Episode #80: Kelly Mulville

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Earth Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 546 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kelly Mulville, a veteran agricultural consultant, is the Vineyard Director at Paicines Ranch in San Benito County, California. For more than 25 years, Kelly has been obtaining impressive results by merging his experience in viticulture with his understanding of Allan Savory's holistic grazing management techniques. His approach to extended-season vineyard livestock grazing and other ecological practices continue to capture an audience of vineyard managers around the globe.

Kelly and John discuss in this episode:

How Kelly developed practices around incorporating sheep into his vineyard management.
Flooring a wildlife biologist with the bird population data on Kelly's vineyard after implementing new practices.
The role plant-grazing animals play in reducing insect pressures.
Kelly's cover cropping strategy and how it has led to a diversity of 50 species of plants growing in the vineyard.
The specific holistic management techniques inspired by Allan Savory's work that have contributed to vineyard success.
The adaptability of these practices on other crops like nuts and tree crops.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends, this is John and this is the regenerative agriculture podcast where we talk about the agronomic science and the cultural management practices that regenerate soil health and plant health and human health, livestock health.
0:13.0	And of course, on the pathway to achieving all these outcomes, we also regenerate farm profitability as well as an important outcome.
0:25.7	I've really been looking forward to the conversation for this episode with Kelly Mulville,
0:27.1	currently from California.
0:41.0	And Kelly is the leader, as far as I'm aware, in figuring out how to do a really good job of integrating livestock into perennial production systems. And I think what he's been working on transfers to more than just grapes, but also to
0:48.5	trees and orchard systems and so forth. And there's a tremendous need for his type of innovation and
0:53.8	thinking.
0:54.8	So, Kelly, thank you very much for being here and for agreeing to share some of what you've
0:59.9	been working on. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and story and what has brought
1:05.4	you here in the scope of what you're working on today? Sure. Thanks for having me, John. I really
1:10.2	appreciate this.
1:12.6	I grew up in far west Texas, El Paso, Texas, and my dad was an architect who grew up in a blacksmiths slash
1:23.6	machine shop.
1:24.6	And so he still had an interest in agriculture. And the plot of land that we built
1:30.6	our house, we also had a small market garden on. And so I was very interested in that. One of the
1:39.1	things that really changed my direction in my life is that I got interested in falconry as a really young kid.
1:45.8	And I'm not sure where that came from, but by the age of 11 I was raising a hawk.
1:51.5	And that experience really connected me to the natural world.
1:57.1	And at that point, I knew that raptors were in decline, and I had decided I wanted to go into captive breeding of raptors.
2:03.6	Shortly after I had raised that hawk and released it, I read Silent Spring.
2:09.6	My mom checked it out of the library for me, and I only half jokingly say that I've been devastated ever since then.
2:16.6	And I realized that if I went into
	...

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