Happy New Year Regenerators!
A word from the Executive Director
Thank you all who attended the 2026 kick-off event, which included the EMRA Annual Meeting and Lend a Hand for Health and Wealth in Miles City. I was really inspired by the all the discussion that took place around building our vision statement and pillars. A big thank you to Holly Stultz for facilitating this discussion. Sarafina and I are on a mission to develop a strategic plan for the next 2-3 years. We gathered input for our strategic plan by asking those present what EMRA could do to help them on their regenerative journey. Using sticky notes and sharing our answers, we received 43 great ideas for EMRA activities. A Strategic Planning committee was formed to map out the priority activities using the information gathered. If planning the future of EMRA is your jam, and you’d like to jump on this committee, give me a shout. We are organizing a committee retreat to develop the strategic plan. I am super jacked about the ideas that came out of the strategic planning process!
Speaking of committees, if you would like to have more input, there’s room for you on the Education Committee or the R2R Technical Assistance Committee. The time requirements are minimal. Your participation can have a significant impact!
Billy Cook joined us over the world wide web to present Enriched Ag’s grazing or cropland monitoring at scale opportunities. Their cameras and software can take up to 500 photos per minute. Using AI, various metrics like bare ground and forage production, can be determined and compared to previous years. Check them out at https://enriched.ag/. If there’s enough interest, EMRA could purchase the camera unit for member use and analysis participation. It seems like an efficient way to do monitoring and have the data analyzed. There will be further discussion at our February 18th gathering.
Our kick-off event started off with a lending panel including Travis Helm from FSA, Norm Bellows from Ag West Farm Credit, and Amanda Zakhorov from Dirt Capital. Each panelist has a unique lending program with its own benefits. This was a great introduction to the vast array of opportunities out there.
The day was topped off with nutritionist, Sara Keough. Sara is passionate about the connection between soil and human health. Sara grabbed our attention with an exercise displaying the prevalence of physical and mental health issues in our community. She gave us simple, actionable items to reset our gut health including eating whole foods (resets the pallet), aim for diversity (30 different plants/week), include 4-6 servings of fermented food daily, and drink her digestive tonic daily.
Sara is an advocate of good red meat in the diet and referenced the phytochemical richness of meat and dairy studies by Stephan van Vliet and Fred Provenza. If you aren’t familiar with this information, there are many great articles and videos on the web. We appreciate Sara staying after her presentation to answer individual questions.
Sara Keough recommended these books: Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed our Food by Nicola Twilley and Nourishment by Fred Provenza.
If there are ways EMRA can support you on your regenerative journey, please let us know.
Looking forward to a healthy, wealthy, and regenerative 2026.
Sue FitzGerald
Start the new year with new ferments. Fermented foods include; Kombucha, fermented pickles, kimchi, raw apple cider vinegar, keifer, sauerkraut, yogurt and more!
Kimchi recipe https://eatbeautiful.net/make-your-own-fermented-vegetables/
This is a recipe that I use for carrots when we have extras from the garden. I shred them thin and wide for better surface area. I typically only make a quart at a time. Very easy and I adjust spices for family taste. Glass jar weights are incredibly helpful. Super easy!
2026 Committees
These EMRA committees consist of volunteers who register during the EMRA Annual Meeting and typically serve for one year, with the option to continue if they wish. Committees chart the course for the EMRA year.
The latest addition is the Strategic Planning Committee, where volunteers will define EMRA’s goals, vision, and core pillars.
If you are a member interested in volunteering for a committee, please reach out to us!
Strategic Planning Committee
This committee plans to meet in-person to chart the course for EMRA by defining goals, vision, and core pillars. To narrow the scope of EMRA and plan for the next 5-10 years. 2026 volunteers include: Sue FitzGerald, Sarafina Claeys, Katrina Johnson, Chelsea Phipps, Colin Manuel, and Daniel Magalsky.
R2R Technical Assistance Committee (mentorship)
This committee will meet (typically via ZOOM) as needed to review the R2R program goals and plan activities to meet these goals. 2026 volunteers include: Sue FitzGerald, Sarafina Claeys, Colin Manuel, Levi Forman, Wally Harbaugh, and Chester Meyer.
Education Committee Update
This committee meets monthly to organize education workshops, tours, and gatherings throughout the year. 2026 volunteers include: Sue FitzGerald, Sarafina Claeys, Adele Stenson, Abbey Bruski, Katrina Johnson, and Bryan Phipps.
In the News
EMRA Member Speaks at the SD Soil Health Coalition
Daniel, Jenna and family had the privilege of speaking at the South Dakota Soil Health Coalitions annual conference in Aberdeen, South Dakota on January 14. The conference drew attendees from North and South Dakota they all came with excitement to network and hear thought provoking ideas shared. The Coalition staff were amazing and very welcoming.
Daniel’s breakout session was in the morning and he shared their journey of adjusting paradigms like the lens in glasses in order to adapt and see opportunities. He talked about ranching with goats, roadblocks, and the unfair advantages these livestock bring to their business
K/X speaks at Regen Ag Workshop
K/X Ranch spoke at this event via zoom as we had blizzard conditions. We shared the start of us moving towards regenerative ranching, no more herbicides, making pastures smaller with temp fence, increasing stock densities, working with partners, and having mentors. Kelly Leo said there were 42 in attendance and seemed engaged had a couple great questions on how we measure what is left? And amount of recovery/rest
Podcast Highlight- Acres USA
Innovation Spotlight
Have an idea that you want to share? A solved problem? A new solution? Or maybe a quick fix that others might find helpful, send us an email and we can circulate it. Or perhaps you want some ideas to solve a problem, odds are you aren’t the only one. We can help get you connected to others in the group.
Ongoing Opportunities
Do you have grasshoppers? Are you willing to share some information?
My name is Jackson Newman, and I’m a master’s student at Yale along with my research partner, Lexi Zolenski. Through a Yale program called Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, which focuses on land stewardship in the West, we’re studying how farmers and ranchers respond to grasshopper outbreaks.
To do so, we are reaching out to a variety of organizations in these areas, collecting information via a brief, 5–10-minute survey and optional 60–90-minute follow-up conversation. We believe the members of your organization may be suited to participate, and would appreciate it if you would consider distributing the survey link (https://yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a9MwHMiU09nHhqe) or the attached flier, and our contact information (below) to your members.
Members can either complete the survey alone, complete the survey and indicate interest in a follow-up conversation at the survey’s end, or contact us directly for a conversation alone. Any information collected in the survey or conversation will remain anonymous, aside from broad geographic location (e.g. eastern Oregon).
The goal of the survey is to better understand how farmers and ranchers respond to outbreaks in the hopes that sharing information can lead to better outcomes. In particular, the information collected in this study will help us gauge outbreak severity and the factors driving land manager decision-making in response to them. At the end of the study, we will produce a summary of data and findings, which could then be redistributed back to participants and members of your organization to use.
We appreciate your time, and thank you for your consideration!
Jackson Newman
(240)-507-3027
jack.newman@yale.edu
Let us know what you’d like to see in upcoming newsletters: emra.sarafina@gmail.com