If you could dream freely, what software do you wish existed to help you transition to regenerative ag, or just continue farming regeneratively? I'm a developer building regen ag farming software, and am looking for feedback for what would be useful to you! Cheers guys!

So say I buy 10 acres, and if location matters let’s say Western Montana. The 10 acres weren’t farmland or anything special just some rural area untouched. What’s the first thing someone does? The beginning.

Now I have almost zero experience, however I’ve been a hands off student for roughly 6 or 7 years. I’ve studied, read, watched, and listened to many different things. But most of what I’ve consumed has been strictly previous farmer experience based.

If my goals were to eventually get cattle, pigs, chickens and raise them as holistically as possible, what would one do to get started?

There’s not a ton of information that’s helpful to someone who is inexperienced, and has an almost fresh slate. Do I just let the land grow over time and not touch it? Do I plant native seed? Do I wait till the crop is fully grown to bring in animals, do I scrape up the pre existing top grass/dirt? Do I just let it grow enough then tamp it all over? There’s so many questions I have. And can’t seem to find an informative step by step beginner guide.

I’m seeking advice, but also would love recommendations for books/guides. Nothing honestly helps. And also who do I reach out to in the area for native speciality for seed or growing/maintenance advice. I’m into silvoculture, conserving, and regenerative practices, hoping my end game goal can be to just provide healthy produce to my community. Etc etc. thanks in advance. I’ve been a long time lurker who wants to get a game plan together before jumping into my long awaited plans.

Hi all! I am so glad to have found this subreddit. It is fantastic to be able to see the efforts of others at varied parts of the agricultural supply chain. I’ve seen a few posts on differentiating between the different regenerative certifications and what practices/outcomes they require or evaluate so linking here a brief overview from Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum and another from Kiss The Ground:

https://rfsi-forum.com/regenerative-certifications-cheat-sheet/

https://kisstheground.com/regenerative-certifications/

I run the U.S. Ops for a Regenerative Organic Certified food company and am a food and ag policy Master’s student focusing on the future of regenerative policy in the U.S. Looking forward to contributing here!

I’m inheriting a farm. It hasn’t been maintained in years. I would need to start from scratch. So it would be a first generation farm.

It will be a while before I can really get it started since I won’t be able to live there.

Ideally I was thinking chickens for eggs and dairy goats for some raw dairy.

Do I start with the soil first for this season? Compost, cover crops, getting manure?

I want to start serving the community soy/corn free eggs. How many chickens could I have potentially on that small of a farm? Is that not enough room for an eggs business?

At minimum I’m happy with just a homestead. But farming for a living sounds great to me.

Hi all 👋

I'm liking Reddit more and more, however I'm realizing that each of these online platforms meets different needs--perhaps due to the way they are structured.

Reddit seems great for sharing and commenting about specific resources, or asking questions and getting community support on problems. However no sub, or forum for that matter, has come close to creating the collaboration, relationship, and community that I've experienced in group messaging apps such as slack, discord, and messenger.

Since November of last year, thirty-five people interested in regenerative agriculture have come together and begun growing the roots of a new discord community. Our conversations are infrequent, and growth is slow. But everyone who has introduced themselves in our group has shown a strong interest in regenerative agriculture. We have a kind and thoughtful group.

In the next week or so, I'll be adding a feature which will hopefully increase the cozy, communal vibe in this discord server. Active members will be granted access to a private room for only other active members. Once the active-members' discussion group becomes large enough, we may split further into sub-groups. I recognize the importance of small-groups for increasing a sense of trust and synergy. Being seen by hundreds or thousands of people keeps many of us feeling uncomfortable with sharing.

If we come together, and share our perspectives and experiences, I think we can increase our chances of our mutual success and prosperity. I think we can increase the healing that regenerative agriculture has on the earth and on our bodies and psyches. I think we can build a deeply fulfilling community, a togetherness, centered on restoring life through the way we choose to farm.

I'm confident that not only I, but many other members in the discord group would enjoy meeting you.

https://discord.me/regenerative-agriculture

Regards,
Josh

I live in coastal Mississippi and I'm looking to gain some additional perspective about my options for Regenerative AG in my region. I currently have about 4 acres fenced that was planted with Bahia and Bermuda about 15 years ago. I have a horse and a few sheep, admittedly probably too many, and years of thoughtless grazing strategy have left my pasture in rough shape.

In the past 1.5 years, I've tried to start implementing rotational grazing however not seeing much in the way of improvement. I spoke with my extension service and the guy about what I can do and he said ReAg will not work very well for me in my area due to the soil's ability to cold carbon buildup, and that I should just plan to reseed and fertilize Bahia.

In addition to this 4 acres I have about 15 more that I would like to fence in the future to make use of my land for more than just having to mow it down. This has never been planted with anything to my knowledge other than the pecan trees that litter my property and were planted about 110 years ago. Most of it is just weeds of what I would currently say is low/no value like Cogan grass and Coffeebean.

I'm currently at the stage where I need to make a decision and plant the usual Bahia, at least in my 4 ac and possibly another 2 that is on the immediate list to fence. Before I went that route I wanted to see if any other perspectives would make more sense and if carbon build up of the soil is possible through RA. The 1st area of intrest would be the 4 acres I'm currently running animals on and what the best method to "fix" that area is. followed by the next is how to begin prepping the land that I do not have fenced yet.

Any and all advice or prespectives are welcomed

Hello, could you share the cheapest feed that we could grow to feed our livestock and save money??. So far the best I have tried is King Napier Grass but the protein content is still too small.

Have anyone tried water hyacinth? I heard it’s very easy and cheap to grow??

