By Jim Goodman
Recently I was reading Tom Hayden’s book Irish On The Inside and his speculation that the Irish character contains the seeds of rebelliousness rather than conformity, idealism rather than materialism and communal ethics rather than individualistic ones. I’d agree with that. I also think in these times we all need to be a bit more rebellious and do the right thing.
In 1848, my great grandfather, apparently having had enough of the Great Hunger in Ireland (and British rule, I suspect), left Ireland and bought a small patch of wilderness in SW Wisconsin. We still farm that land today although over the years the farm has grown and, of course, changed considerably.
Former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told us in the 70’s that we needed to “get big or get out”. My wife and I tried getting big but didn’t much care for it, and really didn’t want to get out, so we got small again, started marketing locally and went back to organic farming methods. We still milk 45 Holsteins and run them on pasture. We sell direct market beef at the Farmers Market in Madison and try to advocate a food system that is local, healthy, fair, affordable and green.
Spring should be here soon, for the sun is getting more direct, the snow is receding, sort of, and the melt water is starting to move into places we may not want it: basements, cattle yards, through the barn walls. The price of spring, I guess, but after looking at nothing but snow for nearly four months, the sight of that winter wheat, when it shows up, will be welcome. It will be so green when the snow melts off and, like the Inuit’s first glimpse of the sun in the high Arctic, we will know that life will begin again.
Having lived on stored feed and spending most of the last four months indoors, the cows are telling me they need to kick up their heels. I will be glad to have them out; cows should be on pasture, but unfortunately, that is not a year-round option in Wisconsin. As soon as the frost is out of the ground and most of the mud is gone, I will open the gates, put a wagon of feed out for them and turn them loose.
The cows will spend the first day mostly running around, kicking up clods of mud and challenging each other in head butting. Shaggy, shedding their winter coats and panting, they stretch out flat on their sides, perhaps thinking of the endless summer, the warm sun and green grass that for them stretches out into days far beyond their comprehension.
While our cows will soon be out grazing, doing what cows have always done, studies show that in Wisconsin only about 25% of the dairy cows will be out on pasture. The rest, whether on smaller-sized farms or in larger herds of hundreds or thousands will be kept inside, or at best confined in dirt lots with no grass and little freedom to move around. The theory behind this folly comes from years of research that apparently indicates it is more “efficient” to harvest feed for your cows rather than let them harvest their own. Efficiency, of course, is measured in short-term profits, not the cows’ well-being or the farm’s long-term sustainability.
Dairy cows in other states probably have similar experience with lack of pasture access, especially cows in the West– California, Arizona, etc. Even organic cows are not always allowed the “access to pasture” required for organic certification. Some large factory-style dairies, like Aurora in Colorado, manage to skirt the USDA organic pasture requirements; so much for ethical organic farming. (See the editor’s note.)
Cattle, like people, need exercise, fresh vitamin rich food and sunshine. The chance to walk around on dirt is necessary as well;walking around on concrete all day is just not a very natural experience for man or beast. In a past life, I confess, I kept my cattle inside year round; I was told to do so by industry professionals and university researchers. It was what “progressive” farmers did. In hindsight, those experts were wrong. I can say with confidence that the most significant thing I have ever done to improve the health and comfort of my cattle was putting them back on pasture, no doubt about it.
There is no question that not only does pasture make cattle healthier, but as research has shown, the meat and dairy products produced by pasture cattle can contain from three to five times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than products from animals fed conventional diets. Pasture cattle also show higher levels of Vitamin E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids. So, pasture is good for cattle and for people.
One does not need to be an agricultural scientist to realize that cattle can harvest their own feed much more efficiently than a farmer could. Cows on pasture don’t need machinery, their carbon footprint is pretty low, they like it better and, as an advocate of Masanobu Fukuoka’s “do nothing farming” model, it suits me just fine. Fukuoka felt that doing as little as possible, i.e., relying on natural systems and intervening in nature only as necessary, was the best way to farm. Smart man.
This will be an interesting year. Fuel may hit $4.00/gallon soon. Fertilizer and crop chemical prices will be high and I can’t help but think the low-input farmers will have a better chance to survive. While I will have to harvest and store feed for next winter, I think it only makes sense to let my cattle harvest their own feed this summer. The hilly terrain in the Driftless area is much more conducive to growing grass than to the corn/soy rotation we are supposed to be getting rich on.
We need to think in a rational manner: stop farming fence row to fence row, stop this senseless mining of the soil to produce commodity crops for energy and the world market, eat closer to home, be nice to our animals and to each other. Everyone who buys food needs to start thinking about eating closer to home. That means visiting farmers markets and getting to know who grows your food and putting a face on it.
I still have no plans to, as Butz said, get big. I think we feed enough people. There are, however, plenty of farmers out there who need to be encouraged to get small and produce locally, to farm sustainably and ethically. Only consumer support will give them the courage to change their ways in these uncertain times. This spring, as we begin another Farmers Market season, I wonder, what if everyone had a rebellious streak and decided to buy locally from the farmers who want to do it right?
Columnist Jim Goodman has published work in the Madison Capital Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other places. He is a dairy farmer from Wonewoc, WI.
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