Goal-Oriented Farming

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

Does your farm have a north star? Something to aim for. It’s an interesting concept to think about. Jade Koyle of Grand Teton Ancient Grains says he believes farmers should first start with a broader aim for their operation. Once he got his in place, he focused on testing methods, learning from setbacks and finding the practices that best help him reach that goal.

Koyle… “ That's our aim as a farm. How do we make nutrient-dense and delicious foods? And it's funny, when you set something as your aim, the methods begin to appear, but they also start to change. And they're not really the obstacle. They're the opportunity to say, ‘Okay—well, we know we need to build fertility. We know we need to bring diversity in here. How are we going to do that? We're going to try these specific plants together. We're going to try this specific sequence, and we're going to try to pull this off with as little as tillage as possible, or no tillage, and we're going to try to pull it off with as much diversity as possible to help support that.’ And yes, we've had train wrecks. I just have a lot of pride in those train wrecks though, because I look at it and say, ‘We're learning something.’ It's an adventure in many ways. Because the methods that we use are to be discovered in some cases. And others, you don't know what you might learn from a book, from a conversation with somebody, and ideas that we get talking with other farmers and working together and collaborating with researchers, with farmers, and just sometimes thoughts come to you—talking to a customer even. It can come and take action on that. And the methods begin to appear with that being our aim.”

Learn more about Koyle’s operation at ancientgrains.com.