The Grazier’s Lawn

By Troy “The Grass Whisperer” Bishopp

In the Disney film, Beauty and the Beast, Mrs. Potts sings A Tale as Old as Time.

To me this refrain; a tale as old as time, also describes people’s fixation with maintaining a socially acceptable manicured lawn with beastly fuel-sucking equipment, hired grass-perts and a slew of scientifically proven chemicals, fertilizers and the latest and greatest seeds.  This economic, environmental and social saga is unfolding right now in watersheds all over the country.

 In the Chesapeake Bay Watershed alone, according to USGS Research Geographer, Peter Claggett, lawns and turf grass are now the largest crop grown in the Chesapeake Bay watershed – totaling more than 3.8 million acres covering a staggering 9.5% of the watershed's total land area.  Bay turf cover now exceeds total pasture cover (7.7%), hay/alfalfa acres (7.4%) and the acreage of row crops (9.2% -- corn, soybean, wheat) grown in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Consider the following factoids by the Chesapeake Stormwater Network in their fascinating 2010 report:  www.chesapeakestormwater.net/all-things-stormwater/the-clipping-point-the-grass-crop-of-the-chesapeake-bay-wate.html

-- The best estimate for how much nitrogen fertilizer is applied to lawns in the Bay watershed is nearly 215 million pounds per year. This is enough nitrogen to grow nearly 2 million acres of corn.                      

-- About 19 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients are used each year (mostly herbicides to kill otherwise fine-looking “weeds”). These pesticides are reaching local streams and rivers. According to USGS monitoring data, one or more pesticides were detected in 99% of urban streams, and one out of every five samples exceeded water quality standards to protect aquatic life.                                             

-- Summer lawn irrigation is calculated to suck nearly 7875 cubic feet per second (cfs) of river flow to Bay during the summer months. To put this amount of water consumption in perspective, it is roughly five times the combined summer flow of the Choptank, James, Monocacy, Pataspsco, Pamunkey, Patuxent and Rappahanock rivers in an average year.

--  Our compacted lawns produce a lot of extra runoff to the Bay. Our rough calculations suggest that it produces an extra storm runoff flow of 1244 cubic feet per second each day to the Chesapeake Bay.

--  Lawn/garden equipment is recognized as the second leading emitter of smog precursors in Maryland in the summer months, and is just a few percentage points behind cars and truck emissions.

                                                                                                                                                               The out-of-pocket cost to establish and maintain the Chesapeake Bay watershed grass crop is astonishing – nearly 5 billion dollars per year, which does not even include our free labor on the weekends (equivalent to 61,000 full time jobs). An estimated 6.1 million “grass farmers” and 50,000 lawn care workers exist in the watershed who collectively spend more than $600 million for fertilizers and chemicals alone. 

 The most eye-opening “clipping point” to me, is these millions of sod lovers may have the same environmental impact as real farmers but aren’t producing any food.

May I be so bold as to suggest these 3.8 million acres of carbon sinks could be a huge opportunity for the watershed with a little common sense and some holistic lawn care planning?  After all, concrete and blacktop don’t sequester very much rainfall or create organic matter.

I look at my piece of lawn as an extension of my pasture.  I want my sward to be diverse, biologically healthy, able to drink up and hold moisture, soft on the feet and not cost much to maintain.  Being from the country, I tend to see the beauty of a healthy lawn by how many birds I seem to attract to feast on the plump red wigglers.  It’s nothing to see Bluebirds, Robins, Wrens and rabbits frolicking together like school kids in my sea of green.

To get this utopian vista, I have a simple recipe:  Leave a taller residual when mowing and leave the clippings. When it gets hot, let the plants rest and get off the darn mower and go fishing with the kids, and stockpile your grass before frost to put energy in the roots for next season.   Its also not a bad idea to “read your lawn” to see how fast moisture soaks in, count your worm holes  and measure your litter index in building soil organic matter.  This monitoring helps me to know if I need to apply anything in creating the sustainable lawn I want.

I have to balance this holistic vision with my lawn-mowing father.  Mowing gives him joy and I would hate to deny him the relaxation of putting on his favorite hat and getting away from his desk to shear off the green tips of my fancy.  I only ask him, (and keep reminding him) to raise the cutter bar when he harvests my lawn for worm food and point the discharge away from our landscaping.

