Biodiversity

By Russ Wilson

Diversity is a subject that much has been written about. It is an incredibly broad topic. At times, it can be overwhelming.

I like to look at our farm as its own little ecosystem. As we know from basic science that ecosystems only work best with diversity in all forms of life. When we look at regenerative livestock systems, diversity is often what brings the most to the table in production and profitably. Our farm is not just the livestock used to graze the land, it also includes the wild animals like tree swallows, blue birds, hawks, field mice, night crawlers, dung beetles, golden dung flies, and even us humans just to name a few.

Some of these living things can be very beneficial to our system. Take for example tree swallows. They can eat 3000 insects per day reducing the fly loads on our livestock. Or maybe the night crawlers that not only help recycle the dead plant material into the soil, but they also make deep channels that allow the plant roots to go deep into the soil helping the plants access water and nutrients. The nightcrawler also helps with water infiltration.

We don’t see pest outbreaks like many other farms or ranches do. In the last few years, army worms have been a problem in our area. We haven’t had any problems with them. The birds are keeping them in check or the plants, being healthier, are more resistant to them.

What about the plants and soils?  If our plant species are varied, it will add resilience to our grazing systems. At last count, we have established more than 70 different species of plants. This is not including the hundreds of plants growing that have been in our soil bank for years.

Not all the plants we have established are for the livestock to utilize. We have planted plants just for the pollinators. We have planted plants to help with water infiltration.

Not all plants will mature at the same time. This keeps the forage quality window open longer for our livestock. One field we established with 13 species of plants. It is normally grazed 2-3 times in year. Every time it is grazed, there is a different dominant species growing in the field. The first graze of the year will be the cool season plants like Wild Rye, Orchard Grass, and Timothy. The second graze may have more forbes and some warm season grasses like Cup Plant, Bergamot, Tic Trefoil, and Switch Grass. The third graze may be dominant in warm season grasses like Coastal Panic Grass, Big Bluestem, Switch Grass and New England Asters. With the plant diversity, you can rest the fields that are more prone to drought and graze the plants that do well in the summer droughts. 

Monoculture planting has been the norm in the past, so what do I do if I don’t have enough diversity on my farm? First, it is not a good idea to go out and replant your whole farm. You would go broke.

The first thing you can do is to simply change up your grazing. Don’t graze everything the same, maybe graze some fields only once in a season or perhaps not at all. Maybe graze some fields up to 4 or 5 time in one growing season. Yes, you can add different species of specific plants to the farm but establish them slowly.  Warm season grasses in particular can take some work to establish.

In the field we established with 13 species of plants, we will leave a 10th acre stand for the entire year just to harvest the seed to be planted somewhere else on the farm. All the plants we harvest and replant are not patented seeds. Most native seeds are not patented; however, you may want to check with your seed supplier to be safe. 

We also rely on a small number of annuals to help bridge those gaps when the perennial forages are not growing quickly. The annuals usually are 10 percent or less of the total acres available on my farm. We can get up to a 30 percent increase in forages available to our livestock off 10 percent of the land. Some of the annuals can produce high tonnage with low inputs. Annuals are an input. If they are used strategically, they can be fairly inexpensive.

Last year we grew 3.5 acres of corn at a cost of $30 a ton of dry matter to produce. Our cow herd of 80 animal units was strip grazed in the 3 ½ acre corn field for 18 ½ days. Unfortunately, we will not be planting corn this year since it does not appear profitable on paper with the price of inputs so high, namely fertilizer. 

We also plant warm season and cool season cover crops. We will be using more of them instead of corn this year. Since we do not use fertilizer on them, they can be very productive. One of our cover crop seed mixes for spring/summer may include Sorghum Sudan grass, Forage Sorghum, sunflowers, radishes, turnips, gourds, annual rye grass, and red and white clover. The winter cover crop mix may include winter rye, turnips, annual rye grass, clover and radishes. The plant species you can use are only limited to what will grow well in your area. For us, lupine, rape, or sun hemp do not grow in our area.

Yes, cover crops and annuals are an input, but cheaper than hay and a great way to break cycles and make your farm more productive. On small farms with limited acres this strategy of biodiversity helps increase the forages available, increase the overall carrying capacity, and extend the grazing season greatly. Having biodiversity in your grazing makes for a low stress more productive farm or ranch.