On-Farm, Episode 005: Phil Specht – Pearlmaker Holsteins

On-Farm: Conversations with Practical Farmers

Phil Specht

Phil Specht of Pearlmaker Holsteins was our guest this week on the show. Phil farms with his wife Sharon near MacGregor in northeast Iowa. He’s been running a grass-based, rotationally grazed dairy in the hills of Clayton County since the 1970s, and conservation has always been important to him. In 2013, his brother Dan passed away in a farm accident, and Dan’s friend Mary Damm purchased Dan’s farm. Since then, Phil and Mary have been conducting on-farm research on the links between pasture management, plant and soil diversity and grassland birds. On the show, we range from the practical to the esoteric – talking with Phil about the politics of conservation, grazing management, Facebook poetry, ways of knowing and much more.

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On June 22, Phil Specht and Mary Damm will host a field day at Dan’s farm focused on grazing, grassland birds and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). You can RSVP for the field day, which will include dinner and camping for those interested, and learn more here.

In the episode, Phil shares this poem, “The Delta” (originally published on his Facebook page in March of 2014.) The poem is part of his “tagging a railcar” project on Facebook, contributing ephemeral art to an online community. He explains more in the podcast episode. Here’s the poem:

The Delta We all live on the delta of Noah and care soil washed from the mountain stream blues in the air. Garden growing, grown bounty, blessing, sorrow and pain Gifts given and taken by flood and the rain. Earth, the dirt warming arms open waiting seed and the rains will soon come, regardless of need. We are here in the Garden It came before Time Offer pipe all directions for seasons in rhyme.

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