#43: Will Harris - What Happens When a Farm Thinks in Generations

<p>Will Harris is a fourth-generation cattleman and the owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, where his family has farmed since 1866. After spending more than 20 years running a conventional monoculture cattle operation, Will began dismantling the industrial model and rebuilding the farm around animal welfare, healthy soil, natural cycles, and a radically traditional approach to agriculture.</p><p></p><p>In this conversation, Will explains the truckload of calves that forced him to reconsider how he farmed, the hidden cost of chemical fertilizer, and what happened when he stopped looking for things to kill and started protecting everything that belonged in the ecosystem. We also discuss restoring Bluffton, growing from a handful of employees to 170, bringing his daughters into the business, refusing to expand merely for the sake of growth, and measuring decisions in generations instead of quarters. We also learn how a Baptist preacher’s wife saved Will from spelling “Tenac” for the rest of his life.</p><p></p><p>Subscribe to Longfire for more stories worth gathering around.</p><h3>Show links</h3><ul><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/@longfireco" target="_blank">Watch Longfire on YouTube</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/longfire/id1851467002" target="_blank">Listen on Apple Podcasts</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2IGYfTSYNvsD96UjUqqCJt" target="_blank">Listen on Spotify</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveseger/" target="_blank">Connect with Steve Seger on LinkedIn</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/longfireco/" target="_blank">Follow Longfire on Instagram</a></li></ul><h3>Guest links</h3><ul><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://whiteoakpastures.com/" target="_blank">White Oak Pastures</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://whiteoakpastures.com/collections" target="_blank">Shop White Oak Pastures</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://whiteoakpastures.com/pages/wop-lodging" target="_blank">Visit and stay at the farm</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690546/a-bold-return-to-giving-a-damn-by-will-harris/" target="_blank">A Bold Return to Giving a Damn</a></li><li><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/whiteoakpastures/" target="_blank">White Oak Pastures on Instagram</a></li></ul><h2>Chapters:</h2><ul><li><b>00:00</b> Highway 27 and White Oak’s Place in Rural Georgia</li><li><b>02:01</b> Six Generations on the Same Land Since 1866</li><li><b>04:21</b> When a Local Food System Became an Industrial Cattle Farm</li><li><b>07:49</b> The Truckload of Calves That Changed Everything</li><li><b>10:49</b> Cheap Fertilizer and the Cost It Hid</li><li><b>16:35</b> How Water From the Farm Reaches Apalachicola Bay</li><li><b>19:41</b> From Looking for Something to Kill to Keeping Things Alive</li><li><b>25:32</b> How White Oak Pastures Helped Rebuild Bluffton</li><li><b>29:00</b> Bringing His Daughters Into the Family Business</li><li><b>34:08</b> The Spur-of-the-Moment Decision to Rename the Farm</li><li><b>37:25</b> Why Bigger Is Not the Goal</li><li><b>42:18</b> Final Wisdom: Decide What Matters and Serve It</li></ul>