Taking the heat out of California wildfires using sheep and goats, Shepherdess Brittany Cole Bush talks to Farmers Guardian US Correspondent John Wilkes

Shepherdess Brittany Cole Bush talks to Farmers Guardian US Correspondent John Wilkes. California is experiencing some of the worst ever wildfires. By August 16, a total of 5,210 wildfires burned 332,606 ha (821,887 acres).  

The Park Fire is the fourth largest in Californian history – approximately 14 times the size of San Francisco. Since late July it has destroyed 173,000 ha in Northern California. 

This podcast was recorded August 4. 

On the podcast this week John is joined by the entrepreneurial sheep and goat grazer Brittany Cole Bush from the Ojai Valley, Ventura County in Southern California. 

Cole’s personal journey to set up her company called “Shepherdess Livestock and Land” draws global media coverage from The Guardian, French Elle and others. 

Her “flerd” of sheep and goats is in demand to remove dense highly flammable vegetation for an array of governmental agencies and other property owner clients. 

Cole also established “The Grazing School of the West” where she operates bootcamps.  

The school’s goal is to encourage a new generation into this burgeoning sector within the American sheep industry. Like Cole, the majority of applicants are from non-agricultural backgrounds. 

In the context of the American sheep industry Cole sees herself,  

“As a black sheep. A black Navajo-Churro sheep, a Heritage breed that has to be wily, very resilient, small framed and wooly. 

I represent a very unique population; a single woman owned sheep business from Southern California. The first in my family to do something like this.” 

