Bringing Back Old Ways of Farming: North Country Farmer Makes Old Techniques His New Mission
“Just start pouring them out in the middle there, but don’t let anyone knock you over!,” Mark yells to Zeph, a lanky blonde boy carrying a five-gallon bucket of apples out into the temporary pasture. As soon as the gate opens the 50 sheep rush him, nudging and wrestling their way to the apple bucket. A symphony of bleats erupts as he tips the bucket bottom up and the apples tumble out. The sheep, which are being raised for meat, get an apple snack twice a day.
With the distraction set in place, Mark calls over the two pasture dogs who are sitting idle in the field. “Luna, Spike, get on over here!,” he says, gently clapping his hands together. The two large white dogs bound over, their hair flowing in the wind and tails wagging. They collide with Mark in an explosion of joy, rubbing their large, flat heads against his hands and legs Luna and Spike are not herding dogs. They are in the field to protect the sheep from coyotes. “They are not housetrained,” Mark says, explaining that the working dogs were introduced to the pasture at a young age and grew up alongside the animals they are meant to guard. Mark himself shares a certain resemblance to his two canine companions. His white hair, large stature and calm demeanor all seem to match the two Great Pyrenes. The most remarkable similarity is the smile they share.
We are now standing at the edge of one of the pastures at Canton Apples, a 73-acre farm which specializes in heirloom and old variety apples. The orchard is owned and maintained by Joel Howie with the help of his family, including his nephew Zeph. There are other farmers who work the land too, like Arden the beekeeper and Mark the sheep grazer. There is also a farmstand on the property, providing a place for many local farmers to sell their goods throughout the year. The stand gives Mark a venue to sell his lamb and Arden a space to offer her honey.
None of the pastures have been hayed this year. Instead, the sheep have grazed the tall, tan grass. At the bottom of the field the maples are beginning to turn red, although the sun still beats down in a display of resistance to the fast-approaching fall. Behind us and up the hill sits the Canton Apples’s cider house and farm stand. The property consists of oak forests, apple orchards and fields of tall grass.
The soil has been farmed many times over in the past and is not as healthy as it once was. Plants need nutrients to grow, which they absorb from the soil. When a plant is harvested and sold at the market it takes nutrients with it, leaving less in the soil. After hundreds of years of planting and harvesting and without proper care the soil has become far less rich. However, there are things that can be done for the land to revive it. The recycling of plant materials and animal waste is a great way to bring damaged soil back to life.
Mark, who learned the practice of rotational grazing from the Albany Grazing School in 2019 is now highly versed in the subject. He gestures to the tall grass that surrounds us saying “All this grass is free, and the sheep are going to use it to make the land better.” As the fluffy manure-makers graze a different section of the field, they trample and eat the tall grass. This does multiple things. First, it gives the sheep food they can turn into nutrients. Secondly, it leaves plant matter lying on the ground, allowing it to decompose and protect the fresh grass growing underneath. If the land was hayed, the nutrients would be stripped from the soil and leave no protection for the undergrowth. Without haying, the grass can decompose back into the earth, creating healthy, porous soil which will retain a much higher concentration of water. Mark calls this the “carbon sponge.”Healthy soil makes land much less prone to erosion, and the more water it absorbs the more fertile it becomes.
It also helps the sheep, explains Carmen Hostetter, an educator at the St. Lawrence County Cooperative Extension. “Parasites common among sheep have a life cycle of 21 days. If the animals stay on the same plot for long, they will be prone to parasites. That is why grazing them efficiently is important.” This shows how not only the land, but also the animals, benefit from the practice. “You are putting the sheep into a small area for two or three days, then on to the next spot,” says Hostetter. A sheep who is moved often will not be affected because worms and other threats do not have enough time to reach the next stage of their life cycle.
Today, the sheep are being moved to a new temporary pasture. Once the grass becomes too trampled, Mark likes to move them. This happens a few times a week. We trudge through the tall grass in our knee-high rubber boots, wading as if we were in fast-moving water. The grass grabs and snarls at our feet. Zeph holds one end of the two-hundred-foot section of fence while Mark tugs on the other, creating a giant wave of wire and posts. Then, working our way along, we carefully plunge each stake into the ground. If the fence is not tight enough, the animals may be able to jump over it and escape. The sheep watch us, curious about our actions. The dogs seem to know what is happening, and they lazily wag their tails back and forth.
Finally, the new pasture is set up. “This is the best part,” Mark says as Zeph pulls a section of fence back. The flock flows through the small gap as if it were a dam and they were a river pushing through a break. The sheep bleat in excitement as they approach the fresh grass, and the two dogs bound in after them. In this very moment, everyone is happy: the sheep have new grass to eat, the dogs have new land to explore and Mark looks proudly at the temporary pasture which will soon be rich with nutrients, adding to the sponge.
When the leaves have all but disappeared and the last of the apples harvested, the sheep will be moved into the orchards. Here, their job is less about water management and more about protecting the precious apple trees. In the fall months before the snow, voles and other rodents love to come up through the ground and feast on the apple trees. With a team of sheep making constant trampling noises and two very well-trained guard dogs, these rodents won’t show up. If they do, they won’t stand a chance against the likes of Luna and Spike.
Soon, Mark plans to expand his sheep farm. He will get 25 more ewes along with the ones born on the farm. In addition to the few pastures and orchards where the sheep currently graze, they will also be moved into a nearby oak forest. Here the sheep will eat the low underbrush, clearing the forest into an open beautiful woodland where sunlight will dapple the ground.
Mark is excited about the expansion and is deeply passionate about the land management practice that his sheep are a part of. In the coming years, he hopes more farmers will adopt this method, using both their animals and land to their fullest potential. “I want to show a new generation of farmers an old way of farming,” he says, gesturing to the happy-looking sheep and dogs. “Animals evolved outdoors, not indoors. This is where they belong.”
As the years go by, the herd will continue to grow, and the soil will keep improving. These sheep and the land they graze on will continuously work together, making each other stronger.