Gary Reding

Gary Reding graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Animal Science and then started farming on a 900-acre diversified family farm with his in-laws in southeast Indiana.

He farmed for 31 years, raising soybeans and wheat for seed, corn for the livestock and forage for the cattle. He operated a 2,200 pig per year farrow-to-finish hog enterprise alongside 25-45 cow-calf Angus breeding herd.

During the 1990’s, with various industrial agricultural shifts, Gary started looking for ways to become more productive and financially sustainable on a small farm to support his family.

Around 1995 he read Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making, by Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield. The concept of Holistic Management became the basis for much of his decision-making on the farm.

He began producing food grade crops and eventually organic grains and hay. Using the conditioning equipment he had for the seed industry, he started getting farmers to grow specialty grains including organic popcorn. By 2002, he had one of the largest organic popcorn programs in the country, needing to go to four states to find enough organic farmers to produce enough to meet the demand.

As Gary was designing his organic transition through the use of cattle grazing, he attended a Holistic Management 3-day course that gave Gary the confidence to go forward with his plan and later start his own consulting company. Gary has worked with converting large acreages to organic for a land-owning company and also works as a plant and soil specialist selling regenerative ag nutrients and system to farmers across 10 states and Ontario, Canada.

Attending that Holistic Management class made a lasting impact on his decision making for the the past 25+ years. When asked if he would join HMI’s board, Gary wanted to help keep this organization going and felt he could pay back for the good the organization did for him.