A friend of mine asked me on Saturday: “Have you ever noticed the pineywoods grazing on acorns ? Some folks I was talking to today at the market said acorns will mess up the cows gut. I was surprised to hear that !”
 
My friend Chris Dorsey at Red Wolf Farms has seen his Pineywoods herd eat acorns. They don’t eat many. A few years ago there was a flurry of panic from farmers saying some of their Angus had died from eating acorns. I’ve heard the same about Angus dying from eating wild cherry. Our Pineywoods only eat the green leaves of wild cherry, the cyanide is much higher in the wilted leaves.

We were awaiting payment for a USDA grant awarded to us in 2024 when the Administration froze all payments on January 27th. Initially we were hopeful that the judge’s ruling would lift the freeze, but the Administration has kept the freeze in place.
 
The grant would have allowed us to expand our regenerative farming approach. My wife Sue and I took money out of retirement savings to pay for work completed in October 2024 with the expectation that the USDA would uphold their end of the bargain. Other farmers have done similar.
 
Perhaps that was a bit naive on our part. Our grant was awarded out of USDA’s Climate Smart Commodities Partnership. It would help us conserve more forest, reduce fire risk without the use of herbicides while providing food and medicine for our cattle. With the word “climate” in it, it was bound to be a target for the Administration. I think of it as a Conservation grant. Most farms cut down forest to make room for cattle. This grant would have allowed us to conserve the forest by fencing it and allowing our Pineywoods Cattle herd to graze it, also know as silvopasture.

Our Pineywoods Cattle have transformed impenetrable thorny land into a flourishing forest. Allowing our cattle to manage our forest has resulted in a drop in farm expenses. Through there appetite for invasive plant species we have seen an increase in biodiversity of plants and animals, discovered sacred indigenous sites and seen a significant benefit to the cattle's welfare. The forest clearings created by the Pineywoods have given us access to do our own foraging, for example of Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) mushrooms that have been scientifically shown to have anti-cancer properties. These dramatic and positive impacts been a blue print for some the regenerative practices we follow and hope to expand upon in 2025.

The Pineywoods Cattle surprising preference for walnut trees over lush grass prompted a shift from rotational grazing to pasture and forest grazing. The cows now graze on a diverse variety of forages, which has led to a healthier ecosystem This symbiotic relationship supports the well-being of the animals—and humans—who depend on them.