Regenerative Agriculture: How We Improve Soil Quickly without Costly Equipment

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Our video “Why I Don’t Farm Like Joel Salatin, Greg Judy, or Gabe Brown” is the second part of this video. It responds to early comments and talks about the long term goals for the 10 acre field. Check it out. It was published one week after this one. Thanks for watching!

[@dr.froghopper6711]

My garden spent 10 years as an adobe floored horse corral. Trampled hard, in the desert, I’ve been working on it for 5 years. I added multiple layers of horse manure, straw, leaves, wood chips. I’ve been building raised beds with purchased soil and saving as much biomass as possible for the compost pile. I collect coffee grounds from a local restaurant, usually two 5 gallon buckets per week. I’m starting cover crops of clover, rye grass, oats, barley, cow peas-all started this spring. I’m disabled and very heat intolerant due to a neurological disorder. So earthworms are doing most of the tilling here, although the current chicken yard will grow fine corn and melons next year. The chickens are a tiny flock but they till pretty nicely. I’m about to plant their next digs with a variety of cover crops to till in after we move them.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

really nice. im sure its already paying off now and it will pay off more in the long run. Keep it up!

[@estebancorral5151]

Why did you let it be derelict for so long? That is nothing to be proud of. Ten years of neglect is tragedy.

[@NHamel123]

​@estebancorral5151 maybe they just bought it? Maybe they were rodeoers and needed a practice arena? Professional horse trainers? Tons of reasons to have an arena.

[@GriffenNaif]

You might have a copper deficiency. Copper allows you to tolerate sun longer. Zinc should be taken with copper. 10 zinc - 1 copper ratio.

[@sansomspressurecleaningpoo9519]

Oh I wish I had a friend like Bubba. You’re blessed to have him. I use dump trucks full of fresh Wood Chips. i’m in Palm Beach Florida. not too far from the beach. I also use seaweed , Grass clippings, organic alfalfa pellets ,wood ashes, charcoal, five different kinds of worms. I also have my ladies/chickens. They do a lot of the work. Tilling ,debugging ,sanitizing ,fertilizing. They making sure everybody’s happy on the property. Thank you for taking the time out to make your video have a good day and God bless y’all.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I am blessed to have lots of friends and neighbors who help. Most prefer to avoid being recorded! It’s great to hear what you’re doing. Thanks for watching.

[@estebancorral5151]

You are not availing yourself of palm which are phosphorus accumulators. Make it easy on yourself.

[@michaelzorro2738]

Am in the process of developing a native Grassland and wildflower land Conservancy. Your video was very informative and helpful.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad it was helpful!

[@marcruel9401]

I used wood chips.I prefer summertime for the green leaves, break down faster. They are free and my clay went to rich black healthy soil in just two seasons

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

They perform really really well. We had a couple hundred loads of woodchips delivered years ago and we piled them up while waiting to use them. Anyway it produces wonderful soil. Thanks for responding.

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

Wood chips are termite breeding systems. You are not wanted in many cimmunities forvthat reason

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

There are termites in the woods that you see from time to time. While termites can be detrimental to homes, in my experience they are often feared more than is necessary in woodchips.

[@timobrien2738]

@@BaliFoodTreePlanter sounds like a biased view Perhaps consider everyone’s situation is different

[@hehay10]

@@BaliFoodTreePlanter don't put them next to your house bud

[@KedeshFarm]

Great video. On Kedesh Farm, we are unrolling hay and bale grazing. We also had lime applied to the fields last spring. I only have one cow on the land at this time, and she is doing a great job. I keep her rotational grazing lane tight. Again, thanks for sharing.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

That is awesome! Thank you for watching.

[@LMC444111]

We just purchased 160 acres with 40 in pasture. In the process of getting a solar water pump put on our bore (not sure what it's called outside of Australia). It's just my husband and myself and a LOT of clay soil. These 40 acres are starting to look like 400 when you're standing in the middle of it. I think your advice comes closest to what we could practically do ourselves in the short term. I have the land and my neighbour has the cattle. He's having to bring in hay. I'm just wondering out loud if I should go in halves on the feed and have him roll it out on my property as long as he's cool with keeping things tight, like you said.

[@SandraHertel-u3b]

Thank you for this. I now own a small property that we will homestead and the soil is very poor. I’ll will look to adding compost and cover crops to help bring this soil to live and better health.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you for watching. It’s great to hear about your plans. I have been publishing a lot of videos recently in how cover crops improve soil. I hope that they help you on your journey!

[@Abdullah-london]

Thank you, listening to whilst driving to work.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

thank you for listening. I appreciate it.

[@mrctzn4557]

I would try to ensure if I bought hay or any mulch from outside make sure it has no chemicals to keep weeds out that animals will pass into the manure. That being in the hay they eat will kill crops the following season. Many videos on you tube cover this widespread danger many gardeners and growers are facing. Thanks for the information I hope to put what you have shared to use.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Some of the chemicals last for a year or two in the soil for broadleaf plants and it can be disastrous especially for a garden or similar enterprise. Thanks for watching. Thanks for the comment

[@1337farm]

Great content, thanks for taking the time!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching.

[@shannonjayne605]

New to grazing and cows, this is super encouraging thanks!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Great. Another video coming out soon about starting to graze cows.

[@timeorspace]

Thank you for sharing, I enjoy seeing the creative process farms like yours go through. We bought a home on 3/4 acre urban property with woods, creek, and a weedy/clover lawn over squishy clay. After watching shadows & flooding we have identified an area for growing vegetables. I’m expanding the forest border by stopping mowing, poking acorns/tree seeds I find on hikes, and planting 5 native trees I picked up for free. Last year I bought an old small chipper mulcher so I can keep all the tree droppings on property and also balance my two compost tumblers with a stockpile of brown litter. We are growing vegetables in bags made of poly tarps filled with our own compost. I’m doing research for a few projects I’m hoping to get underway before the summer heat kicks in. 1 build a chicken coop & run, 2 import and spread carbon (arborist mulch) to build soil for expanding our vegetable garden next year. Right now, I’m learning about broad forks, which may help to drain some of my squishy clay yard?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

That’s real interesting. I wish we could grow clover in our yard all year long. Where are you located? I’ve done some broadforking, but we moved into livestock and did less vegetable gardening. Clay is difficult to deal with because it brick hard when dry and a muddy mess when wet.

[@timeorspace]

When I wrote clover, I meant ground ivy.

