Joel Salatin

So we could see that it had been mismanaged. Right. Oh, yeah, yeah. You could tell that it had been very mismanaged. So we started a very aggressive tree planting campaign. We planted about 60 acres in trees over those first 10 years. So we actually shrunk some of the open land, and we put brush down in the gullies, and he started experimenting. That was to stabilize the soil against erosion?

To at least stop the erosion. And one of my most poignant childhood memories was one Sunday, he said, I met this guy, I want to go see him. So we got in the car on a Sunday afternoon, took this drive, And I don't remember what the guy had. I don't remember whether he had sheep or chickens or pigs or whatever he had. All I remember was coming home. I was, what, maybe six or seven.

To at least stop the erosion. And one of my most poignant childhood memories was one Sunday, he said, I met this guy, I want to go see him. So we got in the car on a Sunday afternoon, took this drive, And I don't remember what the guy had. I don't remember whether he had sheep or chickens or pigs or whatever he had. All I remember was coming home. I was, what, maybe six or seven.

To at least stop the erosion. And one of my most poignant childhood memories was one Sunday, he said, I met this guy, I want to go see him. So we got in the car on a Sunday afternoon, took this drive, And I don't remember what the guy had. I don't remember whether he had sheep or chickens or pigs or whatever he had. All I remember was coming home. I was, what, maybe six or seven.

I remember coming home and dad just literally levitating as he drove the car. This guy had portable animal shelters. And dad had never seen anything like that before. And it clicked in his head. Wow, portable animal shelters. Suddenly, I don't have to build stationary. I don't have to build a barn. I can build mobile infrastructure. And because he'd already gotten onto this moving animals around.

I remember coming home and dad just literally levitating as he drove the car. This guy had portable animal shelters. And dad had never seen anything like that before. And it clicked in his head. Wow, portable animal shelters. Suddenly, I don't have to build stationary. I don't have to build a barn. I can build mobile infrastructure. And because he'd already gotten onto this moving animals around.

I remember coming home and dad just literally levitating as he drove the car. This guy had portable animal shelters. And dad had never seen anything like that before. And it clicked in his head. Wow, portable animal shelters. Suddenly, I don't have to build stationary. I don't have to build a barn. I can build mobile infrastructure. And because he'd already gotten onto this moving animals around.

Andre Voisini was a Frenchman who wrote Grass Productivity, kind of still the Bible of rotational or controlled grazing. Mm-hmm. And where you mimic native choreography, where animals— Because the animals migrate. The animals migrate. They move around. Right. And so, you know, we don't have wolves, and they won't let us do fire very much. And so—but we do have electric fence.

Andre Voisini was a Frenchman who wrote Grass Productivity, kind of still the Bible of rotational or controlled grazing. Mm-hmm. And where you mimic native choreography, where animals— Because the animals migrate. The animals migrate. They move around. Right. And so, you know, we don't have wolves, and they won't let us do fire very much. And so—but we do have electric fence.

Andre Voisini was a Frenchman who wrote Grass Productivity, kind of still the Bible of rotational or controlled grazing. Mm-hmm. And where you mimic native choreography, where animals— Because the animals migrate. The animals migrate. They move around. Right. And so, you know, we don't have wolves, and they won't let us do fire very much. And so—but we do have electric fence.

Electric fence was just coming in. This is the early 60s. And so Dad actually invented a portable electric fencing system to where we could start moving the cows around. And— And, you know, we moved them, whatever, once every 10 days or so and gradually got better and better and better until by the, you know, by the time I was a teenager, we were moving them, you know, every three or four days.

Electric fence was just coming in. This is the early 60s. And so Dad actually invented a portable electric fencing system to where we could start moving the cows around. And— And, you know, we moved them, whatever, once every 10 days or so and gradually got better and better and better until by the, you know, by the time I was a teenager, we were moving them, you know, every three or four days.

Electric fence was just coming in. This is the early 60s. And so Dad actually invented a portable electric fencing system to where we could start moving the cows around. And— And, you know, we moved them, whatever, once every 10 days or so and gradually got better and better and better until by the, you know, by the time I was a teenager, we were moving them, you know, every three or four days.

Then when I was in college, I put in our basic permanent grid so we could move them every day. And that was a quantum leap. That moved us. When we started moving them every day, everything started to kick in.

Then when I was in college, I put in our basic permanent grid so we could move them every day. And that was a quantum leap. That moved us. When we started moving them every day, everything started to kick in.

Then when I was in college, I put in our basic permanent grid so we could move them every day. And that was a quantum leap. That moved us. When we started moving them every day, everything started to kick in.

Yeah, so the thing you have to understand from an ecology standpoint is if we had a graph and we charted the way vegetation grows, it grows in a sigmoid curve. It's just like a person. They start small, little baby, you know, and then they hit teenage years and they grow real fast, and then they quit growing and eventually go into senescence.

Yeah, so the thing you have to understand from an ecology standpoint is if we had a graph and we charted the way vegetation grows, it grows in a sigmoid curve. It's just like a person. They start small, little baby, you know, and then they hit teenage years and they grow real fast, and then they quit growing and eventually go into senescence.

Yeah, so the thing you have to understand from an ecology standpoint is if we had a graph and we charted the way vegetation grows, it grows in a sigmoid curve. It's just like a person. They start small, little baby, you know, and then they hit teenage years and they grow real fast, and then they quit growing and eventually go into senescence.

So I call this diaper grass, teenage grass, and nursing home grass, okay, just to help. And so if you want to accumulate the most biomass possible, you want to let it go through that blaze of growth.