Gabe Brown

Gabe Brown is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on the regeneration of our resources.

Gabe, along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, own and operate Brown’s Ranch, a diversified 5,000 acre farm and ranch. The ranch consists of several thousand acres of native perennial rangeland along with perennial pastureland and cropland. Their ranch focuses on farming and ranching in nature’s image.

The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping systems, which include a wide variety of cash crops, multi-species cover crops along with all natural grass finished beef and lamb. They also raise pastured laying hens, broilers and swine. This diversity and integration has regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, 

Today, Brown has a highly successful 5000 acre ranch with crop yields 20-25 percent higher than the average yields in his county. His soil organic matter increased from 1.9 in 1991 to 6.1% and that has increased its water-infiltration rates tremendously. He was seeing rates of 1/2 inch per hour in 1991. Today it is 8 inches per hour. He also has done in-depth testing of his soil’s carbon-retention rates. His soils have 96 tons of carbon per acre in the top 48 inches. 10 to 30 tons of stored carbon is what is typical on conventionally farmed soils in the same region.

Location: Bismarck, North Dakota, USA

Books: Dirt to Soil – One Family’s Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture.

Website: 1) https://understandingag.com/ 2) http://brownsranch.us

Video 1: Keys to Building Soil

Video 2: Regenerative Agriculture