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Lands Used Simultaneously for Crops and Livestock and Wildlife
Enchanted Acres, grass-pastured dairy, southeastern Minnesota
In collaboration with U.S. Fish and Wildlife on grassland bird
protection.
In the blufflands of southeastern Minnesota, a few miles from the Mississippi River, lives a farming family that cares almost as much about resident prairie birds as they do about their modest herd of carefully bred Ayrshire dairy cows. Owners Art and Jean Thicke prefer the Ayrshires because they are hardier, lighter in weight, and longer-lived than conventional Holsteins. By frequently rotating the herd between pastures, they can also maintain critical breeding habitat for many at-risk songbird species, such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, dickcissels, and savanna and vesper sparrows.
Unlike the Thickes' rotational pasture management approach, the meat and dairy livestock industry is dominated by confined, grain-fed systems. Awareness has been increasing about the value of more traditional pasture-based systems, for a variety of reasons: (1) sickness of animals from industrial confinement conditions; (2) pollution of waterways from untreated manure ponds; (3) health hazards to consumers and communities; (4) a dependence on antibiotics, growth hormones, and genetically engineered crops to maximize quantity over quality.
Grain-fed livestock production dominates U.S. agriculture with some devastating consequences. The majority of the top three U.S. crops-corn, soybeans, and hay-are largely dedicated to fattening livestock. In addition, an estimated 13 percent of the ocean's wild fish harvests are diverted to cattle rations. Midwestern prairies that hold the vast potential to support free-ranging livestock (and native game set amidst a matrix of grasslands, wetlands, savannas, and forests) have been converted into an ocean of corn and soybeans. The impacts of soil loss and chemical use in industrial monocultures are enormous. And more than a thousand miles away in the Gulf of Mexico, as a result of industrial corn and soybean production and concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFOs), excess nutrients draining into the Mississippi River have generated an 8,500 square mile "dead zone," almost completely depleted of marine life.
The Thickes' intensive rotational management system is based on maintaining a
balance between activity and rest. The 90 acres of hilly pastures on Enchanted
Acres have been divided into 42 grazing units, approximately 2-acres in size.
The 90-plus cows in the dairy herd are usually moved twice per day. By carefully
responding to changing conditions on the land, as well as to the pulses of
wildlife, the Thickes have created a stable ecosystem within which to make their
living as productive farmers. No chemical fertilizers or herbicides have been
applied to the pastures for 25 years, and the land hasn't been plowed in 15
years. And while alfalfa, corn, and soybean farms throughout the Midwest lose
topsoil to erosion on an annual basis, living pastures such as these keep soil
from washing away and preserve healthy hydrological cycles, much like the
prairies that sprang from the glacial silt deposits that characterize the
region's fairly fragile soils.
In fact, the Thickes have been operating their grass-fed dairy since long before "management-intensive" rotational grazing systems became popular. Their approach is based largely on intuition rather than prescribed management techniques, and the results are healthy animals that live a noble life among other species in the biological community.
Learn more about Enchanted Acres.
Go to Eatwild.com for more grassfed food facts and sources.
In this section. . .
Inspiring stories and replicable models of conservation-based agriculture.
The Malpai Borderlands Group consists of approximately two dozen landowners whose ranches span nearly a million acres in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.
Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon's Columbia Basin features undisturbed shrub-steppe habitat critical to a number of imperiled species, including ferruginous hawks, loggerhead shrikes, sage sparrow and Washington ground squirrel.
Partnering with land owners, local agencies, and other groups, Yolo County, California has an ambitious plan to create habitat linkages on public and private lands throughout this largely rural area on the boundaries of urban expansion.
Enchanted Acres, in southeastern Minnesota rotates pastures in order to maintain critical breeding habitat for many at-risk songbird species, such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, dickcissels, and savanna and vesper sparrows.
The Methow Valley Conservancy of northeastern Washington has negotiated more than 30 easements protecting over 3,000 acres of land.
Lava Lake Land and Livestock ranch in south-central Idaho has also adopted a non-lethal approach to controlling predators, which occasionally cause problems with the flocks.
