Our Environmental Score Card

Joybilee Farm completed an Environmental Farm Assessment in 2006 and passed on the first writing.  We received commendation for the way our sheep and goats have brought our pastures back to quality forage from the devastation that was here when we bought our farm in 2003.  Prior to 2003 our land had been over grazed by beef cows and no attempt was made to manage the pastures or control the cow’s access to streams, forests or land.  As a result the desirable grasses had been eaten down and the weeds were allowed to proliferate unchecked.  The stream banks had been badly trampled. 

When we brought our livestock here we fenced in pastures for rotational grazing and began a weed management exercise.  The exercise was physical as we walked the land, garbage bag in hand and handpulled all the hound’s tongue, knapweed and hoary alyssum that we could find.  We also learned that our goats would eat any young green weed and actually preferred the weeds to the grasses.  Even a 6 ft. tall thistle is desirable to the goats if we help to pull it down first.  The result is less weeds and more native grasses growing in the pasture.  We are also seeing a return of Earth Worms to the top soil, a sign of increased fertility.

Besides weed management, the sheep and goats also fertilize the land and improve the pH of the soil encouraging the grass to grow again.  In Ancient Greece sheep and goats were the “golden hoofed” animals for this very reason. 

We use no chemical fertilizers, no herbicides and no insecticides at Joybilee Farm.  Our carbon footprint is small, as our feed is grown within 100 miles of the farm and trucked here twice a year on a trailer while the trucker is on his way to visit family on the coast.  The trucker parks the trailer here and picks it up on his way home, giving us time to unload the bagged whole grains.  There is no GM grain in our feed only whole oats, barley and wheat.  Our hay is also grown locally.  Even our chicken feed is grown locally and supplemented with local alfalfa/grass hay for rich yolk colour.

Our basket willows and dye herbs are grown organically using composted manure from the livestock for a soil conditioner.  All the manure produced by our animals is utilized in the garden, with no waste.  The animals get the treats when we weed the garden in summer and in winter when we collect our firewood from standing dead trees, the goats benefit from the bark.  Our wool, mohair and angora fiber is produced responsibly and sustainably with great benefit to the land, improving it each year.  This is especially important with our summer frost periods, since common vegetable and grain crops cannot survive in our harsh mountain climate, but these heavily fleeced animals thrive.

Joybilee Farm is predator friendly and wildlife friendly.  We do not kill predators.  We assume that there will be some losses to predators.  Our strategy is to convince them that the “take out” food is not easy prey and there are better pickin's elsewhere.  We do that by locking our livestock up in safe quarters at night – the time when most predators are prowling.  We also have Great Pyrenees and Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs, Donder and Gelato.  Their barks tell the predators that there are guardian dogs on duty and most move down the road to the next farm.  They don’t have an LDG and have had much predation from Bobcats, Cougars, and Lynx as well as Coyote and Bear.

We often have White Tail Deer and Mule Deer raising their young on our property.  The browse is ideal for them and our dogs do not chase deer.  Donder often adopts the fawns and protects them from predators while they graze safely with their mothers in the woodlot.  Wild Turkeys, Ring Neck Pheasants, Sharp Shinned Grouse, Moose, and Elk have all foraged at Joybilee Farm in the chemical-free pastures.