Mino Bimaadiziiwin FarmMino Bimaadiziiwin Farm

ThreeThree--Year Farm PlanYear Farm Plan

20172017—— 2019 2019

Red Cliff Natural ResourcesRed Cliff Natural Resources

Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm

Three-Year Farm Plan

2017— 2019

Red Cliff Natural Resources

Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm

Three Year Farm Plan

2017 – 2019

Red Cliff Treaty Natural Resources Division

Table of Contents

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………1

Vision Statement………………………………………………………………………………………………….2

Friends of the Dirt: Laying the Groundwork…………………………………………………….……3

2016: Year in Review…………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Orchard Stewardship Plan…………………………………………………………………………………….6

Pasture and Livestock Stewardship Plan…………………………………………………………….13

Garden Stewardship Plan……………………………………………………………………………………21

Forest Stewardship Plan……………………………………………………………………………………..31

Protection of Water Quality……………………………………………………………………………….36

The Case for Laying Hens: The Farm’s First Animal Investment…………………………..37

Financial Statement…………………………………………………………………………………………...40

Appendix 1: Farm Goals and Objectives

Appendix 2: Farm Activities (GANTT) Chart

Original Cover Art by Christi Belcourt - christibelcourt.com

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Executive Summary

As Red Cliff positions to increase production and distribution of more local foods, early successes at the Mino Bimaadiziiwin farm are important to build the foundation of an integrated tribal food system. This 3 year farm plan focuses on initiating the necessary steps to make it a sustainable enterprise for years to come. Improving garden plots, initiating meat and egg production, tending the orchard spaces, and creating a productive pasture space are specifically outlined in the plan as development needs for long-term productivity, stability and sustainability.

Though some activities over the next 3 years are specifically outlined in this plan, readers will notice that many options on how we move towards economic sustainability are being presented. For example, when discussing the pasture space, cow, sheep and bison are considered. While we are working towards utilizing livestock, we recognize that these things will not happen overnight. We include livestock as part of the three year plan, but the reader will notice in the GANTT chart that large grazers such as sheep or cattle do not enter the plan until 2019 at the earliest. Many of our decisions will depend on the successes and lessons learned over the next few years. We hope this document facilitates a continued dialogue amongst tribal leadership, TNR Division staff, and the tribal community to hone in our ambitions and effectiveness as we begin to put projects on the ground.

Many goals exist for the farm, but the underlying factor that guides our decision-making process is the ability of the farm to generate revenue sources that sustain operations. Grant funding has been critical to our early development, but we cannot count on grants alone to sustain the farm. By necessity, we need to develop revenue streams to make the farm resilient to lapses in grant coverage. The farm must be able at the minimum to afford the Farm Manager, planting supplies, animal feed, and maintenance needs; additional staff is necessary above the minimum to realize the farm’s full potential.

This leads to what may seem to be competing goals. Much thought has gone into how we satisfy the needs of the tribal community with the necessity of revenue generation. The below chart is an example of how we can take a “something for everyone” approach:

The farm began tracking the volumes of food produced and sold in 2016. Continued record keeping during the 3 year plan will help guide decisions on where the food goes in the years ahead. The section on Farm Financials considers the projects identified to develop the farm over the next three years using the above example of “where the food goes” to estimate revenue potential. Under this model, we

need to meet a minimum goal of $122,500 in additional grant funds to implement this farm plan through Dec 31, 2019.

Where the food goes DescriptionDonations and gifts Donations to tribal programs, community events or needy families 10%Subsidies to Tribal Programs At or near Sysco pricing to encourage tribal program use of farm wares. 30%Premium Pricing To local restaurants, farmer's markets, etc. 40%Value-added Products Products developed at retail price point for value-added revenue 20%

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Vision Statement

The Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm advances and advocates for the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s food sovereignty efforts. The Farm finds balance between the nourishment needs of the Red Cliff community and the sustainability of the Farm’s operations as it endeavors to fulfill those needs. Organic food production, soil health, protection of water quality, ecosystem services, community outreach and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive goals; instead these goals are holistically integrated and achievable with respect to one another.

