The Liberator

LITCHFIELD, Neb. – Colleen Fulton won a Gold Medal in the Public Speaking Competition at both the Nebraska District FFA and State FFA Convention competitions this year. Her speech was entitled, “Regenerative Agriculture.” However, long before Colleen achieved these awards, her father Kevin Fulton went on a journey through agriculture that led him to change to the regenerative approach that has had a lasting impact on all his children – Colleen, Cami and Timothy.

“My grandparents on my father Joe’s side, Thomas and Maggie, were immigrant farmers who came to Nebraska in 1900 from Northern Ireland. They bought a farm by Superior, Nebraska,” Kevin Fulton explained about his family’s agriculture history.

“My grandad was born in 1871. He quit school in the second grade when he was about eight years old and he had to come home and take care of the farm. That gives you an idea of the kind of dedication it took. That dedication to farming was passed down to my dad Joe and me. Everything revolved around the farm, raising crops, and the animals – cattle, pigs and chickens. My dad, who was born in 1917, was the only one in his family to go to college. He also went on to earn his degree in Veterinary Medicine. He went through the Depression and the Dust Bowl. When you are raised by someone who went through all of that, the training is a little different than it might be today. I was raised with no sense of entitlement and I have tried to raise my kids the same way,” he said.

Fulton attended High School in Loup City and assumed leadership roles at a very young age – everything from FFA president, captain of the football team to president of National Honor Society. He then went on to college at Kansas State University to achieve a Bachelors Degree in Animal Science. He later went on to graduate school where he earned a Masters in Exercise Physiology and spent 27 years in competitive weightlifting – all over the country and world. That led him to his second career as the Head Strength and Conditioning coach at the University of Massachusetts.

“Then I came back to Nebraska in 1993 because my dad was getting elderly and he was pretty much retired. I rented the farm ground from him. That was 25 years ago,” Kevin explained. “We had some grassland back then; but, dad had it rented out to some ranchers who brought cattle every year and I rented the farm ground. I raised corn and alfalfa and I did not have any livestock initially.”

“As time went on, I became disillusioned with conventional farming. Then corn dropped to $1.70 and I was selling hay for $30 a ton. That was a low point. The real turning point was that I had come back to farm and thought I would be an independent businessman. Instead, I was beholden to all the companies selling me ag inputs. After I paid everyone else, there was nothing left for myself. I realized there was nothing independent about the farming situation I had been in for the past eight or nine years and it was not at all what I had signed up for,” he said adamantly.

Around this same time, Kevin started going to meetings to hear the late Terry Gompert, an Extension Agent in Knox County, Nebraska speak, “Terry was an outside of the box thinker. He was a very big influence in my life in getting me to go down a different path. That’s when I started to move to a grass-based operation. I did things like convert prime, irrigated crop ground back to grass. Needless to say, that raised some eyebrows.”

One of Kevin’s next steps was bringing in truckloads of cattle and starting to finish cattle on grass, “Things progressed quickly. Before long, I was finishing several hundred head of cattle on grass. I also eliminated tons of inputs like chemicals, fertilizer and seed and I did not irrigate nearly as much. I also did not have to have crop insurance anymore. I still did some hay and pretty much got out of the row crops after a couple of years. My diversity became what I put on all that grass. We started with cattle and then other people who were doing it encouraged me to get into other species. So, we got into multi-grazing sheep, goats and cattle. Then we added poultry and started with a mobile chicken house. We had all this productive grass due to our changes in practices and started doing custom grazing and brought in 600 to 800 head of cattle custom-grazed and custom grass-finished.”

Kevin also pursued organic and no-till crops with cover crops on his diverse farm that includes an array of landscapes such as: native prairie, buffalo wallows, creek bottoms, steep hills, flat ground and many historical sites. He eliminated the synthetic chemicals and fertilizer and a lot of the tillage. He was also one of the very first farmers and ranchers to grass-finish cattle under pivot irrigation.

