Page 63 - Winter2010

Farm & Ranch

THE FRAMEWORK OF BIOLOGICAL DAIRy FARMING
By Gary Zimmer and Rebecca Brown

Biological farming is a dynamic system of ing a biological or organic system is a beginning
farming that works with natural principles. Its farm evaluation. Possible components of this
purpose is to make a profit by growing healthy, evaluation include the right kind of soil test,
mineralized foods that are nutrient-rich and of feed and pasture tests, and visual soil and pas-
maximum quality for people. In order for this ture assessment using a method that measures
to occur, all stages of production including soil, specific soil and pasture characteristics. Once
forage, crop, animal, business and lifestyle man- this information is gathered, we have a baseline
agement must be healthy and interdependent. starting/reference point and can then put together
The biological cycle begins in the soil and a livestock, fertility and crop improvement plan
is based on a healthy population of balanced based on those data.
microbiology—such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa Testing must be part of an ongoing moni-
and earthworms—which require soils with an toring system. After all, if you can’t measure or
adequate supply of properly balanced nutrients know whether you are making improvements,
including, but not limited to, nitrogen, potassium, how can you have confidence that you are on
phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, the right road? Tests, however, can only give us
manganese, iron, boron and additional trace ele- clues about our feeds and soils. The more we
ments. monitor with both tests and observation, the more
The biological farming approach that we complete a picture of improvement we can get,
use here at Otter Creek Organic Farms aims to although tests themselves are often incomplete.
improve and balance soil and forage/crop mineral That said, we often take soil samples every three
levels by using a balanced fertilizer program, years because major changes that would show up
growing green manure crops, practicing proper on a soil test are usually gradual.
tillage, employing tight crop rotations, utilizing Just as soil tests don’t measure what’s in a
a wide diversity of plant species, and measuring soil (they only measure nutrients that are easily
and monitoring all of these aspects. extracted and assumed to be usable by the crop), We find that
Mineralized soil produces high quality for- feed tests only measure parts and pieces of the the process
ages, which yield healthy productive livestock; feed but certainly not everything. They are only
cows that have minimal or no health complica- calculations—assumptions and estimates based of intentional
tions, breed back easily and efficiently produce on the “normal” range. Tests give us clues as to observation
ample, high quality milk with potentially fewer what is going on and offer a starting point, but (which means
dollars invested in fertilizers, off-farm feed and we need to be detectives, gathering data from
supplements, and minimal vet bills. many sources in order to find out what is really slowing down
You can see how biological farms often going on. Testing is a management tool guiding and making
have a decreased cost of operation. As if that our fertilizer and farming decisions. However, we time to
weren’t good enough, now consider that using a find that the practice of intentional observation
biological system often facilitates the transition (which means slowing down and making time observe) is
to organic production and you’ve got a recipe for to observe) is often what separates out the best often what
maximizing farm profits. farmers. separates out
If you raise crops in the “usual” way, such
MEASURING FARM HEALTH as using N-P-K soluble fertilizers and lime ac- the best
An essential starting point for implement- cording to pH only (instead of taking into account farmers.

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