Feed Grass For Good

Having spent a number of years in the oil & gas industry, Bruce Wood came to the grass-fed protein industry with some ideas that many farmers might not consider. His regenerative, grass-focused plan has been working out quite well so far at Locmaria Farms, where Bruce is the director.

Dr. Lalman got his under-graduate degree at Kansas State University, then a Masters from Montana State University and finally a PhD at the University of Missouri. Now he's on the faculty at Oklahoma State University where he helps with their extension program and researches cow-calf nutrition and management. His understanding of the costs of land and feed, and his research into limit feeding is really interesting and most importantly can help farmers increase their profitability.

Joe Howard’s family has been farming in England since 1888, and during the last two decades of the 20th century, Howard Farms was focused on intensive and irrigation crop farming, but then the farm’s soil began to deteriorate and yields fell off a cliff. So in 2003, Joe’s father Max introduced cattle to the farm hoping that a return to a mixed farming approach would improve the soil quality and balance, and the results were as you might expect. Joe Howard took over the livestock enterprise in 2016 and is very generous with his time, explaining among other things how genetic selection has been important for the success of the operation, and demonstrates how profitability is such a vital part of what makes a farm actually sustainable

Having dedicated most of his life to developing high quality seed stock and prime stock, Roderick Binny is very optimistic about his pasture based finishing systems and the grass-fed cattle industry, but his optimism is based on some very well reasoned, market-driven observations. Understanding the realities of where you raise your livestock are, in Roderick's experienced opinion, crucial to your success as a livestock farmer or rancher.

James talks about how he and his wife took over his family Angus operation after a number of years working on Wall Street, and how it's sometimes hard, but the opportunity to walk around the farm and be in nature gives him the chance to decompress. He has some strong opinions about the big four packers, and about feedlot cattle raising in general, but also thinks that the 'fake meat' creators aren't addressing how they're replenishing the soil. He's a proud user of Hustler Equipment as well, and talks about some of his favorite product features and benefits.

Ian ("Hutch") and Maggie were very generous with their time - allowing us to come to their farm to interview them in-person. The fact that they've planted over a hundred thousand trees and done a number of the other restorations, along with the reason they did it all makes them a truly unique couple in our opinion. Overall, a really interesting interview.

This interview was difficult to fit into a single episode, but we did the best we could. Trent's takes on Animal Ag farmers and ranchers being stewards of land, and how they really need to take control of the message was really refreshing - particularly since animals are so necessary when it comes to regenerating soils.

Welcome to the Feed Grass For Good podcast, brought to you by Hustler Equipment - the world’s most innovative livestock feeding equipment. Each episode we talk with a different Sustainable Farmer or expert in Sustainable Farming. This is our pilot episode and we’re kicking it all off with a conversation with Lillie Beringer, the 24-year old head of Beringer Family Farms, a farm-to-table operation in Cascade, Iowa.