The Farm serves as the central hub of the Tribe’s integrated food system; it fosters farm to institution distribution channels at wholesale price points for tribal programs and the public school system; it prospers from farm to market sales to local businesses; it fulfills the sustenance needs of the Tribe’s most impoverished people through the community food shelf; and it offers farm direct sales of healthy foods to tribal staff, community members, and visitors through farm stand operations and CSA offerings. This diversified approach to revenue generation achieves financial independence and bolsters a tribal brand that is successful, recognizable and accessible.

Long term product offerings will include fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, meats, eggs, herbs, nuts, and value-added products that are grown both on-site and by tribal producers off-site through a cooperative framework as the food system becomes increasingly integrated. Contributions by the independent producers of the Tribe’s robust commercial fishery are essential, as are the contributions from other tribal producers of traditional goods like maple syrup, wild rice, medicinal plants and wild edibles.

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Friends of the Dirt: Laying the Groundwork

The Friends of the Dirt Committee (FOTD) has been the guiding force for the Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm for around fourteen years. Since the deeding of the Aiken Farm to Red Cliff in 2003, the FOTD has overseen many projects on behalf of Mino Bimaadiziiwin and the Red Cliff Tribal community. The FOTD has led or been involved in the annual plant giveaway, the move of the campground cabin, canning and cooking demonstrations, the construction of three high tunnels, the purchase of the market shed, maintenance of the orchard, keeping the field cleared of brush, as well as annual planting and sale/distribution of produce. This foundation of hard work and stick-to-itiveness through many different Tribal administrations is testament to the commitment of many individuals. These families and individuals have come to the farm as committee members, served as AmeriCorps VISTA members, and dedicated community volunteers. The farm’s accomplishments are built on the legacies of many people especially Jeanne Buffalo-Reyes who had the vision of the farm and brought many to the table to share in her vision. This farm plan is a continuation of that vision.

Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm staff would like to recognize especially the contributions of Jeanne Buffalo-Reyes, Judy Pratt-Shelley, Olie Basina, Chuck Basina, Carolyn Maunu, Dorrie Jensen, Carl Butterfield, Trish Butterfield, Pam Gordon, Sarah Gordon, Susan Moore, Patricia Aiken-Buffalo, Frank Montano, Betsy Albert-Peacock, Tom Peacock, Dan Gadbois, Kathy Barre, Mary McConnell, Mark McConnell, and many others too numerous to name.

Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm continues to work closely with the Friends of the Dirt which functions as an advisory committee to farm staff. The committee helps with programming such as fall canning and preservation as well as the planting of all the starts for the plant give-away. Farm staff appreciates the hard work of these committee members and look forward to an enduring relationship as the farm moves forward into a new era.

Figure 1 View of Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm in 2016 from Aiken Road.

