The Importance of High-Quality Pasture.

Everyone Benefits When Animals Get To Graze.

We mill non-GMO animal feed on our local family farm, but we also carefully tend to native warm-season grasses alongside cool-season fescue that is so plentiful in Virginia. We believe that providing high-quality pasture is equally important to providing superior feed to our animals. 

The science backs up those beliefs with data on improved animal health that translates to better meat, eggs, and dairy for your family. Maintaining quality pasture also provides economic and environmental benefits for our farm, land, and community. 

Here’s a small snapshot of several key benefits of tending your pasture and allowing animals to graze:

  • Improved Livestock Immunity: Grazing cattle have more efficient immune systems, helping them ward off infections and other illnesses.(1)
  • Higher Quality Milk: Dairy cows that graze on quality pasture produce milk higher in fat with lower levels of urea, somatic cell counts, and total bacteria counts.(1)
  • Eggs With More Vitamins & Minerals: Chickens that graze produce eggs higher in Omega 3s, iron, and possibly antioxidants.(2) 
  • Environmental Protection: Grazing pastures reduce erosion by 87% and lower ammonia emissions by 30%.(3)
  • Cost-Effective For Your Operation: In general, allowing animals to graze in the spring and summer requires less feed and fewer employees, saving you money.
  • Healthier Meats: Circumstantial evidence shows that grazing animals access the phytonutrients necessary to minimize protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation that can cause inflammation in humans who eat their meat.(4)
Grass-finished cows grazing on local pasture

How To Get Quality Pasture.

Rich, fertile soil is the base of every good pasture, and we work to ensure our soil is well-suited for growing high-quality Virginia grasses and legumes. Along with basic soil health, three other tenets dictate how we tend our pasture: 

  • Pasture Rotation: We keep multiple pastures on our farm, allowing grasses to grow in one pasture while animals graze in another. Rotational grazing nurtures deeper roots, boosts soil biomass, increases plant regeneration, and minimizes land erosion.
  • Native Grasses: We cultivate grasses native to the Shenandoah Valley alongside Fescue, which is prevalent in Virginia. This hardy, cool-season grass produces excellent pasture in the spring when native grasses are still dormant. In late summer, the native grasses provide pasture when fescue growth slows due to dryer and warmer conditions.
  • Weed Control: Weeds can choke out any plant, including native grasses. We don’t use commercial herbicides; instead, we find alternate forms of weed control, such as manual removal or a vinegar-based spot spray. In addition, intensive grazing helps to keep weeds and unwanted forage under control.

Regenerative Agriculture Protects Animal & Environmental Health.

We have been growing and maintaining thriving pastures since we purchased our farm in 2003. Our method is an example of an agricultural approach used for centuries by Indigenous peoples and innovative farmers but coined by the term “regenerative agriculture” in the 1980s. 

Regenerative agriculture, or more specifically, regenerative grazing (in our case), is a system where farmers work in harmony with nature to provide for their animals’ health and well-being. 

This practice improves soil health, biodiversity, and water systems by growing crops and animals without synthetic inputs or tillage.(5) The benefits of regenerative grazing better serve our animals, environment, and community.

  • Cleaner Waterways: The runoff from synthetic inputs and pesticides to help plants grow and thrive has had devastating impacts on our water systems. By eliminating our use of pesticides or soil enhancements, we minimize negative effects on local water systems.(7)
  • Counteracting Climate Change: Carbon sequestration is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil. Over time, about 133,000 billion metric tons of soil have been lost to erosion, intensive tillage, and over-grazing. Regenerative grazing limits those devastating losses to allow for more carbon sequestration that could potentially help reverse climate change.(6) 
  • Reduced Risks: Regenerative grazing is a time-tested farming technique that protects your land, crops, and waterways so they can continue giving back to your farm and family. This makes it a smart investment in your operation because you can reduce the risks of crop failure, pesticide use, and land mismanagement that have devastated farmers for generations. 

Visit Our Farm To Learn More.

We invite you to schedule a tour of our family farm to learn more about the agricultural practices that impact the health of our animals, community, and environment. We have so much more to add and hope to see you soon. 

Contact Us

RESEARCH:

(1)Di Grigoli, A., Di Trana, A., Alabiso, M., Maniaci, G., Giorgio, D., & Bonanno, A. (2019). “Effects of Grazing on the Behaviour, Oxidative and Immune Status, and Production of Organic Dairy Cows.” Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 9(6), 371. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9060371 Accessed 5/24/22

(2)Badger, Mike. (May/June 2018)  “The Nutrition of Pasture Raised Chicken & Meats.” APPPA: American Pastured Poultry Producers Association.. https://apppa.org/The-Nutrition-of-Pasture-Raised-Chicken-and-Meats#. Accessed 5/24/22

(3)”The Benefits of Grazing.” The Chesapeake Bay Foundation. https://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/programs-initiatives/the-benefits-of-grazing.html Accessed 5/24/22 

(4)Provenza, F. D., Kronberg, S. L., & Gregorini, P. (2019). “Is Grassfed Meat and Dairy Better for Human and Environmental Health?”  Frontiers in nutrition, 6, 26. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2019.00026 Accessed 5/24/22

(5)Elisabeth Spratt, Jane Jordan, Jonathan Winsten, Pete Huff, Caroline van Schaik, Jane Grimsbo Jewett, Meghan Filbert, Jared Luhman, Erin Meier and Laura Paine Journal of Soil and Water Conservation January 2021, 76 (1) 15A-23A; DOI: https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2021.1209A Accessed 5/24/22

(6)Drs Jasmin Dillon and Megan Machmuller. (2021) “Regenerative Grazing, Carbon & Climate Colorado State University.” https://pastureproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Regenerative-Grazing-and-Carbon.pdf Accessed 5/24/22

(7)Arohi  Sharma, Lara Bryant, Ellen Lee, Claire O’Connor (2021) “Regenerative Agriculture Part 4: The Benefits.” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) https://www.nrdc.org/experts/arohi-sharma/regenerative-agriculture-part-4-benefits Accessed 5/24/22