Transcript

0:03

Trust me. This is the Farmers Guardian podcast coming to you from the U.S. of a. And I'm John Wilkes in Washington, D.C.. Now, you may well be aware that California is on fire with over 100 separate wildfires burning across the state. So joining me from the West Coast is Brittany Cole. Bush Cole is described by outside magazine to have, quote, pretty much single handedly made shepherding cool again, especially among the urban California crowd. Now Cole is on a mission, and this mission is to reduce the risk of these devastating fires. With the help of over 600 sheep and goats in the Ohio Valley in Ventura County. She wants to make California a safer place and at the same time restore habitat, sequester carbon, and produce local food and fiber. Set up four years ago, Shepherdess Land and Livestock utilizes prescribed grazing to reduce combustible vegetation for a whole range of clients, which includes residential communities, public agencies and landowners, and even detention centers, where assumedly the fencing is pretty good and not content with personally preventing fires. Cole founded the Grazing School of the West. The school provides knowledge needed to allow others to follow in her footsteps. Oh, and I should also say that Cole has run analytics hide business for the last ten years as well. In between all this, she finds time to speak about her work at events, and she sees it featured internationally in the likes of The Guardian and most recently in French Elle. So Cole, a very warm welcome and thanks for joining me on the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you for the invitation. I just wonder, obviously the fires are all raging at the moment. Could you give us a little bit of background as to where we are with the various fires and the sort of the scale of these things? Well, interestingly enough, here in California, we've we've been a little bit surprised and awestruck by how early in the season the major fires have started to kick up. It's months and months early compared to previous years here, and where we're based out of in Southern California. at the time in 2018, the Thomas Fire was one of the top ten largest fires in California for that fire beginning in December. And we really see a lot of the fires kick up and, what are called the Santa Ana winds that come, off the Pacific into California. We see usually in the crisp months of, late summer, early fall into winter. That's really when fires kick up. here we are in August, you know, and and the end of July and some of the most historically, you know, huge fires have kicked up and, and, it's been it's been very interesting as I've been running around managing my outfit, you know, trying working to prevent fires. And they're just popping up everywhere. the Park fire currently is the largest fire in the state. And, all resources are really stretched thin. trying to address how big this fire is and how quickly it's expanding. Because. Because I gather it's got to something like it's covered something like 160,000 hectares. That's right, that's right. We were we were discussing before we hopped on about, how quickly, how quickly. It's it's, it's it's growing in size. what was it that you mentioned? it's growing in, in size per second. It possibly could be taken out in about three and half, four seconds, a hectare of land in that town, which is just under. It's remarkable. It's remarkable. And, you know, as we talk about as we talk about how incredible it is, the the mass of fire and how early it it it's, it's, you know, it's struck up a lot of these areas where we're having fire. Our fire ecologies have adapted and, with fire. And quite frankly, without these natural processes, we are seeing these catastrophic things happen because we essentially have, have stopped stewarding these landscapes. Can they make nature's process? And that's precisely what we're we're actually working to do with, small ruminants. Is it in to replace the impact of fire that's in the natural occurrence, using grazing as a, as a form to kind of sweep, roll through, clean up and, and help with that system. So, so to do that, you're using, what, about 600 head of a mixed, sort of sheep and goats, right? Yes. We use a mixed species herd of sheep and goats, currently operating with 600 animals. And throughout a grazing season or our fire season, which, ironically, has turned into pretty much year round. We are using, the whole herd of 600 or we, we break them up into smaller groups of two and 300 at a time, and then they are essentially deployed, throughout the region and about 100 acre, excuse me, 100 mile radius around our home base. And it's that because basically you tackle a project, somebody approaches you and they say they want you to go in and to clear, clear all the sort of, you know, the undergrowth out. And so the different grazing habits of the sheep and goats, you factor this all in into your calculations. That's correct. So what we we provide a service using our sheep and goats. And here in California actually the state has adopted and recognize this form of grazing, using the language of prescribed grazing, very similar to how, prescribed burn is referred to now at state level and in fire agencies. So we're essentially a service provider that goes out and performs these grazing services as a vegetation management strategy that is ecologically friendly. And we decide how many animals are going to bring and what species and ratio of species based off of the type of vegetation. So, I'll go and do a site visit to give a quote to one of our potential clients. They have rolling hills of, annual grasses, which are flashy fuels. And then they'll have a perimeter of coastal sage scrub or, oak, Oakland savanna there. When there's a mix of forages, one is more appropriate. The browse for the goats. The goats, essentially a browse up the understory, the the fire ladder of the trees, you know, pull, you know, pulling branches off the ground. And then the sheep do. Great, eating the flashy fuels, those grasses and and and quite what's really cool is that there's this competition between both of the species, and they end up both eating a little bit of browse and a little bit of, you know, grazing forages. and we find that we do, a more thorough, cleaner job when we have both sheep and goats. So because because the goats, I think I was reading somewhere in some of the stuff you put out, I mean, you can clear through to height of six feet because the goats obviously couldn't reach higher. So you're taking, like, a six foot swath of this oxidized thatch out, at a time. Yep. That's right. And, you know, we've even seen we've even seen higher than six feet up to eight feet. Because what happens is I've, I've seen this. A goat will actually perch on another goat back to reach, reach, reach real high. And