Kaleigh Arnold

How a small farm in northern Vermont is doing its part in saving the world.

Gold Shaw Farm is a small-scale beef, poultry and tree operation located on 150-achre’s of land in the rural northern town of Peachum, Vermont. Founded by couple Morgan Gold and Allison Ebrahimi Gold in 2016, this farm has continuously aimed to operate under the main principles of regenerative agriculture.

No-Till Farming and Cover Crops for Soil Health and Sustainability

Regenerative agriculture is a sustainable farming strategy focusing on the preservation and cultivation of native biodiversity both above and below ground. The foundation of regenerative agriculture can be boiled down to the basic idea that if you take care of something, it will last longer. In this case, the stakes are a bit more severe.

Depending on the environment, the practices of regenerative agriculture can differ, but the main goal of all strategies is to increase the microbial biodiversity in the soil. In terms of current agricultural practices in the United States, the utilization of monocultures, organic or not, have negative impacts on the soils microbial diversity.

In commercial farming operations, monocultures, or the mass seeding and farming of one crop, leads to a decrease in the diversity of native plants, soil, and microbes. In conjunction with monocultures, many commercial farms often will till their soil. Tilling is a process of mechanically turning over the top layers of soil to prep for crop seeding. Several studies have shown that the constant tillage of soil leads to the destruction and death of microbes which leads to a decrease in organic nutrients useful for the plants, resulting in the need for high nutrient fertilizers. Along with a decrease in nutrients, tilling eventually leads to soil erosion. Soil erosion will then result in an increase in chemical runoff into ground water due to the increased usage of fertilizers, which then can further affect the surrounding ecosystem and environment.

Sourced from the *University of Illinois, Extension*.

In order to avoid the negative impacts tilling has on the environment, Gold along with several farmers around the world have started to revert back to no-till farming. No-till farming is as easy as it sounds, not tilling the top portion of the soil before seeding crops. This preserves and employs helpful organisms within the soil, allowing for proper nutrient cycling. Along with no-till farming, the use of cover crops can increase the nutrient and diversity of the soil. Cover crops are companion plants, used to help increase the quality of soil by for the main crop by breaking up and aerating the soil. In conjunction with organic and natural fertilizers like mulch, no-till farming is a great way to maintain or improve the quality of soil.

You can practice this type of farming in your own home as well! For those who have outdoor gardens, instead of planting your crops grouped up together, consider alternative planting strategies, and example being the Three Sisters garden. Three Sisters gardens were originally developed by Native Americans. The three crops that this technique is built off of includes corn, beans, and squash. How and when each crop is planted aids in the others crops survival while simultaneously increasing the nutrients available within the soil.

A Solution to Overgrazing and Desertification in the United States

Other regenerative practices include Regenerative Grazing. Currently in the United States, many commercial ranches and farms raise cattle, and/or other ruminates like sheep or goats, in open fields where they are allowed to graze freely. In doing so, these farms actively allow their cattle to overgraze fields of grass, slowly deteriorating the soil causing desertification.

Sourced from *USDA National Resources Conservation Service*.

Overgrazing occurs when cattle are allowed to continuously graze on a single patch of land. When this happens, the grass cannot grow efficiently resulting in less growth overall causing the cows to graze more since less grass is available. Eventually, this negative feedback loop results in extremely dry and eroded soil causing desertification.

In order to counteract overgrazing and desertification, farmers like Gold have started to utilize old school strategies like intensive rotational grazing. Rotational grazing reflects ruminates natural grazing behavior, where cows would remain in herds and graze in small areas to remain safe. In utilizing this behavior as a farming technique, Gold began to isolate his Scottish highlanders to one paddock where their grazing is concentrated. While grazing, the cattle will also start to fertilize the soil with their manure, aiding in future grass growth. After the grass in one paddock gets eaten down, Gold then moves his cattle to the next adjacent paddock where the process begins again. Once the herd moves from one paddock to the next, they won’t visit the old paddock until grass has been able to fully grow and accumulate high amounts of biomass, usually a cycle of about 60 days.

"I try my best to mimic nature -" Gold says.

Cattle vs. Plant Earth, Gold Shaw Farm, YouTube

The Integration of Trees and Shrubs into Regenerative Agriculture Practices

One last pillar of regenerative agriculture includes Agro-Forestry. Agro-forestry is a set of agricultural practices that integrate food producing trees and shrubs into traditional farming systems. In this strategy, particular attention is given to native plant diversity and ecosystem interactions. There are several strategies to agro-forestry, with the most common one being food forests. Here each layer of the seven layer plant system has some contribution to the health of the whole system.

Another example of agro-forestry are permaculture orchards. A permaculture orchard is basically an ecologically conscious and strategically planted food forest, where trees are planted in plantation like fashion. The defining features of a permaculture orchard begin with the word Permaculture. Permaculture, coined by Bill Mollison, is a the act of consciously designing, building, and maintaining an agriculturally productive ecosystem, or creating a permanent agriculture. Therefore, permaculture orchards are not only for agricultural use, but are designed to serve several functions within the native ecosystem.

