Start Date
10-26-2021 3:10 PM
Description
Beyond being a cattle farm in extreme western Kentucky, Dogwood Farm is part of an ecosystem dominated by the nearby Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Northern Ballard County was still a wilderness of temperate rainforest in 1840, when settlers began clearing trees to convert it to farm land. Almost every year since, more land has been cleared, tilled and planted to crops.
Dogwood Farm pastures offer examples of several different ways to affordably and profitably convert long‐farmed row‐crop land‐‐most of which had previously grown annual monocultures of corn, winter wheat and soybeans for many decades‐‐back to perennials that will keep the ground covered with a protective shield of living roots year‐round. Cattle help restore and regenerate soil for highly productive pasture. Pastures are limed to restore pH balance, but no artificial fertilizers augment the natural fertility that the diverse forages and grazing cattle supply, except on hayfields where cattle can't graze often enough to adequately restore fertility.
Included in
Made to Graze: Using Cattle to Regenerate Soil Health
Beyond being a cattle farm in extreme western Kentucky, Dogwood Farm is part of an ecosystem dominated by the nearby Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Northern Ballard County was still a wilderness of temperate rainforest in 1840, when settlers began clearing trees to convert it to farm land. Almost every year since, more land has been cleared, tilled and planted to crops.
Dogwood Farm pastures offer examples of several different ways to affordably and profitably convert long‐farmed row‐crop land‐‐most of which had previously grown annual monocultures of corn, winter wheat and soybeans for many decades‐‐back to perennials that will keep the ground covered with a protective shield of living roots year‐round. Cattle help restore and regenerate soil for highly productive pasture. Pastures are limed to restore pH balance, but no artificial fertilizers augment the natural fertility that the diverse forages and grazing cattle supply, except on hayfields where cattle can't graze often enough to adequately restore fertility.