Jay, we live in a fallen broken world, because of this we have to deal with thorns and thistles, toil in labor and provide for our families by the sweat of our face. Does the toil of our labor look the same today as it did 6,000 years ago? No, today it’s seven year crop rotation spreadsheets that are crumpled up by two years of drought or someone spraying the wrong chemical mix on a field. The sweat of our face isn’t quite the same either, but you get what I’m saying. GMO and glyphosate promised to shortcut the curse. How’s that working out? We’ve become slaves to Big Ag. Then regenerative ag experts come on the scene promising eden like results, if you follow some principles. You are stewarding a piece of creation that is not nor ever will be Eden, and you’re dealing with us fallen broken people that hear what we want to hear. Keep up the good work.
New regenerative small farmer here. Thanks for being real. We don't do everything right and we are just learning. Some of our failures have been from our own lack of knowledge and some from others not liking what we are doing and causing us to start over. This year has been much better and we are a tad smarter. If you don't share your failure us new guys are destoned to do the same without even knowing. Let them throw their fluff somewhere else, we've not got time for that.
Glad to see you're sponsored by Green Cover Seed in this episode. Dale Strickler of green cover seed, in my opinion, is one of America's leading agronomists and just as knowledgeable as a beef producer as well. Good luck in your future endeavors.
I'm full throttle in Regen Ag in Michigan. I grew 40 bushel/acre corn this year. Crap. We ran the pigs through it early then planted turnips for extra feed. we didn't get al the grain we need for winter, but the jerusalem artichokes did surprisingly well and we should be able to supplement enough to get through.
Proverbs 24:16 For the righteous one may fall even seven times, and he will certainly get up; but the wicked ones will be made to stumble by calamity. I feel this scripture kind of sums up what you're talking about. Feel it's a good idea to shed some Heavenly light on everything we do. Thank you for sticking on the journey and sticking with our original purpose here on Earth. - Genesis 2:15
Regarding placing focus on getting conventional farmers to see regenerative ag as a viable option, Amen! Like you said, farmers like you are few and far between. That means everyone else is out there pounding the land and hurting our collective future. The fact that you are willing to share the good and the bad with the intention of elevating ag speaks volumes about your character. You are a pioneer in this field. There is absolutely no comparison between the work you are doing and the comments of "couch potatoes". For what it's worth, we tried compost extract this year for the first time with little to no benefit. And we had such high hopes. Half the problem is we're all so overworked and operating "on a shoestring" that it's hard to get all the details right on the first go. Nice message in this video.
I might add that part of the curse on the ground may simply be our hubris in determining what's good and evil for ourselves, apart from God, which leads to extractive systems, rather than the regenerative cycles that God put into place. Creation groans! We've also been empowered with His grace to occupy and co labor till His appearing, presumably to play a part in the redemption of creation.
I am an organic farmer, but in vegetable production and on a small scale. What amazes me is that row crop producers are all chasing high yields at any cost, without realizing that they are mutually undermining each others economic success by overproduction. And don't tell me 'we have to feed the world', first feed your family and get your farm sustainable.
I appreciate when a man shares his failures, that is a great way to earn a good man's respect, and you have always been honest and forthright. There many zealots out there trying to hijak the movement but these are ' practices' not scripture. Even physicians lose a patient once in a while while practicing medicine, so keep the good work JAY. Best regards from Texas
Your honesty and dedication to showing the good, bad, and ugly is what I want to see. Not because I want to see struggling, but because I want to see the lessons you learn in your area when things don’t go as planned. Thanks for pledging to keep it 💯
This planet needs more people like you, honest and kind and smart. We're only on a 2/3 of an acre here but learning/practicing permaculture is similar to what you are talking about. Only doing it since 2018 but still have many failures but I'm not giving up. Thank you for your words of encouragement.
The regenerative agriculture idea is new to me in 2023. I'm working for a cow man in SE KS. Everything we have done this year, so far, has been a failure. I don't think that it is anything that we're doing. We just can't get any decent rainfall! We planted 2000 dollars of annual ryegrass in the spring. I saw literally 10 or 12 plants of it growing. We tried to spray weeds with a mister and it didn't work either, too much bare soil between grass plants and the weeds just kept coming, cow numbers were way down, but just enough to eat all the grass and leave all the weeds. In early October we sowed cereal rye in Bermuda grass pasture along with some fescue in parts, and radishes in combination with cereal rye in other places. So far the last 2 two weeks of "major changes in the weather patterns" we got zero in the first one, and yesterday, oct 24 rained .6 inch ! So, as you are well aware, nothing, nothing works when it doesn't rain.
I turned 61 today and my project is to build two totes for my family farm in Northern NY .Following your videos of good, bad and ugly is a great motivation so keep the chin up and the eyes forward
Wow!! Thank you for this video!!!! I haven’t seen anyone have the courage to say these things, but you could not be more right!!! Thank you Jay, my heart feels warmer having watched this ❤
Thank you for this perspective! In all major decision making, I have to ask myself "What don't I know"? Finding sources of complete and accurate information lead to better decision making.
Jay, this video is exactly why I keep coming back. Unvarnished truth. Don't forget you are venturing into uncharted territory for the benefit of us all! Thank you.
You're 100 percent correct, and I'd like to add one more element. I've noticed that the guys who are quick to drop regenerative principles, generally aren't willing to take the time to understand their system in the first place. They are wanting quick results without taking the time to plan or run scenarios on possible outcomes. I've learned far more from my failures than my successes.
Just earned my subscription. I work for the NRCS and manage 50 acs of pasture in Eastern SD. I see this all the time. Folks, especially farmers, have been fed the silver bullet idea that "x" will solve your problem. So when it doesn't work exactly like Gabe Brown year 1, the whole process doesn't work. In reality, regenerative ag is taking back your decision making from the silver bullet salesman which comes with risk and failure. That is a very hard pill for a farmer that's been told for decades "spray this" or "plant that" by someone else to swallow.
You're right, Patrick. And I get your point. But 'Gabe Brown year 1' was nearly a total failure for Gabe. Which, of course, is both ironic and a firm confirmation of your Jay's point.
South African here again. We get about 20 - 22 inches rain per year. 35 degrees C last week. Regen is no silver bullet but my intuition says the concept is a very good option. We must live and learn. The challenge for me is sometimes I do not know / recognize what I should have learnt - so then I try and ask different questions about what i have experienced. Big respect to u from another continent.
As humans we always expect instant fantastic results, as I said to a customer of mine once, we’ve spent 80 years, or more, stuffing it up, it’s going to take a few years to repair it. Then throw in that bit that really needs to be changed, the square foot of real estate on our shoulders. Same old saying, if you’ve never made a mistake, you’ve never done anything. Just keep going, show it all warts and all.
Great video! I recall another topic that demands a focus on local context - Dr. Carl Whitcomb talked about people selecting trees for civic areas. He pointed out that species that grow well elsewhere might not be adapted to your environment. Even trees growing in the same city 1/2 mile apart could be on a different geological layer. So one of those locations might work for a certain species of tree and the second location might not be. You need soil samples from the proposed location and not rely on the fact that the same tree works fine 1/2 mile away. Regenerative ag is even more context-specific, it’s an engineering approach. When I was a kid, I’d ask my dad which metal was the strongest. He was an engineer and would say something like “it depends on the application”. I came to appreciate that approach. It isn’t as much fun as memorizing a bunch of terms and following recipes-it’s also much harder. But while there are some general principles that can be followed, things like “keyline is better than swales” or vice-versa doesn’t take into account the complexities of the environment. In many ways, matching application to environment is difficult because the interaction of the principles you are trying to implement are complex and in some ways it’s a chaotic system… Bravo for a great video.
