Entries by Emilie Ritter

Applications Open for Armed to Farm New Mexico

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is partnering with Holistic Management International (HMI) to bring its Armed to Farm training to the Southwest. Armed to Farm will take place March 28-April 1, 2022, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Participants will attend classroom sessions and travel to local farms for hands-on learning experiences. Armed to Farm trainings […]

SAVE THE DATES: Soil Health Innovations Conference

Mark your calendars for NCAT’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference: Soil for Water, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, March 15 and 16, 2022. This will be a virtual conference offering plenty of networking opportunities with presenters and fellow attendees. Join us to hear from presenters such as David Montgomery of the University of Washington and […]

Help Shape Montana’s Soil Health Future

There’s nothing like a summer of vicious heat, drought, and grasshoppers to focus minds on the vital importance of healthy soil. Soil scientist Wallace Fuller said in 1975, “A cloak of loose, soft material, held to the Earth’s hard surface by gravity, is all that lies between life and lifelessness.” Across Montana, the summer of […]

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New Digital Home for NCAT’s Armed to Farm

By Robyn Metzger, Armed to Farm Coordinator The National Center for Appropriate Technology has launched a new website for its farmer veteran training program, Armed to Farm. The site, ARMEDTOFARM.ORG, features program news, promotes upcoming training opportunities, and connects alumni with sustainable agriculture resources and other farmer veterans.   NCAT developed the first Armed to Farm training in 2013 through a Beginning Farmer […]

Biochar Policy Project Aims to Scale Up Rural Climate Solution

By Steve Thompson, NCAT Executive Director Dave Atkins, a forest landowner in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, peers through the smoke-filled gloom of another hot and dry August, and he sees hope on the horizon. He’s part of a collaborative project with other small landowners, federal land agencies, conservation and watershed groups that thinks that an important […]

Novel Nutrient Management Method: Applying Poultry Litter in Subsurface Bands

By Nina Prater, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Getting nutrients right in farming is a balancing act. When planning to apply fertilizers and soil amendments, farmers must consider their soil type, climate, the time of year, the crops they are raising, water availability, soil health, water quality concerns, and the nuances of the many different macro- and micronutrients that plants require. The way nutrients are applied is also an important consideration. […]

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Adaptive Grazing – You Can Do It

Adaptive high stock-density grazing. Photo: Pasture Project By Lee Rinehart, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, NCAT Northeast Back in the late 1990s, I was a new county Extension agent in Texas. I met a Brangus rancher who became a friend and demonstration cooperator, and I pitched him a topic that he became immediately interested in. We laid […]

Soil Health and Adaptive Grazing with Dr. Allen Williams

Adaptive grazing is a regenerative livestock production system that uses multiple paddocks, frequent moving of livestock with short grazing intervals, and long rest periods to provide full pasture plant recovery. It is a proven method of increasing the resiliency of pastures by building soil organic matter, increasing soil water infiltration, promoting water conservation, adding diversity, […]

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26 Miles of Hedgerows: California Project Update

Fremontodendron; a species that explodes with beautiful yellow flowers in the Spring. NCAT’s Western office has completed the first year of its hedgerow planting project. NCAT secured funding to provide hedgerow plants and technical assistance to farmers across California, taking us from as far south as San Diego to Crescent City in the north. All […]

‘Soil for Water’ Regenerative Agriculture Project Expands to Montana

Building on a successful peer-to-peer network of Texas ranchers who are implementing innovative grazing techniques to improve soil health and increase profitability, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is scaling up its Soil for Water project to support livestock producers and farmers across seven southern states and Montana. The Soil for Water project grew […]