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"Drought does not cause bare ground, bare ground causes drought."
- Allan Savory
What is the Soil4Corners 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 a balanced bacteria: benficial fungi grassland biology, 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 functioning soil than "no till". Ecological literacy is understanding the holistic relationships between all living elements of the soil, plants, animals, and microbial systems.
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 biology that is inhospitable to early succession weeds and capable of profitably producing crops and livestock with superior nutrition in the Four Corners brittle climate.
Our team includes William DeMille, the author of Worry Free Eating, at georgicrevolution.com, plus consultants at Understanding Ag and ongoing study of resources at acresusa.com and others leading the regenerative movement. 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.
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