Regeneration Generation by: Rodney Saunders
I started working with Eddie Hale from Eagleville, Missouri two years ago when he was 77 years old. When I went to his farm, he told me he didn’t have any earthworms in any of his fields. “You can dig anywhere on the farm and won’t find earthworms,” he told me.
At the time I met him, Eddie was baling four months of hay to feed his cattle through the winters. To create longer rest periods between grazing events for improve microbiological life in the soil and improve the quality of his feed, I convinced him to start grazing the hay acres and stop baling hay on them. At the same time, Eddie also stopped using dewormers on his cattle, and during the winter of 2025, he didn’t feed a single bale of hay. Now he can find earthworms in most every spade full of soil. “If every year is like this, and my forage productions continues to increase,” he said recently, “I will need to add more cows.”
Eddie’s an inspiration to me because you don’t find many men at the age of 77 excited about adapting to the changes of regenerative farming and adaptive grazing. He’s an extremely remarkable individual and embraces the principles and practices that are improving the health and function of his soil. Additionally, every time I show up at Eddie’s house, he invites 5-12 people to hear what I have to talk about so they can learn, and hopefully adopt, these practices to their operation as well.
Thank you for all you do, Eddie, and for being part of UA’s “Regeneration Generation!”
– Rodney Saunders, Understanding Ag consultant
The post Eddie Hale: Regeneration Generation appeared first on Understanding Ag.
