🌻 Lead from the front 🌻
The 6 Principles of Regenerative Farming
MCCF uses regenerative agricultural practices. We continue to improve our methods of operation on the farm, and work to heal the land by following these principles. We have incorporated a holistic management approach which helps us to look at our farm as a whole, and think about what impacts each action we take will have.
Rotating our cattle helps sequester carbon, build soil organic matter, decrease erosion, and provide safe habitats for many wildlife species.
(While producing an excellent meat to eat)
- Principle 1: Context
- Principle 2: Minimizing Soil Disturbance
- Principle 3: Soil Armor
- Principle 4: Diversity
- Principle 5: Continual Live Plant/Root
- Principle 6: Livestock Integration
MCCF uses regenerative agricultural practices. We continue to improve our methods of operation on the farm, and work to heal the land by following these principles. We have incorporated a holistic management approach which helps us to look at our farm as a whole, and think about what impacts each action we take will have.
Rotating our cattle helps sequester carbon, build soil organic matter, decrease erosion, and provide safe habitats for many wildlife species.
(While producing an excellent meat to eat)
Conservation Practices we utilize:
- Rotationally Grazing livestock
- Cover crops
- Unrolling of hay in pastures/hay fields
- Bale Grazing
- Planting trees, shrubs, and pollinator areas
- Maintain a old growth sugar bush
- Minimizing fertilizers
- Leaving areas for wildlife
- Wildlife conscious hay mowing
- “Flush bar” for hay mowing to help wildlife
- Vegetative buffers around surface water
- Pollinator plantings
- Native Warm Season grass plantings
We owe a special thanks to many people on our continued journey, including many other producers from Michigan & beyond, as well as staff from both MSU & NRCS
- Rotationally Grazing livestock
- Cover crops
- Unrolling of hay in pastures/hay fields
- Bale Grazing
- Planting trees, shrubs, and pollinator areas
- Maintain a old growth sugar bush
- Minimizing fertilizers
- Leaving areas for wildlife
- Wildlife conscious hay mowing
- “Flush bar” for hay mowing to help wildlife
- Vegetative buffers around surface water
- Pollinator plantings
- Native Warm Season grass plantings
We owe a special thanks to many people on our continued journey, including many other producers from Michigan & beyond, as well as staff from both MSU & NRCS
Studies and educational events we have or are currently participating in as a farm:
MAEAP Verified Farm - Livestock, Cropping, Farmstead & Forest, Wetland, Habitat
Soil Health Academy- Adaptive Grazing 2023, Fall 2024 attending a second on grazing
Savory Ecological Outcome Verification Farm 2023
3M Multi-State Study on grazing and land management with: MSU, Nobel Research Institute, University of Wyoming, Colorado Stare University, Savory, and many others.
this is a prestigious study for us to be part of and here are the major components of it:
•
Soil Health Indicators – Soil carbon and nitrogen stocks and other soil heath metrics as influenced by
grazing management.
•
Water Cycling Indicators – Distribution of soil moisture content will be measured, and moisture variability along with soil texture, bulk density, and water infiltration and will be evaluated to estimate changes in
these properties over time due to grazing practices.
•
Applied Landscape Monitoring (EOV) – EOV measures and documents trends of key indicators such as those pertaining to soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem function.
•
Eddy Covariance Flux Towers – The exchange of trace gases, weather and exchange of water over time.
•
Remote Sensing – Satellite imagery will be used to assess changes in water use and vegetation health in
response to land and grazing management.
•
Producer Well-being – The relationship between grazing management strategies, well-being and resilience. We will ask about well-being, values, social networks, knowledge and skills, and grazing management.
•
Producer Profitability and Economics – We will measure differences in economic profit, economic well-being and the value of ecosystem services accruing to landowners. We will also look at the differences in benefits across producers with different management practices and growing conditions.
American Forage and Grassland Council Conference 2024
