Who is this course is for:
If you eat food, you should know this information. Knowing how the soil health is linked to all parts of the food chain including human health then this course builds the foundation for knowing how the ecosystems are all links.
As you know there is an urgent global movement to better understand the nutrition of food and the connections to soil health.
We all know how important soil is to our planet and the food we eat. But it’s tough trying to keep up with current trends in agriculture, especially if you’re just starting your journey into regenerative agriculture!
This course was designed for people like you who are eager beavers (or other creatures) looking for a way out of this overwhelming maze but still want guidance so you don’t get lost exploring these topics on your own time!
Course Overview:
Jerry embraces the whole picture of animal to human health and continually links it back to soil health. He speaks without notes and answers questions along the way.
This course covers a lot of ground:
Livestock Nutrition – how the digestive system works, essential & non-essential amino acids, acid /alkaline balance, essential fatty acids, true protein, which hay makes more milk, culling techniques.
Soil Fertility – the formulas for soil building benefit of cover crops, soil micro-organisms, the carbon and nitrogen cycles, forage analysis, principles of soil management, the importance of humus & preferred fertilisers.
The Importance of Macro & Micro Elements – the history of diminishing trace elements, changes in mineral content in grains, 31 minerals beneficial to animal life, typical plant composition, what minerals do, deficiencies & free choice recipes.
Forage Diversity – average composition of tree crops, comparison of benefits of various herbs, grasses and trees compared to lucerne, the value and function of hedgerows, & the impact of birds on insect populations.
Enzymes – 5,000 known enzymes divided into 3 basic groups: metabolic, digestive and food enzymes; impact of enzyme deficiencies discussed.
Moulds & Mytotoxins – causes, effects, how to mould proof your farm, & how to deal with mouldy feed.
Parasites – importance of forage diversity, overstocking, land rotation, value of free choice minerals especially kelp.
Lesson 1: Animal Health = Profit
Jerry discusses briefly about his background and how he observes the agricultural practices that affects animal nutrition and health. It is the visual quantifiable attributes with yields has been the basis of success with agriculture measures and not with net profit. In reality, yields and production is a consequence of your livestock nutrition. If you look at your farm as an organism and everything else are components of the farm, you will start to connect the dots in healthy livestock management.
Animal manure is a primary health and production indicator. The microbes that you’ll find in the manure translate to what microbes are inside the animal.
Jerry explains a digestive system diagram that shows the process how the food converts to energy source for you and the microbes that are in your body. It shows how materials/nutrients are converted and the affect of imbalance intake of food can cause diseases such as suppressing of the immune system, lousy reproduction, low milk production and all other health issues.
What you feed to your animals or to yourself will ultimately feed the microbes.
How you can determine the quality of the food and how to translate that into productivity and healthy animals.
Lesson 2: Soils
Jerry talks about the soils and soil management. Jerry says that what we are encouraged to learn these days is the industrial model of agriculture which is an unsustainable system with high costs, a lot of mechanization, off- farm purchased capital and intensive technologies which aren’t really necessary.
He talks about the approach by Louis Bromfield who managed to reclaim a thousand acres of completely worthless farmland and transform it into an economical and sustainable farm. His formula was simple: adequate liming & light fertilizing, grazing animals to produce manure (which produces hormones, microbes, enzymes and carbon), plowing cover crops, tight rotations and mowing for mulch (just by mowing the trash and letting it lay increased yield in one year to 500%).
He briefly explains how plants produce exudates which are foods for microbes such as bacteria and fungi.
Lesson 3: The Importance of Macro & Micro Elements
Jerry explains how industrial agricultural practices produce empty harvests. The highly soluble acidulated fertilizers leach nutrients from the soil and cause erosion. The nutrients are becoming “complex” that makes them unavailable for plant. The decreasing of minerals in the soil are cause of losing plant and animal immunity and farmers have become more dependent upon fungicides, insecticides, antibiotics, vaccines, wormers and hormones.
Application of herbicides and other chemicals causes contamination in the soil and in the wells, bores and aquifers. In some cases these chemicals are getting worse as you dilute them and he cites the case of atrazine of which the daughter particles are 100 times more detrimental than the parent molecule.
Jerry also explains what minerals do and what are the essential macro and micro elements for plants, mammals and man. All of these elements are present in a fertile and apatite soils and he uses old charts to show what is missing from today’s soils. He compares the vanishing minerals in the crops compared to the crops in the 1940’s to the crops in the 1960’s and of Albrecht’s studies of the soils where the bulk of the army recruits were drafted from in the 1st World War compared to those rejected for selection. There is a direct relationship between the physical attributes and the soil.
Lesson 4: Minerals
Jerry talks about the bovine buffet (free choice) and how it is important to watch and record animal behavior. Jerry explains that animals that eat the clay or ground are indicating a mineral craving. By watching and observing your animal’s behavior, you will be able to connect the dots and start asking correct questions to understand the real problem.
Lesson 5: Treating Ailments and Forage Diversity
Jerry talks about how important water quality is for animals especially when producing milk. Included is a discussion of how to disinfect contaminants in water to make it healthier and sweeter as it affects the volume of water intake of animals.
Lesson 6: Biodiversity on the Farm
Jerry shows lists of common trees and herbs and the minerals they contain compared to Alfalfa. This is a great benefit for livestock people to understand how animals can get different levels of minerals from different plants which are known to aid animal health and supplement fodder.
Bonus: Food as Medicine Workshop
“Food as Medicine” is a compelling and informative talk about the power food has to optimize your internal systems. Jerry Brunetti explains the complexities of nutrition and what we are missing in our bodies such as chromium and selenium in a way that everyone can comprehend. It is inspiring and life changing information!
Our food intake has become so modernized and manipulated by unknown powers that half the time we don’t really know what we are putting in our mouths and most of the time we don’t even think about it! I mean, who cares right?
What most people don’t understand is that the function of food isn’t just to sate hunger. Some of those who do watch what they eat, primarily with the intention to lose weight, deprive themselves of the nutrients that help prevent and fight disease.
Others who constantly eat processed fast food, don’t realize the harm that they are inflicting onto their bodies.
Plus Bonus Workshop
BONUS: Food as Medicine Workshop (3 Hours of Life-Changing Value)
Jerry Brunetti’s compelling and informative talk about the power food has to optimize your internal systems is inspiring and life-changing information.
He explains the complexities of nutrition and what we are missing in our bodies such as chromium, selenium and which can lead to common health issues.
Jerry explains how nutritional deficiencies have become rampant in the modern world and the power of food as medicine.
