The Regenaissance Podcast

Farmer Stories is a weekly series pulling the best conversations from the Regenaissance podcast archive. 
These aren't new episodes — just the best stories from American farmers on their experience of the farming landscape, giving incredible insight into it's systems, polocies, economics, bad actors, good actors, and rural communities. 
This series aims to encourage thinking bigger picture: Americas productive capacity, middle class revival, & real food as the foundation of it all. 

Joel Hollingsworth runs Smoke River Ranch in northeast Oklahoma. This conversation talks about why Joel believes we need to keep manufcaturing in America & why Oklahoma's culture of self-governance is a cultural model the country can build around. 
Timestamps
0:00 — Why build in America, not abroad
1:30 — The federalist structure and America's creation story
4:00 — Oklahoma's culture of self-governance
6:30 — Regen ag as a churn factory
7:30 — Triffin dilemma and hollowing out of domestic production
9:00 — How crop insurance locks out new farmers
11:00 — Foreign cattle and the 30% currency gap
12:30 — Land as money, not farmland
14:00 — Farm credit weaponized (Dustin Kittle story)
15:30 — Average rancher age 58.5
17:00 — What rural collapse looks like
18:30 — Sovereign debt and centralizing risk
Links:
Full podcast episode:
- YouTube
- Spotify
- Apple
Connect with Joel:
- Smoke River Ranch Website
- X

Gunthorp Farms is a 3rd generation pork and poultry operation in northern Indiana with on-farm USDA-inspected processing. This tour covers the full farm from farrowing paddocks to kill floor, smokehouse, and wastewater treatment. Watch alongside the full podcast episode for the full story.
Key Topics
Adaptive multi-paddock grazing in practice
50-paddock farrowing system and piglet management
Building and running a USDA-inspected on-farm processing facility
USDA enforcement: how small and large plants are treated differently
Constructed wetland wastewater treatment
What You'll Learn
How paddock size and recovery time shift by season
What to ask when you visit a pig farm
What it costs to build on-farm processing and where permitting breaks down
How HACCP regulation actually gives small plants flexibility if you understand it
Why scale changes food safety risk in ways inspection policy doesn't reflect

Connect w Greg & Gunthorp Farms
Website
X
Instagram
Linkedin
Full podcast interview
Follow the tour on YouTube
Timestamps
00:00:00 Adaptive multi-paddock grazing explained
 00:03:00 Pig health, thermoregulation, and antibiotic-free management
 00:05:00 What consumers should ask when visiting a pig farm
 00:15:00 Energy-free waterers and farrowing paddock design
 00:27:00 Kill floor overview and processing plant history
 00:36:00 Permitting, wastewater, and navigating USDA regulation
 00:45:00 Food safety: small vs large plant accountability
 00:51:00 USDA enforcement disparities and advocacy
 01:02:00 Packaging equipment walkthrough
 01:13:00 Smokehouse construction and constructed wetland wastewater system

Charles and Heather Maude are 5th generation ranchers in South Dakota running a direct-to-consumer beef and pork operation built on land their family has worked for over 115 years.
This tour covers the full operation - cattle, hogs, grain storage, equipment, and the irrigated river bottom at the center of a federal land dispute that drew national attention.
Watch this alongside the full-length podcast episode for the complete story behind what you're seeing on the ground.

Key Topics
Direct-to-consumer beef and pork - how it actually works
Cattle finishing and feeder calf production
Farrowing crates - the honest case for and against
Why feed quality determines meat quality in hogs
Grain storage, forage systems, and matching stocking rate to grass
The disputed river bottom and the federal land dispute

What You'll Learn
How a small ranch runs multiple livestock enterprises on limited acres
Why weaning date is a range management decision, not just an animal one
What farrowing crates are actually for and why a skeptic changed her mind
How monogastric and ruminant digestion produce fundamentally different meat
What 115 years of private land management looks like - and what happens when it's challenged
Why boundary disputes in the rural West are common, and criminal indictments are not

Connect with Charles & Heather
Website
Instagram
Facebook

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Introduction and context 
00:02:00 — Cattle paddock: finished beef and this year's steer calves 
00:04:00 — Weaning early — a drought and range management decision 
00:06:00 — Grain bins: what they store and how they work 
00:08:00 — Farrowing facility: why the crates exist 
00:13:00 — Hog nutrition: simple stomach vs. ruminant digestion 
00:15:00 — Pasture-raised pork: why quality and finish time differ 
00:18:00 — Legacy equipment: grandfather's tractors and the 1948 truck 
00:24:00 — The fence line: terrain, flooding, and where fences actually go 
00:25:00 — The Forest Service dispute begins 
00:27:00 — No written violation, no due process, criminal charges 
00:28:00 — Working toward resolution: the Small Tracks Act 
00:30:00 — Secretary Rollins, the temporary use agreement, and what changed 
00:33:00 — The survey stakes, the crop damage, and the escalation 
00:37:00 — What the land trade proposal was and why it was rejected 
00:39:00 — What this case means for ranchers and private landowners 
00:41:00 — Final reflections

