Regenerative Agriculture Field Day at Swanton Pacific Ranch

Gordon Claasen homesteaded on the central coast of California and grew up on the family ranch near Paso Robles. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a Veterinary Specialist, after completing his B.S. at Cal Poly SLO. At Cal Poly he worked for the CP Animal Science Dept. in their beef operations and was student manager of the CP feedlot. This diverse background gave him the foundation to manage 8 different ranch operations in California over his career. For the past 14 years, he served as the Livestock Manager of Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch in the Davenport area of coastal California. A significant part of his role was instructing students in Swanton’s Stocker Enterprise as well as its cow/calf operation and grass-fed beef program. His greatest pleasure was helping students and others to develop knowledge of land and livestock in keeping with holistic management principles (learning to make complex, informed decisions consistent with the environment under their care). Early in his career, he began to see a noticeable inadequacy in ordinary management practices, and the level of productivity seemed to stall out. Attending a Holistic Resource Management in-practice course taught by Allan Savory re-directed his thinking about land and livestock management and altered the course of his career. Instead of relying on informed assumptions or conventional practices, he learned how to watch what was happening on the land, monitoring for changes, and adjusting as needed. From this, he developed a new humility and has become a better practitioner and student of the land.

Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director Ecdysis Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004, and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years. Lundgren received the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering by the White House. Lundgren has served as an advisor for national grant panels and regulatory agencies on pesticide and GM crop risk assessments. Lundgren has written 126 peer-reviewed journal articles, several book chapters, authored the book “Relationships of Natural Enemies and Non-prey Foods”, and has received more than $6 million in grants. He has trained 5 post-docs and 14 graduate students from around the world. One of his priorities is to make science applicable to end-users, and he regularly interacts with the public and farmers regarding pest and farm management and insect biology. His ecological research focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agroecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland.

Loren Poncia of Stemple Creek Ranch is a 4th generation Marin County organic rancher who has redefined small-scale family ranching. Loren started Stemple Creek Ranch with the dream of raising quality, grass-finished beef and lamb to work with, not against, mother nature. His ranch had the first carbon farm plan in the U.S. and Loren is proud to be part of the Marin Carbon Project. A graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, with a major in Dairy Science and Ag Business, Loren always dreamed of coming back to the family ranch to pursue his passion in agriculture. He oversees the entire ranching operation and spends countless hours carefully studying genetics with the goal of raising grass-fed and finished beef that is tender, well-marbled, and tastes great. Stemple Creek Ranch sells its products to grocery stores, butcher shops, restaurants, and directly to consumers.