Integrating Livestock, Cover Crops and Compost in Orchards

In 2021 CAFF began a 2-year on-farm research trial with Sierra Orchards in Winters, CA to better understand the soil health impacts of integrating multiple ecological farming practices in an organic walnut farm, including livestock grazing, cover cropping, compost and reduced tillage. The science of agroecology suggests that as a farm stacks the implementation of multiple ecological farming practices on the same piece of land, there are synergistic benefits that are greater than the implementation of individual practices. While this is understood throughout ecology, there are few examples of on-farm research that look at the benefits to soil health of such integration. Join us for a session that will explore both the science behind the practices and the farmer’s experience of implementation. Together we will discuss soil health trial results as well as the on-farm benefits and challenges of this integrated systems approach.