Thank you for another great video! I went through the same thoughts one year ago. Someone "smarter" than me, putting me down for not listening and doing things wrong. I know he wasn't paying attention to MY context, and only comparing to his (after 11 years). I wish you lived in Michigan.... "Iron sharpens iron". Keep up your great work Jay Young!!
This is by far the most honest video I’ve ever seen on regenerative ag and I’ve watched a lot of them over the years. The situation described of push the good, shame the bad is why I will not intentionally try to do regenerative ag ever again. I just can’t trust it. Too many pie in the sky stories that leave out crucial bits of context no one else has. I tried regenerative techniques for a number of years and kept getting told I wasn’t doing it good enough. It was always another suggestion that would cost a lot of money and take 2,3 or 5 years to implement. I’d say that I’ve already been doing it for 15 and I’d really get condescended to. Which in a way was rightly so. Why was I being so stupid as to take these people seriously for so many years when my neighbors who didn’t pay attention to any of this stuff appeared to do just fine. I had enough and went full conventional ( tillage, GMOs, full herbicide) in what was a really dry year. I couldn’t believe the profitability that was possible simply from getting a good crop. I could finally afford to lay drain tile (which some regen folks said was unnecessary) across my whole farm without borrowing any money for it while I’m still making land payments. Maybe drain tile is what I needed all along but none of the big name people I talked to ever suggested it although they did suggest other ideas that certainly would’ve cost plenty of money. Best wishes to this gentleman and his family. I hope all of us farmers are able to find the tools to do whatever it is we need to make a good living.
Thank you for your message. Here's my struggle as a human farmer of food: why am I working hard, hoping to make a living, feeding others? The "others" need to invest with me AND get their hands dirty - that's why everyone is sick and fat - no connection to food - to the biosphere. They can not keep being who they are - fat, sick, and stupid won't deliver the future we all need. We need better global food. We have gotten stupid on fodder. WE need to find a way to get together and get humans back into the land. I have been unable to communicate this idea to folks around here. They think I'm crazy. I think we are LIVING inside crazy. 1 person can grow their own food. 2 people can grow a lot more, but 3 people - they can grow enough food for many. This math is hidden by our lifestyles. The pully works inside humanity too - money hides the math. We need to rethink everything. 1 land - e pluribus unum under food (biosphere). Many thanks for giving me things to think about.
Love your content and honesty. People need to understand that failure is actually positive because it's how we learn what doesn't work. I spent 17 yrs working in conventional agriculture as a sales aronomist and I can tell you in production agriculture there is probably more failure than success. Example, when you ask a farmer what they got for yield they will usually tell you the highest number seen on the entire operation because they want to feel good but nobody ever talks in terms of average yield or what the worst spot did. Not to mention I have not seen anyone come up with a way to control what hand mother nature deals us. People who are successful are the ones who are not afraid to fail ,the ones who fail, learn, and try again. I 100 percent agree that we need to celebrate failures as much if not more than success, if we did we would all learn so much more . No one ever wants to brag about failure but it's the best form of data to learn from. I spent 25 yrs in the Army did a lot of training and guess what we spent 90 percent of our time discussing what we failed at and how to try and improve. Keep up the great work, I will be trying to implement some of the regen ag principles on my own farm soon.
I think you are talking about people that don't actually do anything, they are "youtube educated" only with zero experience and they are not limited to regen ag. They are all over the permaculture space too and in many other niches beyond horticulture/ag.
Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain. Well said. I don't fail on my farm from my perspective. I fail a lot from armchair farmer's perspective. I'm happy. Keep saying how it is.
This why your channel is my favorite farm channel and one of the best out there I know what you mean. I am trying to implement more regenerative practices on our dairy in NY. Traditionally we haven't been a grazing dairy but I'm trying to transition to more grazing for the benefits that it brings. After have some issues I was trying to get some advice from a regenerative grazing group. The "professional graziers " said it was bad management and grazing produces great results. That was it ,no thoughts on how to improve. Their response definitely didn't give me a positive vibe about regenerative ag. It's baby steps for me. I love the idea of regenerative ag and like some of the results I'm seeing but I feel like there is a lack of transparency on some of the issues we face implementing these strategies. Its presented as all sunshine and roses with big profits. Content like this helps keep it real and remind us it's not a magic bullet so definitely understand where you are coming from . I appreciate you addressing the topic. Keep up the great work Jay!
Regenerative agriculture has to be good for the soil,good for the livestock ,good for the bank account, and good for the farmers community. To truly be regenerative it should be all of the above. Thanks for sharing. I fail often as well but without that we cant learn what to improve.
Thanks for being honest. When you start off with soil that has been abused and is mess up not everything you try is going to work, there are to many variables. I don't trust anyone that says everything they do is a 100% success its just not realistic. If the leaders are really concerned about the Regenerative Ag Movement they would try to help solve the problems instead of downgrading the people that are trying to make the transition to RA. We planted our 1st cover crop for grazing last year with mixed success, this year our cover crop is looking a lot better, but we have gotten our fall rains unlike last year. My goal with cover crops is to extend grazing and cut down on making, buying and feeding hay. Again thank you for being honest about your failures nice to see the whole truth about RA.
Big respect Red Angus. And thanks to your response to my comments. I am interested in charcoal being added to the process as an aerator in the compost mix.
Keep up your great work Jay, Climate Change is going to have a bigger and bigger impact on Agriculture production around the world irrespective of Regen or Industrial Ag systems so we need to expect more failures. But Regen Ag will help to lessen Climate Change whereas Industrial Ag will increase it.
I'm on my 5th yr with cover crops and no till,its been a struggle,but I see small changes.I recently built a bio reactor,from everything I've read or watched,it just makes sense when it comes to soil health and our health as well...sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to find a way to make it work
Keep up the good work I really like your videos. on our farm it doesn't always work according to plan but at the end of the day mother nature has the final say. I watch a lot of other videos different things people are trying . they say they are going to show the results but I never see them online. You're awesome you keep posting will keep watching
Here in south central Wisconsin, this season was tough for regen to look good from the road. Just too dry to get good germination planting into the green.
I’m encouraged because ag radio here in Nebraska along with their advertisers and University of Nebraska are all talking Regen Ag. I see more land at least left with the roots and residue to protect soils some with manure applied but still too little cover crops. I look when traveling to my bow hunting areas. Guess you have to crawl before walk and walk before run. Enjoy your content and encourage you to stay with it. Changing the way 3rd 4th 5th generations think isn’t easy especially in dry years. Keep the faith
You make a great point. It is the same with vegetarians or keto people (only eat meat). They become so locked into their beliefs that that refuse to hear alternative views. Some of these people are so locked into their beliefs, you cannot talk to them or they become hostile. This is why we wind up with two political parties that are miles apart, religions that hate one another. This happens all over the world.
I’m a gardener not a Farmer. I really appreciate your channel I’m learning a lot, please keep it up. Just wondering if you have read “The intelligent Gardener, Growing Nutrient Dense food” by Steve Solomon? He is very honest about failures in Organic Gardening and how to overcome some of them. He focuses mainly on organic fertilizers and I was wondering how that might fit in with regenerative agriculture. Again only a gardener not a farmer I don’t presume to know anything about farming. Thanks again
@@youngredangus6041 just had a thought and will need to research more. Ancient peoples didn’t have fungicide, pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. They did have plows and managed to cause many deserts around the world. The only difference to us and them is fissile fuels allowing for greater areas to be tilled all at once.
