Speaker

Chris Kerston has been a rancher in Northern California for the last 15 years, keeping his own cattle and working on a number of operations. For 6 years he was a partner and co-manager of a diversified 2,000 acre operation that kept approximately 80 angus-cross mother cows, over 200 Boer-cross-does and their kids, over 200 Cheviot sheep and then later a smaller flock of wool sheep, 500 laying hens, and 2000 broilers each year. The ranch direct marketed nearly all of their products, predominately through farmers markets, urban buying clubs, and online sales. They also had many tourism and educational programs providing opportunities for students from grade school to university to learn and engage more intimately with agriculture. Chris was active in cultivating the growing agritourism industry and appropriate zoning and regulation at both the county and state-level to allow more farmers to participate in such enterprises.

Chris has always exercised a passion for creative decision making and thinking outside the box. He learned of Allan Savory, Holistic Management and Planned Grazing early in college and has been a fan and practitioner ever since. In 2013, Chris left that operation to work with Allan and join the Savory Institute team. In addition to speaking all over the world at various conferences, Chris says he’s deeply honored to get to engage with pastoralists across cultures working with them to increase efficiency through their grazing planning, and helping them create new revenue streams and create financial viability in a way that fits their context. Chris in his current role is also working with food businesses helping them overcome shortages in their supply chains to be able to have a more constant supply of the types of products that their consumers are demanding. This is coupled with scientific data tied to those products that indicates health and regeneration of the land from which those products are produced.