This episode's guest is Austin Allred of Royal Family Farming. Allred talks about how he was forced to address his manure management practices due to legal action that applied retroactively to the dairy location that he now owns. He's using worms to help filter his manure water, and he's cleaned that water enough that he's personally willing to water-ski on his lagoon now. You may have seen the viral YouTube clip of him doing that. In this episode, he also talks about his beef x dairy crossbreeding program. Each beef animal on his Royal Ranch has a carbon footprint score. You'll hear tips for communicating about regenerative agriculture from someone at the forefront of the discussion.

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Season 3, Episode 34

 

Here is a breakdown of the episode:

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  • Tell us about your farm. [~1:45]
  • What was moment you knew you needed to put yourself out there and promote dairy? [~3:00]
  • Legal action in Washington about applying manure on farms was a thing. How did that affect how you dairy? [~5:05]
  • Talk to me about your journey to use worms to treat manure on your farm. You're an 8-acre worm farmer. [~7:00]
  • What are the new value streams created by the natural biofilter you've created for your manure water? [~10:15] 
  • I would consider you an innovator. Do you consider yourself an innovator? [~14:00]
  • Talk about your dairy beef marketing efforts. [~15:30] 
  • What have you learned about that you can share as advice for other farms about beef x dairy breeding? [~18:30]
  • You are voluntarily tracking your emissions – How are you doing that? Why are you doing that voluntarily? [~19:30]
  • Talk about the viral YouTube clip of you water-skiing on your lagoon. [~24:30] 
  • As an innovator, what are the things you think producers should be paying attention to? [~26:00] 
  • What is the most worthwhile investment you’ve made on your dairy? [~28:15]
  • When it comes to the carbon conversation, what's the first step where you would recommend other producers start? [~30:00]
  • What’s something you tried you thought was going to be a good idea that didn’t work out? [~31:00]
  • If I were to give you $10,000 right now, what would you spend it on for your dairy? [~32:00]
  • What are you not spending enough money on? [~32:30]
  • What’s a part of your daily or weekly ritual that you think has meaningfully contributed to your success? [~34:45]

 

Follow Royal Family Farming online:

www.facebook.com/royalfamilyfarming

 

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