A Walk in the Pasture: Building Community Over Shared Values
Farming can be an isolated, even lonely, enterprise, particularly since roughly 85 percent of Oregon farmers rely on outside jobs to support their farms, leaving precious little time for outside activities.
Historically, rural Granges served the purpose of advocating for and educating farmers and their families, as well as enriching their social lives and enabling them to share information. The decline of that institution mirrored the precipitous fall in the number of farmers in the US from a third of the population in the early 20th century to less than two percent today.
The Oregon Pasture Network (OPN), a program of Friends of Family Farmers (FoFF) that aims to support the growth of pasture-based farms in the state, stepped into the breach by holding "pasture walks," casual walks on the farms of network members. Billed as a great way to see practices in action and learn how other producers operate, plus the opportunity to connect with peers, OPN believes this type of hands-on learning opportunity is more effective and engaging than simply watching a video or a conference presentation.
A recent pasture walk was held at Terra Farma, OPN program director Michael Guebert's farm in Corbett where he and his wife, Linda Bangs, operate a multi-species, pasture-based farm. Farmers from around the Willamette Valley and a cattle rancher from Powell Butte—plus one journalist—walked up the hilly property through thigh-high grass as Guebert explained that when they bought the property in 2001, the ground was so compacted that in a rainstorm the water would cascade down the hill, often flooding the road to their farmhouse.
The goals for the afternoon were basic: sharing what techniques Guebert uses on their farm to improve their grazing program, as well as getting feedback on those practices from attendees; hearing from industry experts—in this case Oregon State University soil scientist Shannon Cappellazzi—about ways to improve soil and pasture performance; and then, of course, networking and socializing over a potluck dinner.
After Guebert demonstrated how he and Linda move their cows, goats and sheep to fresh sections of pasture, called paddocks, once or even twice a day using lightweight posts strung with flexible, electrified wire, he also measured soil temperature on thickly planted pasture versus bare ground, since beneficial soil microorganisms can't thrive in high soil temperatures. Cappellazzi then performed an "infiltration test" to measure how quickly water seeped into mature pasture, then did the same test on more compacted soil. The mature pasture absorbed water in just 13 seconds, while the water in the compacted soil was still sitting there ten minutes later.
One attendee wrote in an evaluation that more events like this would be welcome. "It was great having extension agents walking fields with farmers," they wrote. "The amount we were able to learn from Shannon in the little time we spent with her was amazing." Another wrote it was startling to see the side-by-side comparison of infiltration times, even though they were familiar with the concept. "Seeing things live, in situ, with context makes the leap to applicability for my own case much better than, say, just reading."
A goal of the program is to hold pasture walks on members' farms across Oregon, which will be announced on the OPN blog and on their social media. One farmer said that despite the long drive, there was a meaningful sense of generosity in being welcomed onto a farm property and making connections with like-minded folk.