I have always wanted to farm i learn and learn. I need to know the failures and successes in your environment to better evaluate the totally. So THANK YOU.
Thanks for sharing the successes with us, as well as those efforts that didn’t turn out as hoped. If everything always turned out perfect, we would be suspicious and think it’s an infomercial. Instead you are frank and honest with us, and we really appreciate it a lot‼️ And even better, you allow us to be a part of your work and learn with you.
Jay, this is kind of eye opening. Suppose there’s such a thing as regen ag evangelists?? Why not? Any good thing can be taken too far so why not this - especially with the typical positive messaging and “cure all” mentality. Armchair farmers are doggin’ the people who are out there doing their best. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
Keep up the good work, Jay. Failure makes us better, period. As for the comments sections, they are always "cancer." It's a known phenomenon. Folks you're not in the room with are easier to talk down to (even when you don't mean it that way)
I have been trying re-generative for 3 years and been fairly happy. This year was a total wreck as I got 1/8th of a round bale per acre where the average was 1/2 a bale per acre. Driest year in 105 years. Weeds are the problem, my supplier keeps saying i dont seed enough and when I do the crop burns to nothing.
You're kind of our guinea pig Jay... We rely on ya so keep up the good work. IMO there is absolutely no need to address the negative nancys out there. Those that matter understand the hardship...
Admitting to failure is part of science, the experiment did not go as expected. Failure is not a moral issue, only an unwanted, perhaps unexpected and disappointing result of an experiment. Learn from the failure and in so doing advance the science. Learn from success as well, both are equally important in scientific endeavor.
I recently just started getting into watching regenerative gardening to learn. My POV is this - farming and gardening, It's a science. Yes, you do have failures. No, they aren't complete failures. They are learning failures that we all improve on, or change until it actually works to our benefit. But even then, we always want to go further with it to make it better. Me, I'm just a guy with 3 raised beds in my tiny back yard of a tract home in the middle of the California Agricultural environment, and I want to learn how to improve my garden. I compost nearly everything that is compostable and natural. Even that is a failure at times. But I continue to look for ways to improve. That is where I decided to do cover crops. So last year, I did all 3 beds for the 1st time The soil did improve, but not enough. Some plants did okay, some produced, but were horrible. Some did decently well. So, in order to improve, we planted the cover crops again. It also didnt help that the neighborhood feral cats kept using it for there deeds. That another one we are trying to get solved. At least I'm learning in a small environment now, so that in the hopes of moving to a decent property in the future we will have a decent idea on where to continue in the food growing learning process. Keep discussing the failures! Ignore those in disagreement of your learning processs.
Jay, thanks for your work! You are influencing my young teenage nephews. Keep on experimenting and learning and teaching what you learn. The young ones will stand taller and take the batton farther because of your work.
My brothers are into big ag methods, our dad recently "retired" and the 15 and nearly 15 year old cousins, sons of my brothers, have a love of driving metal, just like their dads, my brothers. I lean toward the managed intensive rotational grazing like Greg Judy, Gabe Brown,... Last time i drove a tractor was 40 years ago. I found it BORING, i love to watch/be around critters. Harvesting critters is more enjoyable for me than driving the tractor while baling hay. I love that you discuss the trials and getting through them. Your discussion of the microscopic critters is mind blowing! Great science lessons for homeschoolers! Keep asking the questions that take you to the next level.
Jay, not only do you have outside battles, but we also have internal battles. Check out Ren, Hi Ren song, and his other work it is inspiring he is inspiring. Dry soil needs activated biochar to hold the moisture.
I am watching because a friend says it doesn't work. I want to understand her. My passion is soil because I grew up on a strawberry farm where I had to weed 10-20 acres of berries all summer. My childhood was spent that way. So I feel for people who have no connection like that. Also, I knew I was not going to farm as a livelihood. I worked for the RR. It takes a lot of compassion for the work that farmers do.
Thanks Jay for your videos Healing soils takes time One of our fields took ten years to catchup with the others. We would have good & bad years. The weather here is changing. 1 year bad year 2 normalish years 1 good year God bless you Tom 2 normalish years 1 good
Good presentation. It took me a while to figure out your point but then as you went on you came through loud and clear. Any kind of change is very scary to many people and when they get scared they lash out at whoever they think is challenging their rock hard beliefs. I like the idea of presenting the full picture both good and bad whatever that is. Ultimately it will be through the overall profitability of one system over the other that will bring hard liners around to regenerative ag if they see regenerative farmers going to the bank to make deposits bigger than theirs. You said regenerative agriculture is difficult and yes all agriculture is difficult due to the chaotic nature of the atmosphere so that no matter how hard you plan, nature can slap you upside the head. Overall though, we are finding that regenerative practices can in some situations soften the slap. As nature becomes more and more chaotic, those who want to hold onto their rigid tenets will get slapped right out of agriculture. Just by doing what you are doing you are having an overall positive impact on the regenerative movement even if the boo birds like to call you names. That is only their death rattle you are hearing. Keep up the good work. Your making a big impact on the future of agriculture.
Have you ever thought about working with AEA? I have heard them talk about amazing results using their Soil Primer in the fall instead of a cover crop in drier environments because it doesn't use up so much of the moisture. I've been working with them for a few months now and really like the company and everyone involved.
that was the most real thing I have heard. I hear on other video's where people just sell all of their plows and go totally regen from the start my personal opinion is that is very close to the definition of insanity. if I was a farmer that had a family farm to my care there would be no way I would even consider basically selling out so I could try something different and with the average age of the American farm being over 60+ I don't thing you will get them to change however I believe that educating the young farmer & Ranchers is where the focus should be..
My mode seems to be fail, fail, fail, small success, then start over. As I try the regenerative processes, and watch my land go backwards it's disheartening and scary, but sometimes I see something that seems to be working, so I keep on trucking. Mistakes are made, research is done, and process is tried again.
With a multitude of extremely complex systems (soil, weather, plant physiology) just to name a few, it needs to be realized that our four simple rules of regenerative ag just begins to give us a glimpse of understanding. With 10's of thousands of factors going on around the plants, our 4 simple rules seem minuscule as to what caused a crop to flourish or fail. Having to start all over to do regenerative ag is a herculean task. With multiple generations doing this type of farming would be big boost of knowledge, starting over and relearning this type of farming is going to have many failures, and it takes a David against the Goliath of factors going against our goals, to keep going and not give up. Hang in there and keep the faith, run the race to win.
We had a tough yr here in Eastern Iowa for covers as well. Very dry, no till fields looked tough all yr. Have to look at all our test and readjust for next yr.
Thanks man, completely agree. like in anything, if we assume we are right and others have it backwards, regen will not help anything. Each farmer and farm is different, and that changes from year to year, as well. each of us is on an educational journey, and probably always will be.
I'm 100% behind regenerative ag, but I'm realistic and believe it's a tool in the toolbox, and is not a save the farm practice........good luck and keep up the good work!
I live in south east Oklahoma and am very familiar with this. I wish my grandpa would have knew this instead of dying to farm and making farming a burden rather than natural fun. Great video! Keep up the good work!
Sir, thank you for an honest discussion, this is my first video of your I’ve seen, and I subscribed to your channel. Do you mind if I ask. What’s your average water fall each year? We just signed a contract on a ranch in eastern Colorado and water is going to be our challenge.
People should understand that there will always be failure (challenges) even with conventional farming methods. Unfortunately most people are keen to think negative about the challenges regenerative agriculture brings forward, because they are unfamiliar with it. To all the regen farmers, keep up the good work!