[@DMatthewW]

I have a question. How wet is the clay? Are there puddles? Because instead of removing it, you could try turning it into a wetland. There are some edible plants that love marshy conditions.

[@porterowski9232]

I'm your newest subscriber, keep making these informative videos! Bobby, Denison, Texas

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for the sub! I just added a new one today that gives a bit more detail following up this video. Thanks for the encouragement Bobby! Rob

[@vickiamundsen2933]

On a very small scale: creating a new bed in hardpan clay, I dug a 1' deep pit that was 3' x 15'. Set the soil to one side, and then last fall, ALL the weed pullings, spent annuals, veg waste, and soft prunings went into the pit, intermingled with the removed clay soil. This spring it'll be pumpkins.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

That’s great!

[@rasserfrasser]

I'm just a container grower in my backyard, first year. This winter I'm putting red clover in my buckets to try and add nitrogen to the soil. I guess some would call it "soil-less" as it's mostly coco coir, but my amendments include humus from the neighboring forest, biochar and some other stuff. I'm curious to see how it helps develop the used medium. Even though I'm not a farmer, it's really interesting to see how you try to cycle the soil in a way that's beneficial but doesn't break the wheel. Thanks for posting this. :)

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you for the kind words and the feed back. I hope your container growing of red clover works well for you!

[@Suresh8848m]

Great informative and interesting video. It makes me feel as if I am also there with you in your field as I watched the video. I love your strategy for making healthy soils by minimizing the use of heavier farm equipment. I believe that you are in the right direction towards regenerative agriculture. Please keep going Dowdle Family Farms and keep on spreading the good message across. I also suggest planting some fruit trees (like apple, peach, plums, and berries) here and there, so that it could provide some shade to the ground as well to the grazing livestock, during summer. I also suggest planting berseem as a cover crop including Napier grass, as well as Rye grass especially in the wet part of your ground to reduce sogginess. Please keep up the great job and God Bless!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for the kind words. I’ll give those a try.

[@paulblankenship7865]

I saw a video from Greg Judy talking about this same thing. He said he did it with other peoples cows and they provided the alfalfa hay for the cattle to trample and poop on. Yeah they ate a little of it but most of it was pooped on, peed on, and trampled into the ground. Cows won’t eat any kind of hay that that’s been done to. But it sounds like that’s not your situation. These are your cows, that’s your hay, and that’s your family farm. I see the benefit and profit loss both of what you’re doing. All of it except letting the cows decimate those good bales of hay without using a hay ring. “I think” you would be better served using a ring and let the cows eat all they want. They’ll cull what they don’t want. After they’ve ate their fill move them, and the hay ring, to your new pen with the new bale of hay in it. When you’re completely done feeding them in that area, rotate the pigs through. Once both rotations are done, over sow it with your cover crop seeds and lightly disturb the area to get good seed to soil contact and wait for the magic to happen. Wow, I sure did type a lot of words to give you my opinion lol. I’m sorry if it comes across the wrong way. Please don’t take it that way. Written text can never compete with spoken word. I’m just sharing my opinion. I really like your channel. Keep up the good work.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We have used hay rings in the past. In a pen we use them, but in the pasture they eat a large portion on the hay anyway. What they don’t eat is trampled and mulched. We are using rings here just because the extra mulch on the soil is worth it if they waste it. Plus we don’t have enough hay rings for this! You did not come across the wrong way! Thank you for the feed back. I appreciate it and thanks for watching.

[@beachtrash]

I wonder how spreading Humates as a soil carbon could help build the carbon content?

[@owpwp9497]

Thank you for sharing!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

My pleasure! Thank you for watching.

[@GriffenNaif]

Wonderful work. God's light is on you. Those ruts look like they stuck from last year. But you know your property and resources better than anyone else. I had good success moving my seeding up to 8 species from 3. Tons more resistant to cold, wet, drought, or heat. Thought I'd lose money 💰 on it... but the pasture and increased ADG more than made up for it. Praying 🙏 for you buddy.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

thank you

[@michaelzorro2738]

Thank you for sharing this information with us.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

My pleasure. I hope it helped!

[@nellizae]

Great video! Thanks!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad you liked it!

[@bch5513]

Have you checked ph and limed? That and a high stolon count Durana clover helped my pasture more than anything else I've done. From central ms.. I also feed on concrete pads and compost all the waste and manure and add back to garden and pasture as available. When I limed and fertilized, I no till drilled in Marshall rye and the clover.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yes, my dad checked Ph and limed for several years. This clay soil here took 1-2 tons of lime per acre for several years and improved but still kept getting acidic. I’ll say this though, the Durana clover is a gold mine for what we call our “Red Field”. It is 40 acres of tall fescue with a 20-40% stand of durana clover in it and it is our best performing pasture. These fields are wetter and more acidic so we are using a fixation balansa clover, which tolerates acidic, wet soils better. Check out the video released today “Why I Don’t Farm Like Joel Salatin” and others. It explains a bit more about the long term plans for the 10 acre fields in this paddock. Thanks for watching.

[@jamestyrer6067]

GREAT VIDEO. THIS HOW OUR ANCESTORS DID IT BEFORE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS BECAME POPULAR BECAUSE IT WAS EASIER

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks!

[@C.Hawkshaw]

Good going!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks!

[@JSomerled]

Your garden area looks amazing. One thing I want to focus on next is soil compaction.. I need to figure out a plan to water and feed cattle so they don’t gather in the same place everyday. Especially around water trough’s. I’m also going to try meat chicken and Turkey,hopefully not to time intensive. I like how you pasture and rotate the pigs along with your seed broadcasting to cover..

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

You can do it! Try a sorghum Sudan grass, cowpea, sunflower, Buckwheat cover crop mix this summer in your garden. Mow or graze it a few times. It will make a huge difference in compaction. Just be careful of sorghum Sudan and Prussia acid poisoning.

[@JSomerled]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I need to learn more about the various covers..I have no idea what can cause poisoning ect.. Did you take courses in this? Any good reading material you could recommend?

[@kristinsdick3787]

​@@JSomerledidk the answer to your question just that this video addresses the potential for poisoning in Sorghum Sudan grass kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmSwZHl_a7GBp5Isi=xcQsU862bQzyG9m6

[@kidvision564]

Very good tips

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I'm glad you found them helpful!