I want a healthy lawn because it’s not out of the question to use it to generate food, since we humans don’t assimilate the grass and clovers as well as a chicken, sheep or a cow would.  In fact, if we treated our little green friends and soil microbes to the economic engine of a chicken tractor mower we may not need all the inputs we can’t eat.  Not to mention, Chem-Lawn trucks can’t birth any offspring.

There is a scene I continue to dream would happen.  When the Food Network stars go to First Lady, Michelle Obama’s garden to harvest the veggies, they would also go to the Whitehouse lawn to harvest some eggs from the pastured poultry and milk the family D.C. cow to make some fresh presidential mozzarella.  The landscapers would be moving sheep and beefers with portable fences generating positive media by saving the country money, growing local food, building biological life in the soil and showing America     lawns can be more than just a patch of green concrete.

There is a line by James Dent that sums up the grass whisperer’s feeling on this subject; “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”              Published in Lancaster Farming 5/8/2011

by Troy Bishopp

There is something in a country boy’s DNA that yearns to capture the youthful exuberance of being back in the sandbox with a fleet of Tonka trucks and earthmoving equipment making garbled vroom-vroom sounds on your way to making the perfect construction site.  I had no fear of video game or texting carpal tunnel syndrome; didn’t need any special safety equipment or parental advice, although one would have to be particularly cautious around curious-looking mounds created by neighborhood felines. 

Yes, a boy and his pile of material and imagination was (is) a beautiful thing.

Fast forward to today’s smelly sandbox of dreams which has me on my annual destiny with excavating a winter’s worth of bedding pack manure from its tangled, intricate web of hay fibers as strong as steel to a waiting box spreader.  I’m sure many farmers can relate to the tenacity of dung welded by cow hooves over 4 months.  It’s not a job many relish, except for moi. 

There is no need for an alarm to start the day as the excitement of using a nice piece of equipment tickles this boy’s fancy.  With coffee in hand, I trek through the pre-dawn light to welcome a masterful vision of engineered iron, rubber and intricate hydraulics.  Borrowed from my landscaping neighbor, my new best friend in conquering the waiting pile of worm food is officially known as Bobcat, a truly American tenacious skid steer loader originally created by Minnesotan’s Cyril and Louis Keller in 1957 to get around inside poultry houses.

I entered its cockpit, clicked the seatbelt and brought down the safety bar as if I was going on an amusement ride.  I turned the key enough to see the colors flash as the glow plugs warmed and listened for the chirp which signaled it was ok to start the engine.  I lapsed for a moment into Captain Kirk of Star Trek as I throttled up on my way to “warp factor one, Mr. Sulu”.  My mind, hands and feet were giddy with all this sophistication and power to rip and tear at the putrid mass.

The fouled hay didn’t have a chance as I rolled up the blanket of nutrients and cut sections with surgical precision while zero-turning my way to loading the spreader in record time.  In literally 5 minutes, my childhood ecstasy was fulfilled and the machine shut down as I jumped on the tractor to haul nature’s fertilizer away to a hungry soil and an emerging grass sward.  It is my practice to rehabilitate one field a year and let it go fallow till after the birds have fledged their young and plow the prairie seed-bank back to the earth with mob stocked cattle late in July.

About the time my heart was swimming with warmth for seeing a pair of bluebirds romancing the adjacent grazing steers and seeing all that fertility nicely laid out, I was brought back to the reality of farming by the familiar “ping” of breaking steel.  Bummer!  Broken bed chain and ¾ full of manure no less.  Well on the bright side it wasn’t 20 below zero.  It is terribly humbling and smelly to fork off a load of poop while the consumer enjoys their bacon and eggs.  Worse yet, I know I will have to fix the chain and flights with my bare hands, and I only have the Bobcat for a day.  Some quandary huh?

Luckily Clinton Tractor is open till three on Saturdays, so I decided to improvise and get all the manure out of the buildings and pile on the blacktop which my old Case 430 tractor and loader could handle if needed. This strategy would allow me some quality machine play time---I mean work time.  Harvesting and piling big wads of twisted manure was child’s play for me and Bob.  I marvel at the design and ease of material handling as opposed to doing this by hand which my dad said gave us boys---character.  I do agree with my father that toil has its place but time for other things, say fishing, is important too.

I cleaned the pole barn and feeding/loafing area in record time (before 9am) and set my sights on a few other projects while I had the machine running.  Mr. Melrose and I moved some dirt, manicured a clogged stream culvert, popped over some pesky multi-flora rose bushes and brought some compost over to my wife’s garden all before noon.  It’s just a remarkable piece of ingenuity.

