Four-legged Landscaping

I got educated this afternoon by Lew in one of our back pastures while moving cows. What cows, you might ask?  About six weeks ago, Your Farmers @ Miller's added eight head of cattle to the farm as our newest adventure.  The bovine boys and girls settled into their new home rather nicely; I'm sure it doesn't hurt that they are moved to fresh grass every afternoon.  A mobile electric fence keeps them in their place (at least most days!).

Which leads me to this afternoon...  Every afternoon Lew heads out to the back pasture to set up the cows' new paddock of fresh grass and herd them onto it. Today I joined him.  And like previous times, Lew took the opportunity to educate me on grass, its importance to the agricultural food chain, and the astounding low-tech phenomenon of grazing. 

Grass, you see, is elemental in sustainable agriculture; it is the initial "crop" of an ecologically diverse farm.  The herbivores (and omnivores) on the farm eat the grass and benefit from its nutrients.  And a healthy, diverse "grass-culture" can only result from healthy, aerated soil.  The pasture that our cows are eating through is a mix of orchard and crab grasses (and other weeds) that had grown rather high.  Eventually high grasses choke off the new growth underneath; so high grass must be dealt with. It can be cut (combined is the farmer term) and bundled into bales to be used as food. The cutting also causes a layer of thatch to cover the field providing protection for the new grasses poking through. 

The alternative to cutting/baling the grasses (and often subsequent re-seeding of the field)is grazing.  And that is exactly what our cows are doing.  They eat the choice seed-laden pods at the top of the high grass with their big, flappy lips (dropping some of those seeds on the ground to germinate and produce the next grass crop).  They also knock down the thatch-y stalks of the grass with their hefty four legs.  Thus the effect of grazing is much like combining--the pasture is gradually cut down, re-seeded and left with the protective thatch cover which encourages an even thicker covering of grass in the field.  Not to mention, their manure is chock-full of nutrients that the pasture's soil needs to produce another healthy crop of grasses.  Each day, as Lew moves the cows from one well-eaten paddock to the next fresh one, he's putting the cows "to work" as our resident landscapers. (And the cows think it's just chow time!)  And what's even better is that while the cows are eating and working on the health of our pastures, they're also growing so that at some point in the future we'll be able to sell them for their meat!

That's just the tip of the sustainably diverse agricultural ice berg.  Why not visit us on a weekend from Sept 25th to Oct 31st for a guided tour of the Farm?  You can pepper Lew with questions about the ecology of grasslands--I'm confident he'd love to tell you more!

In defense of grass and flappy-lipped bovine landscapers we remain,
Your Farmers @ Miller's Orchards