What is a Regenerative Farm?

 ​Farms come in all shapes and sizes these days.  You've got just as many farm genres out there as you do music genres.  Hobby farms, commercial farms, and sustainable farms are probably some of the most popular farming subcultures within the greater U.S. right now.  But we like to take sustainability to the next level here, and it isn't nearly as popular as it should be...yet.    

  Regenerative/Restorative Agriculture is largely focused on building soil rather than depleting it, increasing biodiversity, and being mindful of the best conservation practices for our particular lands and ecosystems.  It's a huge shift in land management that demands we ask the question "What can I GIVE" rather than "What can I TAKE." 

This is a huge undertaking, but we are committed to doing our best to preserve and restore grounds that have had poor regenerative planning over the last 50 years.  This means building soil through intensive rotational grazing, planting and encouraging crop diversity, no-till drilling, keeping adequate stream buffers, planting trees, and did I mention BUILDING SOIL. :-) 

You may  be wondering, why?  Why bother when life is so short?!  And the answer is...we want to create a farm that is sustaining and a blessing--not a burden--to every generation after us.  To leave something valuable and sustaining for our children, and give them the skills to adapt as the world changes. 

I'm very thankful to have help from our local USDA conservation district, as they have many of the tools and studies to help us learn and do our best to be good stewards of the 200 acres we're attempting to manage.  I'm really thankful to be part of the Lewis County VSP (Voluntary Stewardship Program) which is developing strategies and resources to help farmers better manage the environmental impacts they are having.  You can check out their You Tube channel HERE

So far there are only two main fields we've seen big-time regenerative improvement in after 7 years of very hard work.  The others...well...they're coming along ;-)  And by big-time  improvement, I mean:

• Little to no invasive weeds
• Substantially higher drought resistance
• Faster growth
• Quicker recovery after grazing

These are the obvious changes that we see, but I have yet to do a follow-up soil test to see how we are doing on mineral and nutrient levels.  I'm kind of excited to start testing soils again this fall, as this is the best time to do so!