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2016 Year in Review

2016 marked a year of transition and regrouping for the Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm. January 2016 saw the hire of the farm’s first full time farm manager. In March, the manager and a rotating crew of TNR staff completed a full pruning of the overgrown orchard. This was the first time in over a decade that the orchard was completely pruned which was quite an undertaking. The biomass from the trees was chipped for the farm’s use on site as well as donated to tribal members for smoking fish. Later in the spring, the farm teamed up with the alternative education class of the Bayfield High School in the spring to ready the farm for planting and prep the garden beds. Each week for a month, a dozen or so students as well as two instructors donated their time to better the farm and the Red Cliff community. This proved important to the students as well as farm staff as they learned together and developed a working relationship. The class returned in the fall to continue their contributions to the farm, harvesting apples and pears in the orchard, and digging potatoes. In June, farm staff continued the tradition of the Red Cliff wide plant giveaway distributing several thousand vegetable starts to close to 80 individuals and families for their home gardens. Around this time we also took a pause to formally recognize Carl Butterfield who had contributed hugely to the Mino Bimaadiziiwin Farm for close to a decade. Over 100 community participants gathered and celebrated Carl’s legacy as we planted trees, feasted, and enjoyed the summer day. Carl walked on to the spirit world two weeks later. The summer saw a series of improvements to the farm including construction of no-till raised beds throughout the garden, creation of wood-framed beds in the high tunnel, comprehensive soil testing and soil amendments, and an increased volume of produce grown, donated, and sold to the community at affordable rates. A church group from the Twin Cities also came to offer assistance to the farm bringing nearly forty individuals to lend a hand for an afternoon. This generous effort helped the farm plant a dozen fruit trees, harvest our crops, and weed several overgrown beds. Mino Bimaadiziiwin had a successful year of harvest with at least 5,770 lbs. of produce harvested including over 1500 lbs. of apples, 155 quarts of strawberries, 777 lbs. of tomatoes, 535 lbs. of melons, and 794 lbs. of cucumbers. This summer also saw expanded sales through the weekly on site farmer’s market which ran from early August through the end of October. Overall sales for the farm were around $7,000 in 2016. The farm sold several hundred pounds of produce to the Red Cliff Early Childhood lunch program and the Bayfield Public Schools as well as donated hundreds of pounds of produce to the elder lunch program. Some additional customer relationships were forged or strengthened with sales to Legendary Waters Casino Restaurant, Wild Rice Restaurant, Rittenhouse Inn, Andy’s IGA, Peterson’s Foods, Fat Radish, Good Thyme Restaurant, and many different tribal programs. The fall apple harvest was a highlight for the farm following the pruning of all the trees in the spring. The apples were donated to the elder lunch program, sold at the farmer’s market, pressed into cider for several visits from the Early Childhood Program classes, and utilized for an apple sauce canning workshop. Eight boxes of apples were also donated to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to nourish water protectors resisting the DAPL project. Also in the fall, TNR staff joined their coworkers at the farm for a series of workdays to rehabilitate the last original farm building on site. This small storage barn is nearly a century old and was in desperate need of renovation. Staff cleaned out decades of accumulated rubbish, organized the useful contents, added a layer of packed sand and gravel inside, scraped and

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painted the outside of the barn, sealed broken windows, and attached gutters and downspouts to route water away from the barn’s footings. This collective effort not only brought our team together for a good purpose, but added a decade or two to the lifespan of this historic building. Mino Bimaadiziiwin closed out the harvest season with a community harvest feast. Staff and board members served venison chili with tomatoes and veggies from the garden, strawberry pie, apple crisp using the farm’s apples, kale salad using the garden’s veggies, as well as a roasted root vegetables and buttered squash all from the farm. Everyone left full and well-nourished with ample leftovers for their families. This dinner marked the first event of the fall harvest series which also included free community workshops to make canned apple sauce & tomato sauce, process the farm’s corn into hominy and use the farm-grown cabbage and veggies to make sauerkraut and kim chi. About a dozen participants came to the classes and left both with new skills and the fruits of their labors. All surplus food was brought to the Red Cliff elder center. Overall, 2016 was a year of change but staff met the challenges head on and learned a lot from our efforts. The farm looks forward to building on these successes in 2017 and to incorporating the lessons learned from TNR’s first full season of involvement with Mino Bimaadiziiwin.

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Orchard Stewardship Plan

The Mino Bimaadiziiwin Orchard is a century-old orchard with nearly 200 mature apple trees along with nearly a dozen mature pear trees and a handful of younger stone fruit trees. This orchard exists in two distinct blocks commonly called the North Orchard and South Orchard. These two blocks have different growing conditions with the South Orchard being better drained, larger, and generally more productive. This larger 2.32 acre section (Figure 1) is situated along a rolling, majority north-facing slope that has easy drainage into the large draw feeding the farm pond. In 2016, virtually all of the apples and pears harvested at Mino Bimaadiziiwin came from this section.

Figure 2 The southern section of the orchard is a mature productive orchard with ongoing potential.

