ATTRA - Voices from the Field

In this episode of Voices from the Field, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Mike Lewis introduces us to one of NCAT’s newest staff members, Dan Birnstihl.

To say Dan has wide-ranging experience is something of an understatement. He worked on fighter jets while in the Marines, studied sustainable agriculture and managed a farm. And he managed to squeeze in studying audio production in Nashville. He says he’s particularly interested in NCAT’s Armed to Farm training for veterans and in finding ways to use his multi-media skills to make NCAT’S ATTRA and other sustainable-agriculture resources even easier to use.

ATTRA Resources:

·       Dan Birnstihl Profile

·       Armed to Farm

·       Farm Start Up

·       Marketing and Business

Other Resources:

·       Hip Peas Farm

Contact Mike Lewis and Dan Birnstihl via email at [email protected] and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Dietetics Intern Melissa Wyatt sits down with beginning farmer Rick Williams and his wife Kyra, to talk about strategies for selling their farm products through the winter. 

The couple’s farm, Sugar Beet Row, is located in Butte, Montana -- often known as the icebox of the state. They also own Dancing Rainbow Natural Grocery, a small natural foods store in uptown Butte. 

Rick and Kyra discuss how they integrated Sugar Beet Row’s production into Dancing Rainbow Natural Grocery and took part in Butte’s first winter farmers market a few months ago. They also explore strategies for improving production and sales next winter. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

• Montana’s Winter Farmers Markets Help Provide Local Food Access and Bridge Revenues for Farmers 
• NCAT Marketing Tip Sheet Series 
• Farmers Markets  

 
Other Resources: 

• Sugar Beet Row 
• Dancing Rainbow Natural Grocery 

Contact Maura Henn via email at [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs. 

This episode of Voices from the Field continues ATTRA’s podcast series on women shepherds, “She’s Raising Sheep.” Becky Weed talks with NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Linda Poole about the role of sheep in “farming as if nature matters.” Becky and her husband Dave Tyler run 80 crossbred long-wool ewes in Montana’s Gallatin Valley, at 13 Mile Lamb and Wool Company. It’s a spectacular setting where shepherds face daunting challenges from large predators as well as from exurban development. Becky shares her path of learning from mistakes and through careful observation. Don’t miss Becky’s story of Max, a livestock guardian dog who dances with fawns! Becky says “adaptability is the name of the game” in helping her flock, land, business, and community prosper in times of unprecedented change. 

 
Related ATTRA Resources: 

• Next Gen Regen: Becky Weed on Building Resilient Ecosystems 
• She’s Raising Sheep: New Zealand Shepherd Bev Trowbridge 
• She’s Raising Sheep: Indiana Shepherd Denice Rackley 
• Livestock and Pasture 

Other Resources: 

• Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Company 
• Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Recovering Our Nutritional Wisdom 

 
Contact Linda Poole via email at [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs. 

This episode of Voices from the Field introduces us to New Zealand shepherd Bev Trowbridge. It’s the latest in ATTRA’s five-part series “She’s Raising Sheep.” Trained as an agroecologist in the United Kingdom, Bev has raised heritage sheep and small-frame cattle on New Zealand’s North Island for two decades. Bev tells NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Linda Poole that “sheep are the best biostimulants you could have” to improve soil health, water quality, and biodiversity. She talks candidly about shepherding for the good of nature and offers tips for success, including starting with site-adapted sheep (She raises majestic and meaty Wiltshire Horns.) and joining a network of like-minded people who can learn together. Listen in to discover what herding sheep and guiding airplanes have in common!  

Related ATTRA Resources:  

• She’s Raising Sheep: Indiana’s Denice Rackley  
• Livestock and Pasture  
• Soils and Compost 
• Farm Start Up 
• Organic Farming 

Other Resources:  

• Muriwa Valley Farm  
• How Organic Farmer Bev Trowbridge Super-Sized her Soil with Micro-Organisms & Mycorrhizal Fungi  
• On the Farm – The Future of Farming  

Contact Linda Poole via email at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.  

This episode of Voices from the Field is part of “Starting a Farm,” an occasional series from Rockiell Woods, who directs NCAT’s Gulf States Regional Office in Jackson, Mississippi, and Bill Evans, director of horticulture at Up in Farms food hub in Jackson.  

 In this episode, their conversation focuses on the importance of reviewing the last growing season and planning the next, along with strategies and topics farmers should address in the process. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

• Starting a Farm 
• Starting a Farm: Soil Considerations 
• Starting a Farm: Water Issues  
• Evaluating a Farm Enterprise 
• Financing Your Farm: Guidance for Beginning Farmers 
• Planning for Profit in Sustainable Farming 
• Basic Accounting: Guidance for Beginning Farmers 

Other Resources: 

• Farm Answers 
• Up in Farms  

Contact Rockiell Woods via email at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.  

Meet NCAT’s sustainable agriculture team. Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram!  

This episode of Voices from the Field is the first in a five-part series about women raising sheep. The She’s Raising Sheep series features practical tips for starting and growing a profitable sheep business, plus we’ll have some laughs along the way. 