Holy crap yes . The Inferno magazine came to do an article, most of the soil we could not get the shovel in the ground and I said that should be the story right there. But we found some stuff that looked good so that is his article. But I told him he has to make mention of the struggles of the transition Yep you get asked to speak at all these events and I've had some people kind of frown on me for saying that the transition can really suck
Im new to this aspect of regenerative farming, but very interested . Do you or do know of any trials/results of applying Johnson-Su to pasture for helping diversity and productivity? Thanks, you have GOOD content!!
Just came across your channel. Agree with you on this topic. I transitioned to organic 23 years ago and dealt with things like you spoke of. Unsuccessful things are part of any new venture and teach us things the hard way! Keep on keeping on!
Looking on the outside, it is really strange that some of the most successful in the movement experienced significant failures, Gabe Brown is actually inspiring because the been there done that is really important. But i do wonder why haven't neighbors come onboard for several? I mean you are successful in their neighborhood. Maybe we really need to improve mentoring? But i also read a lot of comments that ignore the struggles and that i screwed up stories. Or that huge "context" difference and why what Greg Judy does in his part of Missouri now, after years of mistakes, why that is going to be different in his area for a dairy farm. Both with cattle, but Greg doesn't do dairy. He hasn't figured it out. I do like the inspirational messages that Joel Salatin does, that talk about the difficulty and the nobility that really are part of farming and ranching.
I think you are profoundly honest and there is zero shame, in fact there should be a lot of "pride" (in the good sense) in being so. You state you've only been doing this since 2016. 7 years ago. One learns as one practices the science and *culture* of regen. ag. All power to you and everyone should listen to you. There IS in fact a kind of "cult" status around people like Joe Salatin and Gabe Brown. I heard Brown speak at the University of California's big ag school at Davis. Wonderful forceful speaker and he DID talk a lot about caveats and trial and error. Just so you know...I live in San Francisco and I'm not a farmer. I got interested in soil fertility because I've always been fascinated with food production. Californa's very "liberal" government are actually big time supporters of regeneratirve agriculture because leftists (a very broad and inexact term) are generally concerned about the climate and climate activism dovetails neatly with Regenerative Agriculture. Grass finished beef is growing at the many farmers markets set up in urban and suburban areas of San Francisco's Bay Area. The Marin (county directly to the north of SF) County Carbon Project is an applied study of the effects of cattle on the soil when managed carefully with the idea of quantifying carbon sequestration. Reg. Ag is a big and growing "leftwing thing" in the Golden State. So, just be careful about over generalizations here. In my view we need a "bi-partisan" push to support, not stymie via regulations, the many different kinds of Reg. Ag. that exist out there. There are way too many people on both sides of the partisan divide who support what you are doing...and the same with those that by dint of bureaucratic momentum, want to shut it down. My interest specifically is who to integrate both cash cropping/cereal grain production with covercropping/managed rotational grazing. I notice you mentioned you failed in delivering some corn crop you had interspersed with cover crops (I've seen this on other channels). For me that is the big challenge, growing *all* our food using cattle to as a the main regenerative tool to do so, combined with smart cover cropping. David
I follow a couple of farming channels as well as this one. One in the U.K, conventional farming using all the commercially available products, a cattle farmer in Canada (of Scottish nationality) who has a more environmental approach than the norms 'up there' and this one. All are interesting. The U.K. farm is sowing 'cover crops' and using 'no till' machinery' for the first time..which is a bit of a revelation as the 'owner' of that farm was just recently extolling the virtues of those who produce the prodcuts that do much harm to the soil. Maybe he is changing his views on certain aspects of how things are done on his farm. Regards 'failures' etc they are all part of life...but the risks of getting it wrong on a farm seems quite high and many 'non regen' farmers may have an interest in doing it but think the risks are too great (so avoid failure by not adopting 'regen').. Maybe a slow transition would work whilst folks gain knowledge and experience before a complete change from conventional to 'regen'? I/m not fully aware of all the complications or conflicts that need to be circumvented between conventional and regen... 'Keep on keeping on' I really enjoy watching this channel it augments the other channels perfectly ...
For someone with no background in farming looking to start mix of home stead and small scale (chicken, goat/sheep). Can this welcoming comment section recommend a few books? Especially from a pre design and approach aspect?
I looked forward to hearing your thoughts. I happen to agree with you, but fully realize there Are Two sides to a coin. Often I feel like we are only getting part of the story. When moving cattle one or more times a day, how many acres are needed? They don't mention that. Ever notice how when someone has a certain breed of animal, there is None better than the one they have?i
We won't learn anything if it's easy, without failures. Best to share the failures and keep us all thinking. But yes, stick with it and make the mindset shift to learn. Hopefully your profit margins will grow too and keep the movement growing.
Tanks for this video. I do (and love) permaculture in my homestead, and because i do it, i respect even more traditional e induatrial farmers that are around me. Because i known that it dificult, there are challenges, failures, and no solution fits all, and i dont even have the pressure to do it comercially. Do any agriculturw comercially its for heros. Doing it in a regenerative way its superheros. Its only easy foy keyboard warriors, that do nothing on the land, but are enlighten because they saw 1000 youtube videos, althou they are just average consumers, living in cities...
Farming is local. Weather and soil types vary so that what works one place may not work somewhere else. Getting the problems out there will resolve them faster.
Regenerative seems to go with the idea of resilient and sustainable. Given the vast complexity of nature, some humility & humor are necessary trying to figure it out. Soil microbiology is a vast universe.
There is no progress without some failure. Only God does things right all the time. Our soils here were in a balanced state for thousands of years until modern agriculture started the destruction of the life in the soil. It will take a generation to turn it around. But we have to do it. Keep preaching it Jay.
Regererative agriculture is a relatively new movement. Regen ag farmers don't have the luxury of having everything about their agricultural strategies figured out like the folks doing large-scale industrial monoculture which has been around for longer then any of us can remember. So yeah, it's okay and in some ways even expected that regenerative agriculture projects will fail at first. It's the people who have the patience and resilience to keep going that will forge ahead.
Jay, we live in a fallen broken world, because of this we have to deal with thorns and thistles, toil in labor and provide for our families by the sweat of our face. Does the toil of our labor look the same today as it did 6,000 years ago? No, today it’s seven year crop rotation spreadsheets that are crumpled up by two years of drought or someone spraying the wrong chemical mix on a field. The sweat of our face isn’t quite the same either, but you get what I’m saying. GMO and glyphosate promised to shortcut the curse. How’s that working out? We’ve become slaves to Big Ag. Then regenerative ag experts come on the scene promising eden like results, if you follow some principles. You are stewarding a piece of creation that is not nor ever will be Eden, and you’re dealing with us fallen broken people that hear what we want to hear. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the encouragement and reminder
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
-Winston S. Churchill
New regenerative small farmer here. Thanks for being real. We don't do everything right and we are just learning. Some of our failures have been from our own lack of knowledge and some from others not liking what we are doing and causing us to start over. This year has been much better and we are a tad smarter. If you don't share your failure us new guys are destoned to do the same without even knowing. Let them throw their fluff somewhere else, we've not got time for that.
Thanks for the encouragement
Glad to see you're sponsored by Green Cover Seed in this episode. Dale Strickler of green cover seed, in my opinion, is one of America's leading agronomists and just as knowledgeable as a beef producer as well.
Good luck in your future endeavors.
I'm full throttle in Regen Ag in Michigan. I grew 40 bushel/acre corn this year. Crap. We ran the pigs through it early then planted turnips for extra feed. we didn't get al the grain we need for winter, but the jerusalem artichokes did surprisingly well and we should be able to supplement enough to get through.
