazing. Burke Teichert and Jeremy Sweeten have experience is very different contexts. This varied experience helps us get a very well-rounded perspective on how to develop graze quality stockpiled forage to increase profitability and herd...

The market for products raised regeneratively is continuing to grow and mature. It may have even reached a tipping point. The consumers looking for these products are educated, tenacious, and willing to pay more for products that match their values and meet their demands. Kristine Root of Regenified joined me to discuss the ways this market has changed as well as how to market our products to those interested in regenerative agricu...

Artificial Intelligence presents an opportunity for ranchers to outsource some of the tasks that they may not enjoy as much as others. Among them are data and analytics. Rooted Ag is on a mission to help farmers and ranchers track the things that matter and then analyze the data that they have collected. In time they hope to continue to expand the effectiveness of this platform as the AI is trained on more and more information and ...

Marketing is one of our biggest levers. If we are not intentional about marketing, we will leave a lot of money on the table. Ty deCordova and the team at LiveAg are on a mission to make that process easier for ranchers through creating an online platform for auctions as well as the XChange for livestock and equipment.

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We often think that hay making and land regeneration are at odds. That doesn't have to be the case if we are intentional with our approach to hay making. John Hays and Jeremy Sweeten of Understanding Ag join me to discuss the ins and outs of regenerative hay making. We discuss the challenges to landscape regeneration presented by hay making as well as some practical tips for how to hay in a way that fits the 6-3-4 framework.

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When it comes to regenerating landscapes hay fields present a particular set of challenges. Keith Berns of Green Cover Seed joined me to share what he has seen work well in helping those hay fields improve using cover crops, grazing, and strategy to keep progress moving forward.

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Northern Environments can be challenging. From ice and snow to bitter cold temperatures there are a different set of challenges in the North. Blain Hjertaas and Michael Thiele of Understanding Ag have a lot of experience making Regenerative Agriculture work in these challenging environments. We discuss the strategies and practices that they have found helpful in overcoming the many challenges of their environment.

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Cow poop is an ecosystem unto itself. There are many insects and other organisms living in a dung pat that can help us to make use of the nutrients excreted out of the back end of a cow. Dr. Ryan Schmid shares with me what he has seen work well as far as taking advantage of the helpful insects and mitigating the impact of those that can become pests if the system gets out of balance.

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You will go farther with people than you can go by yourself. To succeed with people you will need to build different skills than it takes to manage grass, money, and livestock. Josh Kerpan is seeking to equip ranchers with the skills they need to manage their people well.

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America is a global leader in agriculture. Our influence has an incredibly broad reach. The problem with that is most places around the world don't have the infrastructure and supply chains to support feeding cattle like we do in America. The result is that many places around the world that have used American beef genetics (Taurus and Indicus) now routinely have 40% calf crops with most females only producing a calf every two to th...

The Midwest can be a difficult place to graze for a host of reasons. The competitiveness of the cash rent market, parasite load, mud, forage quality, and many other issues face those seeking to profitably graze in this region. Today we are joined by John Hays and Jeremy Sweeten of Understanding Ag to discuss their own experience with profitable grazing businesses as well as what they have seen work well as they have consulted on a ...

As Taylor Moyer and his wife have sought to bootstrap their ranch operation they have had to think outside the box from an enterprise mix perspective, marketing perspective, and as it pertains to the potential sources of revenue the ranch can produce. This has led them to many capitalize on many different opportunities including custom grazing poultry and using “weeds” as a backdrop in senior photos and wedding photos. We discuss t...

Supply management may not line up with free market principles, but the fruits of it to this point have been positive for Sean Smith and his family. These strategies have helped the to remain profitable at a scale a family can manage. They have also freed them up to experiment with some more regenerative practices.

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We are facing water quality and quantity issues across a broad swath of the agricultural landscape. This impacts not only our rural communities, but also those in cities and towns downstream from our operations. Brian Dougherty and Eric Fuchs join me today to discuss the simple methods agriculturalists can use to improve their land’s ability to hold on to more water. This will simultaneously fix many of the water quality issues in ...