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Homestead Solutions: Joel Salatin

Mark and Joel sit down and have a wide ranging and dynamic conversation about what it means to be a farmer in the modern age and some of the crazy, lunatic ideas they’ve had that have molded the regenerative small farm homestead movement. Joel Salatin always brings a new a different perspective and this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. 

Who is Joel Salatin?

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson. Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.

With 12 published books and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming, and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world. He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs at a Wall Street business conference.

Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures. His favorite activity?–Q&A. “I love the interaction,” he says.

He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement. He writes the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications. A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.

The Success Formula. Here it is.

Everyone’s got something they are up to. And the goal is to succeed at it, right?

What are you up to?

There are a lot of folks that’ll give you a formula to succeed at it. But let me tell you a story. And forgive me for bragging a little here. (Have you got time for a story?)

We have that one child. The one that steals all the caps from the air valves on your tires. Who climbs on the hood and takes your windshield wipers off. Who builds forts with 20 pounds of nails and a gallon of the ugliest orange paint. Who gives the chickens a chance to go swimming, too, on a hot day. Who forever forgets to put away your best tools. You know the one.

That kid had a dream. He had a vision for a thing he can do to make the world better and help people. He doggedly invested time and money to pursue it. He put it on pause at one point in favor of a larger good but never gave up on the possibility. It cost him things and relationships he loved but that were lesser goods in the end, but still hurt to lose. He chose friends who were doggedly dedicated to his vision and success and let others go who weren’t.

And he made it. He’s achieved his goal of getting selected into an elite military group. He’s still got a lot of work to do, and so his overarching goal is still out there and he’s still learning, growing, working. But he worked the success formula and it worked.

Never give up.

That’s the formula in a nutshell. Hold the vision. Do the hard things. Hold the vision. Seek out relationships that encourage you. Hold the vision. Even when you have to detour, backtrack, take a breather, it’s ok. The vision is there and you just keep taking little steps (sometimes massive ones) to get there.

Be encouraged in your homestead, farm, food dream today. Never give up.

Need to connect into a like minded community?

We’re here to support you in your success through skill training and community. Here’s how you can find your tribe:

  1. Take it a notch up and become a member of the Tribe+ website membership. You don’t have to be on social media to participate! We’ve been fixing, updating, adding to the membership and have big plans for the summer. Now is the perfect time to invest in your education and skills. PLUS, you get Mark’s ear for guidance as you go in the twice monthly zoom calls. AND we have some cool bonuses to choose from if you sign up this week. The secret to the success formula of Never Give Up is to have a Tribe + guidance along the way.

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2) Join our Facebook group The Anyone Can Farm Tribe. There are folks there from around the world at every level of experience, from “learning and dreaming” to “making a full living farming.”

3) Gather in person for the permaculture Animal Feed Alternatives workshop (it isn’t just animals, every property needs “wildlife” areas) and Tribe Day, back to back in July. You will find your tribe there and learn skills and make connections with like minded people.

Soil: how to build your foundation

Four things you need for Pastured Poultry

5 Things When Starting your Homestead in the Spring

Spring is inspirational, isn’t it? 

Planting 

Pastured Poultry hack: biochar to the homestead rescue

I’m sitting here listening to the chicks hatching in the incubator. They’re so lively so quick! We’ve got meat chicks in the brooder already, too. Spring is here!

New to chickens, or looking to improve what you’re doing?

I was talking this week with a friend who’s raised chickens for years very successfully. They’re beautiful birds. AND, she uses a good deal of Corid every spring when she moves them from the brooder to the chicken tractors in the yard. Why?

Coccidia.

It’s the bane of all farmers sooner of later. The coddicia protozoa is a little parasitic being that lives in the soil inderterminately (a.k.a. nearly forever) and can wreak havoc on young animals intestines. We’ve had in goats and chickens so far. The only cure known to conventional ag is a product called Corid that acts like a wormer medicine to get the animal through it’s vulnerable stage.

What conventional ag and my very experienced friend don’t know about is BIOCHAR.

We replaced gallons of Corid with a bit of biochar sprinkled on the chickens’ feed daily. Biochar is like activated charcoal and helps bind the protozoa and escort it to the exit. Sometimes we innoculate it with compost and it unloads beneficial bacterias at the same time. For our naturally immune deficient meat birds, it also shaves 1-2 weeks off our finishing time. Who doesn’t want that?? My friend, for one, has signed up.

Biochar for Pasture Poultry: A Natural Way to Improve Health and Productivity

Spring is here, and that means it’s time to start thinking about your pastured poultry production. If you’re new to chickens, or looking to upgrade your process, I’ve got a great video for you.

In this video, I show you how we use biochar on Baker’s Green Acres. Biochar is a great way to improve your soil health and reduce the risk of coccidiosis in your chickens.

I also share some tips on how to use biochar to improve your pastured poultry production. So be sure to check it out!

 

What is Biochar?

Biochar is a type of charcoal that is made from organic matter, such as wood chips, bones, agricultural waste, or even human waste. It is made by heating the organic matter in a low-oxygen environment, which causes it to off gas everything but the carbon without burning.  Check out the whole process in this playlist: The Biochar Chronicles

Biochar has a number of benefits for soil health. You may have heard of it as “terra preta” (which has an extensive google listing). This is the secret tool the ancient farmers used to provide more than enough food for their communities in poor soiled places like the Amazon. The perks of biochar for your soil include:

  • It can help to improve the soil’s ability to hold water and nutrients.
  • It can help to reduce the risk of soil erosion.
  • It can help to reduce the amount of harmful toxins in the soil.
  • It can help to improve the soil’s ability to support plant growth.

