Ten Reasons Why All Farmers Should Raise Livestock BY LAURA PAINE
Aldo Leopold is one of my favorite ecological thinkers. Leopold was an internationally recognized ecologist and conservationist who lived and worked all over the world, but whose work was particularly inspired by the landscape of the farm he owned along the Wisconsin River. Although I grew up in the corn country of central Illinois, I was drawn as a young adult to this landscape and have made Wisconsin my home for going on 40 years. Over those 40 years, I have watched the agriculture of each of these two adjacent states evolve in very different directions, largely as a result of livestock. From a shared history of diversified livestock and cropping agriculture, Wisconsin evolved toward dairy and Illinois evolved toward cash grain, with profoundly different ecological results. Leopold argued for a holistic view of conservation that placed humans and our animals squarely within the ecosystem. He said, “The farm is a place to live. The criterion of success is a harmonious balance between plants, animals, & people; between the domestic & the wild; between utility & beauty.” Over the decades, agriculture has forgotten this premise and followed a… “self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism” where “The farm as a food factory and the criterion of success is salable products.” Livestock are one of the most effective tools for returning to that harmonious balance and farming for land health. Using the contrasting agriculture of Wisconsin “Mother earth never attempts to farm without livestock. She always raises mixed crops, great pains are taken to preserve the soil and to prevent erosion; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted to humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; ample provision is made to maintain large reserves of fertility; the greatest care is taken to store the rainfall; both plants and animals are left to protect themselves against disease.” Sir Albert Howard
and Illinois, I’ll illustrate at least 10 reasons why every farmer should include livestock in their system.
1) Mother Nature Farms with Animals
biomass and organic matter is high. 5) Mineral cycles and nutrient exchange in the community is slow. 6) They have high tolerance to ecological disturbances. What role do livestock have to play in such a system? A large one! Many ecologists view the role of ruminants in the earth’s ecosystems as pivotal. The plant kingdom plays its role by covering every square meter of the earth’s surface with living plants to maximize the capture of sunlight. It is the job of ruminants to process this vegetation (an estimated 19 billion metric tons per year from grasslands alone) to make energy and nutrients more readily available to other life. This pivotal step in the food web makes ruminants a key energy broker
Sir Albert Howard captured the importance of livestock in agricultural systems in his 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament. In it, he expresses one of the foundational principles of organic and regenerative agriculture. The template for ecologically sound, efficient, regenerative farming is modeled in nature. If we pattern our farming systems as closely as possible to the natural ecosystem, we are more likely to benefit from the synergies and mutual relationships that make natural systems so efficient. We’re not looking to maximize yield or profit; we’re looking to optimize the functioning of our farm ecosystem. Nature’s farming system creates a diverse stable community of plants and animals that efficiently captures the sun’s energy, cycles nutrients and conserves water. Across the planet, she has created climax ecosystems that are exquisitely Drew Votis is one of DGA’s first graduates. Drew and Ashley are returning suited to the climate to restart their family’s long idled dairy near Green Bay, Wisconsin. and soils of the location where they are found. Every niche for earth’s ecosystem. So in order to make the is filled; every resource is used and recycled best use of livestock in our agricultural system, over and over again. The agriculture of the we have to stop feeding them human food (we Corn Belt with its emphasis on annual crops is currently feed about 40% of our grain production an invitation to nature to fill in the gaps—the to livestock) and put them to work doing what empty niches—and to move the system back they do best: consuming vegetation that we (and toward the stable tall grass prairie that once other omnivores and carnivores) can’t eat and existed here. The more we can shape our turning it into something we can eat. agroecosystems in nature’s image, based on what nature ‘wants to be’, the less energy 2) Capture More Sunlight and resources we expend trying to stop the Farming is fundamentally about harvesting inevitable process of succession. sunshine, so if we farm with the goal of So what are the characteristics of Mother maximizing the capture of the sun’s energy Nature’s farm? Ecologists tell us that all climax on our land, then all subsequent steps in the ecosystems share these characteristics: chain of production will have more to work with. 1) They have high species diversity. Annual cropping systems that dominate in my 2) The plant community is mostly perennial. neighboring state of Illinois, are one big missed 3) Transfer of energy is in the form opportunity when it comes to capturing the of complex food webs, not simple sun’s energy. On 21 million acres of Illinois soil, food chains. crops are planted in May and ready to harvest 4) Net community production is low, while CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship
Re-Greening the Corn Belt—
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