then they'll pull down a branch and then allow for their buddies to browse on that. on the the leaves off of that branch. And, they're able to actually get a little higher than six feet. And if you think about the efficiency and also the safety component of having animals versus humans out there in some of these terrains, it's just the most appropriate, tool for the job. And some of these, some of these circumstances. So, so cut to the chase on the so you sign a contract, you signed a contract with these folks, and they basically are paying you, paying you for, for the service. So what I got to ask is so, is that side of the finances more important to say than the actual what you're producing in terms of, say, meat, meat and fiber? Or is it kind of how does it work in, in in your budgeting? That's a great question. So the business model, you know, prescribed grazing is really kicked off in the last, I would say, 15 years. I've been in the business for almost 15, 15 years. and when, when I decided I was ready to pull the trigger and get into my own flock and herd of sheep. Goats, I decided that my business model was going to be based around my main revenue source was going to be grazing as a service. And so actually, my main driver in my business is almost 100% revenue based off of services contracted, very similar to like, a land management contractor or a landscaper that that is actually the driver of my business, food and fiber, the, the product, the meat product and, well, product is very, very small compared to I would say it's about 95% of my revenue is from prescribed grazing. And the tricky thing is, is we have to make most of our money within the dry months, as we're seeing now, we I got about ten months out of the year to get paid to graze, and then for two months, sometimes a little bit longer. I am, trying to keep my animals dry and feeding them, and, and, and eating, forages at our home base. So to answer your question about a business model, guess what? My business model is all based around grazing as a service. So, so so that the meat and fiber thing is sort of secondary, that, I mean, and just in terms of breeds, I mean, are any breeds more suited to this than others in terms of on the sheep side and on the goat side? Absolutely. You know, I think it's really important to acknowledge the, importance of genetic selection based off of your context, context meaning what is your what is your business model? How much of, meat and how much of wool might be a part of your production that's going to be helping you decide which animals to use, but also for, for the, the, the, the climate and how, you know, I, I hate to see, see lowland or Highlander, cattle here in Southern California because they're just not meant to be down here. and so I've been very selective, for my context in what I use. And I use hair sheep, which are you know, is a essentially a molting wool sheep, variety, if you will. and the two breeds are, dorper and cattle, then, they, have slick coats. I would say most of the year, and I don't have to worry about shearing them because they essentially molt off their wool. and then have that hair coat. And they're very much so adapted to this climate. And it's very important to me to have a closed flock because, the generations after generations, three gestation, when their mothers are eating things that we want them to eat, those, their offspring are more adapted to be, you know, able to maintain and gain, but on body condition, side eating some things that other sheep and other parts of the country will not be able to sustain. So I have hair, sheep. And then on the goat side I have a Spanish boar cross again selected for their, hardiness, their adaptability to this climate and lifestyle. And I really feel strongly that it is the genetic selection and it is the animal husbandry prowess that really allows for, for me to do my job and to do my job well. And that's something I think is very, very important for new folks coming into this work to recognize how important, the animal husbandry component of our business is. The animals and healthy animals equals healthy land, healthy animals, healthy land, healthy people. And we can then do our job on the public safety front and supporting regional food and fiber. And a service is obviously very much appreciated. So just a point you raised there in terms of new people coming to the industry. And I know this has been a really big thing for you, that giving people a diverse range of people the opportunity to experience, what it is you do, you know, to look at the, at this fire grazing if you want to if you want and and you now have you've established the grazing school of the West and I think, is it you just yesterday or the day before that, the sort of, the registration closed for this year. So could you tell us a little bit about that? Because I think this is a wonderful idea, getting people of all sorts involved in, in, in agriculture, in the sheep industry. Absolutely. You know, something that is very that has been a very big something that has been a very big driver in my career, has been the search for answering the question, how does the next generation of individuals from various backgrounds get exposed to what it means to to work on the land and to have connection with their ecology, and to get closer to our food system and to have opportunity to work with with animals in that whole cycle. Because I'm a first generation agrarian, you know, coming into being a shepherd, a sheepherder, you know, now now a sheep, us I it wasn't it was not a an easy thing to find my way in this work and mentorship and learning from those with experience and knowledge and wisdom that is gained over times has been so critical to to my own personal journey. And it's not an easy it's not an easy thing to find. And I was very, very blessed. And I'm so grateful that I've had the mentors that I've had and because I do straddle the urban in the rural with the lifestyle that I've had throughout my life grazing, working with animals near urban peripheries, I've had a lot of interesting, nontraditional folks who would be interested in this work come to me and say, how can I get into this? And so, I had really dedicated myself to helping forge pathways for new folks, to even just get exposed to what this work is and to get exposed to, how we can get closer to the reality of, of our natural environment by working with animals and then really understanding what it takes to grow food and, and all of these natural products that are so hard to produce. So Grazing school of the West has manifested in such a beautiful way. And it's such a critical time because we need more practitioners on the ground, more grazers on the ground, who know the animals, who know ecology and know the whole very unique, very unique service that is is really in