Entries by Rich Myers

Episode 282. She’s Raising Sheep. Montana Shepherd Maloi Lannan 

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Sixteen-year-old Maloi Lannan is a passionate and knowledgeable climate warrior using profits from her self-published soil health coloring book to build a flock of 100-percent grassfed sheep in Montana’s Paradise Valley.  In this episode of Voices from the Field, Maloi and her mom Meagan tell NCAT’s Linda Poole about their approach to maintaining their fifth-generation […]

Episode 281. Improving Profitability on Livestock Operations 

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In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialists Nina Prater and Lee Rinehart talk about how to improve profitability on livestock operations. They focus specifically on ruminants — choosing the right animals for your environment, grazing management, farm infrastructure, and marketing. Lee shares some guiding questions farmers and ranchers can ask […]

AgriSolar Podcasts Ep. 1: Growing Crops Among the Solar Panels in Colorado

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It’s summer and we’re celebrating the sun by reposting this excellent conversation about agrisolar — the co-location of solar energy systems and agricultural crops. In this episode of Voices from the Field, Stacie Peterson, Energy Program Director at the National Center for Appropriate Technology, talks with Meg Caley, Executive Director and co-founder of the Colorado […]

Slump Test for Assessing Aggregate Stability in Agricultural Soils

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Healthy soils hold water and prevent nutrients from running off into surface water and groundwater. In this video, Lisa Blazure of the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition and NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart discuss the practices that contribute to healthy soils and demonstrate how to conduct a simple soil-aggregate stability test during the Columbia and […]

Rainfall Simulator: How Farming Practices Affect Soil Stability and Water Infiltration

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In this video, Bill Chain of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation discusses production practices on five soil types with the help of a rainfall simulator. NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart talks about the soil-health principles that build soil structure and water-holding capacity in agricultural soils. The discussion took place at the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance Field […]

Pasture Composition Monitoring with the Point Step Method

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Pasture plant-composition monitoring is an important part of grazing-management planning. Yearly monitoring will help graziers measure the changes in plant communities that accrue from past management practices. In this video, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart demonstrates a simple way to assess plant composition at the Lands at Hillside Farms in Shavertown, Pennsylvania. This video […]

Measuring Water Infiltration in Agricultural Soils

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Whether they’re experiencing drought or heavy rains, farmers and graziers know that healthy soils retain water better than depleted soils. Soil aggregation creates porous space, which ensures that rainfall stays in the soil instead of running off into waterways. In this video, Lisa Blazure of the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition and NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist […]

Soil Aggregation and Assessing Pasture Soil Structure with a Simple Field Test

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Soil aggregate stability is a measure of how well soil particles stick together and facilitate air and water movement in soils. In this video, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart discusses the practices that contribute to healthy soils and demonstrates how to conduct a simple soil aggregate stability test at Lands at Hillside Farms in […]

Episode 279. Patrick O’Neill on the Many Sides of Soil Health

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In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Martin Guerena, who works out of NCAT’s office in Davis, California, has a conversation with Patrick O’Neill of Soil Health Services in Alamosa, Colorado. They discuss Patrick’s projects, including consulting with farmers on cover crops systems, volunteer work with the Rio Grande Farm […]

Soil Health for Watersheds: How Can Federal Agencies Help?

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In this session of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference in March 2022, panelists from several federal agencies, a state conservation commission, and an innovative farmer discuss opportunities for agencies and farmers to work together to support watershed-scale soil health practices that reduce runoff and downstream flood hazard. This video […]