The Regenaissance Podcast

Brad Wiley's family has farmed the same land since 1790. In this episode on our Farmer Stories series, he share shis wonder at the invisible web beneath his fields - and what it means to carry 200 years of family memory on a single piece of ground.

Farmer Stories pulls the best conversations from The Regenaissance archive - real voices from American farmers on the systems, economics, and communities shaping food and land in the US.

Timestamps

• 00:00 — The biological web that makes Tesla look simple
• 01:00 — Locust trees feeding cover crops across an entire field
• 03:30 — Cover crops and grazing replace the lime truck
• 05:30 — The moment Brad walked away from $30k in cash rent
• 07:30 — The manure spreader sinks into dead soybean soil
• 11:00 — 200 years of family memory on one piece of ground
• 22:30 — Life is designed to be a struggle

Link to the full episode:
Spotify
Apple
YouTube

Connect with Brad:
Otter Creek Farm

Follow the tour on YouTube

Joel Hollingsworth runs Smoke River Ranch in northeast Oklahoma. This conversation from our Farmer Stories Series talks about why Joel believes we need to keep manufcaturing in America & why Oklahoma's culture of self-governance is a cultural model the country can build around.

Farmer Stories pulls the best conversations from The Regenaissance archive - real voices from American farmers on the systems, economics, and communities shaping food and land in the US.

Timestamps

• 0:00 — Why build in America, not abroad
• 1:30 — The federalist structure and America's creation story
• 4:00 — Oklahoma's culture of self-governance
• 6:30 — Regen ag as a churn factory
• 7:30 — Triffin dilemma and hollowing out of domestic production
• 9:00 — How crop insurance locks out new farmers
• 11:00 — Foreign cattle and the 30% currency gap
• 12:30 — Land as money, not farmland
• 14:00 — Farm credit weaponized (Dustin Kittle story)
• 15:30 — Average rancher age 58.5
• 17:00 — What rural collapse looks like
• 18:30 — Sovereign debt and centralizing risk

Links:

Full podcast episode:
- YouTube
- Spotify
- Apple

Connect with Joel:
- Smoke River Ranch Website
- X

Gunthorp Farms is a 3rd generation pork and poultry operation in northern Indiana with on-farm USDA-inspected processing. This tour covers the full farm from farrowing paddocks to kill floor, smokehouse, and wastewater treatment. Watch alongside the full podcast episode for the full story.

Key Topics

• Adaptive multi-paddock grazing in practice
• 50-paddock farrowing system and piglet management
• Building and running a USDA-inspected on-farm processing facility
• USDA enforcement: how small and large plants are treated differently
• Constructed wetland wastewater treatment

What You'll Learn

• How paddock size and recovery time shift by season
• What to ask when you visit a pig farm
• What it costs to build on-farm processing and where permitting breaks down
• How HACCP regulation actually gives small plants flexibility if you understand it
• Why scale changes food safety risk in ways inspection policy doesn't reflect

Connect w Greg & Gunthorp Farms

Website
X
Instagram
Linkedin

Full podcast interview
Follow the tour on YouTube

Timestamps

00:00:00 Adaptive multi-paddock grazing explained
 00:03:00 Pig health, thermoregulation, and antibiotic-free management
 00:05:00 What consumers should ask when visiting a pig farm
 00:15:00 Energy-free waterers and farrowing paddock design
 00:27:00 Kill floor overview and processing plant history
 00:36:00 Permitting, wastewater, and navigating USDA regulation
 00:45:00 Food safety: small vs large plant accountability
 00:51:00 USDA enforcement disparities and advocacy
 01:02:00 Packaging equipment walkthrough
 01:13:00 Smokehouse construction and constructed wetland wastewater system

Charles and Heather Maude are 5th generation ranchers in South Dakota running a direct-to-consumer beef and pork operation built on land their family has worked for over 115 years.

This tour covers the full operation - cattle, hogs, grain storage, equipment, and the irrigated river bottom at the center of a federal land dispute that drew national attention.

Watch this alongside the full-length podcast episode for the complete story behind what you're seeing on the ground.

