Bean Hollow Grassfed. Improving Soil Health through Livestock and Pasture Diversity: A Farm Demonstration

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1 "We tend to think of the practices of farming as technology. The reality is, they're culture. You can change practices relatively quickly. If it's culture, it doesn't change that rapidly. It takes a change of consciousness and comfort level." -Dr. Michael Sands, owner and operator of Bean Hollow Grassfed Bean Hollow Grassfed Location: Rappahannock County, VA Established: 2012 Property size: 200 acres, 110 in pasture acres Animals: Cattle and sheep (Katahdin and Dorper) Problem: Overgrazed pastures have lead to poor soil health and reduced farm profitability. Innovations: Watering and fencing system Native warm season grass planting Rotational grazing plan Mob-grazing cattle and sheep together In 2012, Dr. Michael Sands entered into a long-term lease arrangement with his retired in-laws to farm their 200-acre property, Over Jordan Farm, in Rappahannock County, Virginia. On 110 acres of pasture land, Sands created the sheep and cattle enterprise, Bean Hollow Grassfed. With over 30 years of experience in sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation, and community based economic development, Sands has worked on a broad range of innovative projects around the world. At Bean Hollow Grassfed, Sands wanted to use his training to revive Over Jordan Farm's worn-out pastures and develop a financially stable farm model. Sands partnered with The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and Virginia Cooperative Extension to secure a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) through the Natural Resource Conservation Service. This grant enabled Sands to develop a project that could take measurements and demonstrate the positive impacts of some of the improved practices he employed on his farm.

2 Identifying the Problem Bean Hollow Grassfed is located in Virginia s northern Piedmont region, which has long been a pasturebased farming area dominated by beef cattle production. Many farms, including Over Jordan Farm where Bean Hollow Grassfed is located, have been continuously grazed to short stubble heights of less than four inches. Overgrazing negatively affects pasture health and productivity through soil exposure and compaction, minimal warm season pasture plant diversity, and weed pressure. Soil exposure and compaction causes soil heating, which disrupts the soil biological community and destroys soil organic matter. It also contributes to water runoff and soil erosion. Piedmont pastures are dominated by Fescue KY31 which reduces growth of warm season plants, thus animal performance during summer months is limited. Weeds encroach in open spaces in the canopy, which initiates spraying and further disrupts the health and productivity of the pasture-soil system. These pressures reduce pasture yields, carrying capacity, and livestock performance. These factors undermine farm profitability. Figure 1: Livestock overgrazing can negatively affect farm profitability In our Piedmont region, revitalization of pastures with a history of resource depletion due to overgrazing is a high priority. Finding the Solution Soil health requires a diverse community of macro- and micro-organisms. A diverse plant community provides substrate for those soil organisms. Plant diversity improves water and nutrient capture and retention and different rooting depths and seasonality of plant growth better maintain the pasture canopy and forage supply throughout seasons. A way to develop forage supply is to employ a form of grazing that uses rotations through pastures. Rotational mob grazing a cycle of short grazing period followed by a long rest period is thought to foster more native plant diversity, increase productivity, organic matter, build soil health and the related soil food webs, and increase drought resilience. 2

3 Figure 2: Rotational grazing, a model for improving soil health and farm productivity Imagine waiting in line at a salad bar. When it's your turn you grab what you can-- possibly something you haven't tried before but find that you like. Limited time to eat and increased competition requires that you diversify your choices. In the pasture, this diversified grazing allows for older plants to produce lignified stems. Grazing at high stock densities tramples these stems onto the soil surface along with manure, providing the substrates with the bacterial and fungal populations to build a food web and organic matter matrix. Grazing a diverse livestock herd can extend the soil building because of the difference in nutrient and bacterial composition of the manure of different livestock species. As the plant community diversifies and the soil health strengthens, an assumption can be made that the productivity of grazing animals will increase, resulting in a profitable farm enterprise. Bean Hollow Grassfed Project When Michael Sands started Bean Hollow Grassfed, he was intent on employing soil building and rotational grazing methods. His farm was a good laboratory for showing the benefits of innovative pasture management practices, as it had been continuously grazed without any rotation for the past 20 years. This led to reduced soil health and pasture productivity. Through the Natural Resource Conservation Service s CIG grant, Sands was able to secure the funding to complete farm infrastructure improvements and begin a project that tracked the productivity of the farm. The project team at The Piedmont Environmental Council oversaw and performed monitoring, promoted six field days and developed outreach materials on the project. 3

4 The overall objective of this project was to demonstrate the effects of rotational grazing using long rest periods with multiple livestock species in the same paddocks with innovative pasture management practices on soil health and system productivity. Specific objectives included: Establish a farm demonstration to show innovative multi-species mob grazing practices for restoring healthy pasture soils and profitable grazing to pasture managers. Engage a core group of respected local livestock farmers to educate neighbors and peers about the demonstration farm and its results. Encourage livestock farmers to adopt these innovative pasture management practices to achieve similar benefits to soil health and system productivity. Encourage livestock farmers to think about pasture management in terms of long term productivity equaling soil health and productivity. Farm infrastructure and Grazing Plan Before the project could begin, infrastructure improvements to the property were needed. Through the CIG grant and local Soil & Water Conservation Service cost share programs, Sands was able to secure about two-thirds of the funding for several infrastructure projects. These improvements included: Additional fencing for exclusions and rotation paddocks. Water access for 3 year-round access points and above ground black poly portable waterers. Seed and planting of 15% of pasture to warm season grasses. Figure 3: Agricultural best management practices installed Bean Hollow Grassfed operator Michael Sands using poly wire to create small paddocks for his rotational grazing system at Over Jordan Farm Sands also developed the rotational grazing plan. One hundred acres of the farm was fenced into 10 permanent pastures with mixed cool season grasses and legumes. One pasture was planted with native warm season grasses (Big Blue Stem, Indian Grass). 4

