The Soil Revolution Conference2023 Conference

Dr. Fred Provenza grew up in Salida, Colorado, working on a ranch while attending school in Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University. He obtained graduate degrees and worked at Utah State University for 35 years. He is now professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University where he directed an award-winning research group that pioneered understanding of how learning through metabolically mediated flavor-feedback relationships and experiences in utero and early in life influence foraging behavior and how behavior links the health of soil, plants, herbivores, and humans.

That work culminated in a program called BEHAVE, which was active from 2000-2010. BEHAVE was an international network of scientists, ranchers, farmers, and land managers committed to integrating behavioral principles with local knowledge to enhance environmental, economic, and cultural values of rural and urban communities.

He is the author of three books, including Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom; Foraging Behavior: Managing to Survive in a World of Change; and The Art & Science of Shepherding: Tapping the Wisdom of French Herders (co-author with Michel Meuret). His audiobook adaptation of Nourishment, which was released in November of 2022, reflects much of the content of the print book, but includes less-technical descriptions of scientific research and provides updates as he continues to explore and ponder the endless cycles of birth and death on planet Earth. He has published over 300 research papers in a wide variety of scientific journals, and he has been an invited speaker at over 600 conferences.

The many awards he received for research, teaching, and mentoring reflect the creativity that flowed from warm professional and personal relationships with over 75 graduate students, post-doctoral students, visiting scientists, and colleagues during the past 45 years.

As a trained soil scientist and agronomist, Patrick O’Neill advocates for soil health education and practice implementation as a consultant to farmers and ranchers and through volunteer efforts with the conservation districts in his watershed. Currently, O’Neill serves as a supervisor for the Mosca-Hooper Conservation District in Alamosa County, within the San Luis Valley of Colorado.

O’Neill produces specialty cover crops for seed, focusing on cultivars of crops adapted to the cropping and livestock systems in the high desert of South Central Colorado, especially yellow sweet clover seed production. As a biennial crop, it offers a longer-lived component for diverse mixes of annual crops to be planted in the establishment year. Cool season and warm season mixes of crops capable of flowering (e.g. buckwheat), developing deep tap roots (e.g. tillage radish), cool season grasses and warm season grasses all fit in the establishment year as companions to the sweet clover. The San Luis Valley of Colorado has very cold winters, which normally cause all spring-seeded annuals to winter-kill, allowing the sweet clover to develop in its second year with limited competition.

Beyond his seed production, O’Neill advises row crop farmers growing potatoes, cereals and forages, to help them accomplish their goals of improved soil health. This work involves assisting in cover crop selection, seed mix ratios, utilization timing, integration of livestock grazing and microbial inoculant selection and on-farm development. O’Neill also works to identify ways to add to the farm’s resilience, specifically to carefully manage production costs through soil health principle applications. This work to create healthier soils rose from an aversion to toxins in food production along with a dedication to developing healthier farming systems for the farmers and their customers.

Much of O’Neill’s time is spent working in farming systems that integrate livestock and cover crops in rotation with potato crops. These tilled systems with intense tillage events have the potential to be incredibly destructive to soil structure and microbial diversity.

O’Neill says the greatest challenges for soil health principle adoption in his region are reliance on a primary cash crop that involves intense tillage events by nature as well as farming in a brittle (both arid and cold) environment. Investments to grow enough above-ground biomass to offer ample year-round cover are often viewed as low-priority expenditures, relative to many other costs associated with high-value irrigated cropland. These challenges are overcome through incremental improvements, and as more farmers in the region experiment over successive years.

Drew Gaugler grew up on a farm and ranch in southwest North Dakota. Upon graduation from high school, he knew he wanted to be involved with production agriculture but he also wanted to continue his education. For several years, Drew worked in the oil industry where he became a mechanical engineer. By working in an outside industry, he found and created opportunities to become involved with farming and ranching on a full-time basis. He now manages a cow-calf and sheep operation along with native and improved pasture as well as winter forage/hayland acres.

Unfortunately, much of his land was abused prior to his management and left the soil to erode by wind and water. He has worked with the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, NRCS, USFWS, and North Dakota State Water Commission to transition from a 3-cell pasture rotation relying on dugouts for water to a 31-cell rotation with miles of pipeline, multiple wells (solar and conventional), dams for wildlife, cover crops for pollinators and soil health, and miles of trees. Wetland acres are being intensively managed through mob grazing with sheep. Concepts related to Keyline design, terraces, and check dams are also being used to improve water management. He continues to make long-term improvements in an effort to revitalize the land and improve wildlife habitat.

Dr. Erin Gaugler grew up on a farm and ranch in southwest North Dakota. Upon graduation from high school, she knew she wanted to be involved with the agricultural industry but she did not know to what extent. She has spent the last several years continuing her education and working off the farm to advance her knowledge of agriculture and natural resource management. At this time, she is finishing a Ph.D in Range Science and has transitioned back to the farm and ranch on a full-time basis. She now manages a cow-calf and sheep operation along with cropland, hayland, and CRP acres.

Her management goals focus on improving the system as a whole, but with particular emphasis on soil health. Cover crop and livestock integration strategies are often used to regenerate the soil, while also benefiting pollinators. She has worked with groups including the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, NRCS, USFWS, and North Central SARE to address resource concerns and make long-term improvements.

Dr. Dannele Peck is Director of the Northern Plains Climate Hub, with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Climate Hub connects agricultural producers with science-based resources and partners to enable weather-ready and climate-smart decisions in farming, ranching, and forestry.

Dannele was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York. She earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wyoming, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University. She specializes in farm-level decision-making under risk, and is a coauthor on the agriculture chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment.

Dr. Brent Young serves as an Agricultural Business Management Economist with Colorado State University Extension. Brent strives help farmers and ranchers manage risk through the development, delivery and evaluation of non-credit educational programming. Additionally, he provides information on Farm Bill Title 1 production support and Title 11 commodity insurance programs, crop and livestock enterprise analysis, financial management strategies, and commodity marketing.