On December 11th we attended a winter pasture walk at the Titus & Linda Martin Sheep Farm in Perry County, Pennsylvania. The event was sponsored by Capital RC&D and focused on managing stockpile grass, electric netting, winter sheep management, and a pasture frost-reseeding demonstration by Swift. About 40 people from Maryland and all parts of Pennsylvania attended the event. Unfortunately, the weather (40 degrees with steady rain) forced us inside, canceling the aerial seeding demo until a drier day.
While talking with the sheep farmers, I quickly found something we had in common - intentionality. As defined, it is the quality of mental states (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes) that consists in their being directed toward some object or state of affairs.
What the sheep farmers and I had in common is our mutual interest and intent to farm in such a way as to care for the land with little soil disturbance. It’s apparent to me that the sheep farmers, with their intent to manage grazing, have a deliberate intention of farming with nature. Swift, equally as deliberate, is intent on caring for soil by adding strategic plant diversity - as is found in nature.
Swift will be getting back with Titus when better weather presents to do some pasture aerial frost reseeding of clover in late winter.
