American farmer, author, and regenerative agriculture icon. Farms Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Known for dramatically rebuilding soil on a degraded farm and for multi-stacking livestock enterprises in a carbon-cycling system.
Profile
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Farm | Polyface Farm |
| Location | Harrisonburg, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA |
| Farm size | 650 acres (480 woodland; ~170 open farmland) |
| Employees | 20 |
| Annual turnover | ~$4 million |
| Key quote | “Most farmers try to make their farms bigger, I try to make my farm deeper” |
[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]
Farm History
- 1961: William and Lucille Salatin purchased “the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton, Virginia”
- Began healing using nature as pattern: planted trees, built compost piles, dug ponds
- Used portable electric fencing for daily cattle moves
- Invented portable sheltering systems
- Soil organic matter 1960s: 1% → today: >8%
- Gained over 10 inches of topsoil (compared to nature’s rate of ~1 inch/100 years; tillage farming can lose nearly 1 inch/decade)
[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]
Enterprises (Multi-Stacking Model)
- Salad bar beef
- Pasture-fed chicken and rabbit
- Acorn Glen pork
- Pasture eggs
- Duck
- Vegetable growing
- Honey
- Timber products
- Cattle herd: 160 cows + followers + 200 purchased stirks/year
Joel maximises financial return per acre by multi-stacking symbiotic production enterprises. Sales: primarily direct-to-public online with agreed collection points. Own abattoir for all slaughter and retail.
[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]
Pasture System
- Goal: 400 cattle grazing days per acre per year (Virginia state average: 80 → Joel is 5× average, while improving soil)
- Daily cattle moves using portable electric fence paddocks
- Egg mobile: laying hens (old horse box) follow cattle, eating residue cow pats, spreading manure
- Broiler chickens follow laying hens with portable shelters — fresh pasture daily
- Pigs and deep bedding: animals co-habit poly tunnels on carbon-based deep bedding in winter → compost for farm in spring
Soil Building Method
- Bought and collected all available sources of organic material to make carbon
- Created seven inches of new soil in just over 50 years (nature takes 100 years for 1 inch)
- Carbon recycling and utilisation central to soil regeneration
Visited By
Asda Soil Masters Bursary group (2015), described as “mind blowing” by Steve Townsend.
Related Pages
- Gabe Brown — fellow US regenerative pioneer
- Soil Carbon and Organic Matter — Salatin’s soil rebuilding is key SOC case study
- Cover Crops — mob grazing and carbon cycling
- Conservation Agriculture — Core Principles — farming in nature’s image