FARM PHILOSOPHY
Healthy soil, nutritious food, fulfilling life.
GOALS
We view our land as an ecosystem that we steward. Our focus is to accomplish the following:
Improve soil health/fertility
Increase pasture density/diversity
Reduce off-farm inputs
Harness natural tendencies of plants/animals to do the work for us
CONSIDERATIONS
We DON’T use:
Herbicides
Pesticides
Growth Hormones
Antibiotics
Any chemical fertilizers
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We DO use:
Intensive pasture management techniques
Organic chicken feed
Lot and lots of natural fertilizer (poop)
MANAGEMENT
Regenerative Agriculture is a farming method that focuses on improving soil health through the integrated management of numerous species of plants and animals, often on the same patch of land. Rather than deplete the fertility of the soil over time, these methods increase it, allowing for increasing density and duration of utilization.
Intensive grazing, a key practice in restorative agriculture, allows our animals to forage fresh, diverse pastures, while simultaneously giving the remaining paddocks time to recovery after grazing. We use mobile electric fencing to move our flock of sheep daily, followed by our mobile hen house acting as clean-up crew. With this approach, we have yet to need any type of chemical dewormer or drenching solution on our sheep, and only need our animals on hay 2-3 months out of the year.
No-till permanent beds in our garden are another cornerstone of our agricultural approach. Through proper crop rotation and companion planting, we have yet to need any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides.
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While we have a lot to learn, we are happy thus far that our management methods are in alignment with our goals and intended outcomes.