---

---

What we learned in 2023…

It was a great 2023 here at the ranch! We couldn’t have done it without all of you. You are partners in what we do.

Several of us went to a short local “ranch business” evening seminar a few days ago–always useful to be learning more! During the seminar, the speakers discussed something very common in ranching today: most ranches lose money each year and are slowly sinking into a hole of debt. Eventually they are forced to sell out. One speaker showed a map of Idaho, our state, showing that this coming year, hundreds of thousands of acres of Idaho ranch land will be sold off and subdivided.

We see a lot of hope for the future of our land and soils, even despite the prevalence of “factory-style” ag practiced today (more on that in Glenn’s story this week at the bottom of this newsletter). Even severely degraded farmed and sprayed soils can be restored. But all hope for that soil is lost when it is covered up in pavement.

We would literally no longer be on the ranch if not for you, our customers and partners! 2023 wasn’t always an easy year, but we are so grateful to be here. We learn from the land every year and get better (sharing some of what we’ve learned in the photos below).

Thanks for being part of it.

Grazing with wolves. In the bottom left corner of this photo, you can see a small percentage of the cattle herd, managed by range rider Wesley along with a few more riders you can’t see in the photo. Then, those distant white dots in the middle right: those are the tents of our cow camp, in a tidy meadow oasis amid thousands of acres of dark timbered forest.

The wolves were out there with us. We’ve rarely seen them in the years we’ve been up there. We do hear howls. We see wolf sign, sometimes not far from camp.

But they leave us and our cattle alone. The camp is covered with our human scent, and all day our riders are with the cattle as they graze. We know the wolves are aware of us; likely they watch us far more than we even guess.

This year, we grazed our cattle in more remote country than we have ever grazed before (as seen in the photo above). We wondered if perhaps the wolves would be more present. But they were content to leave us be, and 2023 marks another year of peaceful coexistence. As for the cattle, they, too, are content–and seemingly unaware of anything lurking in those trees.

Water. This year we reached new heights (literally) with our rangeland water system. As you can see from the photos above, we’re in very arid country out on the range (7-14″ of annual precip). Our creeks, streams, and springs up there are essential wildlife habitat and serve as a little “oasis” in the desert. For the last 8 years, we’ve been using herding to control where our cattle drink and avoid damage to these wet areas (too much hoof traffic in easily-impacted wet soils can cause long-term erosion to stream banks and root systems). Several years ago, we started pumping water from these streams and into nearby stock tanks using a small portable pump and firehose system. Cattle get a clean drink this way without ever setting foot in the stream, and we take them to graze hillsides above the streams that benefit from periodic light grazing.

This year, thanks to an awesome water crew, we pumped/hosed water to places we’ve never been able to get water to (giving us access to country we’ve never grazed before, while allowing us to give other areas a year off from grazing). We also came up with the system of storing water in the portable blue tanks you see pictured above. These tanks can store 5,000 gallons, which means we have a backup system on a hot day when our pump might fail, cattle are extra thirsty, or another unexpected scenario occurs. It’s allowed us to continue to stay out of streams and leave them as untouched wildlife habitat. The photo below shows a network of beaver ponds, photographed by range rider Bryce as the crew grazed the cattle on a mountainside high above these streams.

Cattle health. This year, we continued to learn more about cattle health, especially as a direct result of plant diversity. We have over 80 species of plants on our home ranch irrigated pastures (an excellent number compared to most typical pastures). On our rangeland, however, cattle might select from over 250 native plants species in a given day. And we have certainly noticed a benefit: the cattle were healthier than ever on the range (we had one animal get sick out there last year out of 400). Fly counts (number of flies on the cattle) are extremely low. And their coats look slick and shiny. It’s exciting to see!

Testing and Sharing Information. Pictured above, Glenn, Jed, and Josh are doing a “brix test” to test the sugar levels in the grass. Coming into 2024, we see lots of producers and big corporations alike making claims about “regenerative,” coupled with some nice pictures and a few words about “our practices benefit the land and animals.” These statements make us ask a few questions: how? What are your practices? What is your data? Customers should get actual information, not flowery BS.

That’s why in 2023, we continued to test our soils, plant diversity numbers, water infiltration rates, and more, and why we’ve tried in these newsletters to answer those questions listed above in bite-sized pieces of information. You might not always have time to read all the content or look at the photos, but we want it to be there for you to read if you do. It’s why we don’t “hide our cows” and put photos of them in every newsletter (we know of many producers that never show actual pictures of the cattle, and it’s because the reality doesn’t line up with the story they’re selling). In 2023, we also assembled this document summarizing our practices and data and what we mean when we say we’re regenerative.

Thanks for being part of another great year! We look forward to all 2024 may hold!

Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.

---

---

Dear Friends

My legs were on fire from the chem burn. Even worse, my eyes stung and the tears that rolled out of them fogged my vision. I squinted, straining to see the end of the field, but couldn’t quite make it out. The five-gallon bucket I was carrying was almost empty—I wondered how many more of the 40 pound pails were waiting for me at the end of the cornfield.

Despite the burn of the midday sun on my shoulders, there was rain in the forecast, and my boss, Paul,  had left me to scatter a ‘side-dressing’ of ammonium nitrate granules in one of his more remote sweet-corn fields that served up home-grown goodness to the distant citizens of New York City. There were only 17 acres to hit, and between the duo of 90% humidity and incoming rain, the fertilizer would be sucked up by the dirt in less than an hour. I was only 17 at the time, and was in the middle of one of many agriculture summer grunt-labor jobs that I worked to earn money for college tuition….

Continue reading the story on our blog by clicking below!

---

---

And that’s it for this week!

Thanks again for partnering in what we do!

Glenn, Caryl, cowgirls and cowboys at Alderspring.

---

---

We’ve been crafting our pastured protein here in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains for nearly 30 years and delivering it direct to our partners for nearly as long. This is wild wellness, delivered from our ranch to your door.

Your partnership with alderspring directly supports our mission to improve soil health, wildlife habitat, and animal and human wellness through regenerative ranching practices.

Here’s what we’ve accomplished with your help & support in just the last 12 years!