Tyler Stowers

Do you have a recommended online resource to obtain tree seeds?

How can a vegetable farm, either established or from the design stage, incorporate regenerative techniques? Laying out beds on a keyline pattern? Incorporate long term rotations with animals? Thanks.

Cassie Langstraat wrote:

Tyler Stowers wrote:Hi Cassie,

I live in the Sacramento area, but could definitely be in the bay area come time to shove off to the conference. Would love to take you up on your car pool offer if it still stands. Thanks!

Tyler Stowers
tylerstowers@gmail.com

Yeah we still have room! You do know that I won't be driving back up to the bay after the conference though, right? Just making sure.

Awesome! Yes I realize that's part of the deal. Not a problem. Great! I have gas money, a drivers license, plenty of dad jokes, and most likely some snacks to share.

Hi Cassie,

I live in the Sacramento area, but could definitely be in the bay area come time to shove off to the conference. Would love to take you up on your car pool offer if it still stands. Thanks!

Tyler Stowers
tylerstowers@gmail.com

I am unable to make it to this years conference and am therefore selling my early bird, pay what you can ticket. It costs $499. Would love to pass this on to someone who missed out on the discounted prices. Contact me at tylerstowers@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Tyler Stowers

The genus of Cinchona is in the Rubiaceae family and contains several species. It's bark is used widely for many medicinal applications. The active ingredient in this bark is called quinine. Again, despite its various medicinal applications, I am most interested in it's application to the elixir world. It is the main ingredient in tonic water and I want to make my own. Quinine containing cinchona bark is not hard to find, but cinchona seeds seem to be pretty rare. Trying to see if anyone has access to seeds or has experience with this specific genus outside the tropics.

I am very interested in Cinchona bark as it contains quinine. I realize it's many uses as a medicinal, but I am particularly interested in it's application in tonic water. Does anyone have experience growing it? I know it's native to Peru, but has anyone grown in outside the tropics? Greenhouse? Outdoors? Does anyone have access to seeds? Thanks!

Doc,

I'd like to mention Gabe Brown. It might not be a system based on mimicking nature***, but his cattle feed entirely off the land, even in the harsh winters of North Dakota.

Check him out

***Correction: I believe Gabe at 13:45 would beg to differ with my statement.

Renate Haeckler wrote:I'd say start with a modest number of cattle or even a mix of stockers and sheep and put them in paddocks and see how long it takes for them to finish grazing one paddock before they need to be moved. If you do that for a whole year you'll get an idea of grazing days per animal and any seasonal changes that affect the rotations while you tame the weeds, so you should be able to make an educated guess at how many you can stock, and I'd say don't stock it to full capacity because for one, as the animals grow they'll eat more and secondly, if there's a drought or something you'll be forced to either overgraze, feed hay, or sell some animals when the prices are low.

A good point. I think in the beginning, under grazing has far less significant negative consequences on the animals and the pasture than over grazing. In Allan Savory's Holistic Management Handbook, he outlines an exercise for year one estimations of available food. Something like looking at a 10' x 10' piece on your pasture and asking yourself, can a critter survive here in one day? If not, step back to 11' x 11' and repeat until you have a basis from which to make estimates for your whole property. As the year goes on, observe, adjust, observe, adjust,...

I chose not to use stockers just for the ethical reason that I didn't want to be inputting anything into the stockyard system. So I started right off with the breeds I was most interested in (Dexter and Highland) and just undergrazed for a year until I saw how much the pasture could support. If you take your time and only buy the animals that are the best you won't have regrets from disease brought onto your land or low-quality animals.

I think this is the best argument against contract grazing in the first year. I totally agree and feel like even with a low stocking rate at first, achievable animal impact is possible. And with patience and planning, stocking rates can go up and up.

Before you have animals there to be in the way, it's a good time to do swales, ponds, and tree planting. Animals are drawn to anything new in the pasture and can be a pain in the *** when you're trying to do anything in their pasture!

Yes! Part of the reason why I'm trying to do as much research this summer/fall is to get earthworks in before the rainy season with trees planted before the animals arrive in the spring.

Thanks for the words!

Michael Cox wrote:Have you looked at the work by Allan Savory on Planned Holistic Grazing. I would start by reading all you can.

Is your 17 acres subdivided, or one big paddock? Subdivisions make for easier stock rotations. If not you could start by strip grazing with electric fences.

Does your land have bare soil between grass plants, or is the ground cover good?

Do you have specific objectives in mind regarding improving the land - eg increasing the number of days the creek flows, improving soil cover, increasing soil carbon content, etc...

I visited portugal recently - old olive groves and cork plantations, grazed by cattle. The soil looked tired, bare in places, overgrazed by continuous cattle coverage with no rest periods, seasonal streams were all dry by late spring despite occassional rainfall. It was crying out for Planned Holistic Grazing.

Regarding buying your own cattle or not, I would suggest making some kind of agreement with a local farmer to graze some of their animals. This will give you a better idea of stocking rates that your lamd will take - just make sure you have an arrangement in place to return some or all of them if your stocking rates prove to be way off.

I should say, i'm not a grazier myself - just fairly well read - do your own research!

Mike

Thank you for your reply. You seem to be echoing the penciled out plan I have in my head.

When I look back at my life, I see two parts marked by a distinct experience. One part being before I discovered Allan Savory, the other being after, and with the experience being reading Holistic Management. It truly weighed that heavy on me. Amongst all the theories and practices I've come across in agricultural literature, I feel the most well lit avenue is combines holistically managed decisions though a navigation of permaculture based techniques.

The 17 acre site is divided into about 4 main sections. Three were cleared years ago for an old dairy and the fourth is wild with various oaks and madrones dominating. I say about 4 main sections because around peripheries of the main paddocks, brambles seem to be ever encroaching--himalayan blackberry being the main perpetrator.

Ground cover looks pretty good, especially in this dormant season. So I am optimistic that the results of a holistic grazing plan will have a positive effect in the relatively short term.

Being that my budget is low combined with wanting to have the largest animal impact possible, I think contract grazing might be a good plan for the first year. There are plenty of hobby farmers/ranchers in the area that would love to postpone the burden of feeding their animals for a few months. Of course, I would be sacrificing getting a jump on good genetics adapted to my location, but it seems like a low risk option for year one.

Specific goals: This whole plan started with the mere intention to have my own bacon. But one thing led to another, and here I am trying to establishing a whole systems integrated landscape inspired by an increasing amount of headlining figures.

Earthworks setting the stage for increased water cycle and eventual water fixtures for livestock, paddocks planted with edible woodies stacked onto edible woodies on contour silvopasture-style, and mixed species of cattle, pigs, and chickens grazing the paddocks with all, if not, close to all of their food coming from the landscape.

Thats the rough, rough, outline!