Keep up the good work!
Proverbs 24:16 For the righteous one may fall even seven times, and he will certainly get up; but the wicked ones will be made to stumble by calamity. I feel this scripture kind of sums up what you're talking about. Feel it's a good idea to shed some Heavenly light on everything we do. Thank you for sticking on the journey and sticking with our original purpose here on Earth. - Genesis 2:15
I love that verse! Thanks for sharing it
This really has nothing to do with religion.
Regarding placing focus on getting conventional farmers to see regenerative ag as a viable option, Amen! Like you said, farmers like you are few and far between. That means everyone else is out there pounding the land and hurting our collective future. The fact that you are willing to share the good and the bad with the intention of elevating ag speaks volumes about your character. You are a pioneer in this field. There is absolutely no comparison between the work you are doing and the comments of "couch potatoes". For what it's worth, we tried compost extract this year for the first time with little to no benefit. And we had such high hopes. Half the problem is we're all so overworked and operating "on a shoestring" that it's hard to get all the details right on the first go. Nice message in this video.
Thanks for the encouragement! I hope the composting goes well for you next year!
I might add that part of the curse on the ground may simply be our hubris in determining what's good and evil for ourselves, apart from God, which leads to extractive systems, rather than the regenerative cycles that God put into place. Creation groans! We've also been empowered with His grace to occupy and co labor till His appearing, presumably to play a part in the redemption of creation.
I am an organic farmer, but in vegetable production and on a small scale. What amazes me is that row crop producers are all chasing high yields at any cost, without realizing that they are mutually undermining each others economic success by overproduction. And don't tell me 'we have to feed the world', first feed your family and get your farm sustainable.
I appreciate when a man shares his failures, that is a great way to earn a good man's respect, and you have always been honest and forthright. There many zealots out there trying to hijak the movement but these are ' practices' not scripture. Even physicians lose a patient once in a while while practicing medicine, so keep the good work JAY. Best regards from Texas
Thanks
Please elaborate about the hijack statement.
I think it is best to let the statement stand as a means to promote individual reasoning. Thanks @@sarbsukhsingh8347
Your honesty and dedication to showing the good, bad, and ugly is what I want to see. Not because I want to see struggling, but because I want to see the lessons you learn in your area when things don’t go as planned. Thanks for pledging to keep it 💯
This planet needs more people like you, honest and kind and smart. We're only on a 2/3 of an acre here but learning/practicing permaculture is similar to what you are talking about. Only doing it since 2018 but still have many failures but I'm not giving up. Thank you for your words of encouragement.
The regenerative agriculture idea is new to me in 2023. I'm working for a cow man in SE KS. Everything we have done this year, so far, has been a failure. I don't think that it is anything that we're doing. We just can't get any decent rainfall! We planted 2000 dollars of annual ryegrass in the spring. I saw literally 10 or 12 plants of it growing.
We tried to spray weeds with a mister and it didn't work either, too much bare soil between grass plants and the weeds just kept coming, cow numbers were way down, but just enough to eat all the grass and leave all the weeds. In early October we sowed cereal rye in Bermuda grass pasture along with some fescue in parts, and radishes in combination with cereal rye in other places. So far the last 2 two weeks of "major changes in the weather patterns" we got zero in the first one, and yesterday, oct 24 rained .6 inch !
So, as you are well aware, nothing, nothing works when it doesn't rain.
I turned 61 today and my project is to build two totes for my family farm in Northern NY .Following your videos of good, bad and ugly is a great motivation so keep the chin up and the eyes forward
Thanks
Wow!! Thank you for this video!!!! I haven’t seen anyone have the courage to say these things, but you could not be more right!!! Thank you Jay, my heart feels warmer having watched this ❤
Thank you for this perspective! In all major decision making, I have to ask myself "What don't I know"? Finding sources of complete and accurate information lead to better decision making.
Thanks
Jay, this video is exactly why I keep coming back. Unvarnished truth. Don't forget you are venturing into uncharted territory for the benefit of us all! Thank you.
Failure is only a failure if you repeat your mistake and don't learn from it .. thanks for your honesty warts n all !👍
You're 100 percent correct, and I'd like to add one more element. I've noticed that the guys who are quick to drop regenerative principles, generally aren't willing to take the time to understand their system in the first place. They are wanting quick results without taking the time to plan or run scenarios on possible outcomes. I've learned far more from my failures than my successes.
100%
Just earned my subscription. I work for the NRCS and manage 50 acs of pasture in Eastern SD. I see this all the time. Folks, especially farmers, have been fed the silver bullet idea that "x" will solve your problem. So when it doesn't work exactly like Gabe Brown year 1, the whole process doesn't work. In reality, regenerative ag is taking back your decision making from the silver bullet salesman which comes with risk and failure. That is a very hard pill for a farmer that's been told for decades "spray this" or "plant that" by someone else to swallow.
Thanks Patrick
You're right, Patrick. And I get your point. But 'Gabe Brown year 1' was nearly a total failure for Gabe. Which, of course, is both ironic and a firm confirmation of your Jay's point.
South African here again. We get about 20 - 22 inches rain per year. 35 degrees C last week.
Regen is no silver bullet but my intuition says the concept is a very good option.
We must live and learn. The challenge for me is sometimes I do not know / recognize what I should have learnt - so then I try and ask different questions about what i have experienced.
Big respect to u from another continent.
Regen is the way to go.SAn too.
What a fantastic message! I could not agree more. We are trying too, and not every experiment is a success. Thank you for acknowledging this.
As humans we always expect instant fantastic results, as I said to a customer of mine once, we’ve spent 80 years, or more, stuffing it up, it’s going to take a few years to repair it. Then throw in that bit that really needs to be changed, the square foot of real estate on our shoulders.
Same old saying, if you’ve never made a mistake, you’ve never done anything. Just keep going, show it all warts and all.
Great video! I recall another topic that demands a focus on local context - Dr. Carl Whitcomb talked about people selecting trees for civic areas. He pointed out that species that grow well elsewhere might not be adapted to your environment. Even trees growing in the same city 1/2 mile apart could be on a different geological layer. So one of those locations might work for a certain species of tree and the second location might not be. You need soil samples from the proposed location and not rely on the fact that the same tree works fine 1/2 mile away. Regenerative ag is even more context-specific, it’s an engineering approach.
When I was a kid, I’d ask my dad which metal was the strongest. He was an engineer and would say something like “it depends on the application”. I came to appreciate that approach. It isn’t as much fun as memorizing a bunch of terms and following recipes-it’s also much harder. But while there are some general principles that can be followed, things like “keyline is better than swales” or vice-versa doesn’t take into account the complexities of the environment. In many ways, matching application to environment is difficult because the interaction of the principles you are trying to implement are complex and in some ways it’s a chaotic system… Bravo for a great video.
My interseeded corn failed but it became a great cover crop! Got really nice barley growing in it now 😊
Thank you for another great video! I went through the same thoughts one year ago. Someone "smarter" than me, putting me down for not listening and doing things wrong. I know he wasn't paying attention to MY context, and only comparing to his (after 11 years). I wish you lived in Michigan.... "Iron sharpens iron". Keep up your great work Jay Young!!
