When One Door Closes…
We sold our first chicken in 2019, and pork sales followed the year after.
For several years, we rotated our chickens and hogs throughout various sections of our property, primarily our hay fields and our woodlands. These management practices benefited both land and animal (and in turn, the consumer) but at the end of the day, hogs and chickens can not survive on pasture alone. External inputs in the form of grain are necessary for these omnivorous, monogastric animals. We carefully selected our feed, choosing a ration that did not contain corn or soy and was transitional organic, the cleanest option available. In turn, the chickens and the hogs deposited valuable outputs (manure) that benefited our land. For many years, I have said that we are “raising pork and chicken in the best way possible” and I stand by that- but what if we could do it even better?
And we can.
The Midwest of the United States has some of the most fertile soil in the world. How did this happen? Bison (and other ruminants) roamed the plains, “rotating” by predatory pressure. The bison would aerate the soil with their bicloved hooves, deposit valuable manure and urine, spread native seeds, and move on to fresh prairie, allowing the previous area ample resting time before inevitably cycling through again. Organic matter was built in the soil through these grazing patterns for thousands of years until about 200 years ago when the bison were largely eliminated and the landscape was inhabited in a more permanent fashion.
Fast forward to today, the Midwest, a large geographical area that did not need ANY synthetic inputs for the entirety of its existence, now relies heavily on chemical inputs to grow crops in the form of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, etc. you get the idea. There are strong opinions on both sides of this argument, and the intention of this tidbit is not to hash it all out- we’d be here awhile.
Soil fertility is complex and is full of organic matter in various stages of decay, beneficial bacteria and fungi, all acting in a symbiotic relationship. No matter the farming practices, one cannot take take take from the soil and never give anything in return. It’s like attempting to fuel your body off caffeine and cocaine, eventually you will NEED to eat and you will NEED to sleep. You can “feed” your soil in the form of chemical inputs, or… let the animals do the work for you.
Which brings us to our decision of scaling back on hogs and chickens. The demand IS there for both pork and chicken, we have to turn potential customers away every year, but this poses a very important question: do we want to scale up our chicken and hog operation? And the answer is no. Scaling up in chickens and hogs reduces our ability to grow and manage our farm in a regenerative way. We want our land to support our animals and our animals to support our land and this is best done through ruminants. Familiar ruminants include bison, goats, and members of the deer family such as whitetail, elk, moose, etc. and in our case, cattle and sheep.
Are the hogs and chickens gone for good? I would say probably not, because I do stand by that we raise them in the best way possible. But for the time being, we can do even better, and we need to do better for our soil health, which is why we are focusing on sheep, cattle, and our land management.