Final Reflections
November 2024

For me, the end of each season in agriculture tastes bittersweet, this one more so than others. Each day for the last few months, when I pull up my calendar to assess the myriad of tasks to accomplish — where we will move the cattle, and what whirlwind of frenzied activity I will be partaking in — I see the weeks of this apprenticeship winding down. And everyday, I find myself wondering where the time has gone and part of me believes that these eight months won’t actually end. It seems like I just got to Redwing Ranch, the snowy days of March mirroring the first snow of Autumn sloshing under the tires of the side by side as I check the cows. The steers have been replaced by cow-calf pairs, the irrigation ditches alternate between periods of muddy sludge and bone dry dirt, and the apple trees I pruned as one of my first tasks on the ranch are beginning to slow in their production of crisp, sweet fruit. Everything on the ranch has aged, morphed, and matured. The grass in the pasture has gradually turned to a light, honey brown that crunches underneath the cow’s hooves. The sandhill cranes that flew over during spring migration have passed by again, this time to their fall destination.

I came into this apprenticeship excited about the next eight months but unsure of the future. To me, the apprenticeship was the next step on my way into a hazy, undefined, and unrealistic daydream of my life in ag. Though I desperately loved working with the land and livestock, it was hard to see a way forward through the narratives of rising land prices, the harsh realities of rural ranching life, and the general pessimism I’d been inundated with about the plight of agriculturalists. As I leave Redwing, I leave unsure of the future, yes, but brimming with a wary optimism. 

This still delicate yet rapidly germinating optimism has shocked me more than anything else during this apprenticeship. I expected tedious yet rewarding days, the almost relentless stream of new skills and knowledge, the joy of new connections, and the harsh sting of my mistakes. Yet, I did not expect the people and the paradigms they would overturn. Each day, no matter how difficult the work or what curveballs were thrown our way, I went to bed exhausted but inspired. At Redwing, I had the unique opportunity to immerse myself in the work of beginning a profitable livestock operation. I learned and grew along with the ranch and I truly began to understand what it takes to start and keep a ranch going. My mentors included me in all aspects of the operation. I sat in on meetings about our PRF coverage, the cost per day of salt and mineral consumption, and grazing planning as Redwing decided on stocking density for the coming season. 

The longer I have been in ag, the more I’ve learned that people are really what make or break an experience. And the team of people make Redwing what it is. My mentor, Fiona, is passionate about profitability, about access, and about getting more people into agriculture and ranching. Her fiery commitment and no-nonsense attitude made the future seem possible as she preached daily on the opportunity present in custom grazing, the resources available for beginning agrarians, and the reasons why people could make it work (not the obstacles in their way). I am leaving Redwing now knowing that I will always have someone in my corner pushing me hard (sometimes to the point of discomfort) to be my best self, to continue to step outside my comfort zone, and to challenge me at every step. One of my most memorable moments came when, worrying about the job search and sending my resume out to nearly any ranch hiring, Fiona told me flat out that she would only be a reference for me if the next job was worth it  — something to challenge me and allow me to grow. She forced me to step into the discomfort of waiting for a productive, valuable fit that would help me reach my goals instead of rushing into a job for security’s sake.

Erin taught me patiently how to operate the skid steer, the backhoe, and how to perfect my chainsaw operation. Her communication skills and grace at my questions and my mistakes taught me more than anything how I hope to lead and inspire in the future. Christy’s non-traditional path to ranching and her conservation goals matched my ideals. The time spent for pasture monitoring, photo points, and other ecological assessments set a superb example for the duality of running a livestock operation while restoring and conserving the land. 

I am excited to start a new chapter in California at Paicines Ranch. Working at Redwing helped highlight my love for working with multiple classes of livestock and I am thrilled to work with not only cattle but also poultry, pigs, and sheep again on a larger scale. More than anything though, with a clearer vision of my goals, I hope to continue to develop my skills and better myself while building connections in the regenerative ag world. My time as a NAP apprentice pushed me to be a lifelong learner. Both in the workplace and outside of it, I will continue to learn about profitability, stockmanship, and land management. 

A lesson that I continue to learn year after year, season after season, is that working in ag is a marathon, not a sprint. There will always be more to do, more to learn, and more to experience. Finding the balance of pushing myself while conserving my energy was a struggle over the course of the apprenticeship but a valuable reminder that our ranches and farms can only function as well as we do. 

