Entries by Cathy Svejkovsky

Tracking Soil Moisture and Evapotranspiration: The Satellites Are Coming!

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By Mike Morris, NCAT Southwest Regional Office Director  A few months ago, I was given the enjoyable assignment of updating the 2006 ATTRA publication Soil Moisture Monitoring: Low-Cost Tools and Methods. I was curious to learn what had changed in the world of soil moisture monitoring and irrigation scheduling over the past decade or so. […]

Find Your Community at Pasture Walks

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By Linda Coffey, NCAT Agriculture Specialist You know how in the olden days neighbors would pitch in to do the big jobs and be there to support each other when something went wrong? That still can happen if we get to know our neighbors and take time to grow a community. Pasture walks are a […]

Awesome Alliums

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By Justin Duncan, NCAT Agriculture Specialist  I have had many Allium adventures, growing them from seeds and from sets from items found in the grocery store. In fact, one of the things that got me hooked on growing things as a child was snatching a sprouting onion from my mother’s kitchen and planting it, only […]

Paddock Design and Animal Movement

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Thinking of setting up a multi-paddock grazing system? Or maybe redoing an existing series of paddocks? Perhaps you’re interested exploring the most efficient ways to move livestock through multiple paddocks on a daily basis. The best place to begin is to start with what you have.

Lee Rinehart and Justin Morris

Healthy Soil for a Wealthy Tomorrow

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Jeremy Brown, a fourth-generation cotton farmer in the Texas panhandle, focuses on NRCS’s five soil health principles and uses common-sense practices, including cover cropping, to increase financial prosperity, decrease health stressors, and increase nutrient density in his soils.
Elise Haschke

The Demise and Hope of Whole-Farm Revenue Protection

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By Jeff Schahczenski, Agriculture and Natural Resource Economist “Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail.” —Ken Kesey, from his novel Sometimes a Great Notion Sometimes a great notion is not enough. Working 18 years trying to improve the sustainability of agriculture through the promotion of a novel federal crop insurance policy called […]

Advanced Grazing, Session 4 – Adaptive Management

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Did you know that grazing management and driving a vehicle have a lot of similarities? While driving, you monitor the road ahead of you to know whether to turn left, turn right, speed up, slow down, or even reverse direction. You make these changes whenever conditions change, like the road curving to the left, wildlife crossing in front of you, or a vehicle suddenly stopping in front of you. Just like driving a vehicle, adaptive grazing management requires that we monitor the condition of the livestock, plants, and soils to know whether we need to modify our management to keep everything on track.
Justin Morris and Lee Rinehart

Wisdom from SHEpherds: ATTRA’s She’s Raising Sheep Podcast Series, Episodes 1-5

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ATTRA has a new podcast series on women shepherds – but why should you care? Maybe because getting started with sheep is much easier with advice from top-notch mentors who openly share their experiences, both good and bad. Maybe because you’d enjoy hearing some funny stories and cautionary tales about sheep. Or perhaps because, even after decades raising sheep, who has ever had a true heart-to-heart with another shepherd without learning something of value?
Linda Poole

A Garden of Hope: The Hub of Prosperity

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Sometimes, old ideas resurface. In the same way, farms can gain a new life after perceived abandon. The beliefs and mindsets the farm embodies emerge with it. They may take a different semblance, but fundamentally, they carry the same hope, regenerated from the ground up. The Hub of Prosperity carries the dreams and hopes of the Magic Valley of the Rio Grande Valley.
Hernan Colmenero

Soil Social: Quorum Sensing, Part 1

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Sunrise is approaching. You grab your morning cup of coffee and head out to your vegetable plot. As you hold your warm mug laced between your fingers, you muse and strategize about the day’s tasks. It is that time, just at first light, that the wind is dead calm, the nightly bug chatter has ended, it is still too early for the birds to start their musical chirping, and the rooster has yet to sound the alarm. You have come to love these special few minutes of each day for their intense vacuum silence. In between sips, you hear a buzz that you haven’t heard before. It is coming from the soil beneath the tomato and squash plants. The microbiology in your soil is having a meeting.  
Darron Gaus