The North Orchard is a smaller .82 acre orchard with many diseased and dying apple trees. In 2016, there were very few harvestable apples from this site – perhaps due to a wetter than average year. While it’s too soon to tell, this section may need to be phased out of apple production as the majority of the trees do not seem productive. Some of these trees can be revitalized through intensive pruning and

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grafting, however other wet-tolerant species should also be considered. As Mino Bimaadiziiwin begins to replace the dying trees in the North Orchard (Figure 2) with younger stock, it will be necessary to import additional soil and woodchips to encourage better drainage near these new candidates. Furthermore, the farm should pay close attention to what rootstocks the trees are grafted on as this can make a huge difference of whether the trees survive and thrive or perish in the saturated soil. If improvements are in vain, this area may be a better candidate for more wet tolerant flood plain fruits such as elderberry, disease-resistant currant cultivars, as well as other native species that can tolerate seasonally wet conditions such as juneberry and wild plum.

Figure 3 The northern section of the orchard at Mino Bimaadiziiwin suffers from inadequate drainage and may benefit from addition of more water-tolerant species.

Future Management Considerations

The majority of the old trees in the South Orchard rebounded healthfully from the 2016 spring pruning with most of these producing a crop in the fall. A few of these trees exhibit the signs of crown death and will need to be either newly grafted or cut in the next few years to make space for others to succeed them. One possible method to employ is to identify the trees that are dying and to prune them heavily to encourage root suckering. While the grafted cultivars themselves may be phased out as the tree above the graft perishes, in this way the farm can preserve the rootstock for future grafting efforts.

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Should it be successful, this technique would be well worth the effort as the suckers would likely grow at a much faster rate than a newly planted grafted variety since the roots are so well established. This renovation will require an intentional amendment regime to compensate for low readings of specific trace minerals, medium-low organic matter, and inadequate nitrogen. All micro-nutrients are currently speculative as the 2016 soil test did not measure for these. Subsequent testing should incorporate all micronutrients as these are critical for the trees’ defenses and proper immune response to pest pressures. Studies have found that when all micro nutrients levels are optimal, pest pressures are greatly reduced even without any additional prevention. One characteristic of apple trees is that they feed very closely to the surface of the soil which may prevent them from accessing nutrients locked deeper in the subsoil that other deeper rooted plants may have an easier time accessing. A very simple technique to take advantage of other plants’ feeding strategies is to plant companion species nearby as a mulch or fertilizer crop. Many of these species mine the subsoil for specific minerals and convert them to easily absorbable forms. These plants are collectively known as dynamic accumulators. One such species that has proven very helpful in holistic orchards is comfrey which has roots that descend deeply into the subsoil. This plant grows very fast and can be mowed or cut back multiple times/season and laid around the drip line of the apple trees to rot in place. Additionally, comfrey has other benefits being a premier pollinator plant feeding the mason bees, bumblebees, and honey bees that feed on the apple nectar in season.

Supporting Pollinators

Supporting pollinators is paramount in holistic orchard management not only because of the important role they play in fruit production but also because of their diminished populations due to widespread insecticide use in fruit and vegetable farms. While comfrey is known to spread by seed, sterile cultivars such as Bocking 14 are readily available. Other plants can offer benefits for the fruit trees as well. Clover and alfalfa are widely recognized for both promoting pollinators, attracting beetles that feed on the dormant pupae of apple pests, as well as fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the soil where it can be used as a plant nutrient. These legumes are easily seeded in the early spring when they can be broadcast throughout the orchard during the freeze-thaw cycle. Additionally, there are several sections where due to wide spacing and newly planted young trees pollinator mixes can be sown. These mixes feature other flowering herbs and annuals that provide season-long blooms to pollinators, attracting beneficial predators such as parasitic wasps and tachinid flies that may prey on the apple maggot and coddling moth caterpillars that both cause damage to apples and reduce storability. Many of these flowers are native to the region and have the added benefit of encouraging predatory birds and attracting other endangered pollinators. Some prospective species that may warrant inclusion: yarrow, purple coneflower, asters, cow parsnip, angelica, dill, milkweed, and perennial sunflower. Creating nest blocks for mason bees will also encourage this native pollinator and are very simple – small wooden blocks with holes from 3/16” to 7/16” will accommodate different species of bees and can be cleaned and reused for multiple seasons. This may be a good activity for school groups to do in conjunction with Mino Bimaadiziiwin staff. Down the line it may be worthwhile for the Tribe to also pursue beekeeping as a means to both ensure good pollination as well as further diversify the farm’s revenue stream. In lieu of purchasing and up keeping the farm’s own hives, local beekeepers may be looking for nectar sources for

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their bees in which case Mino Bimaadiziiwin may prove a valuable host site. A local beekeeper recently approached the farm about hosting a bee hive here, so 2017 will be the test year for the possibility of the Tribe acquiring hives in the future.

