The prairies of America were grazed by buffalo for millennia producing rooted pasture that held the soil together. By 1900, after a century of extermination, the buffalo population declined from 60 million to 500 – by 1930, the Great Dustbowl was the result.
The grasses of Treflach are a mixture of: cocksfoot, meadow fescue, timothy and perennial ryegrass which are cultivated varieties – wild strains of these as well as couch, barren brome, blackgrass and wild oat are found on land that has never seen the plough.
Even Cae Nant was ploughed in 1948 by a Massey Ferguson and three furrow plough all over. Prior to that it had been six foot high fern.
Treflach’s green and pleasant pasture is also home to herbs and clovers that are deep rooted and bring up different minerals – this regeneration produces fodder for animals that aren’t overstocked. Grass fed provender may not be cheap but cheap food is more expensive in the end as it strips the soil of life, the very life that keeps us healthy and alive.
Ian's side note:
Andrews speaks the truth. Soil is life and without it we are all in trouble. Healthy grass and herbivores which graze the landscape are essential parts of the microbial and nutrient cycle that builds soil and sequesters carbon.
Humans have evolved to be a part of that cycle by managing the landscape together with herbivores and eating the meat in a sustainable fashion.
Exceptialism believes we are apart from the natural world and can influence it without repercussion, not so. As proven by the Dustbowl effect.
We need to take care, engage with the food we eat and recognise destructive food production systems are making the earth - and us as a part of the earth system - poorer in terms of health, wellbeing, natural and monetary capital.