Webinar Week

Leasing Our Future in a Changing World

A lease, as defined in the dictionary, is a contract by which one party conveys land, property, services, etcetera to a second party for a specified time usually in return for a periodic payment. There is a great deal of room for innovative thinking in that definition, which is why understanding leasing is so important to a young person who may not own land, livestock, or equipment for starting a business. In this workshop, learn how to take the grazing skills you have and combine them with a leasing opportunity. The presenters will share what makes for a win-win grazing relationship and how a lease provides clarity and structure for this. The presenters will also discuss some of the economics behind leasing land and discuss some unconventional leases that are being implemented in a constantly changing agricultural landscape. This workshop is geared towards beginning or aspiring ranchers who are in the first 10 years of their career.

Ridge Shinn is the Executive Director of the Northeast Grass-fed Beef Initiative (NGBI). He also is the co-founder and CEO of Big Picture Beef, recently launched to produce Northeast grass-fed beef for Northeast customers. He has been a leader in the shift from feedlot production to raising cattle on a diet of 100% grass and forages – no grain. In addition to raising a large herd of grass-fed Rotokawa Devon beef cattle in Massachusetts, he was the Vice President of a Connecticut slaughterhouse and founded a successful meat company, Hardwick Beef. He has developed markets and distribution systems for 100% grass-fed beef throughout the northeastern United States and has consulted all over the US and for the Argentine government on the production and marketing of grass-fed beef. His work has been recognized in Time Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Wine Spectator and Smithsonian.

Book: Grass-fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World; How regenerative Grazing Can Restore Soils and Stabilize the Climate, November 2022, Chelsea Green.Economic

Webinar Week

Economic Success with Regenerative Grazing

This talk will focus on economic viability of grazing; creating 3-6 times more biomass per acre, improved animal health and reproduction, how management of the solar collector with ruminants creates consistent high-quality meat. Calve in sync with nature, winter graze and use limited structure to avoid concentration of nutrients. Measure success by evidence of rumen function (manure quality). Economic success with AMP grazing also creates resilience and combats drought and flooding.