2025 Alaska Agriculture Conference and Grazing Lands Symposium

Northern Cheyenne Tribe • Lame Deer, Montana

Brandon Small is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Lame Deer MT and is the director of the Northern Cheyenne Buffalo Ranch. He manages the day-to-day operations and implements all stewardship practices within the 15,000-acre buffalo range. He is also a co-author of the Bison Shared Stewardship Strategy, which is currently in development process.

– Heritage buffalo practices article

Shepherdess Land & Livestock Co. • Ojai, California

Cole Bush, known as ‘The Urban Shepherdess,’ is an entrepreneur, advocate, and creative liberator in the fields of climate-beneficial agriculture, land stewardship, and prescribed grazing. She is the founder of Shepherdess Land and Livestock Co.—a prescribed grazing company with hundreds of sheep and goats based in Ojai, California, Holistic Hides—a purveyor of mindfully sourced sheep hides from the American west, and Grazing School of The West—a non-profit 501(c)3 multidisciplinary vocational training program that has trained over 200 people.

– Speaking and education
– Prescription Grazing

Black Leg Ranch • Bismarck, North Dakota

​Jerry Doan runs Black Leg Ranch with his wife Renae and three sons Jeremy, Jay, and Jayce. They utilize Holistic management, planned rotational grazing, and no-till farming to regenerate their natural resources including wildlife. Jerry graduated from Bismarck State College with a degree in agri-business, North Dakota State University with a degree in animal science, and the Allan Savory Holistic Management School. The Doans have stacked complementary enterprises onto the ranch including custom grazing, Rolling Plains Adventures; a hunting outfitting business, Black Leg Events; an agri-tourism business, Black Leg Brewery, and Black Leg Meats; offering grass finished beef and buffalo under the Audubon Conservation Bird Friendly Program.

– Conservation on Black Leg Ranch

Marketing for Farmers • Langley, British Columbia

At the age of 27, Kendall ditched the power suits of her corporate career, as Director of Operations in grocery supply chain, for a life in gumboots on the farm when she opened her business Central Park Farms. Fast forward, and eight years later Central Park Farms employs a small team and is a growing direct-to-consumer producer of beef, pork, and chicken supplying the Metro Vancouver market. Having won ‘Farmers Market Vendor of the Year’ from the BC Association of Farmers Markets and the ‘Under 40 Entrepreneur of the Year’ award from the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, Kendall’s passion is in helping other farmers and food producers gain the tools to grow their businesses for long-term success.

– Marketing for Farmers
– Central Park Farms