Guest blog by Cally Hale, Program Manager of the Cultivating Farmers and Ranchers that Thrive (CFRT) Program for the Valley Food Partnership and HMI Educator Trainee. Cally led the training for the Biological Monitoring Day near Montrose, Colorado. HMI is collaborating with the Valley Food Partnership on this beginning farmer and rancher program funded by the USDA/NIFA.
Participants for our July 13th program included 13 participants, plus three little girls and our videographer. The group gathered at my house, which is located on my family's multi-generational ranch. We set up tents and tables in the shade of a 200-year-old cottonwood tree to go through our Biological Monitoring workbook that Certified Educator Cindy Dvergsten developed from when she was working with the Dine as it has great pictures and examples.
The participants, including the kids, really enjoyed the diversity walk and they got very into the monitoring transects. CFRT supplied them all with kits for the day including a soil knife, clippers, a waterproof notepad and pen, and a soil gauge that recorded temp and PH. They also all got a copy of At Home with Holistic Management.
The students very much enjoyed being outside, and I got several comments about how much they enjoyed the hands-on class. Because my home was just built this year the site is recovering from construction and offered a lot of opportunities to see different soil situations. These ranged from compacted bare soil all the way to highly productive dark loam. The participants were able to see rangeland, where one group found evidence of a fox and other small predators, mixed hay fields both cut and grazed, garden space, and recently seeded tilled earth.
We finished off the day by traveling from my farm to the West Farm, a site my family is managing. The site had not been managed or farmed for 30 years and my family is bringing it back to life. The participants saw the farm 2 months ago when it was mostly adobe mud and weeds. I am happy to say that on Saturday we were cutting a full crop of mixed oats off of it and it was beautifully green. The participants were amazed and inspired by the change and many of them said getting to come back and seeing the change was their gemstone of the day.
Cultivating Farmers and Ranchers that Thrive is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, Award # 2021-70033-35702.