Treading Lightly, Growing Soil: Stewarding Land at Vernon Valley Farm
by Craig Haney
As part of a New Jersey Grazing Initiative, North Jersey RC&D (NJRCD) recently organized a March walking tour of Vernon Valley Farm in Sussex County, NJ. In anticipation of hosting multiple years of a Grazing School with support from Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, NJRCD is intent on highlighting successful graziers like Kirk Stephens. Walking over 150 acres of pastures with Kirk, visiting farmers were able to clearly see the vegetative fruits of his thoughtful labor. And treading lightly, both figuratively and literally, was one of the day’s important lessons.
Kirk Stephens’s connection to the land is palpable as he hovers over the grass at Vernon Valley Farm, and speaks of his commitment to never let cattle overgraze it. “I’ve seen how overgrazing sets back grass growth for the remainder of the growing season and even see detrimental effects the following year.” He continues, “If we allow cattle to quickly re-graze a plant, we’re diminishing its solar panels and we’re depleting its batteries, the reserves the plant mobilizes to re-grow from crowns and roots.”
Kirk has been focused on the health of his pastures since taking over management of the farm near the New York State border 15 years ago. He knows that real change starts from the bottom up. He began testing his soils early, working to bring back the fertility that had been lost over two straight centuries of being cropped for tree fruits, grains and forages for dairy cattle. And even under high management, most of his stony soils are categorized as low productivity. His primary objective has been to grow the soils’ organic matter, laying the foundation for the farm to remain productive for future generations and centuries.
While keeping a patient eye on those long-term goals, he attentively observes the season at hand. How are the plants recovering? Which pastures are growing best? Are there any bare spots where weeds are moving in? How are the animals behaving? All questions he answers with close observation. In addition to growing soils and remaining financially sustainable, he’s carving out time for his young family. Knowing that the “farm can continually ask as much of my time and energy as I’m willing to give,” Kirk has learned to question whether each activity is worth his attention and resources.
Kirk wants pasture soils that “act less like paper towels and more like sponges.” To maintain spongy soil, he treads lightly on his pastures with his management. He is always asking himself, “How can I not turn on a tractor today?” And if he does have to drive through the fields, he keeps to prescribed laneways, sparing wider swaths of the fields from compaction. Consistently testing his soils, he spreads the previous winter’s bedpack on fields that benefit most from a boost of fertility. Each year, he spreads the bedpack “extremely thick” onto established pastures in August, when they’re typically drier, minimizing possible compaction. He also spreads an even thicker pathway of composted manure where he’ll be continuously accessing the field with his tractor and spreader, further lessening tire compaction. Afterwards, Kirk will lightly harrow just the extra thick pathway, and then patiently let the fields rest until the following year. On the top of the hill, he points to a vibrant field below us where his vertical drum manure spreader accurately spread last year’s bedpack. “The actively growing fields just eat up the passively composted manure and wood chips when spread that time of year.” His goal has been to build up the home farm’s fields to be both more productive and more resilient. His fields retain moisture and stay green even through the long drought periods that inevitably arrive.
Kirk carefully assesses the financial viability of his practices and products and has found value from the fertility of his few off-farm expenses: He amended his fields as recommended through his initial soil tests. He makes baleage from off-farm pastures instead of depleting his home farm pastures and brings in large square bales of locally-sourced soybean straw and wood chips for his winter bedpack.
That attention to soil and pasture health has also increased the feed value (energy) of his pastures. Using a refractometer to test plant sugars, he finds that improved soil health has led to more nutritious grasses which ultimately leads to more flavorful meat for the retail customers who buy his beef.
In terms of herd size, Kirk has been careful not to surpass a stocking rate of .35 Animal Units (350 lbs of animals) per acre as he builds up the pastures’ resiliency. This rate also allows Kirk to stockpile vigorous early-season growth of his cool-season grasses so he has ample forage available when droughty weather inevitably arrives. He also finds this rate allows his finishing cattle to graze more selectively and gives the smaller cattle less competition accessing forages.
In the field, he opens a folder he’s been carefully carrying around with him, and shares a graph with an ascending line of the soils’ organic matter. Since his first test, his average organic matter (OM) levels have risen steadily from 2.5% to more than 4 percent. His goal is to keep the graph line ascending and get the OM of the soils to 5-6%. And while he’s following those numbers closely, his personal connection to the fields allows him to see and feel how they respond under his thoughtful and forward-looking management. A farmer’s footprint is still the best fertilizer.
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