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What is the dryland
demonstration?
A five-year commitment to demonstrating the holistic principles of Allan Savory on two acres of private land near Blanding UT to show how to restore hundreds of acres to high productivity in our "brittle" climate. Regenerating healthy grassland ecosystems would let us achieve "the 5 healths": healthy soil, healthy crops, healthier livestock, healthier people, and a much healthier economy.
How will the demo work?
We will create a habitat for functioning soil by
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Covering the ground with organic matter
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Limiting disturbance to avoid killing microbes
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Using animal impact to graze and trample
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Planting a diversity of plant families and root types
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Making mindful responses to natural processes along the way.
We intend to accelerate ecological succession into grassland ecosystems, where wheat and other grain crops thrive, and on which most of the food people eat depends.
Two acres have been divided into quarter-acre plots, on which we can compare land management techniques side-by-side over a 5+ year period. One acre's initial condition was over-rested; the other has been disced for weeds for the past several years.
All actions will be possible for a landowner with hundreds or thousands of acres to replicate. Results will be documented here, along with monthly aerial photos and soil sample results.
Our goal is to build ecological literacy among Four Corners' farmers and ranchers so they can steward the land together for maximum health and nutrition. There is more to creating functioningg soil than "no till". Ecological literacy is understanding the holistic relationships between all living elements of the soil, plants, animals, and microbial systems.
"Drought does not cause bare ground, bare ground causes drought."
- Allan Savory
Why are we doing this demonstration?
We urgently need to revitalize agricultural soils in the Four Corners, becasue today we have:
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Dirt blowing away
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Compacted ground
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Poor germination rates
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Declining productivity, costing more in fertilizer and weed control
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Declining nutrition of crops and livestock
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Early succession microbes and weeds
Why did our soil degrade in the first place? It happened because grazing animals were separated from the grasslands. Farmers fenced out the cattle, and ranchers moved to public land allotments, breaking the ecological link between the animals and the plants. The essential role of the invisible microbial life under the ground was forgotten.
What are Allan Savory's 4 Key insights?
Predator/prey relationships
Time
Wholeness
Brittleness
Who is managing this demonstration?
My name is Colleen Cayes. I am dedicating two acres of private land near Blanding UT to a 5-year+ regenerative agriculture demonstration. The goal is accelerate mid-succession grassland soil ecosystems that are inhospitable to early succession weeds and capable of profitably producing crops and livestock with superior nutrition at scale in the Four Corners brittle climate.
I am joined by a team of agricultural experts, including William DeMille, the author of Worry Free Eating, at georgicrevolution.com. Real-time guidance will come from Reagan Wytsalucy, tenured Associate Professor of Agriculture at USU and extension office director in San Juan County UT. We are encouraged by the success of others who are already applying healthy soil principles on the Colorado Plateau. Our goal is to add in-depth practical understanding and real-time collaborative learning that will be repeatable on large-scale acreage across the Four Corners and beyond.
Our monthly aerial photos
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