Livestock and Poultry
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Taking Stock of Farming: Why Small Family Farms should tend animals and birds.
Where we’ve been: Historical perspective on agro-ecology 
Upper-Midwestern soils, which drain more than 40 percent of the United States’ land mass, are among the most fertile in the world. They are believed to have formed over 10,000 years, during which time perennial grasses dominated the vegetation and massive herds of bison – numbering in the tens of millions – ranged across this central region. Many European settlers to this region first tried to mirror these natural circumstances as best they could in their farming practices. They pastured herds of livestock, which required diverse rotations, including hay and small grains – oats, wheat and barley. Quality organic matter from both the natural prairie system and the traditional whole farm model help maintain soil fertility and health. Wide rotations and diverse plantings in a farming system also help naturally control pest and disease cycles
specific to particular crops.
Where we are: Specialization, Concentration, Scale
With removal of land-based livestock from the traditional farming system, the focus of fertility has shifted from long-term soil building, conservation and enrichment, to seasonal chemical fertilizer applications and annual crop yields. We are no longer feeding soil micro biotic life, so necessary for decomposing plant and animal matter, improving soil tilth and health, and mineralizing crops. We are feeding cash crops, mostly corn and soybeans, for short-term gains.
Livestock and poultry production have shifted over the past 50 years to factory settings – 10,000 dairy cows in one operation, 10 million chickens in one operation, 200,000 hogs in one operation (with projections to go to 1 million). Corn plantings this past spring totaled 76 million acres. Soybeans covered another 76 million acres. Diversity is being systematically wiped clean from the Midwestern landscape.
Insects, disease and weeds are building resistance to chemical applications, requiring more potent chemical controls. Agricultural product prices have in recent years hit 10- and 50-year lows, most notably from gluts in supply. Farm margins were predicted 3 years ago to be at zero within 20 years (continuing a steady fall over the last century, which began with farmers getting 25 cents or more on the dollar and ended with farmers getting about 4 cents on the dollar).
Energy dependence for the modern system of farming has increased more than 15 fold. Estimates of the average distance from field to plate range from 1,200 miles to 1,500 miles. Groundwater pollution is becoming a serious threat to health. One in 10 wells statewide in Wisconsin tests above safe drinking levels for chemical nitrate. In the southern part of the state, some watersheds are showing more than half the wells are now unsafe.