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ATTRA Blog

Whether you’re a seasoned or beginning producer, a curious consumer, or simply someone who appreciates the bounty of the earth, you’ll find valuable insights and engaging stories here.

Written by ATTRA specialists on topics they are passionate and knowledgeable about, the ATTRA blog highlights techniques, how-tos, insight, success stories, and much more in support of sustainable agriculture.

NCAT Heading to Southern Family Farmers and Food Systems Conference

We have saved the date! This August 7-9, 2022, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) specialists will be presenting at the 2022 Southern Family Farmers and Food System Conference. They will be covering topics ranging from soil health and carbon planning to livestock and horticulture. Additionally, they will be available to answer any questions about key projects at NCAT projects.
Luz Ballesteros Gonzalez
jerseys grazing

Grazing Effects Flowcharts: A Tool for Understanding Potential Consequences of Grazing Management

Grazing management, whether appropriately or inappropriately applied, has numerous effects on plants, soils, animals, water availability, and the economics of a grazing operation. Some of these effects we can see fairly easily. But many of the effects we don’t ever see because they’re happening where we’re not usually looking – right underneath our feet in the soil.
Justin Morris, NCAT Regenerative Grazing Specialist
Loquat

Native and Naturalized Plants of South Texas for Urban Food Forests

I'm a Californian born and raised, so writing a blog about native and naturalized South Texas plants is one thing I never thought I'd do. But this spring I got the opportunity to go to Texas for an entire month, to work on an urban agroforestry project, and during that time I fell in love with its amazing native and naturalized plants.
Katherine Favor, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist

Soil Health Academy: More than Just a Soil Health Workshop

By Luz Ballesteros Gonzalez, NCAT Agriculture Specialist The…

Graze, Move, Repeat

By Hernan Colmenero  To understand something, we must be…

Advanced Grazing Webinar, Session 3 – Animals

Do you like to eat fresh food? Do you like variety in your diet? Most of us would probably answer ‘yes’ to both questions. Not surprisingly, livestock crave the same things we do. If that desire is not met, then we get less than optimal livestock performance. This can create health problems for the animals, increase costs, and reduce profitability. So how can we constantly provide fresh food for livestock and a diet that is diverse?
Justin Morris and Lee Rinehart

NCAT Releases Updated Tipsheets on Soil Solarization and Biosolarization

Are you struggling with weeds or pests? Solarization and biosolarization…

Urban Agroforestry: Bringing the Jungle Back to the Concrete Jungle

Cities are notorious for being devoid of flora and fauna. They don't call it the concrete jungle for nothing! But it doesn't have to be that way. In this blog, we're going to talk about how we can bring a little bit of jungle back to the concrete jungle with something called urban agroforestry.
Katherine Favor

Advanced Grazing Webinar, Session 2 – Plants

Is it possible for weeds to provide equal or better nutrition than alfalfa? The second session of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s (NCAT) four-part webinar series, Advanced Grazing for Regenerating Soils and Enhancing Animal Nutrition, addresses these questions by focusing on the plant side of the grazing equation. 
Justin Morris and Lee Rinehart

New Resources to Demystify Regenerative Grazing and Soil Health

The terms regenerative grazing and soil health have started to seem almost ubiquitous in the world of agriculture. This is heartening for me as a soil specialist with NCAT, where I consider it part of my job to help producers understand and take care of their soils, as it is key to their long-term success as farmers and ranchers.
Nina Prater