Rancher Mike Callicrate spent the winter grazing them on a mix of cover crops that included turnips, radishes, grasses and legumes like cowpeas. Plants like these feed the soil while also feeding the cows. The legumes fix nitrogen; the radishes and turnips tunnel into the ground and break up compaction; the surface vegetation helps improve the soil’s water holding capacity and helps keep topsoil from blowing away in high winds. The grazing of cattle also improves the landscape by adding natural fertilizer and stimulating residue decomposition.
The pregnant cows will calve in April and May. “We like to calve in the Spring when the grass is green and the weather is mild,” Mike says. “Everything we do is about working in tune with the seasons.”
Cover cropping is one of the components of a new regenerative agriculture model now being implemented at Callicrate Cattle Company. Anyone can visit and learn about these practices during a ten-day, intensive Regrarians Agriculture and Living Design course, which will be held at Callicrate Cattle Company March 22-31. Cost for the full course is $1,395. You’ll learn side-by-side with Mike about how to evaluate and put into practice a wide range of healthy farming techniques, including yeoman plowing of pastures, inter-seeding of annual and perennial grasses, forest pasturing (considered the number one agricultural approach for sequestering carbon in the soil) and bio-char application.
“We’re considering every option for making our ranch healthier and more sustainable,” Mike says. “Guiding us in this process is Darren Doherty, a world class landscape designer and teacher. Having him at our ranch will be a tremendous learning experience, a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Since 2001, Doherty has delivered more than 200 workshops worldwide attended by more than 15,000 people. He has also completed close to 2,000 property development plans in nearly 50 countries.
Come for all or part of this amazing class.
For more details, click here.
