Before we started farming the property in 2013, the farm had been leased out to a grass seed/annual rye grass farmer. The farm is around 320 acres, so we take back portions of the property as we can manage them. We needed a large grazing animal to help us manage the space and restore soil health. Fortunately the bison can eat rye grass. It is not the ideal food source, as it has a high sugar content and we want them to have variety but it works as a portion of their diet. Annual rye grass is a tenacious crop and difficult to compete with. It is an annual, but comes back strong for the first two years and then the weeds move in if you do not get on top of it. We are working of different strategies to establish perennial grazing pastures.

Right now we are grazing the bison on the rye grass regrowth and then making hay to remove the seed heads. In the fall we will use a no till drill to plant in a perennial cocktail of grasses, forbes and legumes. What the pastures really need is for humans to stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to stop breaking up the top soil via plowing and tillage. We need to move towards a system that promotes more nutrients, more Fungai, more biomes and microbiology in the soil. More bison, more poop and pee, thousands of dollars of lime to correct the pH (which is not affordable), and time. When we do our soil tests at the beginning of trying to rebuild a pasture, the soil is dead. It is acidic, and hard packed with limited ability to allow water to infiltrate. We noticed that it takes about five years to flip a pasture from annual rye to perennial forage, but it does happen and that makes it all worth it.