It's All About The Grass
At root, all farming is just harvesting sunlight. On our mountain land, where soil, crops, and tractors alike tend to slide off the rolling hillsides, pastures are what stay and thrive.
To keep our land at its peak, we use Management Intensive Grazing (MIG), a system where cows are allowed on a specific paddock for only a short time. This keeps the grass young, succulent, and nutrient-rich while also causing it to develop deeper roots. That means less erosion, more resilience, and more organic matter -- which also means our pastures sequester more carbon from the atmosphere, doing their part towards helping with climate change.
MIG also keeps our perennial pastures diverse. In farming, as elsewhere, diversity's not just a buzzword; unpredictable mountain weather makes keeping a range of grasses with a range of tolerances for heat, cold, wet, and drought essential. Ryegrass, clover, plantain, chicory and brassicas are just a few of the species that make our pastures strong all season. We use fertilizers sparingly, preferring to lean on good management and our natural source of fertilizer... the cows.
