A year in the life of a farm

[GarGuy]

That’s what I was thinking. It would be cool if he kept that palmation after he sheds his velvet

I bet he keeps 50plus inches of mass.

[Mexico]

As always... amazing Rusty!

[GoneSouth]

I toured my farm Monday with Dr. Allen Williams from Understanding Ag to look at farm wide regenerative ag approach for improving soils and ecosystem. Candidly I was blown away by the visit, his knowledge, and how overlapped our philosophies are. I have hired him and his company to develop a farm wide program utilizing multi level animal/fowl additions, crop strategies, infrastructure needs, marketing strategies...all things to make a farm wide program work.

I'm excited. Time to go big or go home!

Rusty, could you further explain the marketing strategies portion? I.e. are you looking to be profitable or educational?

[elgato]

Rusty, could you further explain the marketing strategies portion? I.e. are you looking to be profitable or educational?

The only income I have ever taken off the farm is the little timber income I get .My vision for this ideal is multi faceted. To accomplish the goals I have in mind I intend to add cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, bees, fruit orchards, pecans...and anything else I can grow in the south. All this designed to improve the soil fertility on every square foot of the farm. This in turn increases the nutrient density of everything growing be it plant or animal..all organically.

So to specifically answer your question I intend to create a business [ interrupting my delicious enjoyable retired lifestyle ] marketing nutrient dense beyond organic food stuffs to those with an interest. This in one part as a way I can give back to society. But also to show that a small diverse farm can be a profitable lifestyle in harmony with nature and spiritually coherent. Thus I am looking to be both profitable and educational.

A very minor consideration in mind is that all this will only increase the value of the farm. Without question, what has been done as a recreational farm has increased its value. By adding more diversity and depth to the profile I believe the farm becomes more attractive to a larger population thus increasing in value. So when I'm gone someone should be quite happy.

In the meantime I love a big scale project like this!

[hunt247]

Good stuff! been a few years since I have read this thread. Keep it coming!

[wdtorque]

Lol

He's a smart guy. Didn't take him long to realize that a) whitetails are a priority! b) The program in place for them is working extremely well c) Don't screw with the deer program. d) he figured out that anything he does has to compliment or improve the life of the deer.

Just as an FYI Ted Turner has hired his company to establish regenerative ag on all his properties . Beyond that his resume is incredible especially for a guy that got his undergrad from Clemson. He was smart enough to shift to LSU for his PhD.

Go Tigers!

[elgato]

Up and comer...5 I think

[camoclad]

Start a petition to make elgato secretary of interior or something. Guys got wildlife management down!

[AgHntr10]

Up and comer...5 I think

[huntmaster]

elgato, do you use a regular drill when notill overseeding or do you have the notill drill

[elgato]

elgato, do you use a regular drill when notill overseeding or do you have the notill drill

8Ft. Great Planes no till drill . Been using it last 8 yrs or so and love it.

Still haven't found at least 3 of the biggest bucks from last year. Challenging year for the cameras.

[lovemylegacy]

Once again you continue to impress.

[powderburner]

If you dont mind.. What did you do before you "retired"

[elgato]

If you dont mind.. What did you do before you "retired"

Hmmm. Not an easy question to answer. Been involved in a couple disparate industries . Started in contract furniture mfg. that my family owned . We primarily built military barracks furniture on GSA contract. Bought a company and transitioned the company into commercial office furniture building height adjustable work stations. Along the same time was successful bidding a contract to build all the lobby furniture for every post office in the country.

Somewhere in there became CEO of a small automation company that had technology to count pills. From that technology base automated every retail pharmacy in the U.S./Canada with hardware software. Ultimately moved into robotics and workflow software . then started a systems integration company combining the pharmacy automation with smart conveyors and a bunch of cool systems automation stuff about the time mail order drug distribution started.

Caught the mail order pharmacy wave at the very beginning and did all the automation for every retail and VA mail order drug distribution facility in the world. Timing is everything. Then the McKesson corporation decided they liked all that stuff more than me and I sold it all out to them in the late 90".

Retired when I was 44, bought a ranch in Mexico and have been a bum every since. Was a wild ride. Fun to reminisce thanks for the question

[elgato]

Eating pears. Pretty cool