Gompert eventually asked Kevin if he would start talking about all the changes he had made on his farm. Kevin agreed and beyond speaking to farmers and ranchers, he was also able to reconnect with some of the connections he had made in the fitness realm, even speaking at the L.A. Fitness Expo about the health benefits of grass-finished products. Through the years, Kevin and his transition to regenerative agriculture, has also been featured in hundreds of publications and numerous documentaries.

“When I first started moving in this direction, you get people talking and some of the talk is negative. There was this common theme I would hear, ‘Maybe that works for you; but, it requires such a huge amount of labor.’ I realized the increase in labor was an advantage and not a disadvantage. If we want to revive rural America, we must bring in more than ethanol plants and massive Concentrated Agriculture Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The beauty of regenerative agriculture is that it does require more people. Throughout the last 60 to 70 years, all we have done in this nation’s ag system is get bigger tractors and planters and drive out our neighbors. Regenerative agriculture is the reverse of that.”

“There are 400 farms in Sherman County,” Kevin pointed out. “What if every farm added one more person? That would be a huge impact on the local economy. I am saving several hundred thousand dollars a year in input costs in the direction I moved. I do not have a problem with paying one full time person and three or four part-time people. I started farming at 2,800 acres and have reduced to 800 acres. I am making substantially more income with fewer acres because we have intensified and stacked enterprises. We also save a lot in property taxes.”

“There’s a direct correlation between the movement of the animals off the land and the people. We need to bring animals back on the land in diversified, regenerative farming operations. When you have more people, then you need more main street businesses. Farms like mine also buy most of our inputs locally. Other large, corporate farms purchase inputs by the truckload hauled in out of state or further and the money leaves the area,” he noted.

Kevin is most proud of his kids who all have enterprises of their own on the farm. The sheep are just the kids’ endeavor and they all have cattle too. Being impacted by their father is where Colleen and her winning speech comes in.

“Growing up with my father’s vision of agriculture has not only helped me become more open-minded; but, it has also led me to become very involved in agriculture. Dad has inspired me to speak about topics like regenerative agriculture, even if I might face opposition,” Colleen stressed. “Most importantly, he has taught me to be proud of the way we farm. I’ve learned to embrace the fact that we farm differently from our neighbors because I know that we’re a part of the solution of producing healthy food in a holistic way.”

In her FFA gold-medal-winning speech, Colleen wrote the following, “As more farmers move in this direction, they are realizing it is a win-win situation. I believe regenerative agriculture represents the future of farming. As a farmer, I believe it’s my obligation to develop a holistic plan that allows me to work with Mother Nature, not against her. This allows me to produce nutrient-rich food that improves human health. Regenerative agriculture strengthens the connection between the farmer and the consumer, while revitalizing our local communities. It also increases carbon sequestration which helps mitigate global warming. As Earth’s population grows and our global temperatures increase, this is critically important to our future generations.”

“As the agriculture industry faces challenges, I continue to use my voice to help shape the future of farming. In summary, regenerative agriculture benefits the land, the animals, the farmer, the consumer, and the overall health of our planet. It’s the solution that will take the agriculture industry to the next level,” she wrote.

Kevin, who cultivated these ideas in his daughter from an early age, agrees, “Would you rather see 100 farms employing one extra person or two, huge CAFOs come into your area? We are not just regenerating the soil, it’s really so much broader than that. We are regenerating diversity on our farms and communities. The day after farms and ranches get sold, the opportunity is gone. To make the farm truly sustainable or regenerative, you must figure out a way that the next generation will come in and continue your legacy. If you do not have your own kids, you should get someone else involved. Regenerative agriculture is not about one generation and done. When I hear farmers and ranchers say they don’t have plans for the next generation, it makes me sad. When you die, that’s the end.”

The future: Timothy, Colleen and Cami at the Fulton farm.

Colleen Fulton, a Nebraska State FFA Gold Medal winner in the Public Speaking Competition for her speech, “Regenerative Agriculture.” Way to rock the regenerative speech Colleen!