Renewable Farming

Gabe and Paul Brown: Ranchers show how to renew soil life

We’ve been enthusiasts for rebuilding healthy soil biology and productivity. And you can see one of the most amazing examples of how that’s done by reading or viewing presentations by Gabe Brown, who ranches with his family near Bismarck, North Dakota.

Visitors from around the world are flocking to the ranch to see how Gabe and his son Paul are using nature’s own principles to rebuild soil microorganisms, accelerate nutrient conversion, end erosion, and create a vigorous biodiversity.  

Practical Farmers of Iowa has arranged a bus trip to visit the Brown’s farm, with specific intentions of learning more about cover crops.

We’re chagrined that it took us so long to learn about their work, which has been ongoing for three decades.  But until now, the idea of dramatically placing chemical and fertilizer inputs with astute management hasn’t been a magnet for most ag publication editors. That’s changing.

Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at MIT, saw so many profitable and healthful ideas in a video presentation, “Keys to Building a Healthy Soil,” by Gabe Brown that she transcribed Gabe’s talk, creating a written record which you can study carefully.  It was in Nevember 2014 at the Idaho Center for Sustainable Agriculture.  

You can also watch the video on YouTube.  If you use Google, search “Gabe Brown YouTube” and look for the video, “Gabe Brown: Keys to Building a Healthy Soil.”  There are variations on this presentation presented on other YouTube videos.

Here’s a link to the presentation mentioned above.

To download the entire transcript from our website, click on this link for the portable document file (PDF)