[@itztractorjohn]

We run mostly goats and sheep. Unfortunately our hay prices are a lot more expensive. So its cheaper to bail our own. our soil improving method is rotational grazing and feeding hay in new areas. Its a slow improvement process but its cost effective.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for sharing. That’s great.

[@eas-eautocom4871]

Slowly turning seriously hard clay in a 50*16' garden into productive healthy soil. I applied free compost tilled that in the top few inches. With the new 1025r I dug trenches every 6 ft or so. Not exact. I buried layers of leaves, wood mulch, chicken manuer from the coop, more compost, and letting it set through the Upstate NY winter. This should do wonders breaking down carbon n nitrogen along with promoting leaf mold & fungus to really feed the worms & microbes. We'll see come spring. I'll till the top to level it out. More wood mulch into paths & growing rows. Continuously feeding the soil to transform what baked very hard last July.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Wow. Really, really nice. I’m not familiar with upstate NY winters. The farther north I’ve lived was Princeton, NJ for a year while I was in school. I would think that you should see tremendous results this coming growing season. Probably more the next growing season as well. I’m glad to hear what you are doing. Keep it up! It will pay dividends in the long run.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Check out my latest video! I did the same. Results are amazing!

[@mikedonovan4434]

Recommend using an ATV with a bale un-roller trailer; too much soil compaction from tractors. See the videos from Greg Judy for hay feeding examples especially in wet conditions.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

There’s a lot of soil compaction using the tractor in wet conditions. Unfortunately, this time around it could not be helped. In an ideal world this we would unroll the hay in our pastures. We don’t have a bale unroller, nor a reliable ATV to use at the moment. However, even if we did, we would not do it here. Greg Judy usually uses hay in addition to his stockpiled forage in pasture. In our best system, we would use only stockpiled forage. In the next best system we would place the hay out sporadically in the pasture when the pasture was dry. In this paddock though, we have different goals that our typical pasture paddock. Feeding this much hay in such a small area produces a sacrificial paddock. The cows will leave the paddock in an unruly mess. However, the mess they leave will create an ideal environment for our warm season annual forage cover crop mix that includes sorghum Sudan grass. That mix will bust through whatever compaction that remains there producing loads of forage and enrich the soil. These 10 acres will become annual forage crop fields for cows and pigs where we grow much of our pig feed with annuals like clovers, brassicas, and such. We will finish the cows will on the taller sorghum Sudan grass in the mix in the summer. I’m not sure if this makes sense or not, but the short answer is that I agree with you in our pastures, but in this paddock where we are feeding hay we have different goals.

[@user-ww8nz5oo2l]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms aeration does wonders for accelerating soil replenishment. as does gypsum for people with serious compact clay.

[@jirikalivoda6385]

Good job, thank you for sharing this. This video inspired me to let pigs run after balegrazed areas this winter. I have only 2 pigs and 200 sheep they will be in heaven.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

They will be in hog heaven! Thanks for watching

[@Green_Heart_Family_Farm]

Thanks for sharing! We're doing rotational grazing with goats and sheep at our place in Western Oregon. Same ideas as yours; improve soil health and forage quality every year. I haven't done nearly as much cover crop seeding as you describe; I need to find a better source for seed mixes, as it sure is expensive right now. Keep up the good work! -Jarvis

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Cover crop seed can be expensive. I usually use cheaper seed when I can. Often they aren’t the best varieties but they still perform really well.

[@lifeandliberty0172]

Hi there, what county are you in? I'm in Lincoln, doing similar things

[@Green_Heart_Family_Farm]

@@lifeandliberty0172 border of Douglas and Lane counties, between Roseburg and Eugene. Hope it's going well for you on the coast!

[@Alexander-rq9he]

Interesting! Great work! It’s very encouraging. Do you have an area set aside for native wildflowers for pollinators? That would be awesome if you did that 😃

[@MariaGonzalez-p9o]

I just found your channel and read your backstory. Thank you for sharing. We left TX and bought 13 acres in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Our name comes from 2 Cor 5:17. It's nice to know there are more of us.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Really nice. Thanks for watching. Is that in Puerto Rico? What are you doing on the 13 acres?

[@MariaGonzalez-p9o]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I'm sorry I just realized that I left PR out of the comment. I just finished obtaining nonprofit status in PR and with the IRS. We're waiting for the local USDA FSA office to register our farm and issue our FSA number. Our plan is earthbag building, soil building, biodiversity, a few dairy goats, bees, aquaponics, rabbits, and chickens. We'll learn and give workshops, sell and meet people at farmer's markets, and help the push for food sovereignty. Puerto Rico imports 85-90% of its food, which means anytime there's a disruption in the supply chain, we risk starvation. People here have forgotten how to live not completely dependent on government or store provisions. Our fresh produce is limited, high priced, and low quality. Living in the tropics, we should have amazing produce. We're also members of a church plant called Hope Bible Church, but not on the acreage.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thats really cool. I would have thought that there would be much more fresh produce in PR since its in the tropics as you say. It bothers me that most states in the US import the bulk of their food, especially produce and fresh meat. I think its a major problem for mainland, but even greater issue for PR I would think. Do you have a youtube channel documenting this journey? I’d love to hear more about it.

[@estebancorral5151]

@@MariaGonzalez-p9oAll islands have that problem of food in security. The population is too great compared to cultivatable land. Look at Española and Cuba. If you speak Spanish you should watch El Terregal de Ray. He provides good insights as to what Puerto Riqueños like to buy. He is about growing healthy food. He is either your competitor or your mentor. If you don’t speak Spanish then you will be an island within an island.

[@sunriseeyes0]

Thank you for sharing this! I love learning about different methods that everyone uses. No one seems to use the exact same method but it still seems to work. I’m glad you found a method that works for you. Also, may I ask what the fluffy pigs are? I thought they were sheep at first, lol 😅 I have never seen pigs with curly hair!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad you enjoyed it! The pigs are mangalitsas. You can see them in various videos that we have. My kids call them the “sheep pigs”!

[@chrisfisher3900]

Used cover crops in the garden and compost. Lately I have been adding pelleted alfalfa to the beds and water it in,give it a couple months to break down

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I’ve heard alfalfa works wonders. Do you see much benefit from it?

[@chrisfisher3900]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms not alot on the first year but after that yes. Would say it works just as good as fertilizer for general purpose.