Joel Hollingsowrth has spent years doing something most people wouldn't dare try - building a regenerative cattle ranch from scratch, with no money, no inherited land, and no roadmap. And yet, it has become one of the pioneering regenerative farms in the nation. 
Joel is joined by David, who left an Ivy League PhD program to ranch in rural Mexico before landing here, and Daniel, the herd manager responsible for translating Joel's system into daily practice. 
Together they walk us through mob grazing at extreme stocking densities, a heritage genetics breeding program built for a world without antibiotics, virtual fencing technology, and a community ownership model designed to solve the financing problem that stops most regenerative farmers before they start.
This is a conversation about what it really takes (the stubbornness, the financial creativity, the ecological thinking, and the human community) to build something lasting and that works.
KEY TOPICS
Ultra-high-density mob grazing and how it mimics bison impact to restore soil and seed banks
Heritage breed genetics (Piney Woods, composite bulls) and building "zombie apocalypse" cattle
Virtual fencing technology and its potential to transform daily ranch labour
The herd share financial model and how community capital makes regenerative ranching viable
Reviving rural community through food sovereignty, nutrient density, and local economic energy
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
Why stocking density, not just rotation, is the key lever in regenerative grazing
How cows' hooves act as seed planters and why "weeds" like thistles are actually healing the soil
What rumen fill and manure consistency tell a herd manager about animal health and forage quality
Why cattle genetics matter as much as grazing method, and what "adapting to the system" looks like
How Joel financed his ranch with no money down, and why the herd share model is a blueprint others could follow
CONNECT WITH JOEL
Smoke River Ranch Website
X
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Oklahoma: Joel, David & the Smoke River story
08:00 – What's broken in rural America and what Smoke River is rebuilding
12:00 – Fresh Rx Oklahoma: food as medicine and local supply chains
15:00 – How Joel got started: a $1/year lease, no capital, and a Twitter DM
19:00 – Virtual fencing: digital paddocks and 60 hours of saved labour per week
21:00 – Heritage breeds: Piney Woods cows, composite bulls, and the genetics program
25:00 – Mob grazing explained: why five moves a day and what stocking density actually means
31:00 – Herd management with Daniel: rumen fill, manure scoring, and daily cattle metrics
36:00 – Sick cow protocols and building a self-selecting genetics program
45:00 – Weeds as healers: thistles, pioneer species, and soil succession

Fascinating episode, touring a regenerative bison and pecan farm! A first for me. 
A bit about the ranch & tour...
TLC ranch is located in Souther Oklahoma. It's ran by Cindy Sheffield (who tours us today) and her husband Tread and their two daughters and husbands, where they raise bison and manage a large organic pecan orchard. The ranch began in 1997 when the family purchased land that many others had passed on, seeing potential where others did not.
What started as weekend trips for hunting and time outdoors gradually turned into a long-term commitment to steward the land. Over the years the family developed ponds, trails, and eventually planted thousands of pecan trees, which are now grown using organic and regenerative practices.
More recently they fulfilled a long-standing goal of bringing bison back to the property. Today the ranch combines pecan production with bison grazing, reflecting the family’s focus on building a working farm that supports both the land and the people who depend on it.

What we cover:
Starting a bison ranch after decades of owning land
Managing parasites and animal health on pasture
Rotational grazing and integrating chickens behind bison
The economics and risks of pecan farming
Floods, disease, and the unpredictable realities of agriculture

Connect with the farm:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Regenaissance Youtube Channel
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Regulations and differences between bison and cattle
00:02:20 How TLC Ranch began and why the family chose bison
00:03:40 Flooding, parasites, and losing animals in the herd
00:05:00 Transitioning to rotational grazing for parasite control
00:06:30 Plans to integrate meat chickens behind the bison
00:08:00 How bison grazing behavior differs from cattle
00:12:50 Handling bison and working animals through the chute system
00:17:00 Field harvesting a bison and the reality of on-farm slaughter
00:19:30 The challenge of finding truly clean food and produce
00:24:00 Managing a pecan orchard and harvesting the crop
00:27:00 Weather risks, floods, and the economics of farming
00:29:00 Why consumers need to understand the realities farmers face