great demand. The industry is, is booming, but we need people to have knowledge and wisdom and experience that is only gained through learning. By doing and we need to support those folks and those and who we're currently operating. We need to support them by, helping them to have a, a, a pool of, of, a workforce that has the skills, ready to, to jump in and go, so grazing school of the West so far we put on Shepherd's boot camps and we, our application for our fall boot camp. we can only take 18 this go. When we had, we closed only. Oh, gosh. With, less than three weeks of open application, we've had, 70 applicants from, all over the country. And in the past, we've even had folks from other countries apply, and I, I welcome individuals from all over the place because we are, we have a lot to learn from one another. But back to Grazing School of the West. I think that it is a critical component of how we move forward to address the public safety issues that we're confronting, with climate, as well as creating meaningful and impactful work for individuals. And quite frankly, we need a lot of people to come through and be exposed because I think realistically, there's a very small percentage of individuals who have what it takes to do this kind of work. But guess what we need? We need individuals who have all kinds of skill sets. So it's not just the shepherd on the ground that we need. We need a whole bunch of different individuals wearing different hats and the whole ecosystem of jobs and skills and roles needed to do the work that's at hand. And that's to sustain. That's really this is sustaining humanity. And agriculture is at the forefront and the foundation of all of that. And so this is our way to to support and invite new folks into this work. I think, you know, I look at you on social media and what you're doing, and it's quite clear that, you know, the people that, you encourage, you encourage in into your world. I mean, they really relish it. I mean, all the hard stuff, all the dust, you know, the the mud, the blood, the guts and all the rest of it. These these folks seem to really relish it. And I think that's, you know, I think it's it's good that they see that it's hard work and they understand it, but also understanding animals and how to look after them properly. But also, you know, how you how you do, how you perform the actual grazing itself and I just, I just the other thing I noticed to you, you're actually working with offenders, right. to, to help them train. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, to your point of, of seeing, you know, diversity, you know, in my social media, you get to see kind of, a wide array of people that come through to work with us. Sure. Yeah. it's it's quite it's incredible. Every year I'm so thrilled to meet the people that I'm meeting. And most of them are all first generation, agrarian, first, first, you know, folks who've been in this work because we're only about an hour and 20 minutes away from Los Angeles, the largest metropolis in all of the West Coast of the United States. we come from just a really rich and culturally diverse place, and we're so close to it that there is the ability for folks from Los Angeles to come up to work and train with us. And I do have to be honest, we do make it look real beautiful. We really do. It is is kind of your quintessential office, like, oh, Southern California near Hollywood. We do make it look beautiful, but, you know, funny enough, the first thing I do in a lot of my trainings with Grazing school is I really try to pop the bubble of how bucolic and beautiful and, like, you know how cool this work is. Yes, it is all of those things, but realistically, it is some of the hardest, most grueling work at times you could possibly find. And so a lot of my work is to gracefully, but very realistically make it clear to folks the realities of this work. And I would say a very small percentage of those folks, like I said, are, are are ready and able, but they many people need that exposure. And I have been pleased to see that it it it is it that the, the people who stay in it's not homogenous in where they come from, all kinds of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, you name it. What brings us together and what keeps folks together for those sheep that quote unquote, have sheep in their blood, that the sheep in the work, on the ground, on the land that is so rewarding at times. At the end of the day, that's what keeps us together. And it's really quite transformative and the self-discovery that happens. But the individuals whom I've worked with has been incredible. And to the point of, working with, an incarcerated population, something very interesting. And one of my most exciting projects that I've participated in is working with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to create and in, in an internal prescribed grazing program in one of the largest detention centers or around the largest detention center in Los Angeles County, which is, which is the home of, facilities that housed, over 8000 individuals in incarceration and it is this detention center is landed on a defunct old ranch, and it's about 2600 acres. And it is, in a very high severity fire zone. And so the individuals from the sheriff's department reached out to me, you know, when they found out, like, oh, we could we could hire sheep and goats, come out here, and graze around the facilities because how would you get 8000 inmates out of detention, a detention center during a wildfire? Right. So they brought us in, and we grazed, our first pilot around the detention center. And we worked with for, four of the inmates there for the duration of our contract. And we began to as a pilot demonstration. How can we ready these individuals with the skills to come out of incarceration and have a, head start in, well, being able to get a job as a public agent and, working with sheep and goats to help prevent fires in and around the various cities that they come from. It's very admirable. What you do really is called, I've got to say. So just on background. Okay. So you're not from a conventional agricultural background. what you were brought up in, in North County near San Diego, I gather. And and so can you tell me a bit about sort of what attracted you to the sheep industry in the first instance and why? You know, it's it's like it's literally in your blood. Yes. Thank you. I, I think I represent, a growing, a growing and burgeoning, group of individuals who are searching for, a a new way to live life and work that's, against the status quo and the areas in which we live around urban suburban centers. And yes, I am a first generation agrarian. I always like to, to to remind myself and to say, you know, of course, agriculture was in all of our histories. And so I would say farming and