Raising Sheep, Regenerating the Land
by Rebekah Rice
Saratoga Meeting
When my parents purchased our family farm in upstate New York, no one had actively farmed for many years. This land, with a history of having been purchased from Mohawks in 1673, had in the years since been clear cut, overgrazed, plowed, and eventually mostly allowed to grow back to forest. This was typical for land settled by colonizers in this area.
Former fields that had been cut for hay over the previous 80 years were worn down to heavy clay with less than half a percent of organic matter. My father set about making compost and raising a large organic vegetable garden, which was lots of work because the soil was in such poor condition. The fields stopped producing hay, and got weedy. We used fossil fuels to cut them once a year, so they would stay open, which we did not feel good about.
Seven years ago, on a whim, I got five sheep. I had learned in my Holistic Management* course about rotational grazing and how the process of animals biting the grass and forbs would stimulate growth and sequester carbon. This system borrows from the way in which wild groups of buffalo, antelope, and other ruminants arrive in an area, eat deeply, and leave again — which turns out to radically improve soil.
We got some electric fencing. We got some woven wire perimeter fencing. We built up our flock of sheep, bringing in awesome rams to improve the genetics. We learned to kill lambs of lesser quality, using traditional prayer and processes. Our flock increased. And YES! Our soil improved. We’re storing carbon. We are regenerating the land.
Our sheep do not ever receive grain, and thrive directly on our fields from April to November, and indirectly by eating hay from our land the remainder of the year. Their meat contains healthy omega-3, which is one good reason to eat grass-fed grass-finished meat in addition to their soil building gifts.
Friend Sheree Cammer eats lamb from our farm. She testifies we should “Eat food that is regeneratively raised. This includes avoiding animal products from animals who are not allowed to express their true nature, i.e. pasture raised, rotationally grazed, replenishing the fertility and fountain of biodiversity of the land.” I would add that it’s important to me that no animal should experience fear at the end of their life, which is why we harvest them on our farm, out of sight of the rest of the flock, calmly, quietly, reflectively, with gratitude.