How Can Biochar Help Pasture Poultry?pastured poultry, chickens, grass fed, chicken tractor, biochar

Biochar, like activated charcoal for you the farmer, can help pasture poultry in a number of similar ways, including:

  • It can help to reduce the risk of coccidiosis, a common poultry disease.
  • It can help to improve the taste of eggs and meat as the birds retain more nutrients.
  • It can help to increase egg production.
  • It can help to increase meat production. We’ve successfully shaved 1-2 weeks off our cornish cross meat bird production time without changing anything else. This saves a huge amount of time and expense in this farm enterprise.

How to Use Biochar for Pasture Poultry

There are a few different ways to use biochar for pasture poultry.

One way is to add it to your chicken’s feed. If you’re adding biochar to your chicken’s feed, you’ll need to use a small amount of fine ground char. A good starting point is to add 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of feed. You can increase the amount of biochar as needed. We just sprinkle a handful or so along the top of the trough feeders when we feed. If your birds are mobbing it, they need more. If they eat it but also pick around it, you’ve nailed the amount just right.  This is ideal for meat chickens who love their feed and aren’t avid foragers.

You can also add it to the bedding or soil in your chicken’s grazing area. If you’re adding biochar to the soil in your chicken’s grazing area, you’ll need to use a larger amount. You can also  use larger chunks, a medium grind, as the birds will just peck at it as needed and scratch it into the soil. A good starting point is to add 1-2 pounds per acre. You can increase the amount of biochar as needed. This works well for laying chickens, who are happy to pick and choose from a natural smorgasboard and don’t need the biochar as much.  This enhances both bird and soil effectively.

 

  • Learn more about biochar and how it can help your pastured poultry production.

  • Join our Tribe+ membership and get access to our biochar video course for free, as well as other exclusive benefits.

Do you belong?

Do you belong?

Build your homesteading confidence, competence, and communitIy.  Tribe+ IS your opportunity for ongoing skill training, consulting with an experienced farmer (honestly, do you really want to make all of our mistakes or learn from someone who’s done it already??), discounts on so many things like tools and equipment, books, classes, and more, and a whole lot of resources.

Currently you can up your “belong” with community building when you join the LIVE book club discussions and the LIVE community Q&A/consulting zoom calls.

Video courses include

  • homestead “how to build a fence,
  • chicken, duck, and turkey processing,
  • rabbit processing,
  • pig castration,
  • how to build a chicken tractor and pastured poultry starter,
  • homestead cheese making,
  • how to make a biochar retort
  • and more and more as we’re constantly adding new courses.

Discounts include exclusive discount codes for

  • LEM meat processing and equipment
  • Roots and Harvest: food preservation equipment and supplies
  • Ark Seed Kits for heirloom seeds
  • Homestead Hog Harvest video course
  • Chelsea Green book company
  • Hisea boots (think “Muck” boots only better)
  • Berkey Water Filters
  • Field and Forest (mushrooms) and Sorelle (trees)

PLUS there are workshop recordings from on farm workshops, recommended reading by subjects, recipes for your farm fresh food,

So much value when you belong to the Tribe. But not just the tribe: belong to the Tribe+. 

 

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I’m sitting here listening to the chicks hatching in the incubator. They’re so lively so quick! We’ve got meat chicks in the brooder already, too. Spring is here!

New to chickens, or looking to improve what you’re doing?

I was talking this week with a friend who’s raised chickens for years very successfully. They’re beautiful birds. AND, she uses a good deal of Corid every spring when she moves them from the brooder to the chicken tractors in the yard. Why?

Coccidia.

It’s the bane of all farmers sooner of later. The coddicia protozoa is a little parasitic being that lives in the soil inderterminately (a.k.a. nearly forever) and can wreak havoc on young animals intestines. We’ve had in goats and chickens so far. The only cure known to conventional ag is a product called Corid that acts like a wormer medicine to get the animal through it’s vulnerable stage.

What conventional ag and my very experienced friend don’t know about is BIOCHAR

We replaced gallons of Corid with a bit of biochar sprinkled on the chickens’ feed daily. Biochar is like activated charcoal and helps bind the protozoa and escort it to the exit. Sometimes we innoculate it with compost and it unloads beneficial bacterias at the same time. For our naturally immune deficient meat birds, it also shaves 1-2 weeks off our finishing time. Who doesn’t want that?? My friend, for one, has signed up.

activated charcoal, tribe day

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Bio Char

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Sed feugiat rutrum tellus vitae mollis. Vivamus pharetra turpis in ullamcorper ultrices. Cras elit enim, euismod eget posuere ut, accumsan vel tellus. Proin auctor, leo sed commodo sollicitudin, nulla dui consectetur quam, id tempor massa est quis sem. Nunc ultrices augue eget elit tincidunt convallis. Suspendisse aliquam, nisi sed malesuada suscipit, ipsum neque cursus erat, sit amet finibus ipsum nisi id justo.

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Homestead Solutions: Joel Salatin

Mark and Joel sit down and have a wide ranging and dynamic conversation about what it means to be a farmer in the modern age and some of the crazy, lunatic ideas they've had that have molded the regenerative small farm homestead movement. Joel Salatin always brings a...

read more

The Success Formula. Here it is. Everyone's got something they are up to. And the goal is to succeed at it, right? What are you up to? There are a lot of folks that'll give you a formula to succeed at it. But let me tell you a story. And forgive me for bragging a...

read more
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