Posts tagged as “Joel Salatin”

by Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Last month I introduced two unorthodox concepts regarding water. The first is the difference between surface runoff and the inventory of the commons (like streams, springs, and aquifers). The second is the notion that we as caretakers can greatly enhance the commons by storing surface runoff rather than pumping from the commons.

We established that one-third of all rainfall globally becomes surface runoff, which means that even a one-acre watershed in a 30-inch rainfall area will generate 10 acre-inches of surface runoff per year, or 300,000 gallons. Another surface we generally don’t think about is our impervious shelter surfaces called roofs.

By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

For decades, I’ve been direct marketing our farm’s production directly to retail customers as a direct-marketed, branded product. That means our farm embraces the role of middle-man and we have a logo.

We practice craft rather than commodity. The Harvard Business Review analyzed the difference and found that although businesses can be profitable in either craft or commodity, success depended on staying in the same column. In other words, a craft trying to scale to a commodity failed, and a commodity trying to present itself as a craft failed. The differences are profound.

By Joel Salatin, Plain Values

Last month I laid the foundation for the patterns and whys of animal movement. Failure to systematically and routinely move domestic livestock is perhaps the single biggest failure in animal agriculture.

But how? Fortunately, we have infrastructure today that makes learning ancient herding techniques unnecessary. In extremely remote and unpopulated areas, herding is still practiced. But in more populated and developed areas, it’s not practical. I don’t know anyone capable of telling a milk cow to stay in a 10 by 20-yard spot in a pasture and have her obey.