While encouraging beneficial predators and picking up apple drops can eliminate a large portion of apple pests, monitoring and pheromone traps should also ideally be employed. However, due to the small size of the orchard and gravitation towards value added products, an intensive organic spraying regime may not be cost or time effective.

Figure 4 Integrating flowering plants with staggered bloom times into the orchard will both help support vulnerable pollinator populations and ensure a good apple crop.

Animals in the Orchard

Deer pressure is one of the main limitations for vegetative growth and rapid establishment of young trees in the orchard. In fact, all of the mature trees are “nature pruned” by deer to head height. Young twigs are a mainstay of a deer’s winter diet. While problematic for many orchards, this is nothing new for Mino Bimaadiziiwin and a certain amount of deer herbivory is both acceptable and to be expected. The largest issue is with young trees which have a much higher ratio of digestible cambium to cellulose. Consequently, the farm needs to be prepared for this winter browsing through either fencing young trees or using repellents. Both fencing and repellents have virtues and drawbacks. While fencing may cost more up front than repellents, this is a one-time purchase. Individual trees can be staked with t-

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posts and encircled with 6 foot fencing to prevent browsing. This will only be successful until the twigs grow through the fence at which point the tree will again be pruned by the deer. Additionally, the fencing makes it hard to maintain the ground around the tree as the fencing is difficult to quickly disassemble for weed whacking especially once grass grows up through the fencing. This creates more potential problems as voles take advantage of this small grass filled and fox protected microclimate near a vole’s favorite winter food source – the bark of young fruit trees. Repellents have promise and can rectify many of the issues that fencing young trees create. Blood-based repellents such as Plantskydd are effective at making the young trees unpalatable to deer, rodents, and rabbits. These water soluble sprays are somewhat expensive and need to be reapplied multiple times during the season as new growth emerges and the spray wears off. The spray is only effective if the smell and taste of it is more repellent than the hunger of the deer. Writing this mid-winter 2017, the farm’s young unfenced trees have been unaffected by deer through the winter as they were sprayed both in the fall and during an early January warmup. The biggest drawbacks of this repellent are the price ($382/22lb soluble powder – a 2-3 year supply) and the added time required to spray the trees. This added time is likely less time than that of installing and frequently moving the fencing. One plausible free alternative to Plantskydd is a spray made from charred bone. This has been popularized in recent years by now famous Austrian permaculturist and author Sepp Holzer. Mr. Holzer has been making this bone sauce for years and uses it to eliminate herbivory on his large diverse alpine farm. According to him, the “bone sauce” is extremely long lasting (at least one year) and effective against marauding herbivores. Making the product is fairly straightforward and directions as well as personal accounts of others’ successful applications of the spray can be found online.

An alternative to both caging trees and deterrents is exclusion fencing surrounding the orchard. While not foolproof, exclusion fence can greatly reduce the guesswork and yearly maintenance of caging trees and spraying repellents. There is of course a large upfront expense in both dollars and time that surpasses the annual costs associated with other strategies. However, deer exclusion also opens up other land use options as small livestock, namely sheep and geese can perform the ecological function of maintaining the stands of grass, clover, and understory herbs and flowers through managed intensive grazing. Geese have been used in orchards because they eat primarily grass and grass can compete for soil moisture and nutrients since the roots feed at the same level as the apple tree roots. Sheep on the other hand can help eliminate pests through eating dropped fruit, fertilize the trees and forage with their manure, and increase the soil organic matter content and water holding capacity of the soil. Care must be taken with sheep so that they will not eat young apple trees – both caging and using repellents may be necessary; however historically, sheep have been integrated into traditional standard-type orchards throughout southern England with good success. Shropshire sheep are one such breed that has been utilized for centuries in this practice. Interestingly, the sheep even devour dropped apple leaves in the fall greatly reducing scab incidence since the leaves are digested before the fungus can sporulate and overwinter in the soil. This symbiosis also allows multiple yields from a smaller space (apples, meat, wool, fertilizer, mowing, reduction of pests through consumption of drops, and pruning of ground level woody vegetation instead of just apples) – an important consideration for the farm as Mino Bimaadiziiwin strives to create food sovereignty with minimal access to additional farmable land.