The chain had caught on a piece of rolled up steel underneath which required a Sawsall and sledgehammer persuader to straighten out and luckily all the tightening adjustment bolts were free.  My soon to be son-in-law, Travis, took my pickup to get parts, cause no-one wants a ripe, odorous, spreader fixin’ farmer at the store.  T bar spreader chain with welded flights are relatively easy to fix once you get everything cleaned up and freed up.  Since I was an obvious mess, I thought it fitting to give a fellow sandbox lover the joy of rekindling his passion for moving material from point A to point B with purpose this time.

From the tractor seat, I can appreciate the passing of the machine torch to another by the wry smile exhibited as he worked the pile with flawless poetry between joystick and foot pedals.  At one point when I hauled away his handiwork, you could see a man’s pride in subliming saying, “hey, that was nicely loaded pile of poop there.”  As the spreader of this dung heap, I can attest to his preciseness as the beaters laid out a nice uniform pattern equal to any professional truck fertilizer spreader. 

With the efficiency of today’s skidsteer loaders per gallon of fuel and the diversity of work they can perform, I could easily advocate for every farm having one.  However, I’m sorry to report that these are so efficient I have little use for a machine full-time.  I guess I’ll have to settle for the periodic rental of Bobcat when my hands and feet need tingling from my farm’s sandbox of dreams.

Published in Lancaster Farming 6/4/2011

by Troy Bishopp published in GRAZE May 2012

“The only essential is organic matter and the herbal ley is itself the best builder of humus and thus fertility, in the soil, and healthy productivity in the animal. This will render the farmer, independent of the use of artificial manures and restore the capital back to the landlord.” ~ Newman Turner

“Organic matter on the soil surface has the ability to collect from the atmosphere ‘aerosols’ containing phosphates and calcium and it is the best means of maintaining and increasing essential available nutrients in the top soil.” ~ Sir Albert Howard

Soil tests aren't always great motivators, but the ones I took in 2008 sure were. They showed stark organic matter differences between the paddocks up on the hill (2.5%) and the few behind the barn (5%). The results produced an insatiable appetite to change my grazing and land management in a way that I hoped would build healthier soils, plants, animals — and a healthier bank account.

At the same time, I was being exposed to a bunch of certified Holistic Management educators teaching ecosystem processes, Missouri grazier Greg Judy talking about tall/mob grazing and grazing consultant Jim Gerrish’s stockpiling techniques and our USDA-NRCS soil guy, Ray Archuleta, dunked soil clods in water to show us the power of biological glue in holding soil. 

This set in motion a plan to create soil fertility with grazing management, animal impact, hay feeding, biological monitoring and summer fallowing of problem paddocks. All of this was going to happen without any form of tillage and without compromising weight gains on the beef stockers I graze here.

Armed with a 12-month grazing planning chart, I experimented with longer rest periods (30-90 days instead of my previous 15-30 days), taller residuals, more frequent moves (up to three times a day, compared the previous average of every couple of days) and the art of trampling — all while grass-finishing steers. Man, did I waste a lot of grass in allowing those fatties "luxury" grazing. The change meant fewer head on my farm. But the grazing season was extended by 80 days and plant and overall biological activity soared, as did dung beetle numbers and wildlife goings-on. I monitored the fields by eye, camera, soil feel, recovery times and dart throws to the point of obsession.

Based on my nutrient management plan, each year a selected, low nutrient and organic matter paddock was fallowed until after the grassland birds had fledged (around July 20). This field had some or all winter hay feeding on it and in May with the grass coming on, I spread my bedding pack from my barnyard/sacrifice area on it.  People were scratching their heads as I was covering 8 inch grass with manure.  I then left it until the mob was sent out to graze and trample the prairie-tall forage into the substrate, which yielded a wickedly robust sward come September. I thought to myself how cool this will be for my organic matter numbers.

Planning for stockpiling forage to produce extended grazing is an art form in itself. It is all about balancing animal numbers with needed acres, timely rain and, admittedly, some luck around 60 days before the first frost.  I was willing to bet those well-rested roots were contributing to fertility by going deeper in the soil profile to extract minerals and slough off food for the microbes.

Stockpiling, coupled with pre-set bale grazing and rolling out hay (both out on pasture), achieved winter fertility transfer without tractors and manure spreaders.

