Having raised alpacas for around 20 years, Dave Rose, owner of Moonlight Rose Alpaca Farm said he got into the business after he saw an ad in a farming magazine for alpacas and thought it might be something to try after retiring from 27 years at the USDA. While preparing for his next chapter, Dave purchased seven alpacas and now has a total of 72. Sometimes your full time occupation gives you the tools for what’s next and as the USDA’s County Executive Director for almost 3 decades, Dave was responsible for everything from subsidized programs to conservation. At our alpaca cohort meetings, thanks to his knowledge of grants, soil and farming, he has proven to be a valuable sounding board for many conversations.
“Farmers can get really stuck in their ways, they’re a stubborn bunch generally,” Dave says when I ask him about the acceptance of talking about carbon farming. “They know what they need to be doing but they say ‘this is just the way we’ve done things for last 20 years and this is the way we will do things for the next 20.’ Times are changing and farmers need to adjust.”
He admits that changing and accepting new terms or practices (that are actually very old) like carbon farming, is just how farmers should be running their businesses. But as for the terminology, Dave says it’s just another way of promoting locally and sustainably grown products.
“I do not believe it is confusing, I just don’t think very many people relate healthy plants to carbon farming. They look at healthy plants and are just concerned about yield, carbon sequestration isn’t on their radar,” he says, adding that farmers have to adjust what they do constantly to what’s working and what isn’t.
“Farming is all about constantly adjusting so you don’t get left behind or go out of business,” he says.
