Regenerative Agriculture

Reviving The Land Using Animal Impact

The soil is a living ecosystem made up of a group of cycles: the energy cycle, the mineral cycle, the carbon cycle, the microbial cycle, and the water cycle. 

These cycles are what keep soil alive; every cycle must be healthy and working for this ecosystem to function. If one of these cycles is broken, the whole ecosystem will crumble. Damaging one of these systems is relatively easy; for example, when chemicals are used on the land, it is detrimental to all the microbial life. Over time, all the microbes die, and that cycle is lost. Without that cycle, the soil suffers.

 Now, when livestock graze on the land, leaving behind manure and urine, there is nothing to decompose it and bring it to the plant’s roots. The plants don’t receive the nutrients they need from the manure, and they start to decline in health. As the plants start to be deficient in the necessary nutrients, they start to thin out and expose the soil to the sun’s heat. As the soil gets hotter, the water evaporates out of the soil. With the water cycle now damaged, the entire ecosystem dies and becomes no longer a living medium.

We manage our land in a way that benefits our ecosystem as a whole and keeps each cycle alive. We have seen a drastic improvement in our soil and grasses, even from just maintaining the land in this way for a couple of years. We regulate our animals’ movements by rotating them daily around the pastures, not letting them stay in one spot for more than a day. With constant moving and long rest periods, our soil can recover, decompose the manure, and take it directly to the roots of the plants. Our grasses are establishing strong roots that aid them in reaching the moisture in the soil when the weather is dry.

The amount of minerals in our soil is slowly improving as well as we have been giving our sheep Free Choice buffet-style minerals, allowing them access to any minerals that aren’t available in our soil. Once they ingest a mineral, it is then deposited back out on the land with the manure, where it is taken into the ground and next into the grass by way of their roots. Over time, the soil is no longer deficient in those minerals, and the sheep can get all of them straight out of the grasses.

Our animals have become healthier and more vigorous off the land alone. The soil really is a massive living ecosystem that, when healthy, gives life to all the organisms that live on it.

Although it isn’t easy to rotate animals every day in this way, it requires dedication and a driving passion to see the land healthy and flourishing. This is our mission, and we are determined to keep this land living and improving forever.