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Figure 5 Pasturing sheep in an orchard benefits the apple crop, the sheep, and the farmers.

Value-added Orchard Products

The Mino Bimaadiziiwin orchard has been managed inconsistently over the years. Pruning has been irregular and roughshod and mowing has been sporadic. As the farm looks forward to the future of this space, it must be recognized the amazing potential this community orchard can provide. While apples are abundant and indeed taken for granted in season, many people routinely buy apples out of season. This small orchard has fallen into disrepair and proper rehabilitation of the trees is of utmost importance. Not only will fruit quality and quantity improve with proper care of the soil and regular pruning, the orchard will be a place of pride for the Red Cliff community and economic opportunities such as you-pick, value added products, and educational opportunities for school groups. Creating value-added products with fall fruits holds great potential since the apples can be stored for months in cold storage before processing them in the winter. This frees up the snow-free months to focus on other more immediate tasks and ensures a year round revenue source. Apple butter, apple chips, apple sauce, and canned apple cider are four potential products that can be made with little alteration in management or farm practices. Furthermore, these products do not require blemish-free apples which allow for greater flexibility in terms of pest control measures. Lastly, post-production apple waste can be recycled as calorie dense food for livestock such as chickens, pigs, rabbits, sheep, or cattle.

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Future Outlook of the Orchards

As the farm’s trees succumb to age and disease, it would be wise to replace them with other fruit bearing species such as apricot, peach, cherry, pear, and plum that are less locally available. This will diversify Mino Bimaadiziiwin’s revenue stream as well as provide more variety for the Red Cliff community. Many of the trees in the orchards are nearing the end of their natural lifespans. By slowly replacing the dying trees while honoring the living through careful tending, the farm will ensure a steady supply of fruit for the Red Cliff community for generations to come.

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Pasture and Livestock Stewardship Plan

The farm “pasture” is a 6.2 acre fallow field that has been maintained as open ground through tillage, mowing, and in the more distant past through pasturing and haying. This land has a number of small draws that drain this field to the pond in the lower portion of the farm near the garden. Unfortunately, around two years ago, the majority of this acreage was tilled during a dry period without regard to the movement of water across the landscape. Consequently, through a series of rain events and snowmelt, this area has lost some of its topsoil to erosion and has hit the reset button on species composition. The field is now in an early successional stage of predominantly annual and biennial weeds with perennial grasses coming in to replace them as the soil stabilizes and ground cover begins to choke light dependent germinators. While many of these species may be suitable as pasture species and could be managed for this purpose, the ruts left from improper tillage and subsequent erosion require further field work to prepare the ground for planting.

TNR staff and the Friends of the Dirt Committee have identified an interest in utilizing this field for pastured livestock, most likely sheep, cattle, and/or bison. These animals can supplement the farm with much needed manure for our vegetable production, provide many learning experiences for the community’s youth and general public, make the farm more resilient and appealing, and can be respectfully harvested for meat, tallow, and making hides available for tribal members. Following legal authority set by Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, in respect to tribal sovereignty “Native American tribal lands located within Wisconsin’s borders are considered sovereign nations, and do not fall under state or local inspectional or licensing jurisdiction.” These animals can therefore be slaughtered and field dressed on site and could be processed in Red Cliff’s community kitchen according to tribal regulations.