[@danielcox8498]

Greetings from Tennessee. I grew up farming winter wheat and soybeans. While we kept our fields somewhat level, we still had a few problem wet spots. After 5+/- years of no-till, we would deep plow and that helped for a year or so. An older farmer told us he eliminated the same problem at his place by pulling a sub-soiler through his fields. After years of farming, no matter crops or livestock, the soil 12" or deeper gets compacted to the point it won't allow drainage into the aquafers and just runs off or evaporates. You can go even further by adding a small tube to the back side of the t-post to deliver compost tea to the newly opened soil attracting deep grass roots down that far. Once there, they will spread out looking for more nutrients naturally loosening the soil. Also, it allows the rain to soak in deeper allowing fields to stay greener longer in the summer. If you don't have one or a tractor big enough to dig down that far, perhaps you could barter with a neighbor and trade a spring piglet or two for services rendered. Just a thought.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching. I’ll look into doing that. Certainly we have a neighbor with a subsoiler.

[@TheFabel1337]

Great video! Can you explain to a non-farmer, why you broadcast the peas/seed before you move the pigs off the pasture? Is it to have them help get the seed into the soil without any equipment or are there other reasons?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching. Yes and yes! The pigs will eat some of the larger seeds, but they miss a lot of them too. As they root for the seeds, they push dirt over other or trample others. So they cover up the seed just enough for it to get water and sprout.

[@Bennix]

What is the best cover crops for 99% sandy soil

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I’m not sure I have clay soil, but I’d start with a warm season cover crop mix of sorghum Sudan grass, pearl millet, cowpeas, and the like. They produce tons of biomass to help build soil.

[@Bennix]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Thank you so much, I will take a look into it. I love the fact that you still want to reply to your viewers message although the video is already few months old. I really need this. Thank you

[@David_Ely]

I really enjoyed watching this video. Where did you learn how to do this type of land stewardship?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I have mostly learned by trial and error! There’s a lot of stuff about cover crops published. There’s some stuff about forage crops. However, very little stuff about small scale planting cover crops. That’s why I’m using livestock to help plant. It’s hard to justify a $20-40,000 machine to plant a few acres at a time. So I’m attempting to do forage crops for pigs (very little information out there on that) and cattle on just a few acres that will improve soil health.

[@trevorstewart8]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms. In New Zealand our farmers mostly bring in contractors for specialized work as you describe here. It is too expensive to have large machines sitting idle most of the year. I am concerned at the amount of standing water you have in your paddocks. The soil structure needs a lot of work to get that working properly. Maybe you could look at cutting some swales (undulations in strategic placements) to give you better pasture in between them and encourage the drainage to where you need it.

[@BigBadJohn1892]

@@trevorstewart8 swales all the way - but they will not listen, for they returneth to their sin as they returmeth to water.

[@shexdensmore]

You might want to look into planting the native savanna grasses in the field that use to grow there before it became a farm?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Interestingly enough, I’d like to try some of them on other parts of the farm. The primary native grass that grows in any of these fields is broomsedge, which isnt useful for grazing. Some of the Indian grasses and bluestems are native to this area. However, they require very precise planting stands from what i understand. But I may try some small patches of them and see how they do.

[@OnePieceatatimeranch]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms the best way we have spread them on our cattle land it's just by collecting seed from nearby neighbors with CRP and scattering it on our land and we can get a lot of Indian grass and Bluestem now in our fescue, orchard and clover stands. Also spreading Reed Canary and Eastern Gamma grass the same way which love wet soils too and grow like a sonofagun

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Nice.

[@promansplainor5245]

I worked at a juice plant and the leftover pulp was great to pile and spread. The alcohol content from fermination can cause birth defects and stillborns, just a heads up on anything fermented.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We don’t typically use something that can ferment but that’s good to know. Thanks.

[@johnthomas5806]

maybe soaking your seeds before broadcasting such as in the "Dr's Johnson - Su and followed up by "Young Red Angus" on his farms in Kansas.....just a thought

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Someone else mentioned young red angus as well.

[@russellsmith3825]

Using a compost extract for seed treatment is a valuable tool

[@ryan198486]

You’re doing everything I would do. The only thing I might suggest would be to plant something to attract as many pollinators as possible as close to where you’re planting cover crops as you can, if that makes sense. I would try planting some native wildflowers in an area the animals can’t get to in an effort to encourage the cover crops to seed and reproduce. Other than that, very well done and enjoyable video.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching Ryan. I would like for us to improve more pollinator species of cover crops and tree crops. The summer cover crop mix gets lots of beneficial insects in it, even though there isn’t much continual forage for pollinators (only the brassicas, buckwheat, and sunflowers). The sorghum sudan attracts lots of lady bugs (lady beetles) as well as other predatory insects. I haven’t hear people mention it much, but it happens. I am working to move more habitat for beneficial insects within the pastures, but it takes a lot of time and work. This year I hope to add some chestnuts (pollen and nectar) in our open pastures for shade, beneficials, and nuts. This might be a good video idea in the future.

[@estebancorral5151]

@@DowdleFamilyFarmsyou are moving in the right direction in this regard.

[@AsmauAbdulrazak]

Thanks a lot, a good job you are doing out there. My farm is about 300ft by100ft.I usually plant maize every for the past 7 years. How do I improve the soil if i do not have animals? My best regards to your little girl I saw in your video.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Sounds great! You can use mulches or cover crops when you are not growing your main crop. It works well.

[@DMatthewW]

One thing I do when I garden, even indoors, is I shred up any dead plant matter and add it back into the soil either as a mulch or mixing it into the ground. I did this with some celery that looked like it was dying due to nutrient deficiencies. I took the celery out of the pot, removed the outermost leaves, dead flower stalks, and whatever plants that were dead, shredded them into tiny pieces with garden shears, and mixed it into the soil before putting the celery plants back in. A few months later, they were thriving!! I think one reason is simply the nutrients in the dead plants, which decomposed into the soil, was being reused by the celery. I basically created an organic material loop.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yep. That’s an outstanding way of increasing organic matter, using plant litter to grow more plant litter. I’ve never tried it with potted plants, other than composting them.

[@DMatthewW]

@@DowdleFamilyFarmsIts basically a never-ending loop of nutrients. No matter created or destroyed. Just reused by the plants🙂 And a good way to get carbon into the ground

[@cisco5400]

Well done

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

thanks.

[@macoppy6571]

City boy trying to cultivate soil on 0.4 Acres, covered by pine and sweet gum with 4 cats, 3 chickens, a dog, and a frog. Some days I wish I was as crazy as y'all. Turning a compost pile by hand every week sometimes makes me dizzy.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Sounds good! turning compost piles by hand is a lot of work!

