Our cross fences are built inside large fenced-in pasture areas that are dedicated to grazing our livestock and growing more forage. Cross fencing provides us with pasture management and flexibility. We use the cross fences to separate animals, rotate pasture, and keeping livestock in clean, fresh areas.

We put our animals together with our agriculture and in return get a natural nutrient cycle. Putting animal grazing with crop production makes sense — animal grazing on cover crops allow more nutrient cycling from crop to soil and carbon sequestration into our soils. This benefits the soil, the animal, and the environment.

We utilize the natural occurring minerals in ancient sea salts to supplement our cattle. We source our salt right in here Kansas! It is an underground ancient sea salt bed. We mix this salt with a clay called “Conditioner”. The conditioner is a volcanic ash that fell into the sea water and sits as a deposit right on top of the salt deposit. It is rich in deep earth and sea minerals. The other great thing about conditioner is its ability to absorb toxins. The ancient sea salt and conditioner combined makes our cattle more alkaline to reduce parasite pressure and other common diseases. This allows for our animals to produce and perform as they should.

Our rotational grazing program is where we move our animals through different paddock/divisions within our pastures weekly. This managed grazing allows for recovery and re-growth of a paddock prior to animal rotation. This practice reduces soil erosion, improves water penetration, and reduces run-off, while at the same time provides quality livestock nutrition.

This practice means a lot to us. We do what we do to make a better life for animals, where they can live and love their home. We strive to build a ecologically more diverse natural system that offers native birds, mammals, and pollinators a better chance to find suitable habitat. We love seeing the wildlife when we go to work each day. The picture above is a meadowlark that has nested herself and her eggs in one of our cross-fenced pastures.

We implement specific farming and grazing practices that reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.

We get asked questions about this practice a lot. Microbiomes are communities of organisms that live on and in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere. Organisms play an important role in maintaining fertility, structure, drainage, and aeration of soil. Fun fact: Dung Beetles can carry up to 1 ton of manure into the soil per acre! That is a lot of manure for a little bug!

Our no-till farming methods allow for continual plant and root growth in our soil, without disruption. This farming practice provides the soil with better nutrients to reinvigorate other plants. When soils are left undisturbed, abundance and diversity of soil microbes increase, leading to improved soil microbiomes and soil structure. This practice is key for benefits in both the near term as well as rebuilding soils for future generations.

Keeping soils covered reduces the risk of possible soil erosion, suppresses weeds, and provides a healthy environment for pollinators. It is a key tool that helps to sequester carbon from the atmosphere into soils, recycle nutrients, reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers, reduce agricultural run-off, and promote better soil biology and structure.

Areas that grow a variety of plants and crops build healthier soil naturally. The original agricultural practices allowed native plant and soil ecosystems to co-evolve naturally to achieve a balance that supports a vast variety of plants grown in the same soil.

Using animal manure to rebuild depleted soils allows for natural and sustainable growth. Composted plant residue and animal waste build soil organically and it is crucial for regeneration. Composting processes take time and can be driven by bacteria, fungi, earthworms, nematodes, and other organisms. In addition to adding carbon/organic matter back into soils, composts provide a natural fertilizer value to our soils and crops.

This is how we conserve water, protect water quality, prevent water run off and erosion. Watersheds help us to catch, store, and release water into our soils by infiltrating, holding, purifying and slowly releasing water. They even lead to a healthy topsoil, flooding regulation, and drought regulation. Watersheds accelerate all of our regenerative practices. Bring on more water!