Polyface Farm: A Food Production Oasis
I had the pleasure of spending two days touring Polyface Farm and learning from Joel Salatin, the “Lunatic Farmer” himself. Polyface Farm exemplifies what can be accomplished when farmers respect the land and animals. By working with nature and creating resilient systems, there is an alternative to factory farming that can “feed the world” and preserve our health and environment.
Below are some pictures and descriptions from my two days on the farm and a look into the Polyface farming method, where cows eat grass, pigs play in the mud, and chickens hunt for worms.
Cattle and Sheep make their way onto fresh pasture. Moving animals daily ensures they don’t overgraze one spot and mimics nature. Imagine a herd of Bison or Elk moving through the landscape, eating their preferred forage, depositing their droppings, and moving on, giving the land time to rest and rejuvenate. Keeping animals in the same location does not provide the plants time to rest, and the ground turns into mud.
Even the chickens are moved daily, being put on fresh grass each morning and given the ability to search for bugs and forage. I would rather go without eating chicken than support factory producers like Tyson and Purdue, whose chickens are confined to tiny cages indoors and pumped full of God knows what.
Nothing is wasted on the farm. The guts and skins from the recently slaughtered rabbits and chickens are placed into a compost pile, left to break down, and later spread out to build soil. Nature never plows; everything falls on top and gets drug down.
Like Cows and Chickens, rabbits are moved daily to fresh grass. Rabbits are a great source of protein and can be a good option for urban homesteaders to circumvent HOA regulations precluding chickens because rabbits can be a “pet.” Rabbits are prolific breeders, and the cost of entry is low.
Multiple ponds at higher elevations collect runoff and supply the pasture and animals below with water instead of relying solely on a well. The goal of every farm should be to reduce the volume and velocity of water across the land, capture every drop of rain, and keep it on the farm.
Our forests aren’t meant to be a tangled mess. After wiping out the large herds of Bison and elk and extracting the highest-value trees, our forests were transformed into a tangled mess. Through active management and putting animals back in the forest, we can have beautiful, open, and productive forests capable of feeding animals and providing us with resources and beautiful spaces to wander.
Through active forest management, whether we have a 1/4 acre or hundreds of acres, we can reclaim the productivity of our woodlands to promote the most desirable trees. Cut away the poplar and scrub pine crowding out your white oak, and watch it thrive.
Pigs do phenomenal in a forest setting and can perform the job of the lost herds of Bison and Elk. They can be left just long enough to disturb the earth, foster beneficial plant growth, and move on to a new spot needing attention. Opening the canopy of your forest and moving animals through will quickly transform the landscape.
Having pastures surrounded by trees provides shade for animals, a wind break, woody forage, and a habitat for beneficial birds and insects. Having a pond and a solar pump allow you to provide water to livestock on site where infastructure may be lacking.
Nothing goes to waste at Polyface Farm. Joel recommends that any farm's first two pieces of equipment be a 4x4 tractor and a mill—one to save your back and the other to save you money. All the structures on the farm were built with wood from the property. People in the local community also hire them to mill wood from their property, generating more farm income and providing a valuable service.
Behold an actual 2” x 4” board. The smell of freshly milled lumber goes great with the satisfaction of knowing you are producing your own building materials from your land. The rule of thumb for drying lumber is one year per inch of board thickness, but this can be significantly sped up by putting your boards in a hoop house or other container that heats up.
Remember all those scrub pine and poplar trees you took down in the forest? They can be put through the wood chipper and deposited into the hoop house. Years of adding mulch and compost create the black gold, helping these plants thrive. Hoop houses can double as a shelter for livestock in the winter, adding further nutrients to the soil. Even on a zero-degree day, it can be 70 degrees in the hoop house with doors closed.
Pasture-raised eggs are better for you than factory eggs. Along with their non-GMO feed, these hens are free to roam and eat grass and bugs, making for a better nutrient profile in the eggs they produce. This is the egg mobile, which is moved within the fence a couple of times until the entire electric fence is shifted to a new location to keep the chickens on fresh ground and allow the grass to rest and grow, fortified with their droppings. The single goose inside the enclosure has the job of protecting the hens from aerial predators, while the electric fence keeps ground predators out.
Sheep are being used in the perimeters of the pasture to eat some of the plants that the cows left behind and prune around the apple trees. Combining animals around your orchards is a great way to accelerate the productivity of your land. Imagine an orchard where cows pass through, then sheep and chickens, all doing their job keeping weeds down, controlling insects, and depositing fertilizer. Mark Shepard’s book Restoration Agriculture discusses this farming method in great detail. Sheep can also access steeper terrain that may be tough for cattle.
Hay properly stored and kept dry will last indefinitely. Farmers are no strangers to drought and hard times. Joel keeps a surplus of hay to make sure his animals will make it through less-than-desirable conditions.
As a society, we need fewer straight lines and 90-degree angles in our lives. Too often, we are obsessed with form over function, but there is beauty in the randomness of nature and natural materials.
I’m now an advocate of ponds, millions of ponds spread out across the nation. Ponds provide valuable habitat for wildlife and reduce the force and velocity of water being washed into our streams and rivers and out to sea. Reducing the force and volume across our landscapes helps prevent our soil and it’s nutrients from being washed away.
I hope the images of Polyface Farm made you curious about where your food comes from. Large corporations that seek to centralize food production don’t want these small farms to exist because they offer another option and threaten their business model. As we always say, vote with your dollars for the food system you want.
To support Polyface Farm or learn more about their farming methods, check out these links: