The Circle of Life

We were recently listening to baby radio with Charley and a song from The Lion King came on. It got me thinking about the movie more. In the beginning of the movie, Mufasa is giving the young cub, Simba, a lesson about the world they live in. He refers to it as the circle of life (and of course is accompanied by song in true Disney fashion).

He says, “Everything exists together in a delicate balance…we are all connected in the great circle of life.” Deep thoughts, but I find myself thinking more on this lately.

Spring is one of my favorite times on the farm. It’s a time of life and growth. The grass in the pasture turns from brown to green and grows longer every day. The cattle lay in the sun, dozing, bellies full and winter coats shedding. We put seeds in the ground and trust that they’ll do what they were made to do, grow and produce fruit.

This year is especially exciting on the farm as we’re adding to the circle of life on the farm. This spring we’re adding pigs and chickens into the pasture rotation. How do they fit into the circle?

Well, lets start by talking about the pasture itself and the cattle. We’ve planted many types of grasses in the pasture. We do this for a number of reasons. Different grass gives cattle different vitamins and nutrients. If they ate all clovers, it would be too rich and their bellies would be upset. By giving them a wider spread, they get a variety of the nutrients they need to balance their diet.

As the cattle eat the grass, they leave their manure behind, which puts nutrients back on the grass to grow richer and fuller.

The roots of each different type of grass grow to different lengths. The deeper the roots, the better for the soil. It allows water and nutrition down deeper into the soil, making it healthier.

The cattle make their rotations through the pasture. After them come the chickens. They’ll also eat some of the grasses, which is part of their diet, and leave their manure behind as well to naturally fertilize the grass. Doing things as natural as possible is a really important part of our farm’s mission.

The chickens will scratch through all the natural fertilizer out on the pasture and help spread it around to do its work better. And they LOVE eating the bugs out on the pasture as well, which the cattle appreciate since many of these bugs irritate the cattle (flies anyone?!).

The next part of the circle is pigs. Pigs like to root around and dig stuff up, which can be tricky so the pasture doesn’t get destroyed. We put our pigs on a portion of our pasture that we rotate with different types of food for the animals, depending on the season. We call this our cover crop pasture. We graze the animals on this part of the pasture when we need to give the other grasses time to rest and recover so they don’t get overgrazed. And we use it during summer and winter when the grass stops growing.

We put pigs on this portion because we’re always planting something new depending on the season, so the pigs help work the ground up for the next crop. This enables us to cut back on equipment use and fossil fuel emissions, a really important part of sustainable farming.

The circle of life. A delicate balance. Everything impacting everything. This is at the heart of what Section 32 Farms is about. It’s thinking through the relationship and impact of everything we do or grow. How does it impact the environment - the water, the soil, the air? How does it impact the animals? How does it impact us, the community we live in? Because we are part of this circle of life. We both impact it and are influenced by it. And so we want to be as thoughtful about our part in the circle as possible.

From the day we arrive on the planet
And, blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
'Til we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life

“The Circle of LIfe”, The Lion King, 1994