Note: This is the 1st installment in the 11-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. 

One of the ways Rachelle and Jordan Meyer keep things in context is to avoid being distracted by what they call “the woman in the red dress.” Is a new enterprise a good fit for the farm, or is its flashiness overshadowing the downsides of adding it to the mix? The Meyers are in their early 30s and have six children. That means any business decisions they make on the farm must be balanced against the needs of the family, first and foremost. That became particularly clear in the spring of 2024, when they experienced the heartbreaking tragedy of having their 2-year-old daughter, April, taken from them in a farm accident.

They keep their balance utilizing the “three-legged stool” strategy: the farm family perches on top of this metaphorical stool, and each leg represents a key ingredient to overall success: profitability, soil health, and quality of life. Such a strategy helped the family not only determine recently that adding an enterprise like sheep worked for them, the land, and their family, but also led them to decide that the cow-calf and turkey businesses they formerly had were not a good fit. Besides raising the ewes and running a conventional dairy, they have pasture-based enterprises that involve rotationally grazing goats, beef cattle, hogs, and poultry. They direct-market meat to consumers, as well as lease out their goats to people hoping to rehabilitate worn-out land that’s been taken over by invasive plants.

 In late June, the couple explained how they utilize this management strategy while hosting a Land Stewardship Project grazing school on the hilly acres they farm in southeastern Minnesota’s Houston County. Over a two-day period, farmers and other experts led discussions on everything from setting up fencing and watering systems on a budget to monitoring soil health, assessing pasture quality, utilizing government conservation programs, and crunching the numbers on farm profitability.

To the mix of aspiring, new, and established graziers present, the Meyers recommended “learning your farm first” before putting in more permanent infrastructure such as perimeter fencing. Fortunately, innovations such as light-weight, portable electric fencing make it possible to try out grazing techniques in different areas before settling on a more permanent system.

“Our biggest thing is to be adaptive,” said Rachelle.

On the second day of the school, the couple led participants to a 15-acre field on rented ground that, before they started farming it, had suffered the environmental and agronomic consequences of years of row-cropping and heavy tillage. The recent addition of the ewes has helped the Meyers add economic value to the perennials and annuals that are now building soil and crowding out the weeds.

“This whole field as far as you can see was giant ragweed,” Jordan said, pointing beyond their flock of hair sheep at a diverse stand of forages growing along the contour of the hill. With the assistance of Skipper, a massive, white Maremma guard dog, he and Rachelle then moved the flock to a new paddock. Rotational grazing is often associated with squared off, grid-like paddocks, but on this Driftless Area topography, the Meyers often utilize portable fencing to create long, narrow foraging channels. These linear paddocks hug the contours of the rugged landscape and force animals like sheep into smaller areas for a shorter period of time, creating a “mob” effect. Again, it’s all about context — the sheep have a lighter impact on the soil compared to cattle, meaning they needed to be crowded more to get the same effect of trampling manure and biomass into the soil while knocking back weeds; it’s the epitome of an adaptive, rather than a cookie-cutter, rote approach to raising livestock.

There’s adapting to the landscape, and then there’s adapting to the state of the soil and the limiting factor of climate, as well as one’s access to that most valuable of resources: time. For example, one of the other grazing school instructors was George Heller, who’s launched a livestock operation on sandy, drought-prone soil in northern Minnesota’s Wadena County. Before Heller started farming it, the land was impoverished by years of continuous hay production. He’s also dealing with a 120-day growing season; in contrast, the growing season in southeastern Minnesota can be 150 days or more. As Heller put it during a discussion about soil biology in one of the Meyers’ pastures, “I’m always planning for winter.”

“That’s his context,” quipped Jordan Meyer at one point. The point being that if Heller attempted to stock his paddocks at the same rate the Meyers do on their comparatively rich soil, it would be an economic and ecological disaster.

But over the past five years, Heller has built up an adaptive rotational grazing operation on 290 owned and rented acres that supports his cattle and sheep, as well regenerates the depleted soil. He is building this enterprise literally from the ground-up — beyond fencing and watering systems, as well as a four-wheeler, his infrastructure is minimal, and he estimates that not counting the land costs, he has just a few thousand dollars invested in the whole operation.

Heller’s day job is running a concrete business, so he has limited time to spend managing the farm. One way he buys a few precious hours is to run cattle and sheep together in the same paddocks as a “flerd.”

In the end, the grazing school wasn’t just about stocking rates, or what kind of grass to plant on former corn ground, or which fencing reel works best (even though plenty of talk focused on such nuts and bolts topics) — it was about how to make the kinds of observations and calculations that put daily decisions in context.

As a grazing specialist for the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Jeff Duchene has set up rotational grazing plans for farmers in at least 50 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Not surprisingly, farmers frequently ask him for advice on what type of forage to plant. What is the ultimate species that will withstand drought, flooding, and disease, while producing a nutritious feed for decades?

“Not to disappoint anyone, but that grass doesn’t exist,” said Duchene while leading a plant identification session in one of the Meyers’ hilltop pastures. “There is no magic grass — the magic is in the management.”

Clifford Johnson, a central Minnesota crop and livestock farmer, explained to the participants that regenerative management often involves compromises — sometimes one may have to turn to tillage or chemical applications, which can set soil health back temporarily. It’s all about keeping the big picture in perspective and not allowing a few backward steps stop a farm’s overall trajectory forward. It also helps to have a sense of humor.

“I call myself the HRH — Honest Regenerative Hypocrite,” Johnson joked.

Brian DeVore edits the Land Stewardship Letter and produces the Ear to the Ground podcast.

Give it a Listen

• Ear to the Ground 342: Ignoring the Red Dress (Rachelle Meyer)
• Ear to the Ground 343: Healthy Soil Vs. Plastic Worms (Clifford Johnson)
• Ear to the Ground 344: Flerd is the Word (George Heller)
• Ear to the Ground 346: Pasture Pixie Dust (Jeff Duchene)

Installments in the ‘A Sense of Where You Are’ Series:

1. Introduction to the Series: A Sense of Where You Are
2. Red Dresses & Magic Management
3. In the Blood
4. Seeking Signs of Life
5. Forest for the Trees
6. The Quickening
7. Food Bank Booster
8. First Things First
9. The Big Picture
10. The Snowball Effect
11. 7 Years Later
12. Against the Grain