In my view there is really only one thing each one of us should be doing to fight “Global Warming” and that is building soil. Beyond each one of us creating a “Carbon Footprint” we all take an enormous toll on the global supply of top soil. To rectify this, and to address our “Carbon Footprint” at the same time, we should be managing what ever plot of land we are overseers of. In my case, that involves using livestock. Far from being the Global Warming Gas Bags the pundits claim, ruminant livestock fed a predominantly grass-based diet actual aids in sequestering far more carbon than their methane offsets. Not only this, but manure from grass fed livestock is much more beneficial for the soil than chemical fertilizers, and allows us to grow far more plant matter and soil structure–all with the benefit of trapping even more carbon. If Governments would pay farmers carbon credits for the hard work they are doing in this field (pun very intended), so much would be done to redress the injustices committed against farmers, everyone would be lining up to work the land. Furthermore, all this can be done without tractor, plow, or diesel.

At heart I am a lazy farmer. Or perhaps not a lazy farmer, but farmer who is so busy doing other things, he has little time for unnecessary work. To that end I employ a whole team to do my work for me. A team, which doesn’t involve payroll, employment schemes or holiday bonuses–unless you count putting an extra salt-lick out in the field during the winter. . . . For you see, my farm’s labor force is animal based, with some help from my, thankfully, human children. Now, although I strive to be as Organic as possible, I don’t believe in the term anymore now that the Government and Industrial Agriculture has co-opted it. So rather than slavishly apply the rules of a system which has largely become meaningless other than in a marketing sense, I prefer to use common sense and as little chemical input as possible on my farm. Here is where the livestock perform their first, vital job–fertilization. After that comes the next crucial role–bio-security. Yup, that’s right. My animals are my first line of defense against a host of diseases and problems commercial farmers spend countless hours and cash fighting every day. By grazing diverse species of livestock over the same ground, at different times, parasite levels fall off dramatically. In addition, my hardworking employees are constantly helping me improve the quality of their feed–the more they graze their pastures, the better the pastures become and the higher quality the feed–how’s that for an employee benefit program?

  In my small scale example of rotational pasture farming I move my cattle though a field first. They manure the land and graze the grass down from 6 or 8 inches or so down to about 4 inches. They eat the sweetest and best tasting grasses first. Then I move them on. Next follow the sheep. They prefer to eat grass 4 inches or shorter–way hey! And, as they are a terminal host for many cattle parasites (just as the cattle are terminal hosts–meaning the pest dies in them–for many sheep diseases) they help cleanse the pastures. In addition, to allow the paddocks in the fields to recover and grow well I only graze them once every 30 days or so, which also allow the sun, wind and rain to kill diseases. If I now add chickens to this mix I can clean up all sorts of other problems. The chickens love to rummage through the manure patties and spread them around–who needs a manure spreader or fertilizer applicator any more? In doing so, they not only work the nutrients into the soil and aerate things, but they also eat the fly larvae and bugs which greatly afflict cattle and sheep. With very few exceptions the chickens don’t catch anything the cattle or sheep might have. Win-Win-Win.

On the other side of the farm I’ve got the heavy machinery at work–no, I don’t mean diesel glugging JCB’s or tractors. I’m referring to my crack team of profit making land movers–my pigs. I use pigs for clearing land to make more pasture, for tilling the gardens every now and again, and for breaking the disease cycle on the pastures. By putting the pigs out in the pastures every now and again, they not only get a busman’s (or would that be a bus-hog’s?) holiday from excavating and earthwork, they get a romp and all the cow pats they can eat. Yup. Disgusting as that sounds, the pigs’ favorite treat is cow pie. It’s only the undigested fibrous matter of the grasses that went into the fertilizer factories ( I call my cattle Moo-ers, get it. . .Mowers of Grass. . .) 18 hours before. These cow pies are rich in Vitamin B-12 and lots of other micro-nutrients the pigs crave. No costly supplements on this farm, just good soil, fresh air, sunshine and grass.

Oh and all that ground the pigs were turning over? Not only was it feeding their efficiency, they were also breaking ground for more crops. So far I have seeded Barley, Wheat, Rye, and pasture grasses in land the pigs have turned over. The barley has gone on to feed the pigs, the sheep and chickens. After moving the pigs through an area once, early in the spring, I also planted sunflowers, turnips and clover which they harvested themselves later in the summer. With another batch of pigs at another time, I’ll let them till their own corn field and then allow them to harvest the corn once it’s all grown. They can keep the proceeds of their harvest and the cows can clean-up all the corn stalks and leaves the pigs leave behind in their desire to make a quick profit on their endeavor.

All this activity and I haven’t broken the bank for the three F’s–feed, fertilizer or fuel. Neither have I had to repair a broken plow, disc or back-hoe–I just hate getting grease under my fingernails. . . .In fact, I don’t own any of those traditional farm implements, and I only borrow a tractor when I need it to move something heavy or to make hay. In all of this, I have contributed very little to so-called Global Warming and have done even more at creating a carbon sink–a sort of negative carbon footprint. Not bad for such a lazy farmer.

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