The Ashfount blog
Practical writing on regenerative agriculture, the US local food scene and farm to table: soil, grazing, markets, policy and the people doing the work.
Drift is the most common harm a regenerative farm never bought. What the organic buffer rule actually requires, how to talk with neighbors before spring, how to document damage, how a state complaint works, and where dicamba stands after the 2024 court ruling.
Landsat, Sentinel-2 and MODIS photograph every US farm for free, and USDA, NASA and university teams turn those pictures into crop maps, soil moisture and pasture production. Here is what NDVI means, what a pixel covers, and how a small farm uses it.
Carbon contracts promise a new income line for cover crops and no-till. Here is what the offers really pay per acre and per ton, what the additionality, permanence and data clauses mean, who owns the credit, and where USDA's program stood in November 2024.
Halves and quarters, cuts and bundles: what the custom exemption allows, why hanging and take-home weights differ, how to price and take deposits, how to walk customers through the cut sheet and the freezer, and when inspection lets you sell by the cut.
Chefs say the same things in every extension survey: consistent quality, a reliable weekly list and deliveries that show up. Here is how a small farm meets those three, prices fairly, invoices properly and stays on the menu through a slow winter.
Biochar helps most on sandy, acidic, low-organic-matter ground and does little on fertile temperate loams. What the meta-analyses show, how NRCS practice 336 treats it, rates per acre, charging it with compost, the fall window and what it costs.
A dollar a head on cattle, 35 cents per hundred dollars of hogs, 15 cents a hundredweight of milk. Here is where checkoff money goes, why grass-fed and independent producers object, and what the OFF Act would change.
Sole proprietorship, LLC or cooperative: what each structure does for liability, taxes, succession and lenders, when a small farm should change, the paperwork that must stay current, and the beneficial ownership report due January 1, 2025.
A practical guide to farm solar in 2024: sizing a system to your loads, what the REAP grant and tax credit cover, why net metering depends on your state, questions before leasing land to a developer, and what grazing under panels looks like.
USDA's July 31 discrimination payments and a new land values report frame an old question: who gets to farm? The history of USDA lending, why land access is uneven, the programs that open a door, and what a settled farm can do locally.
Connectivity now decides how a farm sells, keeps records and runs its sensors. Here is how the $42.45 billion BEAD program and USDA ReConnect work, where the state plans stood in July 2024, and what a farm can do in the meantime.
Whole-Farm Revenue Protection and its smaller cousin Micro Farm insure a diversified farm's revenue under one policy. What they cover, the tax records they need, how the subsidy works, the sales closing dates, and when FSA's NAP is the better fit.
