Gabe Brown: Building Soils with Cover Crops -The 5 Principles of Building Soils

Imagine rapidly building soil on more than 5,000 acres. That’s what Gabe Brown is doing by merging back-to-basics agrarian practices with innovative, science-based sustainable farming techniques on his multi-thousand-acre diversified family ranch in North Dakota. Learn how his diverse practices of converting all cropland to no-till, constant seeding with a cocktail of dozens of cover crops, and mob grazing of diverse livestock species all combine for continued improvement of his farm’s greatest resource, its soil.

Gabe Brown has merged back-to-basics agrarian practices with innovative, science-based, sustainable farming techniques on his 5,400-acre diversified North Dakota family ranch for over 15 years. For decades the cropland had been conventionally farmed with tillage and the use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. In 1993 Gabe purchased a no-till drill and converted 100 percent of his cropland to no-till. He practices Holistic Management and employs a diverse cropping strategy on his grain and cattle operation, which includes over 25 different cash and cover crops, resulting in high yields and strong net profits. The Natural Resources Defense Council awarded one of its 2012 Growing Green Awards to Gabe.

(1 hour, 18 minutes, 49 seconds) Recorded at the 2014 Acres U.S.A. Conference, Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, December 6, 2014.