Rotational Grazing and Pasture Establishment

The small size of this field in question underscores the need for proper management techniques from the start. Both cattle and bison require ample space for herds of any significant sizes and would only be possible to range at the farm in very limited numbers. Ideally, additional land can either be purchased or leased in the future if such a venture is preferred by the community. Proper management of livestock at Mino Bimaadiziiwin would translate to permanent perimeter fencing, rotational grazing through a series of paddocks, strategic stocking rates, knowledge of pasture fertility management, the advantages and disadvantages of different pasture species performance and palatability throughout the season, as well as knowledge of alternative forages. Weather, period of rest for a given paddock between grazing events, and how far down the forage was grazed are all important factors that help determine when the herd can be moved back to a given paddock. For example, if the field were broken into 20 small paddocks and each were grazed for two days before moving the animals, they would be back to the first paddock after 40 days. This may be enough of a period of rest through much of the season, but cool season forages slow down significantly during the heat of the summer. So, if paddock A was grazed on July 1, it might not be ready for grazing again on August 10th. This is where an annual pasture of alternative forages would kick in. Fast growing annual forages such as millet, sorghum sudan grass, and

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cowpeas all stand to play a role in this system – they help buy time for the cool season forages to resume their growth later in August and help extend the rest period of those forages during the slump. For this reason, it makes sense to carve a small area an acre or so large near Aiken Rd where annual field work can be done more easily. This may be an area that is planted into annual forages/cover crops for soil building. Depending on the year, it may be grown as pumpkins interplanted with winter forages, or a mix of summer/winter forages such as sorghum sudan grass, cowpeas, crimson clover, and oats. The oats (or wheat or barley) could be broadcast prior to grazing of the sorghum sudan grass, cowpeas, and clover and worked into the ground by the animals’ hooves. The oats/barley/wheat would then be available for fall grazing along with the clover.

Watering for the livestock would be accomplished through the use of a portable water tank on a trailer which could be hauled by the farm truck or tractor. This tank and trailer has been included in a recent grant submission and is dependent on funding. The drinking basin would be refilled multiple times per week to maintain access to fresh water. This basin would be centrally located within multiple paddocks (see map below) eliminating the need to move the basin as the animals are rotated.

Figure 6 Example of paddocks at Mino Bimaadiziiwin. Wedge shaped paddock pastures centering a centrally located water source. Purple area is current field west of garden with blue area representing an annually seeded pasture. Red area is South Orchard (to possibly be used for sheep).

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Consideration Cows Bison Sheep Breeding stock and young animals available locally

X X

Eat wide range of forages X X XX Thrive on lower quality forage

XX – Thrive on lower protein grasses but less enthusiastic about broadleaf weeds

X – Will eat a wide diversity of grass and broadleaf forages including common weeds

Red Cliff community familiar with meat already

XX X

Animal of cultural importance to Ojibwe

XX

Small in stature – easier on saturated soils and sites with erosion

XX

Multiple yields (meat, manure, wool, milk, etc.)

XX XX XX

Easy to fence XX X Create valuable product X XX X Can be grazed in orchard or other smaller spaces at farm

X – With properly managed system

Safer to handle

X – Generally safe but differs by breed

Can be aggressive and unpredictable – not truly domesticated

X – When no ram is present

Easier to trailer X X Commonly slaughtered at 1 year

X

Less susceptible to parasites

X X

Hardiness through winter X XX XX Lower maintenance calving/lambing

Differs by breed but usually requires close monitoring

X – Frequently calve without assistance

Differs by breed but often requires monitoring

Less susceptible to predation

X XX

Good livestock for less experienced graziers

X X

Do not require special FDA approval for off reservation sale of meat

X X

Total Score: 16 16 18 XX = very good/excellent; X = satisfactory/good; blank = poor/not applicable

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Mino Bimaadiziiwin staff have been in touch with local beef farmer and tribal member Matt Hipsher about helping prepare the field for planting in pasture species. This would likely entail him tilling, liming/fertilizing, and disking the field in the spring and planting a mix of fast growing annual grains as a nurse crop for undersown slower growing perennial grasses and legumes. Likely candidates include oats and barley planted with timothy, orchard grass, perennial rye grass, red clover, and branch-rooted alfalfa. Matt will help with proper selection of these species.