[@estebancorral5151]

Try turning that pile ever third day. You need good aeration. Pine needles have resins which are antiseptic which makes it slow to decompose.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

Try wearing a respirator if it's from the air coming off the pile

[@drvonovca8342]

I belive you should also dig deep border channels. It was mandatory and common practice in the past. Pigs will have water and mud, it will put down soil water table, you will get grogs as pest control units .

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Sorry. I’m not sure what you mean by border channels.

[@shawnspeidel3161]

I really think you should get a Kinsey Albrecht soil test and spend time balancing soil nutrients. For instance the weed species that do well demonstrate you need calcium. But how much? Measure correctly and apply and you’ll start growing protein vs just carbon.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

There are several soil tests I’d like to get, though I haven’t looked into it yet. From what I understand certain weeds indicate certain mineral deficiencies and by correcting those deficiencies we can help a lot.

[@LarryMages]

Your comment shows that you don’t have even a basic level of understanding of what regenerative farming is all about. You are still stuck in the mode of better farming through chemistry. Where as Regenerative farming uses the soil biome to make the necessary nutrients plant available. See Dr Elaine Ingham and some of her basic “The soil food web” videos for a better understanding of

[@lancerudy9934]

Great video thanks 😊.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you.

[@nicolasbertin8552]

Depending on your climate and soil, a single species cover crop usually yields a bump from 0.1 to 0.2 % in organic matter in a year. Now they found that multi species cover crops can yield up to 1% more every year which is absolutely huge. I saw that on one of Christine Jones video, who was mentionning cover crops with like 20 different plants they tried in New Zealand. But for that massive 1% bump, you need different families of plants, which share nutrients through mycorhizae. Different species of legumes for example won't help much, you really need different families of plants. So for example, in summer, phacelia, buckwheat, sunflower, barley, fava beans... Christine Jones reckons 4 different families is the best to have a good boost, after than it starts to plateau. And yeah the fastest method to increase the fertility is to just dump a huge quantity of wood chips on your soil. But it's expensive for large fields, however it's the method of choice for veggie farms. Coz our modern society produces a lot of wood chips. In France, it can be from the train companies pruning or cutting near the rail tracks, from electricity companies protecting their power lines, trees getting cut town coz they're too close to properties, or coz they need to build new stuff. And right now, there's a lot of pine wood chips from people bringing their Christmas trees to the tip. I only have an 1800 m² veggie garden I take care of (it's a shared urban community garden, I'm in charge of the planting), and we tried different methods. Out of the ones you mentioned, I find manure to be my least favorite. It brings a lot of bindweed, and we have to transport it in our cars as we have to get it at a horse ranch. Wood chips is great, except in winter. Coz our clay soil is compacting in winter with the rain, even with wood chips. So the best method we found is : winter cover crops, and wood chips once we roll over the cover the rest of the year. For hungry crops like squashes and tomatoes, we supplement with spent barley from a local brewery, which is incredibly rich.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks. I’ve heard of spent brewers grains as feed for livestock but never heard of it for soil fertility, though it makes sense. I’ve also found lots of weeds in manure as well.

[@nicolasbertin8552]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms spent grain is very rich in nitrogen and phosphorous. For my alkaline soil it's perfect. It's also organic nitrogen, as opposed to the ammonium you have in fresh manure for example, or some fertilizers like blood or bone. It's important because it's been discovered recently that mineral fertilizers (ammonium or nitrates, phosphates, potassium) prevent plants from forming mycorhizae (so they need more water and even more fertilizers).

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

It makes sense and I have no doubt that it’s true. In my area people focus on spent grain as cheap livestock feed. I’m guessing because we do not have much of it available in my immediate area.

[@estebancorral5151]

You did not mention to innoculate the wood chips with mushroom mycelia.

[@nicolasbertin8552]

@@estebancorral5151 You really don't need to, mushrooms will come naturally. People just wanna sell you mycelium...

[@viviennelong9974]

Excellent!!!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Many thanks!

[@StoneBasses]

New here, so you may get this a lot. But the ruts you're showing from using a tractor are what Greg Judy talks all the time about not doing. Using a four wheeler and his bail unroller will keep the pastures from getting chewed up by heavy equipment.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yes. You are correct. THe follow up video “why I do not far exactly like Joel Salatin …” explains some of the differences in our circumstance. However, most of those ruts were from getting the hay delivery guy unstuck rather than from setting hay out. Thanks for watching.

[@StoneBasses]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms I figured. trying to do anything exactly like them misses the point either way. Should really go to the source material - hollistic management - which will get you to your own decision making framework. But the bale unroller is just one tool to help with the ruts.

[@chucksinger1916]

I’m spreading clean compost shredded office paper lime and a little 19-19-19 We had a drought last fall so it didn’t do well Hopefully the Spring this year will be wetter Going to aerate and lime See how that does and reseed?? This is on a clay based lawn in ETn

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We had a dry august through October here. Hopefully it will work out for you this spring.

[@BrianSmith-nw2jo]

Have you tried adding wood chip direct to the fields also bio char directly or via cattle who spread it naturally.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We several videos on this if you are interested, but we have a 4,000 square foot pen where we train pigs to the electric fence. We put the vast majority of our carbon based materials (including woodchips and biochar) in that pen to absorb manure and urea from the pigs. Joel Salatin calls it a carbonaceous diaper, but essentially it decomposes those materials. We can spread that compost onto our pastures. Occasionally we feed the biochar to the pigs. Most carbon based materials applied directly to pastures take a good bit of time to decompose. In one of my biochar videos, I talk about how I have spread it in our pastures or yard before. However, most of it goes directly into the composting pig pen. We can get 100-150 yards of compost out of it each year.

[@elenidemos]

Could you plant sorghum Sudan in the non improved pasture & allow the cattle/pigs to graze on the crop during or @ the end of the crop growth period? Would allow the growth, also the rapid decomposition & intergeneration into the soil.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yes and that is the basic plan. The cows will graze it two or three different times.

[@johnthomas5806]

another source to look at for soil health is the "JDAM" method..this is also known as "Korean Natural Farming"...just a thought.....

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks. I’ve heard of it. I’ll have to look into it more.

