Modern Farmer

JANUARY 30, 2025

Around forty years ago, most of the orchards were replaced with cattle pasture. An old pasture filled in with blackberry. The forest encroached on the meadow, pioneer poplar, locust, and sassafras saplings taking the lead. It would serve as a living example of how to restore native meadows! In other words, exactly my jam.

Meadow 45

Meadow Farming Farming Orchard 45

Civil Eats

MAY 6, 2024

Strips of trees, bushes, grasses, or flowers around agricultural or pasture fields can house higher numbers of small mammals than cropland. They disperse seeds, pollinate, and transfer nutrients across landscapes, supporting healthy plant populations, and they alter their environments in ways that enhance biodiversity.

Farming 143

Farming Farming Pesticide Agriculture 143

Sustainable Food Trust

JUNE 28, 2023

Our permanent pastures are beautifully diverse with plant mixtures that change and evolve over the years. Patrick has been using diverse seed mixes since he started at Bwlchwernen in 1973. It’s not just about hedges and field margins though, our in-field biodiversity is as valuable as the woodlands, watercourses and hedges.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Meadow Straw 52

Sustainable Food Trust

JUNE 28, 2023

At the same time, productive land as well as field margins and natural areas can be of great value to nature – a traditionally managed hay meadow or unsprayed crop can harbour and support a range of biodiversity and facilitate the movement of species through the landscape. Or is it too little? At what level do we move from good to bad?

Farming 52

Farming Farming Food Cattle 52

Civil Eats

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

food system since the COVID-19 quarantine, which created a rush on vegetable seeds and baby chicks. What does that mean for pasture-raised poultry, which spend most of their lives outdoors and therefore are at greater risk of contact with contagious wild birds? As a nation, we have too many eggs in one industrialized basket.

Poultry 142

Poultry Pasture Food Farming 142