Final Reflections
November 2024

The theme of this season without a doubt was “time flies when you’re having fun.” I think about how this time a year ago I was absolutely miserable working on a sod farm in northern Colorado and truly getting through it by listening to “Regeneration Rising” and other regenerative podcasts. I learned in November that year I was being laid off for the season and literally counted down the days until I finished.I knew I was going to apply for NAP when applications opened late fall and my last day couldn’t come fast enough. Shortly after submitting my application, I went through two interviews with Collins Ranch, was accepted at the beginning of January, and a few months later in April I showed up to the ranch in Kit Carson, Colorado. 

We brought back the last of the herds my first week and as we made our way through the season, time felt like it was moving faster and faster. Now all of a sudden, we’re weaning and shipping cattle off the ranch and I have 3 days of work left as of writing this. Before coming here I had a quick worry about the program not living up to my expectations, but I can solidly say I think this has been the best career choice I’ve made so far. Aside from living out a lifestyle I’ve wanted since I was a kid, I have learned so much from learning to work cattle on horseback to running numbers with tools like gross margins and pro formas. I was also surprised with being responsible for a small sheep flock which was a great opportunity for me to get experience caring for them as well as my mentors, Toby and Amy, to see what a multi-species operation would look like. There was also a reward at the end by feeding a few of the ram lambs out for slaughter. 

Our busy times were in the spring with calving, a few busy weeks in early/mid summer with brandings, pre-conditioning in early fall, and wrapping things up now. In the downtime I spent a lot of time working all over the ranch and rotating our herds every 5-7 days to fresh pasture. When Toby and I were driving together we would often have conversations about a wide range of topics including cattle genetics, markets and economics, and grazing in the semi-arid climate of eastern Colorado. I did a lot of research into regenerative practices and grazing during the winter and it was really eye-opening to be able to compare what I had learned to the challenges of grazing in this environment. It gave me a much more practical and realistic approach along with teaching me that everyone’s context is different. 

That being said, it was great to talk about all these different practices with people who are doing or have done it to see what their perspective was. I had the opportunity to visit a couple other ranches; Red Wing Ranch in Gardner, CO and Rafter W Ranch in Simla, CO and learn about their operations. Networking and connections like these are what I think really makes NAP unique. Anytime I had an idea of where I wanted to go next or operations that I was interested in, I could ask the Colorado coordinators, Taylor and Holly, or Julie, the founding mentor, and they would have a list of people they could get me in contact with.  

For my next step, I was hired at a land management company called Goat Bros to help take care of their herds of 350+ goats grazing on public and private land in northern Colorado. I will also be helping a cow-calf producer in Platteville, CO during my downtime at Goat Bros. When I first began my career in regenerative ag, I had ambitions to start my own direct market, multi-species ranch. If all goes well I hope to start a sheep flock and broiler chicken enterprise; maybe even a couple cows to finish next year and if that goes well, keep growing and eventually make it to being a full-time owner/operator. I’ve filled my freezer with meat I’ve hunted and butchered myself which is a great feeling, but to raise something that will eventually end up on your family’s plate who’s entire or majority of life you’ve experienced first-hand is something different entirely.  

Finishing those lambs really proved to me that this is the work and life I need and I hope to be able to provide these kinds of experiences for other people. Something that gives me hope for this industry is more people wanting to learn about their food and where it came from. More of these consumers are looking for local producers instead of going to the grocery store and if they like it enough, they might get involved themselves. I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point of getting rid of big ag, but we can sure have options with a lot of folks trying to provide humanely-raised food trying to fix some of the damage we’ve done to our soils. I hope NAP and other programs like it continue to give the opportunities for one of those consumers or anyone to become a part of this regenerative movement.

As much fun as this season has been, I’m ready to be home with my fiancée and our 3 dogs, 1 cat, chickens and ducks. I dropped off from reading after calving but I’m looking forward to getting back into it this winter along with getting a little R&R. Next week we have the Regenerate conference in Denver, CO and that following week I start my next step in ag. As uncertain as the future seems sometimes, I know that where I go in my career and personal life is right for me. I spent a number of years during and after college not knowing what I was going to do or where I would end up and knowing that now, feels pretty good. I am forever grateful to everyone I met through NAP, my mentors Toby and Amy Johnson, and my fiancée Kelsey who continues to support me in all my foolishness.

What contributes to a meaningful life and how do you hope this apprenticeship will help you explore that?
May 2024

I think to make a meaningful life, you need to find what interests you and use it to become a provider for someone. Whether that’s in your family, as a business, being a source of information or support for whomever, there’s a ton of different ways to do it. While I was in college I was becoming more interested in the quality of foods and decided I wanted to raise my family on nutritious, local foods or food that I raised myself. This grew as I began learning more about soil health and how that affects everything on top of it and I realized I wanted to provide for other people as well. On top of that, I wanted to provide the livestock I raised with a healthy, good. 

What I think is unique about this apprenticeship is it gives you the ability to learn all the basic skills of raising livestock (mainly cattle depending on the operation) but from a different perspective than a normal employee. When I learn something, I can talk to my mentor about how it impacts everything; the business, the land, the animals, and the well-being of the workers. We are also very good at talking about translating all of this to my idea of how I want to operate my farm and the impacts they could have.

What I hope to gain from this apprenticeship aside from all those basic skills, is how I can become a provider for land which will continue all the way to my family and my community. I am currently in my third week of this program and so far, I’m feeling like this is right on the path to where I want to go.

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