Free Farm Friday

Farmer Brian K from Texas

Farmer Dan M from New Jersey 

* Remember when that dairy farm caught on fire and killed thousands of mil cows?

* That is what happens, you pack as many in as you can and hope for the best.

* CAFO = Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation 

* CAFO - as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture, is an intensive animal feeding operation in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year. An animal unit is the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of "live" animal weight.

HEADLINE: The Nation’s First Regenerative Dairy Works with Nature to Heal the Soil—at Scale by Gosia Wozniacka 

* It took the Alexandres more than three decades to fine-tune their system of building up soil, restoring wetlands, and bringing a multitude of birds and wildlife to their property, from bald eagles to coho salmon. Stephanie and her husband Blake are both fourth-generation dairy operators who grew up on conventional dairy farms in California. They met at Cal Poly, where, they said, they were taught plenty about farm chemicals and livestock antibiotics but nothing about soil biology. But they were willing to try different approaches, and it turns out that willingness to farm against the grain has been key to their success. 

* The couple currently farm on about 9,000 acres (up from 560 acres when they first bought the ranch) with 8,000 head of cattle, including 4,500 mature cows, spread across four locations. All of their cows are on pasture after 5 months of age and the entire land gets grazed eight to nine times per year.