Thanks
This is by far the most honest video I’ve ever seen on regenerative ag and I’ve watched a lot of them over the years. The situation described of push the good, shame the bad is why I will not intentionally try to do regenerative ag ever again. I just can’t trust it. Too many pie in the sky stories that leave out crucial bits of context no one else has. I tried regenerative techniques for a number of years and kept getting told I wasn’t doing it good enough. It was always another suggestion that would cost a lot of money and take 2,3 or 5 years to implement. I’d say that I’ve already been doing it for 15 and I’d really get condescended to. Which in a way was rightly so. Why was I being so stupid as to take these people seriously for so many years when my neighbors who didn’t pay attention to any of this stuff appeared to do just fine. I had enough and went full conventional ( tillage, GMOs, full herbicide) in what was a really dry year. I couldn’t believe the profitability that was possible simply from getting a good crop. I could finally afford to lay drain tile (which some regen folks said was unnecessary) across my whole farm without borrowing any money for it while I’m still making land payments. Maybe drain tile is what I needed all along but none of the big name people I talked to ever suggested it although they did suggest other ideas that certainly would’ve cost plenty of money. Best wishes to this gentleman and his family. I hope all of us farmers are able to find the tools to do whatever it is we need to make a good living.
Thank you for your message. Here's my struggle as a human farmer of food: why am I working hard, hoping to make a living, feeding others? The "others" need to invest with me AND get their hands dirty - that's why everyone is sick and fat - no connection to food - to the biosphere. They can not keep being who they are - fat, sick, and stupid won't deliver the future we all need. We need better global food. We have gotten stupid on fodder. WE need to find a way to get together and get humans back into the land. I have been unable to communicate this idea to folks around here. They think I'm crazy. I think we are LIVING inside crazy. 1 person can grow their own food. 2 people can grow a lot more, but 3 people - they can grow enough food for many. This math is hidden by our lifestyles. The pully works inside humanity too - money hides the math. We need to rethink everything. 1 land - e pluribus unum under food (biosphere). Many thanks for giving me things to think about.
Love your content and honesty. People need to understand that failure is actually positive because it's how we learn what doesn't work. I spent 17 yrs working in conventional agriculture as a sales aronomist and I can tell you in production agriculture there is probably more failure than success. Example, when you ask a farmer what they got for yield they will usually tell you the highest number seen on the entire operation because they want to feel good but nobody ever talks in terms of average yield or what the worst spot did. Not to mention I have not seen anyone come up with a way to control what hand mother nature deals us. People who are successful are the ones who are not afraid to fail ,the ones who fail, learn, and try again. I 100 percent agree that we need to celebrate failures as much if not more than success, if we did we would all learn so much more . No one ever wants to brag about failure but it's the best form of data to learn from. I spent 25 yrs in the Army did a lot of training and guess what we spent 90 percent of our time discussing what we failed at and how to try and improve. Keep up the great work, I will be trying to implement some of the regen ag principles on my own farm soon.
Thanks for the encouragement
I think you are talking about people that don't actually do anything, they are "youtube educated" only with zero experience and they are not limited to regen ag. They are all over the permaculture space too and in many other niches beyond horticulture/ag.
Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain. Well said. I don't fail on my farm from my perspective. I fail a lot from armchair farmer's perspective. I'm happy. Keep saying how it is.
Greetings! Thanks for the encouragement
This why your channel is my favorite farm channel and one of the best out there I know what you mean. I am trying to implement more regenerative practices on our dairy in NY. Traditionally we haven't been a grazing dairy but I'm trying to transition to more grazing for the benefits that it brings. After have some issues I was trying to get some advice from a regenerative grazing group. The "professional graziers " said it was bad management and grazing produces great results. That was it ,no thoughts on how to improve. Their response definitely didn't give me a positive vibe about regenerative ag. It's baby steps for me. I love the idea of regenerative ag and like some of the results I'm seeing but I feel like there is a lack of transparency on some of the issues we face implementing these strategies. Its presented as all sunshine and roses with big profits. Content like this helps keep it real and remind us it's not a magic bullet so definitely understand where you are coming from . I appreciate you addressing the topic.
Keep up the great work Jay!
Thanks for the encouragement!
Regenerative agriculture has to be good for the soil,good for the livestock ,good for the bank account, and good for the farmers community. To truly be regenerative it should be all of the above. Thanks for sharing. I fail often as well but without that we cant learn what to improve.
So True Scott
Thanks
Thanks for being honest. When you start off with soil that has been abused and is mess up not everything you try is going to work, there are to many variables. I don't trust anyone that says everything they do is a 100% success its just not realistic. If the leaders are really concerned about the Regenerative Ag Movement they would try to help solve the problems instead of downgrading the people that are trying to make the transition to RA. We planted our 1st cover crop for grazing last year with mixed success, this year our cover crop is looking a lot better, but we have gotten our fall rains unlike last year. My goal with cover crops is to extend grazing and cut down on making, buying and feeding hay. Again thank you for being honest about your failures nice to see the whole truth about RA.
You are crazy! Crazy awesome. Keep it up. Your inspiration reaches far beyond your understanding.
Thanks Barry!
In Montana/ ND we are having trouble with FCIC. MPCI losses are being denied on GFP scrutiny.
Big respect Red Angus. And thanks to your response to my comments. I am interested in charcoal being added to the process as an aerator in the compost mix.
Keep up your great work Jay, Climate Change is going to have a bigger and bigger impact on Agriculture production around the world irrespective of Regen or Industrial Ag systems so we need to expect more failures. But Regen Ag will help to lessen Climate Change whereas Industrial Ag will increase it.
Thanks
I'm on my 5th yr with cover crops and no till,its been a struggle,but I see small changes.I recently built a bio reactor,from everything I've read or watched,it just makes sense when it comes to soil health and our health as well...sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to find a way to make it work
Thank you, needed this. 3rd year into journey and there were success and failures this year so it’s good to hear it’s not all sunshine and lollipops
Keep up the good work I really like your videos. on our farm it doesn't always work according to plan but at the end of the day mother nature has the final say. I watch a lot of other videos different things people are trying . they say they are going to show the results but I never see them online. You're awesome you keep posting will keep watching
Here in south central Wisconsin, this season was tough for regen to look good from the road. Just too dry to get good germination planting into the green.
I’m encouraged because ag radio here in Nebraska along with their advertisers and University of Nebraska are all talking Regen Ag. I see more land at least left with the roots and residue to protect soils some with manure applied but still too little cover crops. I look when traveling to my bow hunting areas. Guess you have to crawl before walk and walk before run. Enjoy your content and encourage you to stay with it. Changing the way 3rd 4th 5th generations think isn’t easy especially in dry years. Keep the faith
Thanks for the encouragement
I really enjoyed the video ! I can't wait to see how your Jimmy Red went . Thanks for sharing and have a great day !
Thanks
You make a great point. It is the same with vegetarians or keto people (only eat meat). They become so locked into their beliefs that that refuse to hear alternative views. Some of these people are so locked into their beliefs, you cannot talk to them or they become hostile. This is why we wind up with two political parties that are miles apart, religions that hate one another. This happens all over the world.
I’m a gardener not a Farmer. I really appreciate your channel I’m learning a lot, please keep it up. Just wondering if you have read “The intelligent Gardener, Growing Nutrient Dense food” by Steve Solomon? He is very honest about failures in Organic Gardening and how to overcome some of them. He focuses mainly on organic fertilizers and I was wondering how that might fit in with regenerative agriculture. Again only a gardener not a farmer I don’t presume to know anything about farming. Thanks again
Thank for the encouragement and the recommendation on the book
@@youngredangus6041 just had a thought and will need to research more. Ancient peoples didn’t have fungicide, pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. They did have plows and managed to cause many deserts around the world. The only difference to us and them is fissile fuels allowing for greater areas to be tilled all at once.
