Fred Provenza is an internationally renowned researcher, author, and educator on behavior-based management of livestock, wildlife, and landscapes. A Professor Emeritus of Behavior Ecology at Utah State University, his 2018 book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom is a classic about livestock behavior and plant selection. Fred has published more than 150 scientific articles, 70 invited review papers, and 3 books, as well as being an inspiring leader of research teams on livestock behavior. Practical advice, philosophy, underlying science -- Join us for an informal, wide-ranging discussion touching on grass, grazing, and grace – and whatever it takes for graziers to thrive in turbulent times. Come with questions and stay for “At the Bar”, your chance to interact with Fred and friends!

Today we'll talk about grazing livestock under solar panels. Ryan Indart is a long-time California rancher who manages the Indart Group -- a large operation near Fresno that does custom grazing services, sheep ranching, direct marketing, and dry land farming of oranges, cherries, almonds, and wheat. Ryan specializes in targeted grazing on solar farms, especially large farms. He has commercial contracts to graze more than 3,000 sheep on 10,000 acres on large solar farms in California and Arizona. We'll discuss the very practical aspects of custom grazing, working with solar farms, forage management, business decisions, animal performance, etc, Including lessons learned from his many contracts, especially how targeted grazing can be part of a diverse livestock and farming operation.

John Wick and his wife, Peggy Rathmann, are the owners of Nicasio Native Grass Ranch in California. John co-founded both the Marin Carbon Project and the Carbon Cycle Institute, and has independently led statewide educational campaigns, supported new laws related to healthy soils and compost, and built functional economy-wide models for rebalancing the global carbon cycle. John has pioneered the use of compost on pastures and seen explosive growth of forages and soil carbon on his ranch.