Page 10—Foraging Around, Umorter Farming, Saturday, April 17, 1999
Frustrated With Conventional Farming ,
(Continued from Pago 1)
of this on the farm, but we were used to
the same system everybody else was;
let the cows out to pasture, let them
come back in, and feed them their
food. I think it was out of desperation.
We were short of feed and short of
money,” he said.
After attending the meeting, howev
er, Simpson decided to look into pas
turing more intensively.
“The cheapest way to feed a cow is
to let her graze. Cows are bom to
graze, so we should allow them to do it.
They have four legs and their mouths
are built to go forage their own feed,
not for us to haul feed to them,” he said.
Simpson drove his point home when
he noted that farmers who do not let
their cows graze ate essentially in a
transfer-of-nutrients game.
“All they want to do is haul feed
from the field to the cow and from the
back end of the cow to the field,” he
said. “When you graze, the cows go to
the field, eat, and deposit the whatever
afterward. So there’s no transfer of
nutrients. The only nutrients they’re
moving is to the milking facility in the
form of the product that we’re selling.”
Simpson further expanded his pas
ture research by weaving the concepts
of holistic management into the
process.
“Caleb Williams invited me to come
hear a guy speak his name was
Allen Savory and he wrote a book on
holistic management,” he explained.
“So I listened to him and he started
answering all my questions about,
‘why am I frustrated, why do I have to
work so hard, thisrisn’t working and
that’s not working,’ everything just
was -haywire. I listened to him and
everything made sense. When you
look at life as a whole, everything is
cyclical and everything revolves
around nature.”
At the time Simpson and his wife,
Tammy, had one daughter, Hilary,
now seven. Now they also have a
4-year-old son, Alec.
Simpson found that the principles he
learned not only made sense, but they
also were consistent with the way he
wanted to bring up his children.
“(Savory) talked about setting some
goals," so I listened to that and I came
Hilary P re P s ■ c ° w ln the **ep*up parlor. When the cows are milked, the headiock la
MH«r^Hn^i COW W S ,ks Straig ]? 1 t Simpson notes that the low dollar Investment in the actual
parlor helped him realize a profit in the operation sooner. /
Pasture is part of Simpson’s simplified lifestyle. Here cows graze in one paddock while the while pens
house the pasture chickens that follow along behind.
home and I told my wife and I grabbed
Hilary and said our lives are going to
change and they’re going to change
now!”
He was still not sure about the path
he would take, however. He decided to
venture off on his own and quit milk
ing cows for three and a half years. To
earn a living, he hit the road trimming
hooves, assisting with cow sales, and
working for other people at shows. He
also spent some time working the night
shift in a factory. His wife has always
worked full time, so their lives became
more hectic with Simpson not home a
good deal of the time and the bills
weren’t being paid without the milk
money.
“So then you start making decisions
Grazier Employs New Ideas
surrounding what your real goals are,
and my goal was to be home. To be
here." One of the fundamental tools
of holism is grazing, so he decided to
put the cows to work rather than mak
ing a substantial investment in
machinery.
“Your tools to harvest forage can
either be a cow or a machine, so I got
started in my enterprise pretty much
with no equipment. The only reason I
could start this enterprise is because
Dad sold me the farm, cheap, accord
ing to land values."
Because the land values on the
books were higher than the actual
purchase price, Simpson had equity to
start his business.
He built a step-up parlor and added
fencing to the farm so he could manage
the grazers. In total, he invested
$28,000 in remodeling the bam, buy
ing the pipeline and bulk tank, receiver
units, gates, stalls and everything he
needed. He hopes the investment will
last many years with minimum repair.
“The bottom line is you turn solar
energy that goes into the grass into the
cow. It’s the cheapest way to make
milk and make money, so you can be
home and stay with your family. That’s
one of the big things. I don’t worry
about production. 1 worry about mak
ing profits and it doesn’t necessarily
have to come from a cow.
“My goals, as far as profit is con
cerned, say, I want profit from the land
first. In order to get profit from the land
I need something to harvest. And what
are your best margins?’'
Not only did Simpson shift feeding
techniques, he also became a seasonal
producer and has added different
breeds to his hod.
“Cows calve in the spring the same
time the grass starts growing, the deer
have their babies, the bees start work
ing. Everything starts happening in the
spring. Up here we definitely have to
work with nature. I’m at 1,700 feet ele
vation and it makes a lot of difference
in the growing degree days. Going sea
sonal, I try to plan it so the cows will
have peak production when there’s
peak grass growth,” Simpson said.
Last year Simpson had a 72 pound
average at peak production. He fed a
5:1 milk-to-grain ratio on top of the
grass.
To help manage the pasture, SimP'
son and his helper, Marty Fisher, use B
pasture gauge to measure the grass w
the various paddocks. When the cows
are going to a certain paddock the gr BsB
has been measured to determine the
amount of dry matter in that particular
area. They also keep track of the bulk
tank. If a paddock does not hav®
enough dry matter for an entire day<
Simpson will move them to anotb® 1
area.
(Turn lo Pag* 14)