GrassCast

**Este episodio esta disponible también en español. Lo encontraras en el feed o aqui.**

Edgar Navarro is a farm worker with lots of experience working on dairy operations. He started helping his mother and stepfather with their small farm as a teenager, and has spent most of the last decade as an employee at dairy farms in the Dodgville area. In 2015, he found his way to Scott Mericka at Green Dairy and Uplands Cheese, the first dairy grazing farm he’d ever seen. And, he’s been there ever since! In our conversation, Edgar shares about his experience of working at Scott’s dairy grazing farm and how it measures up against the conventional operations where he got his start. His testimony is a powerful reminder that our farming systems effect people at all levels of the operation.

If you’re interested in Edgar and his story, we’re happy to try to put you in touch—just give us a shout at [email protected].

This episode's soundtrack is Donder by Blue Dot Sessions.

Serge Koenig has served for more than 25 years as a Conservation Technician for Sauk County in Wisconsin. He is passionate about his work--helping land owners think about how to best preserve the natural resources (especially water and soil!) that they steward. In recent years, Serge has turned to promoting grassland-based systems as a way to get to the root of the conversation problems that Sauk County faces. And, in our conversation, he shares about his approach, as well as the obstacles and opportunities that he's seen when helping farmers transition to grazing.

Jon Lee is proud to be the fifth generation stewarding the 150 acres outside Coon Valley that his ancestors started farming more than a century ago. Today, he raises beef at Lee Farms, which he sells through the Wisconsin Grassfed Beef Cooperative. Jon is also an educator with more than two decade experience teaching locally and abroad AND a talented artist. In our conversation, Jon shares about his experience balancing many different jobs to keep the farm afloat.

This podcast is made possible thanks to a Sustainable Agricultural Systems Coordinated Agriculture grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Lois and Sandi Schwert are the mother-daughter duo behind The Sand Farm—a new mixed vegetable and grassfed beef farm in the Driftless region of Wisconsin. They come from a long line of dairy farmers and have spent decades involved in their family's conventional dairy operation, Schwert Farms. They are also the innovators transitioning some family land away from dairy and into new enterprises. We spoke at length about the sometimes subversive way they've gone about making changes to Schwert Farms, as well as the excitement and frustration that comes with new beginnings.

Greg Galbraith is a former grazier and dairyman turned columnist and contributor for the farming publication Agri-View. He studied Dairy Science at the University of Illinois and, after graduating in 1981, went on to work as the Assistant Manager on two farms. Eventually, Greg before bought his own farm in eastern Marathon County Wisconsin, where his ancestors began farming in 1890. Together with his family, they ran the 120-cow grazing-based dairy operation for more than two decades. In our conversation, Greg shared passionately about the many hardships he and his family faced, and how the transition to grazing transformed his operation and the ways he interacted with the land.

Jacob Marty is a young farmer based in Monticello, Wisconsin. He's spent the last 5 years converting his family's 150+ year-old dairy operation into Green Fire Farm, where he now raises beef cattle, poultry, and pigs, and is working on putting in fruit & nut trees. In our conversation, Jacob shares about why he decided to return to the home farm, what it's been like working with his father, and the challenge that is re-entering a community.