After three years of this major management shift, I admit to having been worried about doing another soil test last fall. Would the numbers provide vindication, or scorn for my mentors and I? I could see and feel there was a distinct change in soil structure — especially in the heavily fallowed, mob-grazed field. But would this show up in the numbers?

I tried to be meticulous in taking the samples. On each of my 20 main paddocks (ranging from three to seven acres), I took double the recommended cores to a depth of six inches, mixed very thoroughly and let them air dry before I carefully packed them for sending to the Dairy One Lab in Ithaca, NY. I’m not gonna lie: I wasn't exactly comparing apples to apples. In 2008 I had cheapened out on the soil test, getting reports on the bare-bones NPK stuff, pH and organic matter. This time I wanted more, so I paid $500 to get a more in-depth profile.

Here’s what the tests showed. Total farm organic matter level rose from 3.4% to 4.6%, with an increased CEC average of 11.5. The pH went down slightly, to 6.4. Phosphorus is still very low (?), while potassium, calcium and magnesium are all high. Base saturation average values were as follows: K, 2.5%; CA, 69%; Mg, 18%; Na, 0.2%; H, 10%. Aluminum was 631, sulfur was 11 and boron was 0.8.  According to Jerry Brunetti’s soil report ideals, all these ppm/percentage numbers are in or near the ballpark.

The worst fields from 2008 are showing a glow of health especially in this early season.  They have more plant diversity and thickness, are greener and taller compared with other fields and provide season long vitality (more grazing days) especially in August which is typically our grazing bottleneck.  Another attribute is how much hoof action and flooding rains these swards can endure without truly pugging.

Am I going in the right direction based on my goals? I think so.

How to interpret these tests? My gut tells me to spend money on amendments, as are salespeople. But if my organic levels are increasing and soil biological life is flourishing, will these help me make more money? I can appreciate that numbers establish trends, but I think there are other factors that also warrant measurement, such as soil carbon levels, nitrogen fixation from legumes, diversity and depth of plant roots, the dynamics of organic matter and humus, and biological soil health tests.

I now realize how much I don’t know about my soils. However, I am inquisitive enough to be wondering how Mother Nature built such a resilient prairie ecosystem without salt fertilizers, grain, plows, GMO seed and risk management plans. And since I am certified organic now, I am learning that the more I replicate what works in nature with her kind of tools, the closer I can get to a truly regenerative system.  Now if I can just slow down long enough to observe it happening, instead of clouding the process with rash decision-making.

I can't get enough of NRCS's Soil Guy Ray Archuleta demonstrating the power of biological glue in the soil.  He did another powerful presentation at the 15th annual NW PA Grazing Conference that I attended.  He even showed worms dragging fodder into their holes.  Ya just got to get excited about a man's passion for soil health.  Watch this ten minute video and see why we have an infiltration problem not a runoff problem. 

http://vimeo.com/channels/raythesoilguy#20313109

Are you thinking about grazing today?

Join a grazing community and see why we have so much darn fun eating ice-cream, throwing darts and swimming in the grass with the livestock.

         All are welcome to attend a pasture walk at Green Heron Growers’ 100% grass fed beef and organic pastured poultry farm in Sherman, NY on Saturday, June 9^th from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM at 2361 Wait Corners Rd., Sherman, NY. For further information call Steve Rockcastle @ 585-615-7438. This walk is in cooperation with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County. We will have guest speakers Troy Bishopp aka The Grass Whisperer from Madison Co. Soil and Water Conservation District and Jerry Brunetti from Agri-Dynamics who will speak on forage quality and herd health.

Green Heron Growers is a 100% grass based operation using MIG (managed intensive grazing) practices with their cattle and mobile chicken tractors for their organic chicken broilers. We plan to walk the pastures, view the salad bar forages and review some pasture initiatives implemented for improving forage growth.  We will view a series of different spray applications done to the pastures using raw milk, mycorrhizae fungi, a combination of both and a control site for our evaluation.

         Green Heron Growers raises Devon and Devon Cross Steers and just recently purchased 5 cow/calf pairs containing Devon genetics from a farm liquidation herd to start raising his own stock through artificial insemination. Green Heron Growers is certified organic for 30 acres and has just recently obtained 15 additional acres, which is going through the organic certification process. Our goal is to build quality forage through incorporation of frost seeding legumes, no till seeding of perennial ryegrass and rotational grazing.

