“Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” – Paul Harvey

As I write this, slow and steady rain is falling from overcast skies upon our thirsty pastures. We are thrilled! Our part of Athens County is still experiencing the highest category of drought according to the US Drought Monitor. Much of Ohio has been in varying degrees of drought since late June — making this year the 16th driest on record in Athens County.

Today’s rain won’t be enough to remediate the drought entirely, but it will help our pastures put on a bit of growth before going into winter. We hope for a snowy winter so that we can catch up on some much needed precipitation to replenish our groundwater ahead of the 2025 grazing season.

What has this meant for our farm?

• Running out of pasture and having to move the herd to neighboring lands to graze their fields (thank you neighbors!)
  
• Supplementing the herd with hay in the middle of the growing season.
  
• Qualifying for disaster relief funding through the Farm Service Agency to offset the cost of purchasing extra hay and trucking it to our farm from northern Ohio.
  
• Struggling to find enough hay locally because most hay producers around here only got one cutting, instead of the typical two or three.
  
• Grazing the cattle through the woods and outside of our fenced pastures where CJ felled some small maple trees so the cattle could eat the foliage.

What does the drought teach us about healthy soils?

• Healthy soils are high in organic matter — carbon-based compounds that are derived from decomposing life. And organic matter is better able to absorb and hold onto water. This article found that organic matter can retain up to ten times its weight of water!
  
• During a drought period, pastures or croplands that have healthy soils with high organic matter will be more productive (i.e. maintain grass or crop growth) and able to bounce back quicker.
  
• Even though we are still improving our degraded soils, we have only had to feed 8 bales of hay this season to supplement the poor grass growth because of our rotational grazing. We gave paddocks a long time to rest so that we could still have green pastures to return to this fall before winter.
  
• Farms around us that use regenerative practices to build soil health were much better off during this drought than the more conventional farms. As we experience more extreme weather events, healthy soils will become more and more essential.

Molly spoke on WOSU’s All Sides with Anna Staver earlier this month about all things soil health. Listen to the conversation!

Ohio Soil Health Week

We invite you to celebrate Ohio’s first ever Soil Health Week which is THIS week! Molly is involved in an advocacy group called Ohio Soil Health Initiative in which we have been working with the statehouse to implement soil health policies. Part of this work is to spread the message of soil health through an annual Soil Health Week, which falls on the second week of November in memory of the late “Godfather of soil health,” David Brandt.

Be sure to check out the Soil Health Week website to see all of the events happening around the state this week, including farm tours, webinars on the intersection of soil health and human health, and the Soil Health Rally in Athens, OH!

Molly has been busy coordinating this rally through her work at Rural Action. So we hope to see you at the Athens County Municipal Courthouse to hear from an amazing lineup of speakers, including Representative Juanita Brent, OEFFA Grassroots Policy Organizer Lauren Hirtle, County Commissioner and farmer Chris Chmiel, local producer Lindsay Klaunig of Trouvaille Farm, and Jay Brandt of Brandt Family Farm, among others. RSVP if you’re coming!