Thank you in advance

https://gffuller.substack.com/p/brownie-mix-and-a-broken-food-system

A farmer from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage shares a story about "brownie mix" with me. It's safe to say the globalized, industrial food system is f*cked. This essay is about building a better one through agroecology.

I'd appreciate any thoughts. Subscribe to my Substack series if you'd like!

My husband and I both went to universities for plant science degrees. We learned a lot of the basics and a lot about industrial agriculture. We’ve both worked for companies in retail and manufacturing for conventional ag. 95% of our community or network is conventional minded. We started converting the farm to regen a few years ago. I absolutely love it. There is no other way I want to farm now.

Issue: We struggle with finding community that thinks like us. Regen ag requires so much trial and error, it’s nice to have someone beyond just the two of us to bounce ideas off of. We know some farmers a few hours away practicing regen, it’s just hard to make the time to go see them as we both work off-farm jobs for now.

Has anyone found good communities either locally or online? Does anyone else struggle with how lonely it can be to think and farm different?

https://open.substack.com/pub/corsonfinnerty/p/stemcel-greenlab?r=ql3e4&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Hello I am looking for books and authors on regenerative ag as well as topics surrounding such as small scale farms, water solution books, soil information, raw land, drought tips, or anything that can help me learn as much as I can before I buy raw land so I can go into this journey with knowledge and understanding of how to grow food for my family. I do plan on eventually having animals but not until I'm on the property full time. I will be buying the land to work on my free time the most I can with my partner.

Hi all, this might be a weird question but I'm looking for poetry, idealy by farmers but really anyone involved in regenerative agricultural practices, about their work. It does not have to be professionally written or anything of the sort, just some regular old poetry:)

I'm an engineer who has recently become very interested in sustainable/regenerative ag. I grew up on a farm and would like to start my own soon, but at the moment I thought I might be able to put my fabrication skills to use.

I understand that regenerative ag is less dependent on technology than traditional methods, and I'm not trying to make some gimmicky junk that will end up in a landfill.

I would just like to ask if there's any equipment or technology that would be helpful on your farm. Are there any tasks you hate doing? Is there any equipment you wish was more accessible?

Hi guys! I have been particularly interested in Regenerative Agriculture for the past year or so since seeing Kiss the Ground.

I've done a lot of research since then and tried to motivate myself to try it out. The hardest part has been trying to make a plan for it, as I have a particularly difficult time with it.

That being said, I have recently had a beautiful opportunity dropped into my lap. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get into contact with a local organic farmer who is letting me intern as a farm hand on his farm on my work weekends. So far I'm having a life changing experience learning from him and working with him to prepare for this season. He does not specifically do regenerative agriculture, however, he has extra space that he can't manage with the labor he has that he has offered to me to experiment with! I think that with that, I would be able to use the already pseudo cultivated plot he has to attempt some Regenerative Agriculture growing on a small scale!

He said he will give me any help and expertise he can to provide the best opportunity for it to work, and if it works particularly well, he's willing to partially or fully indoctrinate it into his farming!

I have had a hard time finding a good plan to grow in a small area for a year round production that would always be planted with something, and would love some help. I've bought some Organic seeds to try with, and I know he also has organic and possibly heirloom plants that I could use as well. I'm not particularly sure if the seeds I bought are also Heirloom because it doesn't specifically say that, and I'm not sure if organic seeds inherently mean heirloom.

The seeds I bought are Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Sweetie Tomato, Black Beauty Zucchini Summer Squash, California Wonder Sweet Pepper, and Parris Island Lettuce. They are all organic, and all from a company called Ferry~Morse. I am pretty sure the combination of these plants cannot be used year round, and would like help understanding how I can use these, if I can use these, and what else to use alongside or instead of throughout a year of planting.

I appreciate all criticism, positive remarks, insults and whatever else but I do hope it's all constructive to me.

Thank you in advance for responding with any information!

Another remark is that I have not specifically remarked about anything on what I'm going to do to the plot to him. I have only mentioned after he told me I could, that I probably would try, but I believe I made it sound like I'd try next year, but why not start now if I have his help?

I will let the link do most of the talking. The idea being spread by most in the regenerative ag movement is that polyculture benefits significantly outweigh monocultures. SO, I looked it up and found this. https://csanr.wsu.edu/2018-cover-crop-update/

While some concrete costs can be added to our receipts, the true costs of our cheap food are far greater than how we see, treat, and eat it. Either we start paying the full price, or farm and eat differently. Not all of us can afford the former, and—amid the unwinding effects of climate change—we are in desperate need of the latter.

https://gffuller.substack.com/p/the-true-costs-of-our-cheap-food

Read my latest essay, please let me know your thoughts, and subscribe for free if you'd like!

Disclaimer: This kind of has nothing to do with Allan Savory's rotational grazing claims, I know there's controversy about the science, I don't really care to get into that. This is about something tangental in one of his books that helped me and that I'm trying to find again!

4 years ago I apprenticed on a regenerative farm, and one afternoon we did this workshop that the farmers took out of Savory's book about defining your life values/making decisions. The exercise was designed for couples who were starting a farm together (and some of us were doing that) but we tailored it to work for individuals who just wanted to figure out where they're going in life. I thought I had saved a copy somewhere, but I've moved, and I can't find it!

One part listed 40 sets of "values" like competition, leadership, security, learning, adventure, health, generosity, etc. And then had you list how much each of these are in your life now, how sad you would feel if you didn't have each of these, how much happier you'd be if you did have them, etc. Another part asked what you want people to say about you at your funeral lol. And there were a few other questions along those lines.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and have a picture of this part of the book they can send me? I'm having trouble finding this on google. And I've found other "define your core values!" worksheets but none are as good as this one.

TIA!