Key Topics

• Direct-to-consumer beef and pork - how it actually works
• Cattle finishing and feeder calf production
• Farrowing crates - the honest case for and against
• Why feed quality determines meat quality in hogs
• Grain storage, forage systems, and matching stocking rate to grass
• The disputed river bottom and the federal land dispute

What You'll Learn

• How a small ranch runs multiple livestock enterprises on limited acres
• Why weaning date is a range management decision, not just an animal one
• What farrowing crates are actually for and why a skeptic changed her mind
• How monogastric and ruminant digestion produce fundamentally different meat
• What 115 years of private land management looks like - and what happens when it's challenged
• Why boundary disputes in the rural West are common, and criminal indictments are not

Connect with Charles & Heather

Website
Instagram
Facebook

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Introduction and context 
00:02:00 — Cattle paddock: finished beef and this year's steer calves 
00:04:00 — Weaning early — a drought and range management decision 
00:06:00 — Grain bins: what they store and how they work 
00:08:00 — Farrowing facility: why the crates exist 
00:13:00 — Hog nutrition: simple stomach vs. ruminant digestion 
00:15:00 — Pasture-raised pork: why quality and finish time differ 
00:18:00 — Legacy equipment: grandfather's tractors and the 1948 truck 
00:24:00 — The fence line: terrain, flooding, and where fences actually go 
00:25:00 — The Forest Service dispute begins 
00:27:00 — No written violation, no due process, criminal charges 
00:28:00 — Working toward resolution: the Small Tracks Act 
00:30:00 — Secretary Rollins, the temporary use agreement, and what changed 
00:33:00 — The survey stakes, the crop damage, and the escalation 
00:37:00 — What the land trade proposal was and why it was rejected 
00:39:00 — What this case means for ranchers and private landowners 
00:41:00 — Final reflections

Joel Hollingsowrth has spent years doing something most people wouldn't dare try - building a regenerative cattle ranch from scratch, with no money, no inherited land, and no roadmap. And yet, it has become one of the pioneering regenerative farms in the nation. 

Joel is joined by David, who left an Ivy League PhD program to ranch in rural Mexico before landing here, and Daniel, the herd manager responsible for translating Joel's system into daily practice. 

Together they walk us through mob grazing at extreme stocking densities, a heritage genetics breeding program built for a world without antibiotics, virtual fencing technology, and a community ownership model designed to solve the financing problem that stops most regenerative farmers before they start.

This is a conversation about what it really takes (the stubbornness, the financial creativity, the ecological thinking, and the human community) to build something lasting and that works.

KEY TOPICS

• Ultra-high-density mob grazing and how it mimics bison impact to restore soil and seed banks
• Heritage breed genetics (Piney Woods, composite bulls) and building "zombie apocalypse" cattle
• Virtual fencing technology and its potential to transform daily ranch labour
• The herd share financial model and how community capital makes regenerative ranching viable
• Reviving rural community through food sovereignty, nutrient density, and local economic energy

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

1. Why stocking density, not just rotation, is the key lever in regenerative grazing
2. How cows' hooves act as seed planters and why "weeds" like thistles are actually healing the soil
3. What rumen fill and manure consistency tell a herd manager about animal health and forage quality
4. Why cattle genetics matter as much as grazing method, and what "adapting to the system" looks like
5. How Joel financed his ranch with no money down, and why the herd share model is a blueprint others could follow

CONNECT WITH JOEL

Smoke River Ranch Website
X

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome to Oklahoma: Joel, David & the Smoke River story

08:00 – What's broken in rural America and what Smoke River is rebuilding

12:00 – Fresh Rx Oklahoma: food as medicine and local supply chains

15:00 – How Joel got started: a $1/year lease, no capital, and a Twitter DM

19:00 – Virtual fencing: digital paddocks and 60 hours of saved labour per week

21:00 – Heritage breeds: Piney Woods cows, composite bulls, and the genetics program

25:00 – Mob grazing explained: why five moves a day and what stocking density actually means

31:00 – Herd management with Daniel: rumen fill, manure scoring, and daily cattle metrics

36:00 – Sick cow protocols and building a self-selecting genetics program

45:00 – Weeds as healers: thistles, pioneer species, and soil succession

Fascinating episode, touring a regenerative bison and pecan farm! A first for me. 

