Working Cows - Regenerative Ranching to Maximize Profitability and Soil Health

RS June, co-founder of BeefMaps.com and the Beef Initiative, drives urban outreach to connect consumers with local ranchers. Shannon Ebersole, a rancher and co-founder of the Beef Initiative, coaches ranchers on direct sales. They discuss how BeefMaps facilitates consumer access to diverse local beef, consumer preferences for fresh produce, and the importance of community resilience. With strategies for increasing rancher profitability through direct sales, they emphasize trust-building and the cultural benefits of local food systems.

Zach Osburn's farm has become a place that produces more than just healthy soil and profits. He is working to see life transformation among men in crisis on his farm. He does this through several different approaches. He shares some of the different pieces of this process today on the Working Cows Podcast.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:Ranch RightSea-90 Ocean MineralsRelevant Links:Rockside RanchRelevant Episodes:Ep. 236 Craig Thompson and Gordon Decker – Restoration Matters PodcastEp. 190 Craig Thompson and Gordon Decker – Rockside Ranch

Gabe Brown has traveled extensively within the United States and around the world. He sees a movement taking shape. People are passionate about healthy food that is grown in healthy soils. This movement reaches into communities, businesses, and governments. It has even reached into the castle of a king or two. He joins me to discuss the way this movement is impacting these different sectors and how we can make sure our businesses are primed to make the most of this opportunity. Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:UnderstandingAg.comGabe Brown's Previous Episodes:Ep. 459 Gabe Brown and Dr. Temple Grandin on Creating a More Resilient Food SystemEp. 404 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams on Fixing America’s Broken Rural EconomiesEp. 402 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Fixing America’s Broken Water CycleEp. 380 Gabe Brown, Dr. Allen Williams, and Fernando Falomir – Soil Health Academy Q and AEp. 388 Gabe Brown and Luke Jones – Making the Regenerative ShiftEp. 361 Gabe Brown and Allen Williams – 2024 State of AgricultureEp. 305 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Matching Management to ContextEp. 293 Gabe Brown and Matt McGinn – Transitioning to More Adaptive StewardshipEp. 290 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Three Rules of Adaptive StewardshipEp. 288 Gabe Brown and Shane New – Managing the Nutrient CyleEp. 283 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The 6-3-4Ep. 281 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The State of Agriculture in North AmericaEp. 277 Gabe Brown – The State of the American Food SystemEp. 121 Gabe Brown – Heifer Development in Sync with NatureEp. 067 Gabe Brown – Dirt to Soil

Many gurus and business consultants have sung the praises of highly diversified businesses with many streams of income. These businesses are not without their own unique challenges. Dallas Mount of Ranch Management Consultants is here to help us think differently about what success looks like. Sometimes it means identifying the one or two things we do really well and then doing a lot more of those few things rather than adding a lot more enterprises that only produce marginal results.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:Ranch RightSea-90 Ocean MineralsRelevant Links:Ranching for ProfitDallas' Previous Episodes:Ep. 372 Dallas Mount – Using Business Language – July 8th, 2024Ep. 333 Dallas Mount – Making Good DecisionsEp. 304 Dallas Mount – What is Profit For?Ep. 198 Dallas Mount – Succession Strategies – July 14th, 2021Ep. 179 Dallas Mount – The Grazing Principles – March 9th, 2021Ep. 156 Dallas Mount – Having the Courage to Talk – September 22nd, 2020Ep. 120 Dallas Mount – Working ON the Business – December 30th, 2019Ep. 090 Dallas Mount – Profitablity Targets – May 21st, 2019Ep. 043 Dallas Mount – Turning the Tables – August 20th, 2018Ep. 029 Dallas Mount – Learning in the Land Down Under – May 15th, 2018Ep. 002 Dallas Mount – Four Pillars of a Ranching Operation – November 6th, 2017

Winter feed costs often go a long way in determining our profitability as ranchers. As a Canadian Rancher Blain Hjertaas has learned some valuable lessons in controlling winter feed costs. He joins me today to discuss the strategies that he has found that go a long way to helping drive profitability by reducing expenses related to winter feeding.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:UnderstandingAg.com

The idea of purchasing land and animals at the same time seems unthinkable. However, if we are willing to think differently about our management of our key inventories, we can open up a whole new realm of possibilities. John Haskell and Wally Olson are familiar with many stories of people accomplishing lofty goals because they were willing to think outside the box.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:Redd Summit AdvisorsRemedi Animal SolutionsEp. 371 Ellen Bench – Implementing Homeopathic Livestock HealthEp. 368 Ellen Bench – Homeopathic Livestock HealthRelevant Links:Ranching.FYICow Bell Curve Image available at workingcows.net/460

