Forest Management with Pineywoods Cattle Pineywoods Cattle grazing on Japanese Stiltgrass in an opening in the forest at Ozark Akerz Our Pineywoods Cattle have transformed impenetrable thorny land into a flourishing forest. We have witnessed the dramatic and positive impacts of this regenerative practice in 15 acres of forest that the Pineywoods graze. Through there appetite for invasive plant species we have seen an increase in biodiversity of plants and animals, discovered sacred indigenous sites and have begun honorably harvesting medicinal plants such as Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor ..read more

There Are Snakes Under The Floorboards! - Farm Life Begins The farmhouse when we moved in This year marks our 10th Anniversary at Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm. Before Sue and I moved here, we spent 2 months fixing leaks, mending all manner of things and cleaning the farmhouse to make it livable. It had been abandoned for over 10 years. Little did we know what we had gotten ourselves into! The following are excerpts from emails we sent to Sue’s mom, Lou, during the first couple months on the farm. It has been amazing to relive the beginning of our journey in detail, much of what we had forg ..read more

How Dung Beetles Improve Health Of Regenerative Farms Dung beetles are the strongest animals in the world. They can pull 1,141 times their body weight. That’s like a human pulling six fully loaded double-decker buses. They are found on every continent except for Antarctica. Unlike the dung beetles I watched with curiosity as a kid in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) that would roll a ball of elephant dung much larger than themselves, the dung beetles in North Carolina are mainly tunneling (lay eggs in the soil beneath the cow pat) or dwelling (lay eggs in the cow pat). Tunneling dung beetles are the ..read more

Why Grow a Food and Medicine Forest? A Food & Medicine Forest attempts to mimic nature. It provides bio-diverse, perennially growing food and medicine and tools. The benefits of growing a Food & Medicine Forest range from carbon capture to self-reliance to increasing biodiversity. We have started started converting an old hay field intoto a Food & Medicine Forest. This area of the farm contributes heavily to our health and is one of the reasons Sue, who is a cancer survivor, has not taken any prescription or over-the-counter drugs in 8 years. We’ve allowed wildflowers and ‘weeds ..read more

This article originally appeared in the Courier-Tribune on June 7, 2020 I have lived in big cities most of my life. The constant traffic noise and streetlights are annoying. You never get to hear crickets or see stars. When I was in my late 30s, I moved to a semi-rural community in North Carolina. I say semi-rural because it was on a private road and had no streetlights, but it was only a mile and a half to the nearest mall. When we moved there, I immediately realized how little I missed big city noise. When I sat outside at night, the sounds of crickets, tree frogs and wind through the pin ..read more

Graze Against The Machine Streets is a direct response to big corporations hijacking regenerative farming for their own profit. They’ve done the same with sustainable, organic and natural. Indigenous communities around the world have used regenerative practices for thousands of years. They are the true keepers of this meaning . We must all listen to the wisdom they choose to share so we can learn what regenerative really means. The campaign is also directed at the government entities that support farm policies that favor big corporation interests instead of small and under-served farms t ..read more

Plants For Biodiversity and A Changing Climate Black Swallowtail butterflies, one of over 600 species at Ozark Akerz One of the key measures of environmental health is biodiversity. As of June 2023, Ozark Akerz is home to over 600 species of plants, insects, reptiles, birds, fungi, mammals etc. Our strategy for increasing biodiversity at Ozark Akerz has taken many forms. This includes but is not limited to: Selectively mowing pastures to preserve Milkweed stands for Monarch Butterflies Converting an old hay field to a Food & Medicine Forest Improving Soil microbiome biodiversity by pla ..read more

Happy New Year! We partied and raised hell until 3am New years Eve, then got up 4 hours later to let out the birds as always...and rake up all the silly string from the celebration, those birds will eat anything! Almost 100 people voted in each of our 5 categories of our annual Best Photos, and one winner in particular stands out. The categories were: 1. Pineywoods Cattle 2. Geese, Turkeys and Chickens 3. The Sun, The Moon, The Rainbow 4. Sue, Mike & Animals 5. Nature Scroll down to see the winner in each category and discover the stand-out. Pineywoods Cattle Winner with 32% of the v ..read more

How Ozark Akerz Farm Got Its Name The journey to naming Ozark Akerz started in late 2006 with a mugshot and fingerprints at the Welwyn Garden City Constabulary. I was applying for a green card to the United States. Part of the requirement was checking for criminal records in every country I had lived in since the age of 16. This included 3 countries, Canada, Denmark and my residence at the time, United Kingdom. My mugshot and fingerprints were sent to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), MI5 and MI6 (yes, James Bond’s MI6) and Interpol. Once they had been submitted, there was nothing to ..read more

Risk, Rage, Power and Farming - Grazing Against The Machine Risk. It makes me feel chaotic, disorderly, wild, vibrant. Risk makes me feel alive when I take it. And yet, through my work as a farmer risk is not something I take, it is given. So this month I am ready to TAKE a risk, go to the Rage Against The Machine concert in Raleigh, North Carolina despite the resurgence of the disease.  I’m sure you’re thinking “that doesn’t sound risky”.  Let me explain why it is. My wife Sue and I are responsible for everything on the farm and although we can do the usual chores required o ..read more