Years ago, I was running an equine training facility. I had a landlord who took care of the grounds and the house that I lived in on the property. There was a rampant stand of sandspurs and other weeds that regularly took over any grass that attempted to grow. It was normal to see him spraying any and all parts of the property with 2-4D. This property was also nestled between a tobacco farmer and row crop farmer.
It was also a normal occurrence to see the clouds of chemicals being sprayed and wafting overhead as the spray never stayed on their property.
One day I went to get off the couch and I passed out. This happened multiple times. Long story short, it was discovered that the agricultural herbicide & pesticide, the 2-4D, and the landlord having my house sprayed inside & outside for pests the chemical overload was more than my body could handle. The chemicals hit my endocrine system and stressed my heart enough to make my blood pressure drop instead of rise when standing up.
At this time, I had launched my feed company, Aterak Nutrition, which at the time only specialized in equine feeds. Within a year after this encounter I was introduced to a farm owner who specialized in cattle. She asked for my help with a pregnant cow who had the vet's scratching their heads. Between her excellent care and some unconventional thinking, we saved the cow and her baby. In exchange for my help, she introduced me to her journey in soil health and how she had been applying it and succeeding on her family farm. She had my attention at using what nature provided to eliminate needing chemicals and poison to maintain a farm.
This was the serious start to my journey.
She was clear that she had no idea what species would work or how to apply this concept practically with horses. I bought some of her seed blends meant for her farm and planted it in the dead of winter with no expectation of success. It came up like it was on steroids. I was hooked.
In addition to providing nutrition and feed for horses, I started researching species, regenerative agriculture, soil health, and the biology effects of these practices. No one at the time could give me much feedback on equine pastures because they didn't have anyone trying to use these principles for horse pastures. I began making my own equine pasture blends and started with just my farm.
Horses can be very finicky, and no one wanted to be responsible if something toxic to horses was planted. Four years later, I have been helping equine and cattle customers restore their soil health across NC and VA with great success. I have seen the nutrient cycles and that the best feed in the world can't replace dead soil and dead pastures. Feed is an excellent triage band aid and can be a booster to some pasture situations, but feed is unable to replace the nutrients present in living species in the ground.
I want to be part of the full system solution that is not only restorative but has cascading compounding positive effects on the animals, on us, on the environment, and on our future.
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