Considerations of Different Livestock Species

As we assess what species of grazing animal to consider, we must balance multiple factors. What are the impacts of a two or three 1100lb bison or cows vs ten or fifteen 130lb sheep? What is the carrying capacity of our pasture area? How do the foraging abilities of each animal match up? How dependent on outside forage and imported resources would we be for each species? As seen by the above chart, sheep, bison, and cows each have their own advantages in a small farm setting. They each produce multiple saleable products and other benefits but they each pose unique challenges as well. The Red Cliff community may be more familiar with cows and they’re certainly easier to fence, however the reality is that the pasture area at the farm is too small to reasonably accommodate more than 4 total head of cattle and in times of heavy rains and spring thaw, these would likely contribute to compaction and runoff issues if not able to be regularly moved. Bison are notoriously difficult to fence but tend to cause less compaction issues than cattle. Sheep, on the other hand, are known to have “golden hooves” because with their light weight they tend to have a positive influence on the soil, dappling it with thousands of tiny water-capturing imprints. They aren’t currently as widely eaten by the local community though, and would need additional rows of electric fencing to keep them contained. Additionally, cows, bison and sheep have slightly different feeding preferences with cows heavily favoring grass as their primary forage with sheep preferring more broadleaved forbs and legumes in their diet. Driving through cattle country, it’s easy to spot “weeds” in fields that only run cattle or bison; however the addition of sheep into these pastures would mean a more balanced grazing of all available pasture species. A recent resurgence in the traditional practice of running bovine (cow/bison) and sheep together has caught on in many rotational grazing circles for the multiple benefits to the land, animals, and bottom line of the farms. These arrangements, commonly called “flerds” – the hybrid of a flock and herd, can work very well in that with the right ratios of bovine/sheep, all forages will be grazed more evenly. Additionally, a flerd arrangement can help lessen the impacts of parasites as many ground-living and species-specific parasites from either sheep or bovine will not affect the other species when ingested. A flerd will therefore help keep a healthy pasture composition, has the potential to increase animal health, at the same time netting more yield/acre from the animals since all forages are efficiently grazed.

Alternative Areas for Grazing

While the primary pasture as described can accommodate bison, cattle, and/or sheep, the orchard and adjacent open land offers additional grazing options for sheep. The shorter stature of sheep as well as their interest in more diverse pasture species makes them uniquely suited to grazing in the orchard. Currently, the orchards are being intensively browsed by deer on an annual basis and the farm gets

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nothing for this in return other than the comfort of helping provide food and habitat for these herbivores. The apple crop on the other hand suffers immensely. As we begin to think strategically about using these areas for multiple purposes simultaneously, we can imagine a more intensively managed but higher yielding system. The labor expended normally for mowing would be replaced with spraying deer repellent (or sheep in this case) on the apple trees and other beneficial flowers and the sheep would provide both mowing and fertilization all the while making meat for later. As referenced in the orchard management section, sheep have the additional benefits of providing pest management through eating dropped apples with incubating fly and moth pupae as well as eating scabby leaves following leaf drop. Grazing dropped apples in the fall makes use of a seasonably available resource where it falls and occurs simultaneously with the fattening season prior to lamb slaughter.

Figure 7 A "Flerd" or mixed cow and sheep herd/flock enjoying their fresh pasture in Vermont.

Securing Livestock

By far, one of the largest hurdles to expanding into livestock is fencing. Permanent perimeter fencing should be the first priority to secure all of the potential grazed sites and should be adequate for all potential species that the farm may plan to raise in the future. While cows can often be kept in with as little as one to two strands of electric fencing, sheep especially newborn lambs need not only more strands of fencing but additional protection from predators. Permanent fencing options are many and vary based on price, durability, and what species they protect/protect against. The most applicable options are reviewed below based on pricing estimates compiled by Iowa State University and taken from Premier 1 Fencing’s website.

Even with secure fencing, livestock (other than bison) may be vulnerable to certain types of predators especially when young are present. Livestock guardian dogs or donkeys may be necessary to help