By Michelle Sweeten
Soil health and regenerative agriculture are hot buzzwords in farming. This past summer, JNelson Farms in Hope, Michigan, hosted a Soil Health Academy to train farmers, researchers, food advocates and educators on soil health and regenerative agriculture principles focusing on adaptive grazing. According to the Midland Daily News, “Students came from eight states, including Michigan, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Armenia.” The training was useful as farmers explored how the principles could be applied to their farm operations.
Black Swamp Cattle Co. posted on Facebook after attending the 2023 Michigan academy, “The Understanding Ag team did an excellent job working to help us better understand the observations we need to make at our farm in order to truly graze in adaptive way. I am excited to take some of the new practices and ideas home to try on our operation. If you ever get the chance to attend a Soil Health Academy, I cannot recommend it enough. It was a great balance of in-class education as well as real world application in the field. This crew of folks is nothing short of a wealth of knowledge!”
Michigan State University Center for Regenerative Agriculture in conjunction with Michigan State University Extension supports hosting of Soil Health Academies in Michigan. While the academies focus on training farmers and ranchers, many researchers, Extension educators and other farm advisors find the training to be eye-opening and beneficial.