working with livestock has skipped a couple generations, and my personal family history. But I do come from folks who, you know, pioneers that, raised, raised livestock, grazed livestock, as well as in the South western parts of the United States. I do have native indigenous heritage and, Spanish heritage as well. Who were the first to bring sheep over to the United States? And I've discovered that, that I do, in fact, have the history of sheep in my family, and I say sheep in my blood, because once I discovered working with sheep and goats from actually a circuitous route coming from environmental studies and restoration work, I came to learn that the process of grazing animals, you know, native grazing animals on our landscapes, a lot of our colleges were, adapted with the impact of grazing animals. And, and in California and other places in the world, when grazing animals have been excluded from some of these ecologies, they've degraded in their health and their resilience to the increasing impacts that we're seeing from climate change. So is actually from my work in environmental studies and restoration that brought me to sheep and goats, and then also the opportunity to, meet a multi-generation Basque American sheep man. And he took me under his wing and from me just following him around, on the first ranch I worked at, taking photographs of the impacts from year to year, season to season. I began slowly but surely. working more and more with the sheep. And then I adopted, a retiring border Collie sheepdog. And that was. That was a thing that tipped me over as soon as I started working with border collies and herding sheep and goats. that's really what locked me in to my now. Now found identity as a shepherdess. And it's interesting you talk about because I find the Basque thing here fascinating. because, you know, the Basque people here, came over here to work back in the sort of the 40s and 50s and whatever. And they've had a huge influence on the American sheep industry. I've made up that. But if you go to Reno, for example, they came here with very little, and then they worked as sort of hired shepherds and things, and then they stayed on and they worked hard. And if you go to Reno, nearly all the gas stations and lots of casinos are all owned by the Basque people. Right? You know, it's their most interesting sort of, cog in the wheel of the U.S. sheep industry. Absolutely. The Basque has helped to shape, I would say, so much of the American West and, and the stories and the connections that we have to say, the high countries in the Sierra mountains, for example, and other places and Idaho and and Nevada and other regions, where sheep still are, the numbers have decreased tremendously. But I would say these, the Basque has helped really shape the American West in a lot of ways. And the culture still remains very, very strong, very intact, even if there's fewer and fewer sheep every year. the, the Basque. So because definitely been holding it down on the sheep, on the sheep industry front and just, just on the American sheep industry, obviously, you know, you present a very different image, I have to say, from, you know, I don't know many people within the American sheep industry that have been in, you know, some in the, in The Guardian and also in French. Well, and so you're very high profile is very visible and, and what's your relationship with, with the, with the American sheep industry. Well, it's I, I think that it's been really important for me to, you know, be be be where I'm at. American sheep industry to me has been so critical and really understanding how different our country is in how they raise sheep and how and how incredible sheep are, because they can exist in so many different contexts. I would say I see myself in the American sheep industry as a black sheep, maybe a black Navajo churro sheep, a heritage breed. it got to be heritage breed. Oh, yeah. Heritage breed. And it has to be wily and very resilient. Small frame and, wooly and, so, yeah, I wouldn't, you know, I show up and I think it's really important for all folks in who who love sheep work sheep show up in the industry. But I think I represent a very unique, population. You know, I am a single woman owned business from Southern California. And, you know, I'm the first in my family to do something like this. And many generations and I think that encouraging and showing up and encouraging and supporting the diversity within our industry, it allows for resilience. And that's something that is been like a huge theme in my life and in my work recently, is diversity is resilience. And for the American sheep industry to embrace diversity in all types of scales of producers, producers from different places in the country and different sheep operators, different business models. That is how we as an industry are going to maintain and roll with the punches and adapt in such a rapidly changing, world, both on the international global commodity market and our climate and economics, political, all of those things. So that's interesting. I kind of hate a lot of things in answering, where do you sit in the American sheep industry? Well, I would say I'm not black sheep. And I think I represent, some diversity that is new to the game. Well, cow, you certainly do. And there's no denying that anybody that looks at what you're doing on your social media just just take a look to see what you're doing. And, you know, I think that the work, your, your, your conducting and all that kind of the grazing and, and the, the people you're getting into the industry, that that is a huge thing. And, I think the American sheep industry, you know, he's taking note of that maybe, and, that, you know, are supportive of you perhaps, or could be supportive of you going forward. And so I suppose we've kind of we've come full circle, really. I have to say it's been an absolute joy having you on and to and, you know, having you on the podcast and talking to you and, so what I would recommend people is to check out, on Instagram, BCB shepherdess and Shepherdess Land and Livestock and Grazing School all the west on Instagram. And then Brittany called Bush on Facebook where you can get a really good picture literally of of Cole and her work. And, Cole, thank you so much for finding the time to have a word. And, you know, we'll catch up again in the near future, maybe. Who knows? and so thank you. Thank you so much, John. It's been a pleasure. And I as much as I love my American sheep industry, I love my global sheep community. So it's a it's an honor and a pleasure to connect with folks out there on the land with their animals growing food and, all those who support us. So thank you so much, John. You're very welcome. And so this has been John Wilkes. And until next time for more from the US on the Farmers Guardian podcast. And.