Luke Peterson of A-Frame Farm is an organic regenerative farmer outside of Dawson, MN. He runs a highly diversified farm rotation and has recently introduced a small grass-fed beef herd into his production. “We use the cattle as a composter where they eat up all of that material and then recycle it and put it back into the soil as manure. So it's like a soil building phase.” By taking the land out of crop production, the land has time to rebuild nutrients.
Meanwhile, in Goodhue, MN – about 200 miles east of Dawson – Jared Luhman and his dad John Luhman are running a very similar operation at Grass Fed Cattle Co. Jared Luhman is now the third generation to farm this land. “On a crop field, the goal is essentially to raise one crop, and when you have a goal of growing one thing, anything else is looked at as competition,” Jared said.
Both Peterson and the Luhmans grow and market monocultures. Additionally, yellow field peas grown for PURIS, North America’s largest processor of pea protein used in plant-based proteins, are grown in monoculture farming operations. So Peterson and the Luhmans have developed a rotation system that allows land to be taken out of crop production to grow a variety of forage pasture grasses that cattle graze, building up the soil quality and health.
“That's just what I love about this perennial diversified system is that we encourage diversity,” explained Jared. “Diversity is one of the best things that we can do for the land.”
Click here to read more pioneer.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-imaginegolf
Categories: Minnesota, Livestock, Beef Cattle