Grazing in Michiana
In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. Most of us are too busy living day-to-day to really stop and contemplate the past. History will tell us a lot. I live in a house that has been in the family for 110 years, and I own ground that my ancestors farmed 170 years ago. Truly, a lot of people have come together to put me on this earth. By being here and alive, I am a winner in one of the greatest lotteries that ever existed. Because a farmer received a debilitating kick from a cow, my dad was needed to do his chores. There, he met his future wife and my mom. A quarter-inch over and my dad may have not been needed and I would not be here.
Any time I start a presentation on trees, I reflect on the past and how thick timber grew in our area. At that time, if you took a look around, it was all forest and swamps. In less than 100 years, pioneers took Indiana from 87 percent forest in the early 1800s, down to 8 percent by the year 1900.
Great-great-grandfather Daniel Miller, born in 1819, lived in Kosciusko County and was witness to the most destructive years of the Indiana forest. He wrote in 1878 about that destruction, "When an early history of this country is to be written, let the timber not be forgotten," he said, recalling that prior to the railroads, "... this timber was looked upon as being simply worthless; made only to be destroyed."
After the railroads, "A merciless destruction of timber commenced and its contents converted into freight for the railroads, which carried it to all the world. The European monarchs, their nobles and lords, owe a debt of gratitude to northern Indiana for their rich, black walnut furniture and embellishments of their palaces. No other place on the known earth grew such an amount of the three leading varieties of timber that goes to make up furniture for mankind: walnut, poplar and cherry."
As a culture, we waste a lot. Even in 1878, my great-great-grandfather wrote, "If the timber would have been left until now, it would be worth more than the land on which it grew. This is true, but people then could see no further in the future than they can now, and if we had all this timber now, we would be very apt to use it up, and 25 years after this time the same thing would be said of us, that we were unwise in destroying timber worth probably 10 times as much as now."
Around 10,000 years ago, the last of the ice ages covered our area. Since that time, the timberland developed and covered our area. It is those forests that developed our soil. Tree roots only go as deep as the oxygen in the soil will let them, allowing the vast majority of tree roots to grow in the top foot of the soil. Thousands of years of tree roots living and dying and tree leaves falling to the ground is where we get that thin layer of topsoil to sustain our crop growth.
Environmentally, trees are the best crop that can be grown in our area to protect that topsoil; perennial forages are my next choice. Improving soil health starts out by being able to work with good soil. Yes, it is great to improve poor soil, but it's more important to keep our topsoil intact.
One indicator on our farm is the fencerow. There are a variety of spots in my field on the other side of the fence that take a steep drop. The fence and accompanying trees have kept the soil from washing away. My crop preference for those sloping fields would be perennial forages—crops that will reduce the likelihood of soil erosion.
Several generations from now, when our descendants look back to see what their ancestors were like, we need to think about leaving them a legacy that will make them proud.
What is the agriculture legacy you are leaving? Are we making it a better place for the next generation? There are many ways to invest in forages and enhance the soil. Rotational grazing is the best for saving soil carbon and reducing erosion. The addition of cover crops to corn and soybean fields is also a help. We just need to take advantage of them as a grazing opportunity.
Several years back I was at the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri. There, they were practicing silvopasture. According to their publication, "Silvopasture is the intentional combination of trees, forage and livestock managed as a single integrated practice. In a typical silvopasture practice, perennial grasses and/or grass-legume mixes are planted between rows of trees for livestock pasture. The trees not only provide long-term investment for nut crops or a timber harvest but also provide the animals shade in the summer and a windbreak in the winter." Some of the trees were walnuts and they were planting specific varieties for nut production.
A unique concept that would take the right kind of management plus leave a legacy going back to the days of early Indiana that Grandfather Miller would not even have envisioned.