Local farmer commended for eco-conscious, 'regenerative' methods

"Just by managing our land better, in such a way where we are mimicking nature, we have improved water capacity in our pastures, we have improved growth rates in our pastures."

Marc Albert/KRCB
Farmer Sarah Silva comforts a lost lamb at Green Star Farm.

Local farmer Sarah Silva has been named 2024 Climate Smart Farmer of the Year by the organization Community Alliance with Family Farmers

KRCB news recently visited Green Star Farm, which Silva operates near Sebastopol to learn about regenerative agriculture and how she is using it to heal the land, sequester carbon, boost yields and sometimes, get some cash too.

Pastoral, and idyllic are the right words, but can't paint an accurate picture. Bleating goats echo across an emerald carpet of thick grass rising from lazy hillocks.

A minute stream rambles through a tiny valley, a few oaks on the banks, standing sentinel.

"It's a cool acknowledgement," Silva commented about the award.

"It's a lot of work and to have, just anyone recognize it it's like, yeah. It's a labor of love, this is not something you make, make money at all on. I do it because I love it, I do it because know there's a system that is better than what we've got right now. Now we just have to figure out how to make it more mainstream. The more and more of us that there are, the more it will happen," Silva said.

Green Star Farm raises goats, sheep, pigs and chickens. What sets it apart is very evident, especially if you've ever seen a feed-lot.

"In these 52-acres, you'll see how the majority of it is actually empty of animals. It's just grass growing. That gives the land a chance to grow grass, but by moving the animals what you're doing is you're what would happen in nature," Silva said.

There's also something you won't see. Cows. It's their weight, and behavior and the topography here that exclude them. Cattle tend to move little, and weighing 20 times what a goat does, can quickly turn a grassy slope into a muddy morass. Without much in the way of flat areas, bovines are out.

"I don't know how you could manage these steep areas with cows, without causing damage to the environment," Silva added.

Silva, from a Portuguese-American agricultural family, said she shifted gears in 2011, returning to the land after earning a physics degree and landing an educational job at NASA. Being in an office, she says, just doesn't appeal.

Instead, she's running a commercial farming operation, digging in on both alternative techniques and technology, focusing on enriching the land itself.

"Regenerative agriculture, you can only borrow from the bank so many times, until the bank just runs, it doesn't want to loan out more money, and regenerative agriculture the goal is to not always be borrowing from the bank, it's giving back and having some sort of interest that actually is getting put back into your soil every single year," Silva added.

The results, she said are undeniable. "Just by managing our land better, in such a way where we are mimicking nature, we have improved water capacity in our pastures, we have improved growth rates in our pastures. We have improved growth rates on the sheep, the goats, the chickens. It does take labor, and that's really where the big costs are," Silva said.

To control those costs, Silva has turned to technology...automatic, solar powered, self moving chicken coops. They feed, water and protect the birds, while moving them slowly about the pasture. The birds get new places to forage and their manure is evenly distributed. They even have temperature controlled windows. "They will roll up if it gets too hot in here, they will roll down, Silva said, offering a mini tour.

"The feeders here are automated in an auger system, it's all solar controlled and battery operated, this is the feed storage, these little boxes here, and in the corner you see the water containers, it's even distributed so there's four of them, they have automatic water, and the broilers will just live in here and will move along the pasture. It will move them as often as I want them, essentially one full move a day, about 30 feet, and then they'll always have that green grass growing, drop their manure, they won't have to sit in it for very long, if at all and they also have access to the bugs and the grubs and the grass," Silva said.

Regenerative ag is a philosophy that eschews inputs like commercial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. And involves regularly rotating animals---preventing erosion, and spreading manure evenly. Silva provides a thumbnail summary.

"Don't overuse your land, don't over-graze your land, you don't want bare soils, and you want to focus on the health of the soil, because if you focus on the health of the soil, everything else falls into place. Your grasses are healthier, your environment's healthier, your animals are healthier."

All the while, all the roots of all that grass is busy storing carbon underground.