         This pasture walk is intended to be a learning experience for all participants, including the host. Troy Bishopp and Jerry Brunetti will be on hand to discuss opportunities for improvement, answer questions and give a brief presentation during lunch. Lunch will be provided which will include 100% grass fed burgers. If time allows or you would like to stay later, we will tour their 1400 log organic Shiitake mushroom operation.

Registration for this upcoming program is required to accurately plan for lunch and materials by contacting Lisa Kempisty, Cornell Cooperative Extension – Chautauqua County at 664-9502 Ext. 203 or e-mail ljk4@cornell.edu by June 5^th.

Plan to join us for this very informative pasture walk and discussion.

Grazing Management in the New Normal

By Troy Bishopp

Just Published in Spring 2012 Horizon Organic’s Producer Post Newsletter(robyn.nick@whitewave.com)

As a veteran grazier, I’m concerned about the phrases, “The 300 year flood, Peak Soil, Peal Oil, Climate Change and The New Normal” frequently heard in the news.  Should I discount them as just an anomaly or should I be planning on how this will affect my grazing operation?

For me, it boils down to a simple concept; keep the soil covered with perennial, highly diverse, biologically active pastures.  However it has taken me 48 years of farming to become a true believer and holistic planner in this.  It’s rather embarrassing to admit I missed this mark as a “yute” while continually being stumped by a grazing system always headed in the path of what Andre Voisin termed; untoward acceleration, where each successive grazing period provides less forage and the rest period is shortened until the rotation collapses.  Grazing Consultant, Jim Gerrish, says grazing too short is the biggest problem in production.

With hairline receding and the prospect of a sixth generation farming here, I found the “ah ha” moment I needed 12 years ago in a hurricane and in the mirror.  The forces came together after a long dry spell followed in earnest by a 5 inch rain.  As I flashed a picture of my swollen, muddy stream, I turned the lens to wipe off the rain and I caught my reflection, this was my fault.

This single event of losing topsoil put me on the path to become a better grazier and in turn a better land manager.  But I needed a better plan, more measuring and monitoring and long term goals.  I am lucky to live in an era with access to knowledge from influential grazing notables; Andre Voisin to Newman Turner, Darrell Emmick to Jim Gerrish and Allan Savory to Greg Judy to name a few.  This has led me to think about grazing in a more holistic, management-driven style predicated on a triple bottom line mentality and stop blaming the animals for over-grazing.

“Create the farm you want” is a quote I like in approaching the upcoming grazing season.  Like any good game of chess, it starts with a tactical plan. I start by planning (hypothetically) on my 12 month grazing chart (in pencil) before I go into Mother Nature’s domain, around specific financial, production, environmental and family goals.  I plan in recovery periods, certain grazing strategies for each field, expected dry matter intakes and plan back from major events such as my daughter’s wedding, droughty times, breeding, bluebird fledging, frost and stockpiling dates.  This futuristic decision-making and constant monitoring allows me to think deeply about what’s ahead and works nicely with my experience and gut feelings to make management changes sooner and level out the new normals of weather.

You’re probably thinking, easier to plan than to implement. But the impetus for the organic farmer is if you run out of grass you’re out of options.  We’ve got to get in the mindset that it takes grass to grow grass and stop being scared of wasting a little grass if you want top performance for your animals and soil.  I do agree that the forage should be trampled, harvested or clipped sixty days before the first frost to enable possible extended grazing of rested plants.

My observations over 26 years of grazing on our farm are this; rain now comes down in buckets and we need to catch it all for the uncharacteristic dry periods that are happening. On our farm, the shorter always vegetative sward of plant species of yesteryear has given way to a taller, more mature grazing style with a higher grazing residual (4”) and in turn longer rest periods, averaging 45 days for last season.  This has changed my naturalized sward into having a more prairie-like composition which have deeper, stronger roots and puts more litter on the ground to feed the soil microbes.

Having stronger, more vibrant plants has also increased our grazeable days by two weeks in the spring and two months in the fall.  This strategy in conjunction with stockpiling has raised our farm’s organic matter from 3.4% to 4.6% over the last three years which has essentially drought-proofed the farm while sequestering the big rain and adding resiliency to the whole farm system without buying expensive inputs.

