Episode 23 - 19: From Picking Rocks to Marketing Local Grains with Daniel Austin of Green Sprig Ag

4 The Soil: A Conversation

What are the resource concerns and aspirations for your farm and land? Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt catch up by phone with farmer, entrepreneur, and soil health champion Daniel Austin of Little Red Hen Farm and Green Sprig Ag. Daniel is a fifth-generation farmer in Franklin County and shares the history of how his interest and passion for soil health started with a loathe of picking up rocks and erosion. In a nutshell, he and his family grow, process, and package local grains (wheat, spelt, buckwheat, and open-pollinated corn) for as direct farm-to-table sales to families, bakers, millers, and brewers as possible. Additional enterprises of Little Red Hen Farm and Green Sprig Ag include a flock of sheep to graze on the rolling hills and the selling of cover crop seeds for food, feed, and conservation. Green Sprig Ag tailors cover crop sales to address farmers' and growers' resource concerns and priorities. For many people, the primary resource concern is the prevention and elimination of erosion. Daniel gives guidance on how he would walk through ways to address erosion concerns with a producer and landowner and how people can then possibly supply nitrogen, add the proper amount of organic matter, and prevent compaction with a cover crop mixture.
Green Sprig Ag is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.in Franklin County, Virginia To learn a bit more about Little Red Hen Farm's and Green Sprig Ag's investment in soil health practices, please watch this video produced by the Common Grain Alliance at https://www.commongrainalliance.org/videos
Learn more about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and pledge your support for soil health at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ and https://4thesoil/take-the-pledge