How and Why We Started Our Wisconsin Farm

We "started with WHY" when we decided to form a new, regenerative farm in Southern Wisconsin. Brian and Sara, the founding capital partners, are passionate about promoting and practicing regenerative ag. We were featured on a recent episode of Working Cows Podcast, to talk about the hows and whys of starting Wild Type Ranch outside of Madison, WI.

Brian works full time as a Regenerative Ag consultant with Understanding Ag, so is only able to work on the farm in his spare time. Sara says her deepest desire is to live to see >80% of the food produced in this country be grown regeneratively. She was 60 years old when she purchased the Wisconsin farm, after selling her Texas grass-fed beef operation. Our objective from the start was to launch a couple next-generation farmers into a long-term farming operation, augmenting our resources and expertise. The goal is to transition them into ownership of the operation, with options on purchasing the land.

The American Farmland Trust estimates that ~40% of US agricultural land will change hands in the next 10-20 years. Younger/beginning farmers are finding it more difficult to enter farming, if they don't inherit the farm. At the same time, fewer and fewer farm kids are choosing to stay on the family farm.

We found that we had to be creative when it came to structuring the farm operation. There weren't a lot of existing models we could copy. The land is held in a real-estate only entity. The operating company, which is the entity in which the new farmers participate, has a 10-year lease, which renews 3 years before the term ends. The operating agreement allows the junior operating partners to have equal voices in operating decisions. There are provisions recognizing sweat equity to increase their percentage ownership. The design is to facilitate majority ownership by the new operators within 10 years.

It is our hope and plan that the farm will grow to be a legacy farm in its own right. As the soil on this beautiful piece of property regenerates, it will nourish humans, livestock and an ever increasing diversity of native plants, insects and animals.

The farm as it was before we purchased it (late 2024). By next summer, all row crops will be replaced by annual pasture, and eventually converted to perennial grazing.