Cole Bush

Brittany Cole Bush, (Cole), calls herself a modern-day shepherdess shepherding animals, people and projects She is a practitioner, entrepreneur, educator, and consultant in the fields of climate-beneficial agriculture, land stewardship, and prescribed grazing, guided by her drive to do meaningful work on the land and open vocational pathways for non-traditional agrarians. With over a decade of experience, Cole has successfully treating thousands of acres on private and public lands throughout California for ecological enhancement and fire hazard reduction.

Cole is the owner/operator of a commercial-scale prescribed grazing outfit, Shepherdess Land and Livestock Co., providing prescribed grazing services in some of the most densely populated areas in Southern California. She is also the founder/owner of Shepherdess Holistic Hides, purveying tanned sheep and goat hides mindfully sourced from livestock “raised and grazed” in the west, placing an additional value on a normally forgotten waste product.

Through her own journey to create a viable career in agriculture and land management, her mission to open pathways for others has taken flight through her project The Grazing School of the West, a nascent non-profit organization. The School works to answer to the tremendous demand for labor in the reblooming industry of prescribed grazing, developing curriculum to cultivate an expanded grazier workforce and supporting entrepreneurs in food and fiber, and ecological monitoring.

Video: “Stewards of the Land” – American Lamb Board
White Paper: “Prescribed Herbivory for Vegetation Treatment Projects” – California Range Management Advisory Committee
Interview: “Grazing for Good”, Soil Centric
Photo Editorial by Todd Selby

Plenary Speaker

Growing Graziers: Shepherding a new-generation of agrarians into viable vocations in land stewardship, public safety, and vital food and fibersheds

Through her own journey to create a viable career and livelihood in regenerative agriculture and land management, Cole will share how prescribed grazing sheep and goats in the west is opening pathways for next-generation agrarians seeking impactful work that addresses climate, public safety, vital food and fibersheds, and social change. Through innovative stacked enterprise business models and collaborative partnerships between businesses and non-profit organizations, Cole is “growing graziers” by creating on-the-job training opportunities that will ready individuals to pursue their own entrepreneurial journeys or enter a workforce requiring skills and knowledge only obtained through experience. In a dedication to stacking enterprises and illuminating the wide diversity of opportunity that four legged ruminants offer, Cole will also share how her hide business, Shepherdess Holistic Hides places an additional value on a normally forgotten waste product, while telling the story of animal symbiosis with western range land management.