I have always wanted to farm i learn and learn. I need to know the failures and successes in your environment to better evaluate the totally. So THANK YOU.
Thanks for sharing the successes with us, as well as those efforts that didn’t turn out as hoped.
If everything always turned out perfect, we would be suspicious and think it’s an infomercial.
Instead you are frank and honest with us, and we really appreciate it a lot‼️
And even better, you allow us to be a part of your work and learn with you.
Jay, this is kind of eye opening. Suppose there’s such a thing as regen ag evangelists?? Why not? Any good thing can be taken too far so why not this - especially with the typical positive messaging and “cure all” mentality. Armchair farmers are doggin’ the people who are out there doing their best. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
Context is the most important regenerative principle
"Ever tried.
Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better." Samuel Beckett 👍
Keep up the good work, Jay. Failure makes us better, period. As for the comments sections, they are always "cancer." It's a known phenomenon. Folks you're not in the room with are easier to talk down to (even when you don't mean it that way)
I have been trying re-generative for 3 years and been fairly happy. This year was a total wreck as I got 1/8th of a round bale per acre where the average was 1/2 a bale per acre. Driest year in 105 years. Weeds are the problem, my supplier keeps saying i dont seed enough and when I do the crop burns to nothing.
Yeah man it’s tough. Keep your head up. Have you tried Johnson Su?
You're kind of our guinea pig Jay... We rely on ya so keep up the good work. IMO there is absolutely no need to address the negative nancys out there. Those that matter understand the hardship...
I’ll be your Huckleberry
This is a great video! Adding perspective like this is extremely important.
Thanks
Admitting to failure is part of science, the experiment did not go as expected. Failure is not a moral issue, only an unwanted, perhaps unexpected and disappointing result of an experiment. Learn from the failure and in so doing advance the science. Learn from success as well, both are equally important in scientific endeavor.
I recently just started getting into watching regenerative gardening to learn.
My POV is this - farming and gardening, It's a science. Yes, you do have failures. No, they aren't complete failures. They are learning failures that we all improve on, or change until it actually works to our benefit. But even then, we always want to go further with it to make it better.
Me, I'm just a guy with 3 raised beds in my tiny back yard of a tract home in the middle of the California Agricultural environment, and I want to learn how to improve my garden. I compost nearly everything that is compostable and natural. Even that is a failure at times. But I continue to look for ways to improve. That is where I decided to do cover crops. So last year, I did all 3 beds for the 1st time The soil did improve, but not enough. Some plants did okay, some produced, but were horrible. Some did decently well. So, in order to improve, we planted the cover crops again. It also didnt help that the neighborhood feral cats kept using it for there deeds. That another one we are trying to get solved. At least I'm learning in a small environment now, so that in the hopes of moving to a decent property in the future we will have a decent idea on where to continue in the food growing learning process.
Keep discussing the failures! Ignore those in disagreement of your learning processs.
Jay, thanks for your work! You are influencing my young teenage nephews. Keep on experimenting and learning and teaching what you learn. The young ones will stand taller and take the batton farther because of your work.
Man that’s really encouraging
Thank you for sharing
My brothers are into big ag methods, our dad recently "retired" and the 15 and nearly 15 year old cousins, sons of my brothers, have a love of driving metal, just like their dads, my brothers. I lean toward the managed intensive rotational grazing like Greg Judy, Gabe Brown,... Last time i drove a tractor was 40 years ago. I found it BORING, i love to watch/be around critters. Harvesting critters is more enjoyable for me than driving the tractor while baling hay. I love that you discuss the trials and getting through them. Your discussion of the microscopic critters is mind blowing! Great science lessons for homeschoolers! Keep asking the questions that take you to the next level.
Jay, not only do you have outside battles, but we also have internal battles. Check out Ren, Hi Ren song, and his other work it is inspiring he is inspiring.
Dry soil needs activated biochar to hold the moisture.
I am watching because a friend says it doesn't work. I want to understand her. My passion is soil because I grew up on a strawberry farm where I had to weed 10-20 acres of berries all summer. My childhood was spent that way. So I feel for people who have no connection like that. Also, I knew I was not going to farm as a livelihood. I worked for the RR. It takes a lot of compassion for the work that farmers do.
Thanks Jay for your videos
Healing soils takes time
One of our fields took ten years to catchup with the others.
We would have good & bad years. The weather here is changing.
1 year bad year
2 normalish years
1 good year
God bless you
Tom
2 normalish years
1 good
Good presentation. It took me a while to figure out your point but then as you went on you came through loud and clear. Any kind of change is very scary to many people and when they get scared they lash out at whoever they think is challenging their rock hard beliefs. I like the idea of presenting the full picture both good and bad whatever that is. Ultimately it will be through the overall profitability of one system over the other that will bring hard liners around to regenerative ag if they see regenerative farmers going to the bank to make deposits bigger than theirs. You said regenerative agriculture is difficult and yes all agriculture is difficult due to the chaotic nature of the atmosphere so that no matter how hard you plan, nature can slap you upside the head. Overall though, we are finding that regenerative practices can in some situations soften the slap. As nature becomes more and more chaotic, those who want to hold onto their rigid tenets will get slapped right out of agriculture. Just by doing what you are doing you are having an overall positive impact on the regenerative movement even if the boo birds like to call you names. That is only their death rattle you are hearing. Keep up the good work. Your making a big impact on the future of agriculture.
Thanks for the encouragement
Have you ever thought about working with AEA? I have heard them talk about amazing results using their Soil Primer in the fall instead of a cover crop in drier environments because it doesn't use up so much of the moisture. I've been working with them for a few months now and really like the company and everyone involved.
Thanks Outlander
I’ll check that product out
Thanks for the reality check. I can’t even imagine running trials on your scale but it will all be worth it. I wish you success and/or good data!
that was the most real thing I have heard. I hear on other video's where people just sell all of their plows and go totally regen from the start my personal opinion is that is very close to the definition of insanity. if I was a farmer that had a family farm to my care there would be no way I would even consider basically selling out so I could try something different and with the average age of the American farm being over 60+ I don't thing you will get them to change however I believe that educating the young farmer & Ranchers is where the focus should be..
My mode seems to be fail, fail, fail, small success, then start over. As I try the regenerative processes, and watch my land go backwards it's disheartening and scary, but sometimes I see something that seems to be working, so I keep on trucking. Mistakes are made, research is done, and process is tried again.
With a multitude of extremely complex systems (soil, weather, plant physiology) just to name a few, it needs to be realized that our four simple rules of regenerative ag just begins to give us a glimpse of understanding. With 10's of thousands of factors going on around the plants, our 4 simple rules seem minuscule as to what caused a crop to flourish or fail. Having to start all over to do regenerative ag is a herculean task. With multiple generations doing this type of farming would be big boost of knowledge, starting over and relearning this type of farming is going to have many failures, and it takes a David against the Goliath of factors going against our goals, to keep going and not give up. Hang in there and keep the faith, run the race to win.
We had a tough yr here in Eastern Iowa for covers as well. Very dry, no till fields looked tough all yr. Have to look at all our test and readjust for next yr.
Thanks man, completely agree. like in anything, if we assume we are right and others have it backwards, regen will not help anything. Each farmer and farm is different, and that changes from year to year, as well. each of us is on an educational journey, and probably always will be.
Thanks for sharing. I really enjoy watching your channel. Thanks for keeping it real.
Western nebraska here. Completely agree with how you have to meet the conventional guys at their level.
The struggle is righteous and commendable! The right thing to do is rarely the easiest!
I'm 100% behind regenerative ag, but I'm realistic and believe it's a tool in the toolbox, and is not a save the farm practice........good luck and keep up the good work!
