Sustaining the Community that Sustains Us

By Tracy Salisbury and Brenda Frick

Don Ruzicka and Joel Salatin are “grass farmers” who have found a way to way to make a living on the farm, while sustaining the land base and enhancing the life around them. They are coming to Saskatoon, November 16-18 to share their approaches at the Organic Connections conference.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Don Ruzicka, a third generation Alberta farmer, uses this quote from Aldo Leopold to sum up his approach to farming.

Don and Marie Ruzicka’s model of farming is based heavily on the same principles of management as those pioneered by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia. Both characterize themselves as grass farmers because they focus on the production of grass. The beef, pork, and poultry they raise are the ‘by-products’ of the grass.

Joel popularized the idea of chicken tractors, large pens that are moved across pasture to give the birds access to fresh grass. As well as pasture poultry, he promotes pigaerator pork, salad bar beef, and forage-based rabbits. All these systems give animals frequent access to new pasture, improving their use of the plants, and reducing the spread of parasites and diseases. The animals are seen not simply as a source of income, but also as tools of land management.

Don’s methods follow Joel’s principles. In summer, Don uses rotational grazing for cattle, and movable pens for chickens and hogs. In the winter Don’s cows are fed in the field using bale feeders. The hogs are then pastured on these sites and the hay and manure left by the cattle becomes valuable feed rather than waste.

Don uses a hand-operated grass spreader to spread nitrogen-enhancing alfalfa and cicer milk vetch around the bare patches near salt and mineral feeders or wherever else it is needed. Since the cattle will follow him anywhere, he walks around the area he wants to seed after a rain and lets the multitude of hooves work the seed into the ground for him. This, he says, is like the old way the bison enriched the land.

Don has also found cattle useful for weed control. One successful technique has been to spray undesirable plants with salt water. Because the cattle like the taste, they consume even prickly leaved thistles. Molasses worked as well. “You can create a culture within the cattle that they will come to eat thistle without spraying anything on the plants,” Don says.

When scentless chamomile became a problem around sloughs, Don used the principles of holistic management to address it. He fenced off a ½ acre area and let 200 head of cattle in until the ground was black. He did this with all the scentless chamomile patches on his farm and was able to eradicate them all within 5 years.

This approach, while quite effective, is only appropriate in extreme situations. Generally Don’s approach is to keep the ground covered, especially going into winter. “There must always be carryover in the pastures.” Don says, “We are always asking if there is a drought coming up. We are setting the table for next spring.”

“I look at nature as a barometer of how well we are managing the land” says Don. Little hedgerows of trees at the edge of fields and roads are a plethora of activity. A visiting wildlife biologist observed 6 new species of birds on the farm this year. When Don fenced off the dugouts, grass grew up. This provides habitat for dragonflies which eat small grasshoppers and mosquitoes.

When it comes to marketing, Don uses the advice that Joel Salatin offers: “The product must taste good, it must have a story and the farm must romance the consumer.” The Ruzickas direct market as much as possible. Like Joel, Don hopes his customers will share the larger farm experience. “We want to get them out to the farm and show them what we are doing”, says Don. “We don’t think enough about the spirituality of the land. Our existence is tied to the earth.” Visitors say they have a feeling of peace when they stay in his log guest cabin. And that is what Don wishes for his guests: that they experience a feeling of peace, the farm is pleasurable to visit and the food tastes good.

 

Don Ruzicka and Joel Salatin will both be speaking at the Organic Connections conference in Saskatoon. For more information see www.organicconnections.ca or call Lorraine at 956-3110.

Tracy Salisbury is an assistant in Organic Research and Extension at the University of Saskatchewan. Brenda Frick, Ph.D., P.Ag. is the Coordinator of Organic Research and Extension at the University of Saskatchewan and an OACC Affiliate. She welcomes your comments at 306-966-4975 or via email at organic@usask.ca. This article was commissioned by the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada.

 

Posted November 2008