By Grant Terwilliger
Late Night for the Planet addressed the ethicality of livestock agriculture and the benefits that animals can have on farms in conjunction with Emily Murdock of Miners Institute and Alex Caskey of Barred Owl Brook Farm.
Olive Ridley’s Taphouse and Grill hosted student-run game show Late Night for the Planet, a monthly talk show about the environment hosted by the environmental club. This month’s show was titled “Late Night at the Barn.”
Caskey is the owner of Barred Owl Brook Farm, a sheep and tree crop farm. He grew up in the Indiana-Ohio area where his grandparents on both sides owned and ran farms.
Caskey bought 60 acres of land in Westport, N.Y. in 2019. It had been fallowed for 10 to 25 years. The focus of Barred Owl Brook Farm is on silvopasture, the practice of integrating trees and foraging into the grazing of livestock.
“Silvopasture falls under a bigger umbrella of agroforestry, so just generally, incorporating trees and forests into agricultural production, so perennials are really at the core of everything we do, from the pasture itself to the trees,” Caskey said.
25% of the farm is wooded and 35% of the farm is open grazing field. Caskey seeks to identify different plants growing in his field before he can cut the grass on his property. He is searching for plants to use in his agroforestry production. He found three or four different species of willow and has brought in 12 to 15 species of native willow to his farm.
“I’m really trying to find a willow that both has an ecological function and value, but then also can be grazed by the sheep repeatedly,” Caskey said. “Our focus on solo pasture, which is integrating trees with grazing, root livestock and pasture, sets us apart.”
Caskey feels that one of the flaws of Modern agriculture is separating animals from the production of the feed. During the Green Revolution in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s farmers started focusing on feed crop production and separating the production from the animals. The animals provide extra nutrients and can close the nutrient cycle in production.
This separation of feed crop production and animals has occurred over time for efficiency, but Caskey thinks that not being able to close the nutrient cycle has negative ramifications on the environment and practices.
Caskey’s background is in conservation biology and land management. He has always been fascinated with the way in which wildlife shape their surroundings and how humans have used wildlife to shape their surroundings.
Caskey has ducks that are employed in the tree nursery for natural slug and snail control. He also has two hogs that he uses to turn up pastures that need some renovation. His three great pyrenees dogs have one of the most important jobs on the farm — protecting the sheep.
Murdock from Miners Institute grew up in Vermont on a dairy farm that her grandfather had bought and raised her dad on. Her grandfather started a fertilizer and feed business that is still in operation today in New England and Northern New York.
Murdock always asked questions about agriculture and realized that she could answer her questions through research. She had the opportunity to do a semester at the Miner Institute as an undergraduate and decided that she wanted to continue in the world of research.
Miners Institute is part of the FARMS initiative which stands for farmers assuring responsible management. These are guidelines that farmers have to follow to uphold animal care, environmental stewardship, as well as workforce development. 99% of the milk on the market is part of the FARMS program.
“The overarching goal of Miners research is to improve practices in a way that are socially, environmentally and economically responsible, and to ensure that we have a sustainable food supply for our future,” Murdock said. “The goal of our research questions is always to improve the cow’s way of life in some way, shape or form.”
Miners Institute takes pride in the community and is open to touring and hosts community events throughout the year.
Although it may seem like farms have industrialized, the practice of farming has remained in the heart of the communities in which they are involved.
“97% of the farms in the US are family owned. So these farmers that you drive by, they are members of your community,” Murdock said. “They’re your firefighters, they’re on your school board, they’re your local police, they’re first responders and they will do anything to take care of their animals.”
