Today we're going to talk about trees, pastures, and farms. Keefe is the Executive Director of the Savanna Institute in Wisconsin -- an organization dedicated to combining forests with farming. He helps lead the Institute’s work to advance agroforestry programs as a solution for land, climate, and farming communities. He is passionate about connecting agroforestry and food with economic development, social justice, and restoration ecology. Keefe’s experience includes farm business, research, public agency, and civil society initiatives. He has degrees in biology from Swarthmore College and agroecology from the University of Wisconsin, and he spends years working farms on four continents as a Watson fellow.

John and Christine Deck own and operate the Deck Family Farm in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. They've learned the ins and outs of pasture-based farming and are very experienced in different ways of marketing their farm products. In their own words, "The farm does not use herbicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Instead, we generate soil fertility through the natural cycles of composting, grazing management, and seeding a variety of grasses." The farm supports the local food community and is a resource to the aspiring generations of regenerative farmers. Their projects include management intensive grazing, livestock handling, birthing, haying, & meat processing. The farm also has conservation initiatives that include wetland, riparian, and forest restoration projects.

Janet McNally is a seasoned shepherd from Hinckley, Minnesota, and a master of regenerative grazing in a landscape beset with challenges for livestock. She pasture-raises sheep and occasionally cattle amidst wolf packs, hidden legions of deadly internal parasites, rank swards of grass, and deep-snow winters. It’s common knowledge that “grass-based livestock production won’t work here” but join us to hear how Janet has turned adversity into a rip-roaring success for her land, livestock, and life.

A special edition of our "Lunch with Forages" on Thursday, November 3, will be "A Conversation Across the Fence." This is your opportunity to get your questions answered by a group of highly experienced industry peers. Jot down a couple of questions now and when you arrive at the session, put your questions in the chat. The host facilitator, Cher, will choose questions and direct them to the most appropriate guest for advice on the subject. The other guests can chime in if they've got more to add. We'll work on keeping our advice succinct to get to as many questions as possible. After the hour, we'll open up the session for our usual "At the Bar," where all are invited to share their experience, successes, failures, and get to any additional questions.

Let's talk about parasites and grazing animals. Joe Snyder is a veterinarian with decades of experience working with grass-based farms and ranches. For many years, he ran the Myrtle Veterinary Hospital in southwest Oregon. His clients grazed beef cattle, sheep, dairy cows, goats, and horses in a mild climate that was ideal for grass and worms, coccidia, and other parasites that thrive on pastures. After retiring from active practice, Joe taught Veterinary Technicians to be about farm animals at Portland Community college but is now almost fully retired. Today we'll discuss parasite treatments, resistance, and how grazing strategies can reduce or increase parasite loads.

Justas and Žymantas both work for the Baltic Environmental Forum in Lithuania. They manage and restore grasslands, use regenerative agriculture to improve soil health, increase biodiversity, restore wetlands, and promote small-scale friendly farming. Also habitat restoration and protection of endangered bird species. Žymantas is the acting director of the Forum and runs his own beef cattle farm. He also organizes events such as the “Good Farmer Championship” and the “National Scything Championship” in Lithuania.

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.

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.

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!