Jim Gerrish grew up on a grain and alfalfa hay farm in south-central Illinois. He spent over 22 years conducting beef-forage systems research and outreach while on the faculty of the University of Missouri. With over 20 years of commercial cattle and sheep production on his family farm in northern Missouri, he also has one foot solidly planted in commercial livestock production.

His research at the University of Missouri-Forage Systems Research Center encompassed many aspects of plant-soil-animal interactions and provided the foundation for many of the basic principles of Management-intensive Grazing.

Today, with his wife, Dawn, he contract grazes a commercial cow-calf operation on 260 irrigated acres in Idaho. He has received awards from the American Forage and Grassland Council, Missouri Forage and Grassland Council, National Center for Appropriate Technology, USDA-NRCS, the Soil and Water Conservation Society and others. He is also an independent grazing lands consultant providing service to farmers and ranchers on both private and public lands across the USA and internationally.