All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promises of Pasture Farming

276 Pages·2004·1.141 MB·English

by  Gene Logsdon

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All Flesh
Is Grass
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All Flesh
Is Grass
The Pleasures and Promises
of Pasture Farming
GENE LOGSDON
SWALLOW PRESS / OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
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Swallow Press / Ohio University Press,Athens,Ohio 
www.ohio.edu/oupress
© by Gene Logsdon
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
Swallow Press / Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper Ī
             
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Logsdon,Gene.
All flesh is grass :the pleasures and promises of pasture farming /
Gene Logsdon.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---(cloth :alk.paper) — ISBN ---(pbk.:alk.
paper)
. Pastures.. Forage plants.. Grazing. I.Title.
SB.L
.'—dc

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To Richard Gilbert
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Contents
Preface ix
Giving Thanks xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Pasture Farming,the Newest and Oldest Agriculture 
2. How I Came to Pasture Farming 
3. Some Commercial Grass Farms 
4. A Pasture Garden 
5. Good Fences Still Make Good Neighbors 
6. Water in Every Paddock 
7. Pasturing Horses, Mules, and Donkeys 
8. Sheep on Pasture 
9. Milk and Beef from Pasture Cows 
10. The Rising Farm Interest in Goats 
11. Root, Hog, or Die 
12. Chickens, Ducks, Geese, and Turkeys Love to
Graze 
13. Bluegrass, Ryegrass, and White Clover 
14. Alfalfa, Red Clover, and Ladino Clover 
15. Legumes of Regional Importance 
16. Other Noteworthy Pasture Grasses 
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17. Grains for Grazing 
18. Other Plants with Pasture Potential 
19. Weeds—the Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful 
20. Making Hay and Silage 
21. Trees in the Pasture 
22. A Walk on the Wild Side 
Annotated Bibliography 
Index 
VIII CONTENTS
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Preface
To try in one book to appeal to the commercial farmer,the home food
producer,and all consumers who seriously care about their food is not
easy.But food production is in such a crucial state of bewilderment and
ambiguity that I willingly take the risk involved. Commercial grain
and livestock farmers languish in self doubt and discouragement be-
cause they must depend on government subsidies to make a decent
profit. And the more they are driven by economics to seek profita-
bility in quantity production, the louder the outcry from consumers
worried about food quality. Harmful microorganisms like salmonella
and listeria in conventionally produced animal foods have become se-
rious,even deadly,dangers.Though highly exaggerated,the threatof
mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is scaring con-
sumers away from conventional sources of beef.
Grass farming,or what I call pasture farming—what this book is
about—is a solution to the dilemma.Unfortunately,most commercial
farmers are as yet unable or unwilling to take the financial risk re-
quired to switch from factory farming to pastoral farming and not
enough consumers realize what all is at stake. But a tide of informa-
tion about this new kind of farming and the quality food it produces
is rising. This book adds to it.
There is a compelling reason behind my writing. We live now in
times as precarious as human history has ever recorded,at least men-
tally,which is the worst kind of precariousness.Beset by violence,eco-
nomic instability, and ecological deterioration over which we seem to
have no control, we feel helpless. The human race has become afraid
of itself.In this quandary,people are trying to take their lives back into
their own hands. Instead of mutely bowing before the mass psychol-
ogy of violence and fear that infects society,individuals are taking steps
to at least secure their homes—their food supply,their fuel supply,and
their shelter. They are establishing homeland security not as political
farce but in the vital,original meaning of the term.Most of them are
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moving out of cities, which seem more vulnerable than the country-
side,but quite a few are also making their stand right within the urban
world. It is for all these people, whatever their occupations, that I
write this book.
In doing so,I must caution the reader not to expect much agree-
ment among pasture farmers over the finer points of what they are
doing. Their science is only in the developmental stage. And their
art, like all art, is individual and particular. No artist worthy of the
name ever completely agrees with anyone.
X PREFACE