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Mint Creek Farm is owned and operated by Harry and Gwen Carr, with the help of their children, Jonathan and Raya. The Carrs started with 50 acres in 1992 and have grown to 220 acres. The sheep were originally part of their plan to enliven and enrich the soil that had been so depleted by modern mainstream agricultural practices.
The Carrs studied Biodynamic agriculture at the Michael Fields Institute and learned that planting perennial grasses and legumes is the first step in revitalizing farmed-out land. They also saw demonstrations of how to rotationally graze livestock, and learned how frequent movement of grazing animals is good for animal, forage, and soil health.
Harry learned to plant mixes of legumes and grasses suited to the different conditions of the farm through trial and error and by talking to area farmers. Soil tests showed great improvement in soil fertility and texture after having the sheep rotationally graze in a particular area. It made them particularly happy to know that the thick sward of grasses on their ground was holding the soil there, so that it wasn't washing downstream and eventually adding to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Currently, the hypoxic or dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is growing. This is due to the truckloads of topsoil from Mid-western farms that wash downstream in the Mississippi River every five minutes. Despite practices such as permanently planted waterways and filter strips�crop farming, and the resultant erosion are taking a huge environmental toll.)
In addition, the Carrs learned that rotationally grazing perennial pasture is actually the best carbon-dioxide-absorbing natural system there is� even better than planting trees, because the forage plants are kept in their vegetative state.
Sheep on grass. Who would have guessed that a combination so simple, so traditional, could help with global warming?
www.mintcreekfarm.com
www.michaelfieldsaginst.org
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