Come join Karen, Jack, tatiana and Ashley for a morning pasture walk focusing on the many methods used by the farm to reclaim abandoned pasture lands and convert them back into productive grazing lands. Karen and Jack started farming in late 2011 when they purchased 15 acres of mostly abandoned farmland overtaken by goldenrod, multi-flora rose, honeysuckle, and other invasive species.  Through managed grazing (taking advantage of the different grazing behaviors of the sheep, goats and cattle they raise), as well as with help from hand tools and small tractor implements they have reclaimed the land as highly productive pastures. In 2019 they purchased an adjoining 120 acres of woods and crop land. 

We will also view and discuss a 3 acre grazing trial the farm is conducting with Dr. tatiana Stanton from the Cornell Univ. Goat & Sheep Program on this new land. The farm used it's low impact methods to try and establish birdsfoot trefoil in a former corn field with challenging terrain that had reverted to brush. The study is comparing the productivity and resilience to internal parasite loads of ewes and their nursing lambs grazing these newly renovated pastures versus that of their flockmates grazing the farm's more conventional pastures.  Three other New York goat or sheep farms are also participating in this birdsfoot trefoil establishment and grazing study.

Also sponsored by the USDA NIFA Organic Transitions Program project 'Overcoming barriers to transitioning small ruminants to organic production: Effects of feeding birdsfoot trefoil on parasite control, nutritional status & profitability'