I’ve been monitoring Brix levels of plants and the cows that eat them and continue to see higher energy levels in more mature swards later in the day especially in young blossoms and leaf tips.  To garner more of this production, I move animals 1/3 of an acre in the morning and 2/3 in the afternoon.  The difference can be 7 brix in the early morning and double that by 3pm.  Capturing this free energy just takes moving a fence.  I’m also hearing many farmers having good success spraying raw milk on pastures to raise the energy.

Grazing for energy and not towards Jerry Brunetti’s “funny proteins” has been a learning curve, but also good for the wallet as it takes less expensive grain and baleage to even out the animal’s diet and production.  At the same time it allows the plant roots to rest and add mass in the soil which stimulates soil life and increases water holding capacity.

Probably the most often overlooked questions of grazing management in the new normal are:  What are you managing towards and why?  Without tangible sustainable goals, you may fall prey to buying prescriptions that fix problems not address root causes.

In my humble opinion, making money from grazing is absolutely about keeping the soil surface covered with diverse swards and soil life collecting solar energy while sequestering moisture and carbon.  One only has to remember 2011 to see this is a great strategy for the future.

How do you get it done?  Create farm family goals that incorporate the triple bottom line, plan out in detail how to make these goals happen, question everything, measure and monitor progress often, join a mentoring team, record your results and most of all have fun honing your grazier’s eye because the world needs more pasture-based systems.

New 2012 12 month Grazing Charts ready for printing.

Hey Fellow Northeast Graziers

If you want to keep track of your grazing system better you might want to visit:

www.cnyrcd.org

and copy one of the PDF grazing charts and take it to your local print shop

so you can keep track of this year's grazing season, rest periods etc.

It will be the best 4 bucks you spend today.

What's a plan without monitoring?

Any Questions? drop me a note.

      "Greatly helps to comprehensively visualize patterns, glitches in past years, and recognize possibilities for future improvements."

"I can really see how the chart can be used to translate a farm's grazing plan into a "farmer friendly", easy to read and follow grazing schedule."

By Troy Bishopp

I suppose it’s a bit of a stretch for most guys to get out of production mode long enough to admit their emotional baggage, but I’m here, willing to take one for the team.

“Feelings are not supposed to be logical. Dangerous is the man who has rationalized his emotions,” said David Borenstein.

Upon thinking about this emotional affliction as I sift through my tax stuff and jottings of what happened back in 2011, it’s no wonder I feel drained. Instead of just rolling up poly-wire and moving cattle, more often than not, I used the pasture as a sanctuary to contemplate why I was continually drying my eyes.

I don’t mean to burden you with my emotional matters, but from conversations outside graduation ceremonies, college dorms, flood sites, forced retirement parties, grazing events, accident scenes and funeral homes, it’s apparent to me grazing has not been a priority for many.

And, yet, living in a farming community there is a sense of resiliency when we can share our tears of joy and anguish in hopes of getting back to square one and movin’ on.

I couldn’t have known what was going to transpire in 2011 after eating ice cream with Kim Seeley at his Milky Way Dairy Store in Troy, Pa., and finding out a week later it was destroyed by fire. Also in the mix was watching the endless loops of Japan’s tsunami and feeling helpless over the loss of thousands of people. I can really understand why many people don’t have a television.

The continual roller coaster effect kept chugging as I blew up our Case 430 tractor trying to move big round bales through the historic snowfall. In an ironic twist, one of the “grazing good guys,” Terry Gompert, died hours before famed scientist Don M. Huber exposed the hazards of Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide and GMO alfalfa at a conference Gompert chaired. And every farmer knows about the death of their favorite animal, which in my case was a heifer calf born upside down and backwards out in the pasture from our top cow.

It wasn’t long after this that my wife’s job in the corporate healthcare (we like to call an oxymoron) provider system ended. With their sponsored employee pizza parties, new cafeteria deep-fryer and healthy rewards program covering up the minion’s long hours at the computer and on the phones, she was forced to quit because of serious, stress-related health issues and a lack of agreement with the philosophy of top-down leadership.

The good news, however, was that gardening and spending time with daughters and grandkids relieved the health issues and filled the pantry. Should this be our new “Ofarmo-care” system?

I guess maturity would condone tears when they rolled down the face as our youngest daughter took the stage to graduate high school and again when we left her at the college dorm. The well-worn farm truck with its cassette player and cowgirl stickers was traded in for a cooler, more fuel-efficient car as the memories poured into a Kleenex. The ducts hardly had time to dry by the time my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in Seneca Lake Wine Country while at the same time a group of Amish farmers, on their way to learn about greenhouses, perished at the hands of a drunk driver.

