Peer Leader Program
What is a Peer Leader? What do they do?
Do you need the assistance of a
Peer Leader?
Peer Leaders assist with:
Helping to organize annual or semiannual events that bring together people in the livestock community to learn more about what is happening in the region, or arranging for a well know/person of interest to give a presentation
Meet our Peer Leaders (Click on here to view bios)
Interested in becoming a Peer Leader?
Are you an active member of your livestock community?
Do you want to meet new people with the same interests as you?
Whether you have horses, goats, sheep, cows or llamas, you already have a wealth of knowledge about raising your livestock and managing your property. The Livestock and Land Peer Leader Program is a great way for you to share what you know, meet new people, and learn great new techniques to help improve the value of your property, and it’s all FREE!
The Peer Leader Program will provide you with the information you need to improve your own livestock management practices and pass that knowledge on to your peers.
For more information about the Peer Leader Program and how to get involved, please contact
Jen Harrison at 831-426-5925 ext. 132 or jharrison@ecoact.org.
Peer Leaders
 George and Ardyss Golden
Hollister, CA
george.golden@gmail.com or ardyss@earthlink.net
I hate horses; Ardyss loves horses. I am the one who feeds and cleans up! We joined to see what others were doing and how we could manage the ranch better.
We would like the help the community and pass on the things we learned from the program.
Roxy Montana
Hollister, CA
roxy1onthrun@yahoo.com
 I am a horse breeder, primarily quality Friesians and Andalusians. My performance horses traveled throughout the United States with the celebrated The Black Heart Jousting Company before settling into broodmare status. Currently, I maintain a herd of 30 broodmares, stallions, and young stock in training. As a professional in the equine industry, I feel a responsibility to promote a healthy relationship between animals, owners, and land management, and I enthusiastically encourage others to do the same through networking via education and resources.
Cristie Thomas and Scott Lindberg
Aptos, CA
postmaster@LMNOarts.com
831.728.3998
 We’ve generously been given the use of a half-acre of land for our horses: thistle ridden and barren in the summer, a caustic quagmire in the winter. The Livestock and Land series began just as we were starting in on a recovery of the land, giving us enough information to begin the big project. We applied for, and received a Livestock and Land Demonstration Site Grant, as did the landowners. Not only did we have the information and on-going support we needed to create a safe and healthy home for our horses, but we had financial help as well.
We'd already been singing the praises of the program and telling anyone who would listen about all the invaluable -FREE- help available, when the opportunity to become Peer Leaders came along, how could we pass it up? We strongly believe in taking the best care of the land that we can, and hope we can help others realize that Best Managements Practices aren't that hard, and can really make a difference.
Tim Foley
Hollister, CA
831.636.0874
 Quicksilver Farm and School of Husbandry is the fulfillment of a dream for Nants and Tim Foley. Quicksilver farm is dedicated to the preservation of our agricultural heritage. The farm is located at the foot of the Diablo Mountain Range in beautiful
San Benito County. There Tim and Nants raise rare and endangered livestock and farm crops. They currently are involved in the breeding of Lipizzan horses and Navajo Churro sheep. Both species are classified as rare by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The school of husbandry was created to model and present best practices of sustainable management and stewardship of the land. Quicksilver Farm is a demonstration site for the Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District for water pollution control and manure management. It serves as a resource for school and community groups to promote awareness of our diminishing agricultural legacy. Visitors are welcome at Quicksilver farm. Please call ahead to arrange your visit.
Barbara ‘Barb’ Taddeo
Hollister, CA
taddeo3535@yahoo.com
 Barbara Taddeo is a middle school special education teacher and educational therapist in Hollister as well as owner of Ranch Taddeo. As a resident of Hollister she is trying to take an active roll continuing small farming practices including conservation suggestions made at the Livestock & Land and Stewardship for Small Acreages workshops she has attended. She has planted fruit trees, installed an organic vegetable and flower garden, composted her horse manure and even grow her own hay from my the compost she made.
Other projects have included French drains and green belts to filter the water, which runs off from the hills around her property. Her five-year goal is to have a working small farm, which will support herself and her horses.
Barb attended the Peer Leadership training and workshops so she could learn more about her county, good agriculture practices, and to help her community in a positive way. Now she is giving back some of the great information she has learned at the workshops by sharing with the community. She has helped neighbors and showed them some of the ideas that she learned at the workshops. Working with the local Ag department and has had them place weevils in her neighborhood to control start thistle. As teacher, she keeps teaching even away from her middle school classroom. |