Richard Tufton and Claire Mackenzie of the Six Inches of Soil Podcast generously shared with me a conversation they hosted between Gabe Brown and Dr. Temple Grandin. This is a fascinating conversation that covers Dr. Temple Grandin's perspective on regenerative agriculture and some of her solutions to the fragility in our food system. We get some great back and forth between Gabe and Dr. Grandin. Thanks again to Richard and Claire for sharing this conversation!Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:UnderstandingAg.comRelevant Links:Dr. Temple GrandinSubscribe to the Six Inches of Soil Podcast:<iframe data-testid="embed-iframe" style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5sYPBGgYUDR7t9Z0yIudhM?utm_source=generator&theme=0" width="100%" height="152" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>Gabe Brown's Previous Episodes:Ep. 404 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams on Fixing America’s Broken Rural EconomiesEp. 402 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Fixing America’s Broken Water CycleEp. 380 Gabe Brown, Dr. Allen Williams, and Fernando Falomir – Soil Health Academy Q and AEp. 388 Gabe Brown and Luke Jones – Making the Regenerative ShiftEp. 361 Gabe Brown and Allen Williams – 2024 State of AgricultureEp. 305 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Matching Management to ContextEp. 293 Gabe Brown and Matt McGinn – Transitioning to More Adaptive StewardshipEp. 290 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Three Rules of Adaptive StewardshipEp. 288 Gabe Brown and Shane New – Managing the Nutrient CyleEp. 283 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The 6-3-4Ep. 281 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The State of Agriculture in North AmericaEp. 277 Gabe Brown – The State of the American Food SystemEp. 121 Gabe Brown – Heifer Development in Sync with NatureEp. 067 Gabe Brown – Dirt to SoilMore Info About Six Inches of Soil:Six Inches of Soil Podcast, Episode 8:Unbound: discovering unlimited potential when what’s better for cattle is better for businessHost, producer: Richard TuftonCo-host, producer: Claire MackenzieSix Inches of Soil: Website: https://www.sixinchesofsoil.org/Book: https://www.sixinchesofsoil.org/bookInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sixinchesofsoil/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/six-inches-of-soil-b75059234/Introduction:Dr Grandin and Gabe explore how uniting animal welfare with regenerative agriculture and combining soil practices with Temple’s farming solutions, you have nature and nurture working together as one big metaphorical “hug machine”. This offers a communal hug, if you will, by enveloping the animal’s life with a safe, healthy, happy and tranquil environment, which we know will undoubtedly provide a better life for them. Their conversations weave between regenerative agriculture, animal welfare, and consumer demand. The speakers discuss the importance of integrating livestock with crops, the challenges faced in modern agriculture, and the role of youth in shaping the future of farming. They emphasize the need for visual thinking and innovation in agricultural practices, as well as the impact of climate change on food production. Featuring: Dr Temple Grandin is an American scientist and industrial designer whose own experience with autism funded her professional work in creating systems to counter stress in certain human and animal populations.Dr. Grandin did not talk until she was three and a half years old. She was fortunate to get early speech therapy. Her teachers also taught her how to wait and take turns when playing board games. She was mainstreamed into a normal kindergarten at age five. Dr. Grandin became a prominent author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior. Today she is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also has a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio) and a BBC Special – "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow". HBO made an Emmy Award winning movie about her life and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.Gabe BrownGabe Brown is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on the regeneration of our resources. Gabe, along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, ran Brown's Ranch, a diversified 5,000 acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, North Dakota. Their ranch focuses on farming and ranching in nature's image.They have now transitioned ownership of the ranch over to their son, Paul and his wife, Jazmin.Gabe authored the bestselling book, “Dirt to Soil, One Family’s Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture.”Gabe is a partner and Board Member at Regenified and serves as the public face of the company. He is a founding partner in Understanding Ag, LLC.Websites: https://brownsranch.us/https://regenified.com/about-us/https://understandingag.com/partners/gabe-brown/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brownsranch/?hl=en

If we can develop animals that don't depend on inputs we can drive profitability. To do this we need to pay attention to more than just genetics. We need to also allow epigenetics to play a role in that selection process. Dr. Allen Williams was a university professor focused on genetics. His perspective has changed radically since those days. We discuss his understanding of what it takes to use the lever of epigenetics to our advantage.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:UnderstandingAg.comRelated Resources:Epigenetics: Blessing or CurseGuest's Previous Episodes:Ep. 430 - Dr. Allen Williams - Keys to Successful Grass-FinishingEp. 404 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams on Fixing America’s Broken Rural EconomiesEp. 402 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Fixing America’s Broken Water CycleEp. 380 Gabe Brown, Dr. Allen Williams, and Fernando Falomir – Soil Health Academy Q and AEp. 369 Dr. Stephan Van Vliet and Dr. Allen Williams – Growing Nutrient Dense FoodEp. 361 Gabe Brown and Allen Williams – 2024 State of AgricultureEp. 305 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Matching Management to ContextEp. 290 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – Three Rules of Adaptive StewardshipEp. 283 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The 6-3-4Ep. 281 Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams – The State of Agriculture in North AmericaEp. 148 Dr. Allen Williams – Grazing for Soil Health

Rural America has been hollowed out by agricultural practices that divorce people from a connection to the land. This has had massive negative cascading and compounding effects. We don't know our neighbors. We don't depend on the land to make ends meet. Our rural communities shrivel up and we are dependent on people farther and farther from us for our necessities. JR Burdick has been on a journey to reverse these negative realities for his family. He shares that journey today.Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:Sea-90 Ocean MineralsRelevant Links:JR Burdick on X

Telling a story that takes into account the vast network of interconnected systems is difficult. This has been the journey Peter Byck has been on for nearly a decade. He started with the Carbon Cowboys and now he has released a new documentary series "Roots So Deep You Can See the Devil Down There."Thanks to our Studio Sponsor, Understanding Ag!Head over to UnderstandingAg.com to book your consultation today!Sponsor:Remedi Animal SolutionsEp. 371 Ellen Bench – Implementing Homeopathic Livestock HealthEp. 368 Ellen Bench – Homeopathic Livestock HealthRanchRightLLC.comRelevant Links:The Peter Byck ShowSupport Peter's WorkPeer Reviewed ResearchRent or Buy Roots So Deep