Thanks for the show 🍻🇦🇺
I live in south east Oklahoma and am very familiar with this. I wish my grandpa would have knew this instead of dying to farm and making farming a burden rather than natural fun. Great video! Keep up the good work!
Ignore the haters! Every TH-camr has a few nuts in the bucket. They are only mad because they don't have land. Most of them don't even have a yard!
Sir, thank you for an honest discussion, this is my first video of your I’ve seen, and I subscribed to your channel.
Do you mind if I ask. What’s your average water fall each year? We just signed a contract on a ranch in eastern Colorado and water is going to be our challenge.
16
A little more than you I’m guessing
People should understand that there will always be failure (challenges) even with conventional farming methods. Unfortunately most people are keen to think negative about the challenges regenerative agriculture brings forward, because they are unfamiliar with it.
To all the regen farmers, keep up the good work!
Holy crap yes . The Inferno magazine came to do an article, most of the soil we could not get the shovel in the ground and I said that should be the story right there. But we found some stuff that looked good so that is his article. But I told him he has to make mention of the struggles of the transition
Yep you get asked to speak at all these events and I've had some people kind of frown on me for saying that the transition can really suck
Im new to this aspect of regenerative farming, but very interested . Do you or do know of any trials/results of applying Johnson-Su to pasture for helping diversity and productivity? Thanks, you have GOOD content!!
Look up the Cory miller video
Just came across your channel. Agree with you on this topic. I transitioned to organic 23 years ago and dealt with things like you spoke of. Unsuccessful things are part of any new venture and teach us things the hard way! Keep on keeping on!
Looking on the outside, it is really strange that some of the most successful in the movement experienced significant failures, Gabe Brown is actually inspiring because the been there done that is really important.
But i do wonder why haven't neighbors come onboard for several? I mean you are successful in their neighborhood.
Maybe we really need to improve mentoring?
But i also read a lot of comments that ignore the struggles and that i screwed up stories. Or that huge "context" difference and why what Greg Judy does in his part of Missouri now, after years of mistakes, why that is going to be different in his area for a dairy farm. Both with cattle, but Greg doesn't do dairy. He hasn't figured it out.
I do like the inspirational messages that Joel Salatin does, that talk about the difficulty and the nobility that really are part of farming and ranching.
I think you are profoundly honest and there is zero shame, in fact there should be a lot of "pride" (in the good sense) in being so. You state you've only been doing this since 2016. 7 years ago. One learns as one practices the science and *culture* of regen. ag. All power to you and everyone should listen to you. There IS in fact a kind of "cult" status around people like Joe Salatin and Gabe Brown. I heard Brown speak at the University of California's big ag school at Davis. Wonderful forceful speaker and he DID talk a lot about caveats and trial and error.
Just so you know...I live in San Francisco and I'm not a farmer. I got interested in soil fertility because I've always been fascinated with food production. Californa's very "liberal" government are actually big time supporters of regeneratirve agriculture because leftists (a very broad and inexact term) are generally concerned about the climate and climate activism dovetails neatly with Regenerative Agriculture. Grass finished beef is growing at the many farmers markets set up in urban and suburban areas of San Francisco's Bay Area. The Marin (county directly to the north of SF) County Carbon Project is an applied study of the effects of cattle on the soil when managed carefully with the idea of quantifying carbon sequestration. Reg. Ag is a big and growing "leftwing thing" in the Golden State. So, just be careful about over generalizations here. In my view we need a "bi-partisan" push to support, not stymie via regulations, the many different kinds of Reg. Ag. that exist out there. There are way too many people on both sides of the partisan divide who support what you are doing...and the same with those that by dint of bureaucratic momentum, want to shut it down.
My interest specifically is who to integrate both cash cropping/cereal grain production with covercropping/managed rotational grazing. I notice you mentioned you failed in delivering some corn crop you had interspersed with cover crops (I've seen this on other channels). For me that is the big challenge, growing *all* our food using cattle to as a the main regenerative tool to do so, combined with smart cover cropping.
David
I follow a couple of farming channels as well as this one. One in the U.K, conventional farming using all the commercially available products, a cattle farmer in Canada (of Scottish nationality) who has a more environmental approach than the norms 'up there' and this one. All are interesting. The U.K. farm is sowing 'cover crops' and using 'no till' machinery' for the first time..which is a bit of a revelation as the 'owner' of that farm was just recently extolling the virtues of those who produce the prodcuts that do much harm to the soil. Maybe he is changing his views on certain aspects of how things are done on his farm.
Regards 'failures' etc they are all part of life...but the risks of getting it wrong on a farm seems quite high and many 'non regen' farmers may have an interest in doing it but think the risks are too great (so avoid failure by not adopting 'regen').. Maybe a slow transition would work whilst folks gain knowledge and experience before a complete change from conventional to 'regen'? I/m not fully aware of all the complications or conflicts that need to be circumvented between conventional and regen...
'Keep on keeping on' I really enjoy watching this channel it augments the other channels perfectly ...
The most vocal critics (I call "No-till Nazis") are often people who've planted in a raised bed and watched a few TH-cam vids.
Well said Jay. Thank you.
For someone with no background in farming looking to start mix of home stead and small scale (chicken, goat/sheep).
Can this welcoming comment section recommend a few books?
Especially from a pre design and approach aspect?
I looked forward to hearing your thoughts.
I happen to agree with you, but fully realize there Are Two sides to a coin.
Often I feel like we are only getting part of the story. When moving cattle one or more times a day, how many acres are needed? They don't mention that.
Ever notice how when someone has a certain breed of animal, there is None better than the one they have?i
Just needed another label to keep the farmers divided. Good job guys.
Good word.
Failure is how you learn.
Lifes a dance, you learn as you go.
We won't learn anything if it's easy, without failures. Best to share the failures and keep us all thinking. But yes, stick with it and make the mindset shift to learn. Hopefully your profit margins will grow too and keep the movement growing.
Tanks for this video.
I do (and love) permaculture in my homestead, and because i do it, i respect even more traditional e induatrial farmers that are around me. Because i known that it dificult, there are challenges, failures, and no solution fits all, and i dont even have the pressure to do it comercially. Do any agriculturw comercially its for heros. Doing it in a regenerative way its superheros.
Its only easy foy keyboard warriors, that do nothing on the land, but are enlighten because they saw 1000 youtube videos, althou they are just average consumers, living in cities...
Sorry for the mistakes on the keyboard...
Farming is local. Weather and soil types vary so that what works one place may not work somewhere else. Getting the problems out there will resolve them faster.
Regenerative seems to go with the idea of resilient and sustainable. Given the vast complexity of nature, some humility & humor are necessary trying to figure it out. Soil microbiology is a vast universe.
On the conventional agricultural forums anytime there's one little step backwards that is proof that it does not work here
There is no progress without some failure. Only God does things right all the time. Our soils here were in a balanced state for thousands of years until modern agriculture started the destruction of the life in the soil. It will take a generation to turn it around. But we have to do it. Keep preaching it Jay.
Respect.
Dry soil conditions makes it very challenging to keep the soil microbes active, all the best in your journey
Thanks
Regererative agriculture is a relatively new movement. Regen ag farmers don't have the luxury of having everything about their agricultural strategies figured out like the folks doing large-scale industrial monoculture which has been around for longer then any of us can remember. So yeah, it's okay and in some ways even expected that regenerative agriculture projects will fail at first. It's the people who have the patience and resilience to keep going that will forge ahead.
You are doing it perfect, trial and error...
Thanks