ATTRA - Voices from the Field

In this episode, you can make the acquaintance of NCAT's new Regenerative Grazing Specialist, Linda Poole. Linda's love of working wildlands began with riding horseback at her family's Eastern Washington ranch and led to a Master of Science degree in wildlife ecology from Oregon State University. She managed The Nature Conservancy's 60,000-acre Matador Grassbank in Montana and raises sheep her own homestead in Malta, Montana. Linda has developed a wealth of experience that will be a great contribution to NCAT's sustainable-agriculture resources. Linda's NCAT colleague, the other Linda - Linda Coffey of NCAT's Arkansas office – welcomes her new co-worker. They talk about the work Linda will be doing for NCAT, as well as her perspectives on adaptive grazing management, learning from mistakes, and the resilience in natural systems.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Linda Poole Biography Soil for Water ATTRA Grazing Planning Manual and Workbook Managed Grazing TutorialMaking the Most of Fine Fleece

Contact Linda Poole and Linda Coffey directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Regenerative Livestock Specialist Justin Morris may be new to the National Center for Appropriate Technology, but he's no stranger to using grazing as a tool to improve pasture quality and soil health. In this interview with NCAT Program Specialist Tracy Mumma, Justin explains how he first became interested in managing grazing to improve the land resource and discusses how livestock producers can start using grazing as a tool. He goes on to describe what regenerative agriculture means to him and the positive effect that it can have on soil health, environmental health, and producer well-being.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Justin Morris Biography
ATTRA Grazing Planning Manual and Workbook
Managed Grazing Tutorial

Contact Justin Morris and Tracy Mumma directly 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.

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this episode of Voices from the Field, National Center for Appropriate Technology Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Martin Guerena speaks with Robert Ramming to learn more about Robert's U-pick operation near Woodland, California. Robert's Pacific Star Gardens raises apricots, berries, melons, tomatoes, and eggs. It sells from a roadside stand and U-pick fields.

Robert explains his crop choices for U-pick and why blackberries are great, and vegetables are not-so-good. He and Martin dive into pricing, insurance, choosing a location, and the importance of building customer loyalty. Plus, Robert discusses the effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on folks' attitude toward their food.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Tips for Selling with: Agrotourism and 'Pick Your Own'
Tips for Selling at: Roadside Stands
Fruits

Other Resources
Pacific Star Gardens
How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres

Contact Martin Guerena directly via email at [email protected] and Margo Hale at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this episode of Voices from the Field, National Center for Appropriate Technology Southeast Regional Director Margo Hale talks with Mike Lewis, a new NCAT sustainable agriculture specialist. From his Kentucky farm, Mike explains that farming is part of his DNA. Mike is a military veteran who founded Growing Warriors, a veteran-oriented food security project. In addition, Mike became the first federally permitted hemp farmer in the U.S. since Prohibition. Listen to his conversation with Margo Hale to learn more about his background, what brought him to NCAT, and the expertise he'll bring to the sustainable farmers and ranchers we serve.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Mike Lewis Biography
Armed to Farm

Other Resources
Community Farm Alliance

You can contact Mike Lewis directly via email at [email protected] and Margo Hale at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this episode, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Colin Mitchell who works out of NCAT's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas, sits down with Stephanie Kasper, a biology research associate at University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, to discuss ways to ensure successful nodulation of legume cover crops. In a crop rotation, legume cover crops have the potential to add bioavailable nitrogen to the soil for the next crop and to reduce the need for chemical fertilizers.

Colin and Stephanie discuss how to inoculate cover crops, legume cover crop planting tips, and troubleshooting potential causes of nodulation failure in leguminous cover crops.

This podcast is produced through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development. Colin has worked with Stephanie on NCAT's Subtropical Soil Health Initiative, funded by a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Cover Crop Options for Hot and Humid Climates
Soil Health and the Five Soil Health Principles
Using Cover Crops to Sequester Carbon
Overview of Cover Crops and Green Manures

Other Resources
Abiotic and Biotic Limitations to Nodulation by Leguminous Cover Crops in South Texas

For more information on this topic, you can contact Colin Mitchell directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / F

In this episode of Voices from the Field, Tammy Howard, a National Center for Appropriate Technology sustainable agriculture specialist at NCAT's Rocky Mountain West Regional Office, talks with Alison Patrick of the Feed our Future initiative, based in northeast Ohio.

Tammy and Alison talk about the Feed our Future Farm to School pilot program, which led to the development of a school purchasing cooperative and a wide expansion of local produce purchasing. She also discusses the important role that food hubs have played in providing the quantity and consistency that school require.

