Regenerative Agriculture Farm Tour with Dr. Allen Williams

4700 Millhaven Road,Monroe LA 71203

19 November, 2022

Description

This workshop includes a farm tour of an operating regenerative farm that incorporates multiple species of livestock for pastured protein production, timber production, recreational opportunities, and market gardening. Livestock operations include cow/calf, grass finishing, pastured pig production, pastured egg production, and pastured lamb production. The farm also generates revenue from timber production, hunting and other recreational opportunities, and certified organic market gardens. The farm works closely with Understanding Ag, LLC to incorporate the Six Principles of Soil Health and the Three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship to optimize the Four Ecosystem Processes. BDA Farm has hosted Four Soil Health Academies and numerous other regenerative agriculture workshops. This workshop will focus on demonstrating how to effectively implement soil health principles and regenerative practices. How to recognize the basic indicators of soil health and ecosystem health, and how to effectively implement these principles and practices on any farm. Attendees will learn how to use simple tools to assess soil and ecosystem health on their own farms and apply the principles properly within their context. Allen Williams was born and raised on his family’s farm near Rock Hill, South Carolina, representing the 6th generation on that farm. His ancestors moved there from Virginia in 1840. “I’ve been integrally involved in agriculture my whole life in many different ways,” he said. “We had a very diversified farm growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s. That included cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, and many other types of poultry.” They also raised large vegetable gardens, crops, apples, pears, peaches, plums, muscadines, and other fruit. “It wasn’t your typical monoculture type farm that has evolved over the last several decades,” Williams said. “That helped shape some of the reasons why we do what we do today.” His family, brother and cousins still run their family farm in South Carolina. He left home for college in the late 1970’s to attend Clemson University. He obtained his B.S. in Animal Science and went back home to the farm. He later went back to Clemson to earn his M.S. in Animal Genetics, then went on to Louisiana State University to earn his Ph.D. in Animal Genetics. He spent 15 years in academia, teaching and doing research and extension work. He has authored more than 400 scientific and popular press articles and is an invited speaker at regional, national, and international conferences and symposia. In 2000, he left academia and went back into private business. “We’ve been farming, ranching, and consulting full-time ever since,” he said. Allen Williams is a founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, Understanding Ag, LLC and the Soil Health Academy. He has consulted with more than 4000 farmers and ranchers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, and other countries, on operations ranging from a few acres to over 1 million acres. Allen pioneered many of the early regenerative grazing protocols and forage finishing techniques and now teaches those practices and principles to farmers globally. Allen and his colleagues specialize in whole farm & ranch planning based on the concept of regenerative agriculture. Their approach creates significant “value add” and prepares the landowner for multiple enterprise/revenue stream opportunities that stack enterprises and acres. This approach allows for enhanced profitability and/or investment value. They routinely conduct workshops and seminars across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. He has been featured in several of the Carbon Nation film series, "Soil Carbon Cowboys", on the Dr. Oz show, ABC Food Forecast News, and in Kiss The Ground, A Regenerative Secret, The Farmer’s Footprint film series and the Sacred Cow film series. He co-authored a book with Teddy Gentry, “Before You Have A Cow”. Allen is a regular contributor to “GRAZE” and “Stockman Grass Farmer” and has written articles for the “Organic Broadcaster” and many other publications. Several of his presentations and webinars can be found on the Pasture Project. Williams has no long-term connection with his current land. “Heritage is incredibly important to me,” he said. “I value multigenerational family farms. That is very important. A lot of what we do today in our consulting and teaching and so forth is heavily related to that.” He wants to keep the land maintained for future generations. “When I grew up, our family farm was pretty diverse. We grew crops, vegetables, fruit orchards, multiple species of livestock, and we also had a general store, so we marketed a lot of what we produced to the stores. Today, that would be direct marketing. Back then, it was simply the way we did things.” Transportation will be provided from Monroe, Louisiana to Uniontown, Alabama by Mayo Tours. November 19, 2022 Bus leaves Pecanland Mall Parking Lot at 4:45 a.m. (Please arrive 15 minutes early, 4:30 a.m.) Bus returns to Pecanland Mall Parking Lot around 11:00 p.m.