There was no let-up in the emotion department as a drought, floods and a rare New York earthquake shook the resolve and wallets of many of my friends. While I fared all right in my own micro-grazing climate, a human storm of “integrity assault” took its toll on my already sore eyes. I guess when you’re in the public opinion eye of promoting perennial poly-cultures and regenerative agriculture it goes with the territory, but being called juvenile and unscientific, stupid and ignorant of the 590 standard issue and being accused of harming a farmer because they adopted a certain grazing strategy really hurt.

This tumultuous time helped me realize that speaking, writing, demonstrating and going against the status quo has consequences, but it also has taught me a fair amount of humility and who the real deals are out there. This was a great experience in reevaluating my goals and contribution to agriculture, while getting used to folks with different perspectives and power structure rarely saying, “I’m sorry,” when in the wrong. It certainly taught me integrity, transparency, hard work and keepin’ it real are values I’m willing to go to the mat for.

With the autumnal equinox approaching, I relived the ringing bells and readings at the 9/11 Memorial dedication ceremony, bringing 10 years of closure for many of us. It wasn’t long after this that I got a call from my good friend, Karl, who with a stiff upper lip said, “Mike’s been in a horrific tractor-trailer accident and the cab was crushed beyond recognition.” All I could say was, “Not now. We’ve already had way too much tragedy.” All I could do was pray there would be a miracle.

If you’ve been following this story so far and your heart is heavy with concern that I have treaded into a sense of melancholy, have no fear. Prayers have been answered in many diverse ways.

For Mike, his miraculous survival and consequent “walking” at our winter pasture walk, despite having a leg filled with titanium, has truly inspired me. The Milky Way Farm Dairy Store is poised for a grand opening soon. And my wife found a new job (part-time) and her passion for raising vegetables again.

Beef prices are at an all-time high, the farm truck is still tooling around the neighborhood and we will be blessed with our middle daughter, Lindsay’s, wedding to a farmboy (of course) while having our oldest daughter, Sarah, her husband, Carlos, and the grandkids around this spring frolicking with baby chicks, calves and piglets.

As you contemplate this latest muse, I’d like to share one last sniffle.

On Dec. 17, 2011, I once again found myself at a West Winfield, N.Y., funeral home. This time we honored former dairy farmer, longtime family friend and Deansboro native Alan Blatt, who mercifully was called to lie down in green pastures after a long struggle battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

As I sat there thinking and mourning over the emotional events of 2011, words from his daughter, Roxanne, pierced my agrarian heart.

“I have never been prouder to be a dairy farmer’s daughter,” she proclaimed.

She explained his gentleness, drive, integrity, love of pranks and college basketball and that he never said a cross word to her in his life. “He is noble,” she said. Boy, she really hit home with that phrase.

She uttered these most powerful words that gave me solace, healing and hope that the Lord will provide in our greatest hour of need:

“When we bury him today, he will become part of the soil that feeds the roots of the trees and part of the air that warms the spring to coax the buds from the branches. When the snow melts, his spirit will stir the corn planted in the field and rush through the first breath taken by a newborn calf. His body has died, but his spirit has returned to the source of every miracle — all love and life.”

Thanks for listening.

Published in Lancaster Farming 2/25/2012

By Troy Bishopp

Latham, NY— Farmers from nine states were treated to a menu of gourmet grazing topics with entrees that included teaching cows to eat weeds, no-risk ranching, microbe farming, building a brand for your farm and profitably raising sheep garnished with a visual bonanza of the Wye Angus herd.

Knowledge aside, farmers built friendships over “graze-a-licious” local meals and an accompanying chocolate fountain of happiness prepared by The Century House’s Executive Chef, Michael Niccoli.  This garnered hearty praise indeed, with many saying, “It was the best food of any conference venue”.

Eddie Draper, Program Manager of the Wye Angus Farm at the University of Maryland started off the two-day grazing program with a fascinating history of the Wye Plantation (from 1938 until now) which made cattleman, ooh and ahh with appreciation for this fine breeding program.  He showed in pictures, revered cow families and their progeny started by the late Mr. Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. and Farm Manager, James B. (Jim) Lingle who founded the closed herd with 18 registered yearling heifers and one bull.  The success of this lineage was chronicled in Mr. Lingle’s book, The Breed of Noble Bloods where Mr. Houghton’s philosophy in breeding quality cows was to create a “chambermaid’s face with a cook’s hindquarters”.   

