Grip-Fast Farms

Grip-Fast Farms is currently a fourth generation farm that has seen a lot of different enterprises since it was originally founded in 1883. From a mixed farm to straight grain, then all forage with custom grazing, it is now focusing on Regenerative Agriculture, a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle, and build soil health, crop resilience and nutrient density. Regenerative Agriculture improves soil health, primarily through practices that increase soil organic matter. This not only aids in increasing soil biota diversity and health, but increases biodiversity both above and below the soil surface, while increasing both water holding capacity and sequestering carbon at greater depths, thus drawing down climate changing levels of atmospheric CO2, and improving soil structure to reverse civilization-threatening human-caused soil loss. Research continues to reveal the damaging effects to soil from tillage, applications of agricultural chemicals and salt based fertilizers, and carbon mining. Regenerative Agriculture reverses this paradigm to build for the future. There are a lot of different definitions for Regenerative Ag, but one of the most all-inclusive that I have seen comes from Understanding Ag.

In particular six main principles are noted as critical to Regenerative Agriculture including:

1. Context: What factors affect your individual circumstance?
   1. Ecological - Environmental
   2. Financial – Capital
   3. Community – Family through Society
   4. Spiritual – Faith in Creation

      2. Minimum Disturbance – both tillage and chemical

3. Armour on the Soil
   1. Passive Armour – residue on the surface
   2. Active Armour – the growing plant

4. Diversity – minimize use of monocultures, mimic nature in the diversity of plants and animals

      5. Living Root – keep a green growing root in the soil to capture as much solar energy as long as possible through the use of perennials, cover crops, poly cropping

6. Animal Integration – for the system to be truly regenerative we need to incorporate livestock for maximum benefit, keeping in mind that the majority of creatures are in the soil and we need to keep that biology thriving.

We seek to glorify our Heavenly Father by practicing proper stewardship of the resources He has entrusted to us. Livestock are an important part of those resources and your purchase of our products helps us to fulfill the mission He has called us to.