SFA Farm Tour
Sustainable Farming Association tour hosted by Rust Hill Ranch
Welcome!
Today we were pleased to welcome the East-Central chapter of the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association (SFA) to Rust Hill Ranch for a farm tour.
Attendees were able to see the farm in action, featuring our pasture-raised chickens and forest-raised pigs.
The theme of the event was how to make the most of the land with minimal infrastructure (water, outbuildings, electricity). At Rust Hill Ranch, we farm remote fields with limited access to the amenities we take for granted in our daily lives. As such, we rely on manual labor and use permaculture principles to utilize what nature provides. In short, we work with the land instead of fighting it.
Minimal and Mobile
Mobility allows animals access to fresh ground, never staying in any one area. Rest periods for the soil promote vegetative regeneration and pathogen reduction.
Our mobile, modular chicken cathedrals make movement easier.
Lightweight calf hutches work great as pig shelters in the pasture and in the woods
Instead of manure handling, we move animals to fresh paddocks and use the nutrients to fertilize the depleted soil (previously planted in corn/soy).
We use a the land’s natural contours to slow down runoff and seasonally store water for livestock.
We are building rain capture systems to leverage the hydrology cycle and gravity pressure for watering our market garden.
We use portable generators as needed for water pumping and processing tasks, keeping our infrastructure nimble.
Keep it Simple
It’s amazing how much can be accomplished with basic infrastructure. Doing more with less is one of our guiding principles at Rust Hill Ranch. You don’t need factory farm scale when you have family farm ingenuity.
Thank You
Special thanks to Yvonne Baller for coordinating the event, and for all the attendees who shared their valuable time with us this weekend.