The rest they say is history….

Self-proclaimed animal behaviorist and champion trainer of weed (forage) eating cows, Kathy Voth, got the audience tapping their toes and mouths cringing with a funny ditty introducing everyone to the idea of cows eating thistles, knapweed and making peace with weeds. The training focuses on 4 strategies:  Know your plants, choose the right animals to train (preferably younger ones), reduce the fear of new foods and practice in the pasture.    

“I got inspired to teach farmers, ranchers and their animals after the death of several firefighters in a blaze that swept through invasive un-managed understory.  I just felt I had to do something so I developed a natural weed management training program.  And low and behold, weeds are highly nutritious and provide diversity in the diet, said the Department of the Interior’s National Conservation Service Award winner.  My goal is to help farmers and ranchers become more profitable by helping them use their livestock's natural behavior as an inexpensive alternative for managing weeds and other vegetation.” To learn more about the training regime go to www.livestockforlandscapes.com

Ontario County’s Cornell Cooperative Extension Educator, Jim Ochterski, enlightened the crowd on how to make more money by learning to brand your farm and message.  “It’s all about feelings”, said the media mogul.  He took the group through an interactive exercise where everyone could figure out and write down words, phrases and philosophies that were important in portraying their businesses to the public.  He said, “Now put the date on top, take it home, refine it and get busy telling the world about your great products and farms.”

The evening dinner was a 5 star, white tablecloth event worth the conference admission itself.  The extravaganza made grazier’s mouths water and eyes light up as Executive Chef, Michael Niccoli and his top notch staff put together a family style feast which highlighted conference co-organizer, Morgan Hartman’s Black Queen Angus grass-finished beef.  The hand carved meat selections included:  Espresso & chili rubbed rib roast, wine & worchester marinated tenderloin and brown sugar seared strip-loin all paired with homemade bourbon barbecue and gorgonzola cream sauces.  The word, “incredible”, was uttered several times.

On day two, the “Missouri Microbe Messiah”, notable author of No Risk Ranching and Comeback Farm and dedicated mob grazier, Greg Judy, took the audience on a whirlwind tour traversing between multi-species grazing techniques and leasing land successes to creating abundant soil life and big buck habitat with high density grazing.  “I used to manage my pastures by the Columbus method; turn them out in the spring and discover them in the fall.  I’ve since learned holistic, planned grazing management is the key to our whole farm success,” said Greg.

His presentations on making a living from the land without owning it and grazing management strategies where full of Judy-isms:  “Control the land, not own it, manage like you own it, farming without a tractor forces me to be a better manager, build quality perimeter fences first, cattle can walk to water, never hide mistakes, clean farms make great future landowner sales tools, plan out your grazing, herd effect heals land, mob grazing stimulates wildlife, build soil with animals, focus on litter to feed microbes, keep a can-do attitude and have fun.”

Ulf Kintzel from White Clover Sheep Farm in Rushville, N.Y rounded out the highly touted program in his own rite by describing the successes and challenges of managing a flock of 250 White Dorper sheep.  Using his impeccable comedic timing he related his personal experiences in working with herd dogs, parasite control, lambing, extending grazing on neighbor’s land, marketing and living a happy life on the farm with his family.  “The most important thing for me and not lose sleep is to never run out of grass.”

As host and co-organizer Tom Gallagher from Albany County Cornell Cooperative Extension thanked everyone for attending, it was heard throughout----Grazing knowledge never tasted so good.

The 2012 Winter Green-Up Grass-Fed Conference was sponsored and supported by Albany County and Capital Area Agriculture and Horticultural Programs of Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Northeast SARE, NYS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, The Century House, Adirondack Solar, Animal Welfare Approved, Cunningham Fence, Eat From Farms.com, Farm Credit East ACA, New York Angus Association, New York Beef Industry Council, NYS Dept. Ag and Markets Crop Insurance Education Program, Sustainable Genetics, LLC/Black Queen Angus Farm, LLC, Skyview Fencing and Pole Barns and SUNY Cobleskill Meat Lab with special thanks to Bar None Ranch, Spring Lake Farms, West Wind Acres, Morgan Hartman, Adventures in Trading, Sous Chefs Amy Krause, Eric Novack, Eric Bolton and Schuyler and the gang.    Published in Lancaster Farming 2/10/2012