A bit about the ranch & tour...

TLC ranch is located in Souther Oklahoma. It's ran by Cindy Sheffield (who tours us today) and her husband Tread and their two daughters and husbands, where they raise bison and manage a large organic pecan orchard. The ranch began in 1997 when the family purchased land that many others had passed on, seeing potential where others did not.

What started as weekend trips for hunting and time outdoors gradually turned into a long-term commitment to steward the land. Over the years the family developed ponds, trails, and eventually planted thousands of pecan trees, which are now grown using organic and regenerative practices.

More recently they fulfilled a long-standing goal of bringing bison back to the property. Today the ranch combines pecan production with bison grazing, reflecting the family’s focus on building a working farm that supports both the land and the people who depend on it.

What we cover:

• Starting a bison ranch after decades of owning land
• Managing parasites and animal health on pasture
• Rotational grazing and integrating chickens behind bison
• The economics and risks of pecan farming
• Floods, disease, and the unpredictable realities of agriculture

Connect with the farm:
Website
Facebook
Instagram

Regenaissance Youtube Channel

Timestamps:
00:00:00 Regulations and differences between bison and cattle
00:02:20 How TLC Ranch began and why the family chose bison
00:03:40 Flooding, parasites, and losing animals in the herd
00:05:00 Transitioning to rotational grazing for parasite control
00:06:30 Plans to integrate meat chickens behind the bison
00:08:00 How bison grazing behavior differs from cattle
00:12:50 Handling bison and working animals through the chute system
00:17:00 Field harvesting a bison and the reality of on-farm slaughter
00:19:30 The challenge of finding truly clean food and produce
00:24:00 Managing a pecan orchard and harvesting the crop
00:27:00 Weather risks, floods, and the economics of farming
00:29:00 Why consumers need to understand the realities farmers face

Caden and Patrick run Cable Family Farm in Piedmont, North Carolina, where they manage a small 80 bed no-till market garden along with pasture-raised eggs and chickens. Caden started the farm at 18, and then a few years later was able to convince Patrick to join him.

Their main concern starting the farm was how would they make money? This tour shows how they produce their crops and animals in a healthy, sustainable way, along with their marketing and production approach to creating a viable small-scale farm production.

It was fascinating and productive to hear from these young farmers how they approach farming, why their not organic, the systems they run to stay viable and efficient, and understanding why they chose this career path over everything else (hint, farming food can be incredibly meaningful).

Key Topics

• Building an 80 bed no-till market garden from grass
• Tools and systems for small-scale vegetable farming
• Pasture-raised eggs and chickens
• Organic practices without certification
• Economics and tradeoffs on small farms

Connect with Caden & Patrick:

Instagram
Youtube
Other links

Timestamps 

 00:00:00 Introduction to Cable Family Farm
 00:01:00 Building a no-till market garden
 00:06:00 Broadforking and minimal soil disturbance
 00:10:00 Weather risks and crop failures
 00:14:00 Time and cost of starting a garden
 00:19:00 Organic practices vs certification
 00:23:00 Simple greenhouse and seed starting
 00:27:00 Egg layers and rotational grazing
 00:32:00 Raising pasture-raised chickens
 00:35:00 Why chickens are healthier on pasture

About Rehoboth & Josh & Jessica:
This was a really fun tour. The farm has an interesting backstory. It was initially just a backyard chicken hobbyist farm, and then after feeding themselves and friends, they saw the health impact and the localized food impact - then began trading meat for land access. 

Josh spent years during 2015-18 waiting for the right property top open up, with multiple failed attempts, before securing the current farm in 2018. 

They launched full-time in 2019, saw rapid growth during 2020 with that demand spike, and then developed the farm into what it is today, a regenerative grazing operation and direct-to-consumer product platform. 

Neither Joss or Jessica grew up farming, but health concerns, lack of localized food option and expense of quality food triggered their shift to farming. 

