Cheryl Williams Cosner helps livestock producers new to sheep build healthy, profitable flocks through understandable research-based articles, videos and courses.

Cheryl has 35 years as a Holistic Management livestock producer and educator. Her fascination with sheep has led her to study every aspect of sheep health, nutrition and genetics. This passion for small ruminants led Cheryl to create Sheep School, an online educational platform for sheep information. Together with her business partner and husband, Robert, she regularly shares her experience with Holistic Management principles on ranch management, microeconomics, marketing, grazing and land management. Cheryl has collaborated with Washington State University and Oregon State University on award-winning projects about farm finance and livestock education.

Cosner’s outstanding contributions to agriculture have earned her recognition as Washington State University Woman Alumna of the Year and a national winner for the Farm and Ranch Survival Kit from the National Association of County Agriculture Agents’ Search for Excellence in Financial Management Education for Farms and Ranches. She is a director of Roots of Resilience, a non-profit organization that teaches regenerative agriculture principles to natural resource stakeholders.

Cheryl earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Science with minors in Animal Science and Agriculture Economics. She completed her MBA in Marketing from City University of Seattle and taught business at colleges and universities including a graduate-level teaching assignment in Bejing, China.
Cheryl is married to her business partner, Robert. They have successfully ranched together for 38 years.

Webinar Week

Great Grazing: Pasture Partnerships, Weird Feeds and Higher Profits
October 27  |  1:00 – 2:30pm MT

In this information-packed presentation, we will explore unusual crops and plants considered weeds as a feed source for ruminant livestock, particularly sheep. Adding sheep to a farming operation through ownership or a “Rent a Ruminant” program can create a win-win for regenerative farmers and livestock growers alike. Sheep are uniquely suited for converting a wide variety of plants- vegetables, cover crops and alfalfa aftermath- into nutrients for animal and soil health. Sheep can offer a high-value solution to soil improvement, weed reduction, reduced mechanical use and aftermath clean-up when used in a holistic farming model.

In this webinar you will learn:
What are the benefits of grazing aftermath and cover crops for farmers and livestock producers?
What are the nutrient benefits of unusual feeds and weeds for ruminants including alfalfa aftermath, winter squash, carrots, onions, sorghum-sudan grass, green pea waste, lambsquarter, prickly lettuce and many more.
How to winter graze sheep in a northern climate.
Where to source alternative feedstuffs.
What equipment do you need for successful and safe sheep grazing?
Common pitfalls to avoid when grazing sheep.
What aftermath and cover crop grazing with sheep can do for your bottom line?
What risks are associated with grazing certain crops and how to mitigate them?
How weedy species become an asset in your grazing plan.
How to build relationships with farmer partners that are interested in having their property grazed.
What free nutrients do sheep add to the soil and how it saves money.

Mandy is a Regenerative Agriculture Educator and Consultant. With a background in Sociology and Environmental Affairs, Mandy passionately educates about the amazing and vast benefits of Regenerative Agriculture, Holistic Land Management, and the local sourcing of regenerative food, products, and services…ultimately, the positive impact we can have on the planet when we learn from and think like Nature.

Through her work with various farms and ranches over the years, she recognizes many of the barriers faced in transitioning to regenerative agriculture and also in promoting understanding and community support of regenerative practices and management. Her ways of educating and creating awareness are multi-faceted involving things like the creation of a regenerative agriculture storytelling tool kit (in process), giving presentations and workshops, interviewing farmers and ranchers (Tribe Green Rising YouTube channel), and working to galvanize connection around the ultimate goal of having safe and healthy communities on a biodiverse, thriving planet.

Webinar Week

Regenerative Agriculture: Dedication, Grit, and the Stories We Live and Tell
October 25  | 11:00am MT

There is a lot involved in the industrial-to-regenerative transition. It is a process that asks us to return to the indigenous roots of agriculture and partner with Nature. It can also be difficult to establish an educated and supportive community base as the complexity of working in relationship with Nature can be difficult to explain.

In partnership with the James Ranch (a regenerative ranch in Durango, CO), we are creating an educational storytelling tool kit with the goal of enabling people to experience the excitement, beauty, health, and hope of Regenerative Agriculture and Holistic Land Management and what it means to listen to, learn from, and work in relationship with Nature. The intent is to help give you the tools to share the story of your operation.

Master Student of Natural Sciences and conservation at New Mexico Highlands University.
Agricultural engineer from Zamorano University with some experience on Agroforestry.

Webinar Week

Biochar in the Southwest Panel Discussion -Production Methods and Quality

Making biochar is easy…making high-quality biochar cleanly, efficiently, and with consistent properties is more challenging. This presentation will cover the types of biomass and reaction systems that can be used to make biochar, and will provide an introduction to biochar characterization and evaluation. Determination of what is a “good” biochar is not always straightforward as biochar properties that offer advantages for one application, may not be advantageous for another application. For example, biochars intended to increase the pH and mineral nutrient content of an acidic, weathered soil may benefit from having a higher and more alkaline ash content. That same biochar applied to an alkaline, saline (desert) soil would be at a disadvantage. In this presentation, we will look at the kinds of biochar properties that can be measured and how those properties can inform decisions about each biochar’s use.

Sanna Sevanto Team leader: Atmosphere, Clime and Ecosystem Sciences, LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, is a physicist turned to plant physiologist with broad expertise in transport phenomena in complex natural systems. She has a master’s degree in material science and a PhD in applied physics from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her interests in biomechanics and the environment have led her to apply the knowledge of physics to studying plant physiology and plant responses to environmental stress. Her research has focused on measurements and modeling of plant-atmosphere interactions, ecosystem energy, water and carbon cycles, plant hydraulics, plant responses to stress, and on mechanistic understanding of plant structure and function. Most recently she has led research in developing techniques to produce microbial consortia that improve plant drought tolerance. Dr. Sevanto has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and has collaborated with researchers from various disciplines ranging from applied and theoretical physics, and global-scale vegetation modeling, to cellular and ecosystem-scale biology, ecology, meteorology, atmospheric sciences and material sciences, applying techniques from these fields for understanding plant and ecosystem function, and vegetation influence on climate.

Webinar Week

Biochar in the Southwest Panel Discussion -Production Methods and Quality

Making biochar is easy…making high-quality biochar cleanly, efficiently, and with consistent properties is more challenging. This presentation will cover the types of biomass and reaction systems that can be used to make biochar, and will provide an introduction to biochar characterization and evaluation. Determination of what is a “good” biochar is not always straightforward as biochar properties that offer advantages for one application, may not be advantageous for another application. For example, biochars intended to increase the pH and mineral nutrient content of an acidic, weathered soil may benefit from having a higher and more alkaline ash content. That same biochar applied to an alkaline, saline (desert) soil would be at a disadvantage. In this presentation, we will look at the kinds of biochar properties that can be measured and how those properties can inform decisions about each biochar’s use.