Compost on a large scale: Regenerating 1000 acres: With Cory Miller and Kevin Lackey

My family and I have spent a year traveling western America visiting regenerative farms. Serendipity took us to Grass valley farm. A happy accident when the farm we were due to visit cancelled at the last minute. Grass Valley farm used to be farmed with synthetic chemicals and has managed to go fully regenerative in a year. I was blown away by Cory’s knowledge, processes and the flourishing diversity on the1000 acres ranch. So I got it all on camera, now you can learn from them too and see it for yourself.

This film is a micro documentary/ ‘how to’ for any farmer looking to transition to regenerative farming. It is also for curious minds coming to soil regeneration without prior knowledge.

Spread the word, degenerating land can become regenerating land using resources we already have. If the world’s existing agricultural land was to convert to regenerative agriculture today, increasing the soil organic matter in the soil by an average of 0.5% to 1% a year, theoretically, we could sequester all the excess carbon in the atmosphere within a year *(Stat: Kiss the ground).

Call to action:

Read: ‘Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into regenerative agriculture’ by Gabe Brown, ‘Regenerative’ by Paul Hawkins.
Watch: Kiss the ground, Living Soil, The need to grow, Farmer’s footprint, The biggest little farm.
Lecture: By Dr David Johnson. Static Pile Fungal Compost Presentation
Study online: The commune courses: ‘Kiss the ground’ with Finian Makepeace and ‘Regeneration’ with Paul Hawkins
Become an advocate: Kiss the Ground. https://kisstheground.com/
Become a soil specialist: Soil food Web https://www.soilfoodweb.com/, Soil Health Academy
Transition from chemical ag to regenerative ag: Soil food Web, Soil Health Academy

Equipment Links:
The Bio 5 Extractor: https://soilworksllc.com/
Esch 5612 No Till Drill: https://www.eschdrills.com/
Agri-Inject Inc CO Pivot Injection Pumps: https://www.agri-inject.com/
Schaffert Manufacturing: Liquid Drill Injection System: https://www.schaffert.com/
Vence: Virtual Fencing https://vence.io/

About Cory Miller: https://grassvalleyfarmsmt.com/:

I grew up in the city of Missoula with a small garden where I helped my mother grow flowers. My interest in gardening waned, as I discovered sports. In high school, I volunteered to build a garden for a group home that housed disabled adults. One of the greatest moments in my life was being invited back that fall for a dinner prepared from everything we planted. I went to college to study business and simultaneously started a commercial cleaning company. I spent a lot of my time making natural cleaning products, that I could use in the business and developed an interest in chemistry and biology. Later on, I focused my efforts into Pure Air Solutions, a mold remediation company that focused on removing mold and other microbials. As I studied molds and their affect on indoor air quality, I started to see that there were far more beneficial fungi than bad fungi and that fungi held a lot of the keys to soil health and improvement. I studied with Dr. Elaine Ingham and read Dr. David Johnson. I immersed myself in learning everything that I could about soil health and how to implement these theories. I quickly learned that there was not a lot of information or tools available to someone wanting to scale 1000 acres quickly to regenerative agriculture. I made soil health our focus, developing tools to help us effectively add biology to our soil, as often as possible. Every decision we make on the farm has to answer this question, "Does this improve the overall quality quality of our soil."  If it does we keep it, if it doesn't then we move on. 

Cory's soil sample mentor: www.soilscopelabs.com

About Kevin Lackey:

Kevin lives by the words “Become the most interesting person you have ever met.”A trained biologist and career conservation. Who packed in his land based conservation to set out to sea on a research vessel. He’s meant to have retired but he is on to his next adventure; the microbe and cattle operations manager at Grass Valley Farm. As an extra twist, Kevin is Cory’s father in law.


About Jennifer at https://www.millayandmeadowlark.com/

Millay and Meadowlark Flower Farm is a labor of love. Established in 2019, our business was conceived as a means of creating meaningful and engaging work for our son, Connor who has down syndrome. We are committed to providing Connor with opportunities to maintain and learn new life skills and for him to be a vibrant contributor and member of our community. We are also committed to the use of regenerative and sustainable growing practices on our farm. We grow without the use of harsh chemicals or pesticides. We subscribe to a "grown not flown" philosophy in that we try to locally source our inputs and keep our products local too!