Indiana farmer Denice Rackley talks with NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Linda Poole and shares her journey from a city girl with a dream of raising livestock, to a woman living that dream with her wooly flock and Border collie sidekicks on an Indiana farm.  

Denice touches on how she chose which breeds to raise and shares insider tips for building a profitable sheep business. Listen, learn and have a couple of laughs as Denice talks about her experiences as a woman working alone in animal agriculture. Spoiler alert: You might want a good stockdog and another income while get started. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 
 

• What Your Stockdog Can Teach You About Livestock 
• Managing Internal Parasites in Sheep and Goats 
• Sheep: Sustainable and Organic Production 

 Other Resources: 

• Barn and Pasture Lambing – Pros and Cons 
• Recognizing Symptoms of Hypothermia in Lambs and Kids -- Part 1 
• Treatment of Hypothermia in Lambs and Kids – Part 2 
• Sheep – Nature’s Multi-Taskers 

Contact Linda Pooke via email at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.  

Meet NCAT’s sustainable agriculture team. Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram!  

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Mike Lewis is joined by Shawn Lucas, an assistant professor of organic agriculture at Kentucky State University, in a conversation about cover crops. 

In addition to specific crops, Mike and Shawn talk about the timing of planting cover crops and the benefits they can bring to a farmer’s bottom line. Shawn also describes his ongoing small ruminant research. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

• Overview of Cover Crops and Green Manures 
• No Livestock? Innovative Ways to Incorporate Them into Your Cropping System 
• Managing Soils for Water: How Five Principles of Soil Health Support Water Infiltration and Storage 
• Cover Crops (340) in Organic Systems 
• Cover Crop Options for Hot and Humid Areas  

Other Resources 

• Dr. Shawn Lucas Contact Information 

 Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs. 

In this episode of Voices from the Field, Martin Guerena, a sustainable agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s western regional office in Davis, California, speaks with Sean Feder, director of inspection operations for California Certified Organic Farmers. 

Their wide-ranging conversation covers the certification process, the organic transition period, producers’ organic system plan, the cost of certification for small growers, climate change and other looming issues, as well as the future of organics. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

• Guide for Organic Crop Producers  
• Organic Standards for Livestock Production: Excerpts of USDA’s National Organic Program Regulations  
• Organic Certification Process 
• Organic System Plans: Field and Row Crops and Pasture and Range Systems  
• Organic Standards for Handling: Excerpts of USDA’s National Organic Program Regulations  
• Organic Considerations 
• Organics in Pennsylvania 
• Organic Regulation, Certification, Transition History 

Other Resources: 

• California Certified Organic Farmers  
• USDA Organic Certification and Accreditation 

Contact Martin Guerena via email at [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.

Meet NCAT’s sustainable agriculture team. Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram! 

The National Center for Appropriate Technology has officially re-launched its Soil for Water project, opening access to the free, voluntary network to all commercial farmers, ranchers, and land managers across the United States. Soil for Water aims to connect farmers, ranchers, and land managers who are interested in land management practices that improve soil health, catch more water in soil, reduce erosion, sustain diverse plant and animal life, and filter out pollutants all while sustaining a profitable business.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Communications Director Emilie Ritter Saunders speaks with NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist Linda Poole about the expanded Soil for Water effort and the new community-building tools we’ve launched to support this expanding network.  

Connect with the Soil for Water community at SOILFORWATER.ORG. 

Contact Emilie Ritter Saunders and Linda Poole via email at [email protected] and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs 

Meet NCAT’s sustainable agriculture team. Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram! 

Urban agroforestry is the intentional use of perennial trees and shrubs to improve the sustainability and resilience of urban farms and communities. In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Agroforestry Specialist Katherine Favor sits down with Christopher Marciello of Ecology Artisans — a regenerative landscape and design firm — to talk about urban agroforestry in dryland environments.  

While urban agroforestry can take many forms, there are several design principles to keep in mind, no matter what your system looks like. These include sustainable water harvesting, soil development, habitat development, regionally appropriate plant species, and appropriately scaled food production. Chris and Katherine discuss how these design principles can be applied to create productive and regenerative urban agroforestry systems in arid areas.    

Related ATTRA Resources:  

Agroforestry  

Meet NCAT: Katherine Favor Says Agroforestry Can Plant the Seeds of Sustainability   

Silvopasture 101  

Perspectives on Agroforestry with Rowan Reid. Part 1   

Perspectives on Agroforestry with Rowan Reid. Part 2  

Opportunities in Agroforestry  

Agroforestry: An Overview   

Other Resources:  

Ecology Artisans  

Community Food Forests   

Introduction to Agroforestry  

Olga Romanova and Doctor Lovell – Urban Agriculture Food Safety Considerations  

Sustainable Community Food Landscapes Sharing Successes  

Desert-Adapted Nurse Plants and Agaves in Climate Friendly Perennial Polycultures  

Indoor and Outdoor Forest Gardens  

Southwest Agroforestry Action Network  

Urban Agroforestry and Its Potential Integration into City Planning Efforts  

Contact Katherine Favor via email at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. Learn about NCAT’s other cutting-edge sustainable agriculture programs.  

Meet NCAT’s sustainable agriculture team. Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram! &nb