[@GorgyPorgy65]

I would have thought the pigs would have destroyed the root system...interesting video. Enjoyed it...wish we had the obvious rainfall you have.. It sure would make it easier to prepare.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching. Pigs will destroy the root systems on some plants, but in fields of grass they tend to root some of them over and set them back but not kill the plants. We usually have a lot of rainfall thought out the year, though July through October tend to be pretty dry most years. Where are you located?

[@GorgyPorgy65]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Australia !

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I thought it would be Australia or western US. We get much more rainfall than you do.

[@AttemptMade]

I’m just curious as to wether it would be beneficial to reach out to some of the industrial food processors for free waste materials that you could add as raw biomass. I saw a video the other day about how some rogue scientists shipped a few cargo ships worth of orange peels from the orange juice industry in Florida into the amazon where it had been deforested and was essentially a dead zone and within 40 years they had what appeared to be old growth forest there that looked to be hundreds of years old. It had such a radical and positive and a very fast benefit that those scientists who were previously facing charges for mass environmental destruction were then going on to recieve rewards.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

It's possible, but location is key in these scenarios.

[@I.am.Mumma.Bear.1]

You don’t cell graze to allow the grass plant to fully recover and grow? 🤔

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yes we call it rotational grazing. We move them every3 days to 2 weeks depending on the size of the paddock that they are in. In the winter, we don’t have much growing, so we feed hay for about 40-60 days.

[@666bruv]

Look at the johnson-su bioreactor, and youngredangus. Ditch the bale grazing, and use a few bales to build your bioreactors

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching and the suggestion. I'm pretty familiar with the johnson-su bioreactor. I checked out youngredangus as well. Our situation is pretty different than theirs. We have less infrastructure, few compost materials, and the compost materials that we bring on the farm we use for pig bedding and let the bedding, urea, and manure breakdown together. This year, we also need the hay for the cattle to eat. We should have a video out tomorrow that helps explain more details on why we are using hay in this paddock this way and how it helps our long term goals for this paddock.

[@666bruv]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms so you didnt really learn anything from redyoung angus, or the bireactor concept then. I'll wait for the next vid

[@karlbogrand1239]

Man no till drills are spendy for the little farmer

[@666bruv]

@@karlbogrand1239 how little is little?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I’m sorry. I learned more about the bioreactor from red young angus. I watched two of their videos and plan to look at more. I think they make great compost and then use the tea on the soils from what I gather. I’m familiar with the concept but not their practice. That’s why I plan on looking at more of their videos. The video I just published entitled “Why I Don’t Farm Like . . . “ responds to earlier comments than yours. We have a 4,000 square foot pen where we train pigs to our electric fences. We have some videos that address that. In short, we need carbon based materials to absorb the pigs’ manure and urea. So we add lots of leaves, mulch hay, wood chips, and biochar, and a little clean cardboard. Right now the pen is over 12 inches thick with the bedding and we are about to add a lot more. My point is that it would be pretty labor intensive to make johnsonsu bioreactors to facilitate this system. We have roughly 150 yards of compost material. It is constantly breaking down and we are constantly adding to it. This summer we will clean it out, windrow it, and start anew. For us, we have a lot of material to compost and from what I understand Johnsonsu reactors require more attention. They do produce a higher quality compost than we do, but we are compositing more materials. We do not have the barns, pole sheds, etc to keep them from getting to wet (which would be our biggest problem in the winter, though they would freeze a little on the top). The JS bioreactor is great, but not practical for us at the moment. I have wondered if we could use things with the bioreactor for our pen though, like using pipes to allow for more air flow in our system.

[@dylancoles4580]

Can I just now the land and just leave the grass on the ground to build soil health

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

In most circumstances no. It need to be managed. Large numbers of grazers are important.

[@barnyardbrio7597]

Awesome!!!!!!! Great content

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad you think so! Thanks.

[@tomlarge8841]

Good content Keep it up

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you, I will

[@karlbogrand1239]

Do you have feral hogs and if so are there any problems with your hogs and the feral ones?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

The closest feral hogs around me are a few dozen miles away. So we do not have problems with them at this point in time, but at some point I’m sure that we will.

[@ronallens6204]

Interesting... I have seen videos going back years of ranchers sectioning off the pasture for cattle rotation usually in a 2 week rotation (ie cows for 140 acres grazing a different 10 acres each day) or more depending on climate. The local organic dairy grazes chickens with the cows so they can break up and spread the cow patties... when I saw them in the pasture it looked like mostly roosters... curious, I have often wondered about creating rows of hills in a field not only to trap and hold rain water, but the hills would just about double the surface area, making 100 acres of pasture as though it were much larger.. just my thinking...

[@ziauddin7948]

the rye grass U have cultivated is still either exteemely small or the the remaining dry stems of previously harvested grass is much greater in amount # 👍

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

That rye grass will killed by a hard freeze and grew back from the growing point as I recorded this video!

[@justinbeck4197]

Have you thought about trying terra preta or biochar?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

we have made some, but we don't do it much. It requires loads of work.

[@CoachZed]

nice video!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@barnyardbrio7597]

definitely subscribed!!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yay! Thank you!

[@christopherburman3340]

Loved it thank u

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@MHolt-q1q]

Simply returning stuff to the soil, manure roots compost straw/ hay wood chips , do what ever you can.

[@JohnnyJackson746]

That's how my backyard soil looks naturally. If you have trees with leaves. Don't rake them for like 4 years. Then you clean it up and the soil is dark and moist.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

nice.

[@lebroncode]

Isn't tilling bad for the soil?

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

How high is the water table in pasture A?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Oddly enough, its not that high. We have since dug a pond in the back section, and during the drought, the guy hit water at about 10 feet. Its a combination of poor water infiltration and slope that creates the biggest problem I think.

[@certifiedhoarder]

Nice work. I urge you to see if crab grass or goose grass will work for a warm season forage. The goosegrass is prolific for me and puts up more biomass than dallis or bahia. Yellow sweet clover also does well here and will get 6ft high if allowed to. I have a friend in southern VA that swears by crabgrass as being the cheapest high nutrition summer grass he can grow. and grows a lush knee high stand of it, just beautiful. He makes baleage for a dairy herd. In my hilly, rocky clay region, ponds are everywhere and fescue is king. You will not believe how many cows are in the ponds trying to break fescue fevers on cold mornings. Ergovaline is the toxic alkaloid that the fescue endophyte produces. Even my goats and pigs wont touch it this time of year. Theyll bust out with a 10inch tall stand of fescue remaining.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Interestingly enough, I just planted a 4 acre trial of crabgrass. We will see how it works. The thing about fescue we have found is that if there is clover, plantain, chicory, and dock, the toxic effect is offset.

