Livestock are a powerful tool for land management: they can destroy landscapes or build soil organic matter, diversity, and productive capacity. The only difference is how they are managed. Through a combination of presentation, discussion, and hands-on participation, attendees of this 4-hr workshop will learn:
• About the four ecosystem processes affecting any landscape
• Basics tenets of management-intensive grazing (MIG) – why do it and what’s involved
• Several options for fencing, shelter, and water infrastructure for grazing livestock
• Considerations involved in grazing sheep and cows together
• Considerations for incorporating grazing animals into a diverse orchard

Hands-on activities may include moving fence and/or conducting biological monitoring to observe and measure ecosystem functioning.

Workshop Fee: $25 – $40 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Register here: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/lUNazmMCcHP0xeRSpDC4sQ

Erica Frenay is owner/operator of Shelterbelt Farm, which she has grown from a homestead to a farm scale over the past 8 years (with huge amounts of help from friends and family members). Her background in permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and Holistic Management has informed the way Shelterbelt is both laid out and run. Erica managed Dilmun Hill, the student farm at Cornell, in 1998, and has had a farm in her life ever since. She is an instructor for several Holistic Management courses and has also worked for the Cornell Small Farms Program for 13 years, as co-founder of the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project and manager of online courses for farmers. Her primary farm passion is building soil health as the foundation of all health.