5 For a few hours every weekend, Sands used poly wire in the existing pastures to create smaller, temporary paddocks, two to four acres in size. Each paddock was used for 1-3 days and then the livestock was rotated to the next paddock. Once the animals were rotated out of a paddock, it was given days rest before grazed again. Fescue was stockpiled for the winter months, and large round bales were placed in the pasture when fescue ran short. Project metrics The management techniques Sands used on the property were with pasture productivity in mind. In order to measure that productivity, the PEC project team monitored soil health, plant community, pollinators and animal weights. In four of the fenced out pastures, four sample transects were developed. Each spring and fall, for a total of six times, transects were sampled to monitor changes in soil and vegetation. Field parameters included abiotic and biotic indicators of soil health and pasture vigor, such as: soil moisture, temperature, compaction and infiltration, and earthworm counts. Since piedmont pasture managers are interested in both conventional and alternative soil health and fertility assessments, soil samples were sent to four different labs to get the full array of interpretations of soil health. Lab parameters measured included organic matter, ph, soil compaction, mineral nutrients and soil biology. The plant community was surveyed at the same time using a simple method of tossing a hula hoop along the same transects in ten different locations and marking presence/absence of plant species. Partnering with Virginia Working Landscapes, Sands also had pollinator surveys taken on the property. Bird species were monitored once a year and butterfly and bee species were surveyed twice a year. Time lapse photography was set up in all four transects and took regular interval photos throughout the length of the project. Photos of water infiltration, plant surveying and soil sampling. 5

6 Measured Using Penetrometer (PSI) Improving Soil Health through Project Results After three years of monitoring and sampling, some general trends were observed. While the project results did not make a significant scientific statement, on-the-ground observations clearly show a difference in farm health and animal performance. SOIL HEALTH Using the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory "Overall Soil Health Quality Rating" as an aggregate guide, soil health improved in three of four pastures with the greatest increase in ratings being observed in the two pastures with long history of livestock pasture use. Organic matter increased in all four sample transects, indicating that field management has had a positive impact on soil health. Microbial communities had low ratios of active to total bacteria, fungi and nematodes, potentially indicating high anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic conditions may have also been exacerbated by persistent soil compaction, which showed little change over the study period Overall Soil Health Quality Rating Cornell Soil Health Laboratory Fall Spring 2014 Pasture #1 Spring 2015 Pasture #2 Fall 2015 Figure 4 Hay Field #1 Spring 2016 Organic Matter Biomass as Percent of Soil Mass Pasture #1 Pasture #2 Hay Field #1 Hay Field #2 Figure 5 Surface Soil Compaction Hay Field #2 Pasture #1 Pasture #2 Hay Field #1 Hay Field #2 Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Fall 2013 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Figure 6 6

7 FORAGE AND PLANT DIVERSITY Sands has safeguarded the grass and high quality forage by employing a moderate approach to the kind of grazing he does. This develops lush fields that push out weeds and don't require herbicide application. Indicator species, such as orchard grass and red clover, have increased both visually and in survey numbers over the course of the project. Since both of these species are sensitive to overgrazing, it can be assumed the fields are being managed with enough down time for high quality forage to establish and bounce back. Native warm season grasses provide onfarm nutrients to livestock during the June- August 'summer slump' when cool season grasses like fescue and orchard grass tend not to grow well. The structure of native warm season grasses also positively affects the environment deeper roots increases water infiltration and grasses provide seeds and protective structure for summer pollinators and wintering birds. v Figure 7: Changes in plant diversity along four pasture transects studied between 2013 and 2016 at Over Jordan Farm 7

8 FARM PRODUCTIVITY / PROFITABILITY Conversion of hayfields to pastures provided a mechanism for rebuilding and keeping soil nutrients on the farm. Hay was imported in late winter, but in less quantity than anticipated, so importing was cheaper than producing on site. While overall soil health improved, soil compaction remained a constraint on soil function at end of project. To address this issue, targeted planting of vegetation with soil penetrating characteristics, such as daikon radish or rapeseed, is one soil management technique being considered. Animal units per acre increased from 0.17 AU/acre to 0.5 AU/acre between 2013 and After three years of operation, infrastructure costs for the rotational grazing system were recaptured. In 2016, custom grazing fees and sale of 204 lambs anticipated to generate net revenue of $12,000. OUTREACH TO PUBLIC AND PRODUCERS An important component of the project was to demonstrate to both rural landowners and producers the process of implementing a rotational grazing system using long rest periods with multiple livestock species and the effects of a system. Outreach to producers and landowners included: Six field day events were held at the project site, each covering a different aspect of the project from setting up a rotational grazing system to managing land for pollinators. Figure 8: Net revenues for Bean Hollow Grassfed ( ) Project cooperator, PEC staff and interested local farmers took educational tours of similar farm demonstrations in Tennessee and the Virginia Shenandoah Valley. Articles about the demonstration project were placed in 4 publications, including: Piedmont View Winter 2014, Piedmont View Summer 2016, 2016 Buy Fresh Buy Local guide with distribution of over 250,000, and the Rappahannock News Summer Presentations about the project were given at the VABF conference 2015, Farm Business Development Center (Illinois) 2015, Virginia NRSC CIG Showcase 2016 and the 2016 National Small Farm Conference. The project raised interest in the area with local farmers and landowners, as well as with new constituencies such as Virginia Working Landscapes and Future Harvest CASA. Resources Visit to view and download the project Tech Fact Sheet and the video presentation. 8