Join EMRA (Eastern Montana Regenerative Agriculture) in Miles City on January 16th and 17th to learn Innovative Cropping Systems and Marketing Methods in the Arid West. Click here to view the schedule and learn more.

Roy Pfaltzgraff and his parents operate a 2200 acre dryland family farm, south of Haxtun, CO, where he was born and raised. Roy’s father has always had a pioneering vision and spirit, raising a diversity of crops with no-till practices, but never imagine the farm as it is now.

Changes really took root when Roy returned to take over the operation six years ago. The farm has evolved from raising two to three crops a year to sixteen crops in 2022 and at least fourteen for 2023. While minimizing the use of commercial chemicals and fertilizers, they’ve created a diverse cropping rotation that maximizes the benefits from inter-cropping. These management changes are increasing soil health and biodiversity.

Roy has integrated new techniques from seeding through harvest. His strives to minimize specialty equipment while doing everything possible to increase soil health and conserve residue and moisture. The efforts have started to reap rewards as the farm is producing average yields in drought years with no loss in quality and is able to handle the extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent. Their inputs have dropped over seventy five percent which has a major impact to both bottom line and the farm’s carbon footprint. Roy has been able to see improvements in the soil, the most notable is raising organic matter in the top ten inches of his fields from the area’s average of less than 1% to a farm average of 2.5%. They have started direct marketing of some of the farm’s products sold under Pfz Farms which are found online and in farmer’s markets along the Front Range of Colorado.

Roy’s new methods have caught the attention of others in the agricultural industry. He has been interviewed for regional and national publications, including DTN Progressive Farmer, Denver Business Journal, Edible Denver and most recently in the Farm Journal being called the most unconventional farmer in the United States. He has also been invited to many speaking engagements including being a featured speaker at National No-Till and a guest lecturer for HarvardX courses in soil health. Roy has developed a marketing workbook for farmers looking to step outside of the traditional marketing system. Roy also serves on the board of Colorado Conservation Tillage Association which is an organization that promotes soil health practices.

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EMRA’s Mission:
Create supportive relationships to challenge paradigms while building profitable and sustainable enterprises to regenerate our land for the next generation.

Western Sustainability Exchange, WSE, is supplying this registration page on behalf of Eastern Montana Regenerative Agriculture, EMRA.  WSE is the fiscal sponsor for Eastern Montana Regenerative Agriculture.  Fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial and other administrative services to help build the capacity of EMRA.