CropCircuit is building a small-farm systems laboratory in Southwest Michigan. The farm is the proving ground; the audit, tools, and protocols are what other farmers can reuse.
CropCircuit combines hands-on farm work with systems thinking. The farm tests methods; the lab turns what works into clear protocols, cost models, and practical tools other small farms can adapt.
Everything here is designed to be useful: exact process notes, practical calculators, and honest tradeoffs without sponsor pressure.
Actionable field notes, how-to guides, and breakdowns from real work on the ground.
I run a small farm business, and I have three software coworkers. Here's one real week with them: a power outage, a Facebook maze, and what it means for any one-person business.
I’m an animal science graduate, former park ranger, former dairy farmer, lifelong observer of animals and ecosystems, and someone who has spent most of my life asking how living things actually work together. Crop Circuit grew out of that question.
The weeks after wheat harvest are a narrow opportunity. These cover crops build soil without stealing moisture from next spring.
The mid-summer window is short. Here are the July tasks that protect your fall harvest and soil health in Michigan.
Good records turn tax season from a panic into a 20-minute task. Here's the minimum viable system I use on my farm.
You don't need hundreds of acres to use rotational grazing. Here's how small farms in Michigan can start with one or two paddocks.
Two perspectives. Hard questions. Useful tradeoffs for small farms and homesteads.
Real photos from daily work, livestock care, and family-scale operations in Michigan.
Brooding, feed management, and predator planning are where the real poultry work starts.
Rotations, fence moves, and forage pressure are tracked as operational decisions, not guesses.
Animal systems are documented with real constraints: weather, time, labor, and infrastructure.
A practical planning audit for layout, chore flow, equipment priorities, and automation decisions. $95 flat — delivered within three business days after payment and a sufficiently complete intake.
A practical planning audit for layout, chore flow, equipment priorities, and automation decisions on small farms and homesteads.
Purchases paused. Checkout is temporarily paused while we verify pilot capacity.
If these guides or tools help you save time, improve results, or avoid mistakes, your support directly funds field work, tooling, livestock care, and content updates.
Donate / Support CropCircuitBook the Small Farm Systems Audit and get a focused written recommendation for one property and one primary workflow goal.
This project is built around real farm work in Michigan. We publish progress, setbacks, and practical outcomes so readers can use what works and avoid what doesn't.
Each update ties back to a core goal: better soil, healthier livestock systems, and durable small-farm operations that can be replicated.