[@estebancorral5151]

@@DowdleFamilyFarmsthey are bioremediators as are mushrooms as are mushrooms.

[@chrisroberts5950]

I am paying $240.00 per bale in se Idaho where are you getting $30 to 40 round bales?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Lowndes county Mississippi. Mostly mixed grass hay. Frankly, hay is cheap around here. Everyone produces it and we get lots of soil moisture throughout they year. I’ve heard that it was more expensive out west. My guess is that it’s due to water rights and irrigation? But it is cheap here.

[@sundownerwhoopwhoop5016]

If you can find a rotary ditcher run you want around your property to relieve that water

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I haven’t thought of that, but we do have some drainage issues along a gravel road that keep the water in the fields longer than necessary that I was wondering how to work with. I’ll check it out. Thanks.

[@TheRainHarvester]

I'm in central Texas clay limestone soil. I'm turning it into 5" of dark earth worm gold. It's on my latest video. You may really like the technique i used!

[@TheRainHarvester]

Oh i haven't even used animals ...yet!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Animals help out a lot. Even if it is just your chickens out there scratching around and eating some of the sorghum seeds, it will help a lot.

[@estebancorral5151]

Calcium is like candy for prickly pear cactus. It will crack the clay soil to get to it. Shredded cacti is like candy for worms. You can have humus in very little time. I am using some West Texas common sense, and hope that it becomes in sync with your Central Texas common sense.

[@beachtrash]

Have yall experimented with Humates as a carbon source in Texas soils?

[@TheRainHarvester]

@@estebancorral5151 but it's hard to stop cactus. I put some cactus on a tree branch to keep it from rooting. 3 years later it had 3' roots reaching the ground!

[@michiganhay7844]

You mentioned dock, I’ve never heard of anybody planting it. Can you elaborate on that is the plantain volunteer or did you plant that? I’ve done a lot of bale grazing for years, but I surely haven’t seen it modify the soil to that extent unless there’s just massive amounts of organic matter and a lot of hair waste I think your trick is there is those pigs going through all that leaf litter and composting it I know a guy that does the same thing and that really adds a lot of till on a large scale on Hay Ground. I just put manure on for fertility but it’s definitely a lot slower gain and there’s no way I can get the soil is rich is what you showed like to see a comparison on some large scale acreage where your Grace cattle and you have an added all the mulch yet

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Most of the dock and plantain are volunteer, though I have begun managing to allow it to spread by letting it go to seed etc. We have planted chicory in some areas as well. You can find seed for them at different times though it is not common. Most people kill their “weeds” when spraying their pastures. The reason the soil increased so rapidly is because we purchased hay, and then fed it in smaller acreage. So the manure and the waste is confined to smaller parts of the pasture. Obviously, the locations where the bales sit will have more organic matter than right around those areas, because the bottom few inches of the bale tend to be wet and trampled into the ground anyway. Each year I put several thousand bags worth of leaves on the ground, but its dozens of hours, maybe even a hundred hours, for one or two acres. We don’t have the time to do that for all the pastures. On a larger scale, the warm season cover crops are the way to go. Manure helps, but it is short lived. A sorghum sudan grass based warm season cover crop mix is the cheapest and easiest place to start. I use the pigs to break the sod, yes their manure helps. the added leaves in the acre or so that we plant them helps, but the cover crop mix is what we are trying to plant. We just look for ways to plant it without the heavy equipment. Thank you for watching.

[@michiganhay7844]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms there are seed companies that sell plantain seed as a Forage Crop not that many in the US but I’ve seen it in Australia, but there is one company in the central US that sells it never seen dark seed planted. We have a lot of volunteer plantain. Usually it’s more of a nuisance around here than a benefit.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Most producers considers forbs like plantain and dock to be nuisance crops, but they are wonderful additions to pastures in limited quantities.

[@sytdoc3218]

what did you do with the pigs during that arctic blast?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

They were in a wooded lot right next to where they were in the video. We kept them in the wooded lot only because it had high tensile wire stretched all around it. The paddock that they were in during the video had poly wire on part of it. Poly wire does not work well in icy weather! Water freezes on the line and the weight causes it to drop to the ground and short out. I learned that the hard way a couple years ago! Lol

[@GVILLAVELEZ7]

You shuld use proteína suplemento in cow to ged beter digestion for cow an beter poo form

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks. I’ll check it out.

[@andersonsprairieviewfarm2552]

You're still too close to a mono culture. From my studies, you would greatly benefit from way more biodiversity, creating a meadow. Now, in a proper meadow, you will have different species developing at different stages throughout the season, so you will not be grazing during the summer months. You will bring in the livestock in the fall. That's when they nock the seeds loose and trample them into the soil for you, and they will consume a lot. But that's OK, they will be healthier for it. They need more diversity than we use to believe. The diversity of plants will complement each other and even increase absorption on that wet field. And increasing your yield, this will also benefit beneficial insects and birds. Both song birds and raptors. I love what you're doing. Keep up the awesome work.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks. There is much more diversity in our other fields. These are our poorest soils. Just curious where you are located? I’m assuming in the plains somewhere? Anyway, we can grow year round here. So our summer crop is the most diverse with a dozen or more species of different types, forbs, grasses, legumes, etc.

[@andersonsprairieviewfarm2552]

@Dowdle Family Farms South dakota, I would still look into adding native wild flowers. It's funny how you go to areas that haven't had much human intervention, including grazing, and the flowers are plentiful, mimic grazing Buffalo, the Buffalo where migratory until we fenced them in, so this causes them to continually eat new shoots of the plants they like. So they never get a chance to go to seed and repopulate, so eventually, the natural seed bank is eventually exhausted . The intense grazing that happened as the Buffalo passed through an area would have definitely been a sight.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We do have a lot of native wildflowers in some of our pastures and hope to add more. Still trying to sort that out. Thanks for the suggestions. Are you using bison and/cattle?

[@toysintheclosetshop5443]

I admit I didn't watch the whole video so maybe you touched on this question/problem. I quit watching when you talked about a flooded field., We get rain from July -Sept. I may as well be sowing dollar bills if I try to sow grass and clover in April and May. How would you regenerate your soil without water and livestock?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Grow cover crops when you do have rain. Then acquire livestock or mow it.

[@spencerchamp]

We have a sorghum infest field, how best can we manage it?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

What do you mean by “infest”?