Though my eight months at Redwing have been a whirlwind, when I sit down to reflect, I am shocked by how much I have learned. I started the season overwhelmed and flustered by the idea of managing all the irrigation ditches, unsure how I could even find my way around the ranch. Now in November, although the water is off, I know the problem spots on each ditch, how to navigate the complicated dynamics of our ditch members, and how to get the best utilization in each field. I know each pasture, when the steers grazed and the capacity of the grass for next season. I have used more heavy machinery than I ever thought I would. And although I am leaving Redwing, I know I have formed a community that will last a lifetime. The neighbors didn’t have to welcome me, a temporary transplant and inexperienced outsider. Yet, I helped with brandings, cattle moves, attended musical gatherings, and rodeos. 

This community that made my apprenticeship so incredibly rewarding also makes it so difficult to leave. In a way, I only got a taste of this place. Eight months could never be enough to understand the dynamics of the land, the livestock, or the people. I know that the understanding and knowledge I have gained at Redwing will carry over to my next adventure, and I will forever be grateful for my time spent during the NAP apprenticeship.

How did you get interested in agriculture? And what are you hoping to gain from your apprenticeship?
May 2024

If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my seasons in agriculture it is that absolutely nothing goes as planned. The truck clings to the deepest mud, the cows wander out for a jaunt, every irrigation tarp blows, and all hell breaks loose. That’s also how I got my start in agriculture – things in my life not going to plan. I woke up every day with a life in mind planned out to perfection. And then, all hell broke loose, bringing me here, where the plan has imploded in the most spectacular, beautiful way.

Growing up in the sprawling suburbs of Overland Park, Kansas, agriculture was never in the cards despite my love for animals. I only found agriculture by following my first, constant life passion. Birds. The discovery of the ecology and wonder of the avian world surrounding me propelled me into the natural world. Of course, it is almost impossible to be a birder without being a conservationist. Everywhere I looked, the birds I loved were vanishing, often due to habitat loss, climate change, and other human caused activities. 

I immersed myself in the world of avian research with the idea of dedicating myself to the world of conservation as a professor. I worked for five summer field seasons as an avian field technician. I tracked grassland bird movements across the prairies of Eastern Kansas, measured methylmercury accumulation in sparrows in North Dakota, and attached radio transmitters to Red-headed Woodpeckers in the forests of Michigan. At Kansas State University I studied Conservation Biology. I continued birding every second of my free time, while working alternately in two avian biology labs.

My field season on Konza Prairie changed everything. Konza Prairie operates as an experimental field station broken up into different management regimes. Some plots are burned multiple times a year, others every few years. Some are ungrazed, some grazed by cattle, and some grazed by bison. Though my task was to study the nesting success and movement patterns of grassland birds, I became enchanted not only with the avian life but with the land itself. The impact and variability of each management regime blew me away. From that summer, I was hooked. Regenerative grazing had not yet entered my vocabulary yet I was seeing it every day on the land and witnessing the success in the birds I studied. 

The realization that there was much more to life than my plan shook me off this course. I decided that I couldn’t just stick with this preordained idea when whole worlds of possibility existed. I left K-State after two years, wandering a meandering path and eventually dedicating myself to exploring the world of regenerative agriculture. To me, regenerative agriculture provides us with a true path for change. A way to rebuild the ecosystem, environment, and world using our own two hands and nature’s blueprints. We can promote biodiversity, habitat restoration, and ecological health while feeding people healthy, nutritious foods and building resilient communities.

Since my field season at Konza, I have tried to gain as much experience as possible within the world of regenerative agriculture. I volunteered on an alpaca farm in Central Kansas. I worked in Basalt, Colorado as a livestock apprentice for Rock Bottom Ranch, caring for sheep, goats, cattle, broilers, layers, and turkeys in a regenerative system. I forayed into vegetable farming in Arkansas, assisting on a small homestead in the Ozarks. 

Throughout this apprenticeship, I am eager to gain experience working with regenerative grazing on a larger scale. I am excited to see the positive environmental impacts on a landscape level and witness the improving biological metrics at Redwing Ranch. I hope to learn the ins and outs of ranching – not only the everyday difficult tasks but the logistical challenges people must deal with to become proficient, profitable ranchers. I hope to truly understand what it means to work with the land in a sustainable model both environmentally, economically, and socially. I am excited to get my hands dirty, solidifying my skills such as livestock handling, irrigation, and infrastructure maintenance while immersing myself in the big picture through pasture monitoring, ecological assessment, and long term sustainability. 

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