This podcast is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program, under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

This podcast episode is one of a number of case studies featuring farmers successfully navigating school sales as part of Bringing the Farm to School, a training program developed as a cooperative agreement between NCAT, the National Farm to School Network and the USDA Food and Nutrition Services.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Feasibility for a Central Texas Food Hub
Food Hubs
Food Hubs: A Producer Guide
Food Hubs and School Sales

Other Resources
Feed Our Future

For more information on this topic, you can contact Tammy Howard directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

In this episode, Maura Henn, a community food system specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology's Western Regional Office in Butte, Montana, talks with representatives of the Oregon Farmers Market Association.

They are Kelly Crane, OFMA's executive director; Amanda Cross, OFMA's programs manager; and Mallory Rahe, PhD, assistant extension professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics at the University of Missouri.

The discussion centers on OFMA's beginning vendor support network and the ways OFMA aids beginning vendors.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Tips for Selling at Farmers Markets
Farmers Markets: Marketing and Business Guide
Low-Income Local Food Access – Podcast
Celebrating Farmers Markets

Other Resources
Oregon Farmers Markets Association
Farmers Market Coalition

For more information on this topic, you can contact Kara Kroeger directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

This episode is the second of a two-part discussion with Kara Kroeger, a sustainable agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas, and Dr. Chris Grotegut of Hereford, Texas, which is located in the Texas Panhandle.

Chris is a veterinarian, farmer, and stockman, as well as a cutting-edge producer of organic crops and livestock. Hereford has rich agricultural history that is fueled by the waters of Ogallala Aquifer, which has been in perilous decline over the past hundred years as land has been plowed for row cropping and cattle feedlots. This decline is a serious threat to the longevity of many producers in the Texas Panhandle and beyond.

In this podcast series, Chris and Kara discuss the success he has had in shifting his management and marketing strategies to protect the playas that recharge the Ogallala Aquifer and the water future of the region for the next generation of agriculture producers.

This episode focuses on the obstacles and opportunities Chris has seen as he changed his practices. The first half of the discussion was centered on the history of the Ogallala Aquifer and Chris' strategies for using playas to help recharge the aquifer. The link to that episode is included in the notes below.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Ag Strategies for Ogallala Aquifer. Part 1
Soil for Water
Managing Soil for Water How Five Principles of Soil Health Support Water Infiltration and Storage
Soils & Compost

Other Resources
Ogallala Commons
No-till

For more information on this topic, you can contact Kara Kroeger directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office:

This episode is the first of a two-part discussion with Kara Kroeger, a sustainable agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas, and Dr. Chris Grotegut of Hereford, Texas, which is located in the Texas Panhandle.

Chris is a veterinarian, farmer, and stockman, as well as a cutting-edge producer of organic crops and livestock. Hereford has rich agricultural history that is fueled by the waters of Ogallala Aquifer, which has been in perilous decline over the past hundred years as land has been plowed for row cropping and cattle feedlots. This decline is a serious threat to the longevity of many producers in the Texas Panhandle and beyond.

In this podcast series, Chris and Kara discuss the success he has had in shifting his management and marketing strategies to protect the playas that recharge the Ogallala Aquifer and the water future of the region for the next generation of agriculture producers.

This episode focuses on the history of the Ogallala Aquifer and Chris' strategies for using playas to help recharge the aquifer. Check back for Part 2, which will concentrate on the obstacles and opportunities Chris has seen as he changed his practices.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Soil for Water
Managing Soil for Water How Five Principles of Soil Health Support Water Infiltration and Storage
Soils & Compost

Other Resources
Ogallala Commons
No-till

For more information on this topic, you can contact Kara Kroeger directly via email at [email protected].

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

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office:

Entrevista en Radio Bilingüe del especialista en agricultura sostenible Martin Guerena del Centro Nacional de Tecnología Apropiada sobre algunas prácticas que promueven la salud y fertilidad del suelo.

Recursos de ATTRA
Recursos en Español
El Manejo Sostenible del Suelo
Los Cinco Principios de la Salud del Suelo
Suelos Salinos y Sódicos
Solarización y Biosolarización del Suelo
Hojas de Datos: Compost

Para obtener más información sobre este tema, puede ponerse en contacto con Martin Guerena directamente en [email protected]

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

NCAT Facebook

Granja SIFT de NCAT SITIO Website

Oficina del suroeste: Website / Facebook

Oficina occidental: Website / Facebook

Oficina de Rocky Mountain West: Website / Facebook

Oficina de los Estados del Golfo: Website / Facebook

Oficina sureste: Website / Facebook

Oficina del noreste: Website / Facebook