Two Paths Forward in Agriculture

Two Paths Forward in Agriculture

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Zack Smith, farmer and founder of StockCropper believes agriculture is headed in two directions. Producers are either focusing on maximizing production or taking the value-added, smaller acreage route, which he says requires a more dedicated approach.

Smith… “You know we want to make a closed-loop system where, basically, you know, we’re producing our own fertility with the animals; we’re producing our own feedstuff; we can have our own mill on the farm. So you look at the system now, I grow corn, it goes to an ethanol plant. Okay, they make ethanol, they make DDGs. The DDGs get trucked to a feedlot, you know, they feed it through a cow, and you’re just moving stuff all over the place. And so, when we talk about like low carbon footprint farming systems, everyone’s trying to lash on to these silly trinkets, like carbon solutions in a jug. Like, we have to find systems that are truly meaningful in actually reducing carbon footprint.

Stock Cropper, is taking this approachto a new level, combining livestock and crop production so that multiple species can be produced together.

Ag Innovators Clip 2B: You know, we’re basically using the sun to move a machine across that is allowing animals to do the work that replacing all of these carbon-intense applications and using epigenetics and the expression of plants in different arrangements to create a heck of a lot of value that most people in this ag space don’t think about on a daily basis.

That’s Zack Smith of Stock Cropper.

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