Protecting our little bit of the Earth
Since the beginning of this crazy dream, we’ve aimed to build a dairy farm that protects the ecosystems around it. We’re lucky: our farm sits high in the bluffs above the Missouri River, part of a corridor that runs hundreds of miles north and south along the water. Those bluffs form a natural wildlife highway, home to bobcats, coyotes, minks, raccoons, possums, groundhogs, deer, owls, hawks, vultures, songbirds, frogs, turtles, and even the occasional cougar sighting. Beneath all of that, huge populations of insects and microbes—pollinators, decomposers, and everything in between—keep our plants fed and our soil alive through pollination, nutrient cycling, and waste removal.
Our landscape is just as varied above ground. Riparian areas with creeks and pools give way to woodlands thick with oak, elm, hickory, pecan, walnut, sycamore, cottonwood, locust, and hackberry, along with more species than we could ever list. Our pastures carry that same diversity, with cool-season European grasses growing alongside native prairie grasses and wildflowers.
Grazing carefully
Our goal is to raise sheep and make cheese with as little disruption to that diversity as possible. In practice, that means managing our pastures carefully so the sheep never graze a plant down far enough to damage it, and it means keeping pesticides and herbicides off our land entirely. Those chemicals don’t just target weeds and pests—they kill the pollinators above ground and the insects and microbes below it that build soil structure and recycle nutrients for the next season of growth.
Living with predators, not against them
We manage predation without killing. Electric net fencing keeps our sheep confined and keeps predators out, while livestock guardian dogs live with the flock around the clock, warning off and deterring anything that gets too close. It lets us stay in balance with the predators on our land—and in turn, they help keep rabbits, deer, and other browsers in check.
The bigger goal
At its core, our work is about returning ecological diversity to soils that were once depleted: building organic matter, sequestering carbon, and creating habitat that supports more wildlife, more insects, more microbial life, and more plant diversity every year.
Why we keep at it
Some days the scale of what needs doing feels bigger than one small farm can touch. Our few hundred acres are a drop in the bucket against everything the land and climate need. But we’ve never found that a reason to sit still. We’re doing what we can with what we have, right here, in this moment. If not now, when? If not us, who will do it? Every acre we manage this way is one less acre working against the balance we’re trying to build, and we’d rather spend our effort proving it’s possible than waiting for the problem to feel small enough to solve.
