Mowing? On a Farm?

It has it’s place…and we could really use your help getting it done. We know the importance of open grassland, and we also recognize that using lawnmowers is using fossil fuels. The life of a farmer is one filled with choices and dilemmas.

We could let the grass and weeds grow in our tractor paths, and sometimes we do. However, when we do, things happen. Tools get “lost” in the high grass, leading to way too much time spent looking for them the next day. Weeds flourish and start setting hundreds of thousands of seed that then make their way into the vegetable blocks. Vegetation shorts out our electro-net fencing, leading to adventuresome/troublesome escapees. The raucous growth that looks so appealing to wildlife gets to be a bit overwhelming to our students and staff. And visitors become reluctant to tour the field as the grasses get taller.

So we dedicate large areas on the Farm where we don’t mow…and we identify the paths between crop blocks and around fence lines as areas where we do mow.

Which leads us to ask…anyone out there who likes to mow? We have a lawnmower just waiting for a rider. And you’ll never leave the Farm without vegetables.