2025 Q2 Impact Report

Letter from Founder and Team

The Spring season brought steady progress and the arrival of Summer comes with renewed focus. As we reach the close of Q2, the Rainmaker Farm remains a testament to what careful planning and hard work can accomplish, even amidst unpredictable weather and the ever-present demands of the land.

This quarter, one of our most significant achievements was the installation of 1.5 miles of fencing around the farm’s perimeter. With four new gates at each corner, we’ve made accessing and stewarding the land far easier for both our team and contractors. We also installed two new water gaps, which proved their worth by holding strong during the heavy spring storms.

Our attention has turned to the bees as well. We spent time identifying potential new beekeepers, attending North Central Oklahoma Beekeeping Association meetings and building relationships to find the right support. At the same time, we’re considering taking on the responsibility of beekeeping internally to keep these critical pollinators thriving on our land. This spring, we harvested approximately 300 ounces (19 pounds) of honey from the existing hives. We cleaned and stored the frames, with the hope of reintroducing bee colonies by Spring 2026.

In the fields, our wheat crop is shaping up to be the best we’ve ever had. The extended rains have contributed to some weed growth, and we’re actively exploring management strategies as we wait for the crop to dry out ahead of harvest. Meanwhile, the orchard is in good shape. We’ve replaced all fall out trees and completed seasonal pruning. Some of the original plantings are reaching maturity, and it will be exciting to see if they bear fruit this year.

We’ve also spent this quarter completing the application for the NRCS EQIP grant to support our rain catchment irrigation system. Additionally, we’ve been diligently working on our USDA Organic Certification and AGW Regenerative Farming Certification applications. While these certifications are long-term, rigorous processes, we’re nearing completion of the paperwork and preparing to schedule testing and inspections in the coming months.

Looking ahead, we have finalized our new species indexing plan, which will roll out soon to better track and manage biodiversity across the farm. Our partnership with Oklahoma State University has also moved forward. Field trials for milo will begin at Rainmaker in mid-July following the wheat harvest, helping us build out our farm data and strengthen our ties in the Billings community.

On an administrative level, we’ve been researching how to gain a deeper knowledge of our land through ESRI and ArcGIS mapping with the goal of updating our farm maps and boundaries, refining the original surveys completed in 2021 and 2022. Professional development remains a priority as well. Our grant writer and farm oversight lead recently completed the Kiss the Ground Regenerative Agriculture Essentials course alongside three of our Motive Power colleagues, further strengthening our team’s expertise in regenerative practices.

As global conversations around climate and agriculture intensify, particularly with this year’s Climate Week focusing heavily on regenerative farming, we remain committed to building partnerships that extend our impact beyond our fence lines. Each project, certification, and collaboration is an integral part of our larger mission to care for the earth in enduring and meaningful ways.

Thank you for your continued support and belief in The Gulch Environmental Foundation and Rainmaker Farm. We look forward to sharing more progress in the months ahead.

Summary of Q2 Activities

Our donor funded activities are broken down into 7 main categories. The activities completed during this quarter of this year are outlined below.

University Involvement

  • Rainmaker has solidified their partnership with OSU for the 2025 Field Trials program. The planned experiment seeks to identify if quick early growth of silage sorghum can work as a natural, organic weed suppression strategy.

Diverse Planting

  • 2025 has blessed us with the strongest wheat crop in Rainmaker history. Late rains have contributed to a later-than-expected harvest date as we wait for the fields to dry out. In the mean time, our combine is on standby as we navigate eliminating the weedier areas in advance of cutting.
  • Perennial: The orchard has been pruned and well-watered thanks to a heavy rainy season; we are anxiously awaiting fall to see if we’ll get our first fruit yield.
  • Annual: The winter wheat planted in Q4 of 2024 has grown exceptionally well, and as we await the fields to dry out more in advance of harvest, we are considering a weed management strategy to maximize the quality of our overall yield.

Livestock Incorporation

  • Cattle: Due to the late rains and the work on our fencing, we haven’t moved over any cows from Hostetler Ranch to graze yet. We expect to have ten cow/calf pairs grazing rotationally in the pasture by mid- to late-July.
  • Honeybees: The honey has been harvested from the four colonies that were terminated over the winter, producing 19 lbs. of product. We are looking forward to re-establishing the colonies in Spring of next year once we have identified the appropriate personnel to take care of the new hives.

Cover Cropping

  • In late June, the team at Rainmaker Farm began exploring a planting plan for post-harvest that could potentially include native pollinator shrubs and soybeans. Stay tuned!

Farm Equipment & Supplies

  • We have continued to maintain our large tractor (Bat Girl), our gator, and our weather station. Q3 will likely bring about service appointments for the machinery in advance of fall planting.

 

Infrastructure

  • Rainmaker has completed Phase I of our fencing overhaul, installing 1.5 miles of border fencing, four gates and two water gaps. Phase 2 of our fencing project will begin in mid-July to include water gap reinforcements and smaller netting on our eastern border for the future containment of small, grazing ruminants. In late April, we also installed a buoyant measurement pole in our retention pond to track water levels. The farm team also cleaned up the inside of the greenhouse and have scheduled a repair for the panels that blew off during tornado season last year.

Rainmaker Farm Certifications

  • Rainmaker Farms has made great progress on the USDA Organic and AGW Regenerative Farming certification applications. We have continued to pursue funding for our planned irrigation system via the EQIP grant through NRCS which would complement any additional funding we might receive through the REAP grant submitted last quarter.

Targets and Goal Tracking

We are on track to meet our targets and goals for 2025.

Next Steps

In Q3 2025, we anticipate the following:

    1. Completion of Phase 2 of the fencing installation.
    2. Livestock incorporation of calf/cow pairs grazing the pasture.
    3. The harvest, processing and sales of our 24/25 wheat crop.
    4. Completion of the AGW Regenerative Farming Certification Application.
    5. Strong presence and brand activations with other regenerative advocates at New York Climate Week.
    6. Commencement of OSU Field Trials on Rainmaker Farm.