A holistic triple bottom line guides every management decision Jeff and Marisa Sather make for their fourth-generation Sather Farm and Ranch northeast of Glasgow, Montana. "We want to maximize profit for our operation, as well as maximize the ecological benefit to our land and the social benefit to our community," says Jeff, who manages the northeast Montana operation with his wife, Marisa, a biologist with the U . s . Service rib in divjih živali .
Tristranski cilj izvira iz Satherjeve relativno nove zaveze regenerativnemu kmetijstvu ., da svoje delovanje postavlja na tečaj, ki se močno izmuzni iz tradicionalnih praks upravljanja, ki so enkrat podpirali kmetijo, in toliko drugih, ki so všeč v okoliški skupnosti .
Prejšnje generacije so vadile tal in zrasle 50-50 vrtenje pšenice . po diplomi na fakulteti in vključitvi v vodstvo kmetije leta 2006, je Jeff začel spreminjati .
"Odpravili smo nekaj tal s sajenjem z vrtalnikom za motivo, vendar sem leta 2020 prešel na diskovno vrtanje, da bi še dodatno zmanjšal motnje tal," pravi ., "Dobil sem tudi glavo striptizete za kombajn, da bi pustil več trma, da bi zaščitil zemljo pred vetrom, in v zimskem času."
Roka v roki s preklopom na not-TIL je prišlo do neprekinjenega obrezovanja, z bolj raznoliko vrtenjem pridelka . odpravljanje obdelovanja obdelave in diverzifikacijsko pridelke pomaga kmetiji preživeti pogoste suše na območju .
In 2019, an employee's casual observation triggered further, radical changes. "An employee pointed out to me that we spent more on fertilizer every year than his parents earned in an entire year, with both working full time," Jeff says. "That caused us to sit down and figure out what our actual costs were per year and what we were spending the money on. We looked at what would happen if Nehali smo uporabljati gnojila . Ugotovili smo, da bomo potrebovali le 15- donos koruze Bushel-an-Acre, da bi razbili celo . "
Novi vpogled je sovpadal s prizadevanji Satherjev, da bi izvedeli več o regenerativnem kmetijstvu . Obiskali so vidne regenerativne kmetije in vpisani na tečaje zdravja tal .
"Šli smo na simpozij o zdravju tal in izvedeli, da smo imeli na svojih tleh fosfor, vendar je bilo treba zgraditi in popraviti ravnovesje biologije tal, da bi lahko na voljo rastlinam," pravi Jeff . "Slišali smo tudi, da so kmetje povedali, kako so znižali nitrogen s približno 50%{{2}.
To jih nastavi na pot, ki ji danes sledijo pri njihovem obrezovanju . Rotacija zdaj vključuje grah, lečo, safra, lan, spomladansko pšenico in durumsko pšenico .
To replace synthetic fertilizers, they work to activate natural processes of soil fertility. "Soil tests have shown us that our biggest issue is an insufficient fungal population," Jeff says. "Bacteria dominate the biology in our soil. We're aiming for a one-to-one balance in the soil. Eliminating tillage Pomaga in prenehali smo zdraviti seme z fungicidi . "
