Sacred Song Farm, which specializes in beef, lamb and pork, is on a mission to reinvigorate the land around it.
“We rotate our animals every single day,” said Scott Hauck, who manages the Mancos-based farm. “The beef and the lamb are moving to a new pasture every day.”
This sequesters carbon in the soil, he said, because every time a grass plant is grazed, it sends sugars out to the microbes in the soil around it. This traps the sugars so the plants can then regrow quicker. Dividing their farm into small areas helps speed this process along.
“Even in the fall, (they’re) are on essentially spring grass, which is super nutritious and amazing for them and a really good way to build soil, too,” he said.
Meanwhile, the farmers run their hogs through the woods.
“What they’re doing – you can see its a super arid landscape in between the piñon and juniper – they’re tilling all that dirt up and going to the erosion gullies and digging their wallows, which is what a pig does, right?” Hauck said. “They want to find the water and wallow around, so they’re slowing the water down, which allows us to grow more plants in the woods.”
This is the third year that Hauck and his wife, Margaret Paradise, have farmed in Mancos and their seventh season all-around. They previously farmed in southwestern Wisconsin and Urban Denver.
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