[@spencerchamp]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms they are impossible to remove thanks to their rhizomes, they quickly crowd out and suffocate any other life, and they are poisonous to animals in large enough quantity.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

@@spencerchamp Im not sure what species you are talking about. It could be what we call Johnson grass. We just graze ours.

[@tzurtex6336]

In droughted areas you can fertilize the slow early growth with aged manure promoting its productivity growth to natives plants. Sin the "burning" of the manure is gone, it slowly decomposes increasing the lands overall fertility. Ohh and I forgot to mention this! Since the fertilized plants are under higher fertility, they have faster blooming days and more overall carbon output for the land to produce to increse microbial life!!!

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching.

[@russellsmith3825]

Does your country extension/nrcs/USDA office have no till drills available to rent?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Yes, they do, but only the biggest 15 to 20 foot drills are in good shape. Getting them at the right time has been a problem. However, we might have a lead on a smaller one that we can use.

[@nunyabiznes33]

If the land is mostly clay don't you need to add sand or something to improve drainage?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching! The land is mostly clay. Increasing the organic matter (carbon) in the soil well help with water retention and water infiltration (drainage). So we grow or apply the organic matter that we need to the soil.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms good to know. I imagine it would be costly to mix sand into such a wide area.

[@estebancorral5151]

@@DowdleFamilyFarmsThose ruts were because of clay soil. You need way more mulch than you are currently using, and you needed mycoremediation simultaneously. Your soil needs to go into a greater ionic exchange. Worm castings will get you their. Start vermiculture like yesterday.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

@@estebancorral5151have you ever put mulch on 25 acres? Even harder to do on 300. Cover crops, particularly warm season sorghum Sudan makes more difference with less effort and cost on a larger scale. Mulches are great but on larger scale they aren’t very practical.

[@estebancorral5151]

@@DowdleFamilyFarmsyou have plenty of mulch. No one stated that all your 300 acres be covered. I did not know that you had that much. You can not deny that that area with ruts can benefit from mulch. You can grow cover crops and put down mulch simultaneously they are not mutually exclusive. They maybe mutually exclusive if you put down too much mulch on the cover crops. As for cover crops, there should be a greater diversity used.

[@marlinlucillenisly6338]

I feel like you are doing a lot of things well, but that you should avoid disturbing the soil-especially when the conditions are wet. If you can let the sod develop and not destroy it every year you would make better progress. I have the same struggle with some of my ground.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thank you! The soil disturbance is for this field only, for one year, and it’s done to plant annuals forage cover crops to improve the soil and feed the pigs. Most for the vast majority of the farm we do disturb soils at all and are promoting perennial pasture.

[@privateperson5054]

The plan for the east field vs the red field is not very useful. The red field is wetter , dryer more or less acidic ? Planting different things why ?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

The red field is only viewed at a distance. I think that you mean that 30 acre field as the red field. It gets wet and stays wet. We just graze cattle on what it grows. We do plant some annual ryegrass for winter forage and it works in wet conditions well. We plant different crops to help improve the soil and to allow different livestock species to graze it. It makes a huge different in the improvement of the soil.

[@privateperson5054]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms Right we got that. The question is what exact factors are you making your decisions on ? How long is the one field wetter, how much wetter what are the different crops are you in an area that allows the rotation of crops 3 times a season and do the animals get to feed in between are there crops like wheat where you can harvest the wheat and the cows can eat the stalks is that even a real thing why are certain crops better in tje different fields You basically told us you grow different stuff in the red field because its wetter. You never say here in the Dacotas or here in north Texas Im not sure of your region but I found out 6 times that cattle will trample the ground and that pigs dig to. What effect does the small pig hole have on risking a field ? You did a great job explaining bow the animals help you use equipment less but mostly I know cattle help and trample pigs help and dig. Your bio char video was way more informative and much shorter.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I see what you mean now. I’ll see what I can work into the next video. I do appreciate the feedback!

[@bearupfarm1818]

What would your suggestion if you have bare soil and clay soil. When it rains it gets very muddy and compacts very easy. We can’t irrigate and only get 12 inches of rain annually.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I do not have any experience in dry environments, but I would build the carbon up in the soil somehow. Plants and mulches will help cool the soil a little bit longer. Mulches will decompose and increase soil life and organic matter. Thick layers of mulches like hay, leaves, compost, woodchips will help hold the moisture. That’s where I’d start, but I’m no expert.

[@bearupfarm1818]

We don’t have round bales here. We can get big square bales.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Hay would work as a good mulch.

[@dinosaur0073]

We do improve our soil by: 1)Chop & drop 2)Mulch 3)chickens 4) water dripping 5) Water from well using solar system. Unfortunately, it's a little bit of salinity

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Nice. I bet that its working well for you!

[@dinosaur0073]

The problem is that we are in a hot climate and receiving very little rain per year. Salt becomes a real problem. Things are changing slowly 🐌...Good but not perfect...mixed result...hhhhh

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Nice. Keep it up

[@darylefleming1191]

How many cows do you run?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

We have about 50 head right now in the winter.

[@glenwhittington8225]

Why don’t you dig a couple pounds and put in some drainage ditches to help dry your grazing pastures out?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

better to improve water infiltration in the soil. though we have dug ponds.

[@thegiggler2]

These strategies should be federal policy. Like as in laws and regulations. That's how important they are.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I agree that these strategies should be adopted worldwide for the sake of our communities etc., though i'm too much of a libertarian to say they should be enforced legally.

[@colton5bucks]

Ok commie

[@scottstreit8263]

What area if the country are you in?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Mississippi. Thanks for watching

[@michiganhay7844]

Also, what state are you in?

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

I am in Mississippi.

[@bch5513]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms what part? Grew up around Vicksburg and went to MSU.

[@nicklomas1044]

how much is seed bill

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

It varies wildly, but usually several hundred dollars per year. Sometime $1500. However, its much cheaper than the grain, or the feed for the pigs, or the fertilizers that would normally be placed on the fields.

[@shannoncalhoun3684]

Quality No till drill seeder for small unit is $10k.

[@DuaneMckenzie80]

30-40 a bail delivered! Wow where looking at 135 for a 6' and 80 for a 5'.

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

Thanks for watching! Where are you located?

[@DuaneMckenzie80]

@@DowdleFamilyFarms texas

[@DowdleFamilyFarms]

That makes sense. Yall had a dry year.