Episode Four - Beyond Livestock: Animals in Regenerative Agriculture
Discuss
The title for this episode of Grounded Hope is “Beyond Livestock.” What does the title mean to you? In what ways does regenerative agriculture regard animals as more than livestock?
Don Hartley describes cattle and chickens as having a “symbiotic relationship” in regenerative systems. How does this symbiosis work? What are the benefits for cattle? for chickens? for farmers? for consumers?
Like Amish farmers, Ralph Rice is committed to working with horses. How does this practice shape his approach to farming? Why does he think “horse-power” is “good for us”?
What makes bison a “keystone species” for prairie ecosystems? How does their behavior support biodiversity on the prairie?
In order to restore the prairielands at Darby Plains, Columbus MetroParks had to revert agricultural lands to conservation usage. Do we have to choose between these two land-use patterns? How could a regenerative approach resolve the tension between them?
Listen
WorkingCows.Net is a weekly podcast devoted to regenerative practices on the land, including a terrific resources page.
Watch
Regenerating the Earth with Goats, Sheep and Teens. One family’s take on using ruminants to regenerate the land.
Rotational Grazing and Regenerative Agriculture with Livestock from Anne of All Trades.
The Wallace Center at Winrock International has created Adaptive Grazing 101, a series of short videos covering every aspect of regenerative cattle grazing.
Read
Links
Animals Heal the Land in Regenerative Agriculture (from Hobbyfarms.com)
A veterinarian’s take on regenerative agriculture:
https://veterinary-practice.com/article/regenerative-agriculture-a-wildlife-vets-perspective
Reginaldo Haslett-Morroquin, the author of In the Shadow of Green Man (2018), shares his thoughts on regenerating the poultry industry:
https://regenerationinternational.org/2018/05/01/changing-world-one-chicken-time/
Books
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) made the egg mobiles on Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm famous. Salatin’s own account is in Pastured Poultry Profit$ (1995).
Wendell Berry’s classic The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977), provides a critical account of traditional and modern farming methods, including reflections on “horse-powered” agriculture. Norman Wirzba has collected Berry’s agrarian essays in The Art of the Commonplace (2018).
Ralph Rice’s collection of essays, Cultivating Memories, is available from Mischka Press. He blogs at RicelandMeadows.
Ohio farmer David Kline provided a foreword to Stephen Leslie’s Horse-Powered Agriculture for the 21st Century (2015).
Richard Manning’s Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie (1995) provides a full account of bison as a keystone species on prairielands.
Do
Build a chicken tractor
If you would like to try keeping a few chickens and have a small backyard, this is the easiest “chicken tractor” I have seen. This is great for moving them around on grass during the day and for during the warmer months. You will want to have some type of coop attached for colder weather and shelter. Here are some other chicken tractor plans using PVC pipe.
Dyeing Eggs
Try natural dyes for dyeing eggs. This is a wonderful way to learn more about plants, chemical interactions, and botanical dyeing. Experiment with white eggs as well as brown eggs and see what different colors you can create. Here is a great website for dyeing eggs naturally.
Eat
For your eating enjoyment: A chicken recipe, a bison recipe, and an egg recipe to try!
Chicken
For the best roasted chicken you may ever eat, try this recipe from Nosrin Samhat’s Salt, Fat, Acid Heat.
Bison
Have you ever had a bison burger? So much more taste than beef and because most bison are raised on grass, the (good) Omega 3 content is much higher. Here is a great recipe to try!
Egg
Toad-in-the-hole: two versions
American version
https://lilluna.com/toad-in-the-hole/
English version
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/classic_english_toad_in_the_hole/
Try using bison sausage for the pork sausage “bangers” in this recipe.