They have a faith-driven vision for the farm, and “Rehoboth” means “God made room”. 

Jessica leads customer engagement, and Josh leads the systems and operations on the farm. 

You can connect to Josh and Jessica via the links below:

Website
Instagram

Key topics & Timestamps:
00:00:00 Tractor use and cutting pasture for regrowth
00:01:00 Turkey shipping losses and hatchery challenges
00:03:00 Why turkey poults are fragile in the brooder
00:04:00 Thanksgiving turkey pickup on farm
00:05:00 Broiler setup and water system improvements
00:08:30 Compost piles and feeding pumpkins to livestock
00:10:30 Rotating pigs and natural mineral foraging
00:14:00 Outdoor pig genetics vs confinement genetics
00:22:00 Moving broilers to build soil nitrogen
00:24:00 Multi-species grazing and parasite management

Our farm tour of Tony Eash's pasture raised pork, chicken and beef farm.

Tony grew up farming alongside his brother Phil in West Virginia, learning animal care and haymaking at a young age. After the sudden loss of their father, the brothers leaned on their Mennonite community for support and chose to continue farming. Tony tours us through his farm, his way of life, and you're able to see how much he cares about farming, the land and animals, and the importance of delivering quality food to consumers.

He's had a few battles with the government to get us his great food! All is shared in the farm tour. Enjoy.

Link to our full podcast episode with Tony as well:
Spotify
Apple

Key Topics

• Direct-to-consumer raw milk and nationwide shipping
• Soil temperature, grass recovery, and grazing management
• Farm economics, burnout, and scaling sustainably
• Regulation, labeling, and transparency challenges
• Genetics, pasture diversity, and animal health decisions

What You’ll Learn

• Why covered soil stays cooler and supports biology
• The difference between grass recovery and true rest
• How raw milk is tested, bottled, and shipped
• Why many dairies fail despite high production
• How farmers adapt systems to survive long-term

Connect with Triple E

Website
Instagram

Follow the tour on YouTube

Timestamps 

 00:00 — Why direct-to-consumer food systems matter
 06:40 — Shipping meat and milk across the U.S.
 14:30 — Raw milk testing, bottling, and sanitation
 23:10 — Regulation, labeling, and legal pressure
 31:40 — Dairy economics and why production fails farmers
 41:20 — Genetics, grass-fed transitions, and herd losses
 50:30 — Soil temperature, grazing height, and cooling livestock
 54:10 — Rest vs recovery and pasture decision-making

This one was fun. Jacob and Jenna tour us through Baird Farm, a fourth-generation Vermont maple farm operating since 1918. They walk me through the sugarbush, tubing systems, and sugarhouse, and how its all made/stored/sold and its history. Fascinating stuff - hope you get something out of it. 

Key Topics

• Modern maple syrup production vs traditional bucket methods
• The maple sugaring season and weather dependence
• Real maple syrup vs imitation and blended products
• Forest management, biodiversity, and tree health
• Generational farming and maintaining a family-run operation

What You’ll Learn

• Why maple syrup is produced in a short late-winter window, not year-round
• How modern maple syrup is collected using tubing and vacuum systems
• What tapping a maple tree involves and how trees are protected long-term
• How much sap is required to make real maple syrup
• Why Vermont consistently produces some of the highest maple yields

Connect with Jason & Baird Farm:

Website
Instagram

Follow the tour on YouTube

Connect with Regenaissance:

Website & Merch
Instagram
X
Substack (Ag News & History)

Timestamps:

 00:00:00 – Introduction and farm history
 00:04:40 – Buckets vs modern maple tubing systems
 00:07:10 – What maple syrup actually is (and isn’t)
 00:12:00 – How maple tubing and vacuum systems work
 00:16:40 – Tapping trees and protecting long-term tree health
 00:22:00 – The maple syrup production window and season length
 00:25:10 – Why Vermont dominates U.S. maple production
 00:31:00 – Forest management, biodiversity, and resilience
 00:38:20 – Labor, infrastructure, and modern maple realities
 00:45:30 – Generational farming and transitioning the farm forward