A Duck Farmers Permaculture Orchard – Gold Shaw Farm, YouTube

Within his 150-arche farm, Gold has been able to create his very own permaculture orchard. Since the beginning of Gold Shaw Farm, Gold has been cultivating native tree and shrub species from Northern Vermont, including hazelnuts, elderberries, mulberries, black locus, and chestnut trees.

Overall, the use of rotational grazing and permaculture orchards can combine to create another regenerative agricultural practice, known as silvopasture. In silvopastures, there is a deliberate interaction with tree and livestock operations, where rotational grazing is used as the key to managing wooded or pastured orchards. Here, as the cows graze they are covered and cooled by shade the trees provide. The trees in turn are protected from any invasive plants or weeds while also being provided nutrients from manure fertilizing the soil. In addition to livestock and orchards, silvopasturing can involve other farm animals like chicken, ducks, and geese, which help to spread manure and eat excess bug larvae left over.

An example of a silvopastsure; sourced from the USDA.

At the end of the day, regenerative agriculture is aiming to save the world by reducing CO2 emissions, decreasing deforestation, improving the quality of soil and increasing the nutrients within the soil. Through entertaining and educational videos via YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, Morgan Gold shares his life on the farm. By utilizing regenerative agricultural techniques such as no-till farming, intensive rotational grazing, permaculture orchards, and silvopastures, Gold Shaw Farm is doing its past in saving the world.

Touring a Permaculture Orchard in Vermont – Gold Shaw Farm, YouTube

You can follow the adventures of Morgan and Allison on instagram @goldshawfarm.

References

Díaz, S., Settele, J., Brondízio, E. S., Ngo, H. T., Guèze, M., Agard, J., … & Sharma, N. (2019). Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Retrieved from https://www.scienceforbiodiversity.org/assets/docs/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_en.pdf

Natural Resources Defense Council. (n.d.). Regenerative agriculture: 10 practices to regenerate soil and increase farm productivity. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/regenerative-agriculture-10

Permaculture News. (n.d.). What is permaculture? Retrieved from https://www.permaculturenews.org/what-is-permaculture/#:~:text=Permaculture%20(the%20word%2C%20coined%20by,and%20resilience%20of%20natural%20ecosystems.

Smith, P., Martino, D., Cai, Z., Gwary, D., Janzen, H., Kumar, P., … & McCarl, B. (2007). Agriculture. In Climate change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (pp. 497-540). Cambridge University Press.

USDA National Agroforestry Center. (n.d.). Silvopasture. Retrieved from https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/practices/silvopasture.php

Welcome to Monotreme Monday! This platform is a short, written series focusing on the incredible adaptations of Monotremes!

Monotremes make up one out of the three main groups in the class Mammalia , where they are most popularly known for their egg-laying capabilities. In today’s edition of Monotreme Monday, we will be focusing on the Platypus, one of the five species of monotremes still alive today.

Once being a very popular character in Phineas and Ferb, Perry the Platypus was possibly one of the very first introductions of Monotremes for many. Although depicted as a blue, beaver tailed, duck billed creature in the show, the actual appearance of platypuses is more subdued.

*© Hans and Judy Besage—Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd/age fotostock*

The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is endemic to most of the eastern Australian coast along with Tasmania and King Island, seen in Figure 1; there is also a small group of platypuses that were introduced to Kangaroo Island (Bino et al., 2019). As you can see from the map, a majority of recorded sightings from the Australian government atlas shows high concentrations of Platypuses at the southeastern coast where many permanent river systems span from tropical to alpine environments (Bino et al., 2019). The river systems allow for dispersal of young to new areas of their habitat, which is a common behavior seen often in juveniles ranging from 7-8 months of age (Furlan et al., 2013).

**Figure 1**. Distribution of Platypus based on Australian state government records between 1760-2017 (Bino et al., 2019).

Platypuses often inhabit areas near fresh bodies of water, including a range from fast moving streams to slow-moving pools with coarse layers of substrate on the bottom. The substrate usually consists of pebbles or gravel. Here, the platypus will create an underground burrow, constructed between mangled and submerged tree roots right above water level (Bino et al., 2019). An example image of what the burrows look like can be seen in Figure 2 and 3. The platypus diet primarily consists of aquatic invertebrates including insects, shrimp, and crayfish. Less often they can also be seen enjoying other aquatic animals, including tadpoles, small fish, and aquatic snails (Grant 2015).

**Figure 2**. An example of a Platypus burrow hole (Art done by David Nockels © Look and Learn).

**Figure 3**. A platypus emerging from its burrow near a bank (Thomas et al. 2019).

Although classified as mammals, a number of characteristics reflected in the platypus can be see in fish, birds, and reptiles. Some of these characteristics include egg laying capabilities, venomous spurs, and an electroreceptive bill.

Egg laying is not a common character seen in mammals. In fact, this trait is one of the main classifiers for Monotremes. Female Platypuses will go through a gestation period of about 21 days, where the offspring will begin to develop. After the gestation period, the female will lay her eggs in the burrow, usually producing between 1-3 eggs each breeding season. The mother will then start the incubation stage, where the eggs will be curled up to the mothers abdomen and tail for about 10 days (Grant 2015). Offspring will then start to hatch from the eggs, breaking through the eggshell with teeth that will later be lost. After hatching, the babies will experience large scale developmental changes, including the development of a bill after five days, webbed feet after 24 days, and fur growing in within the first 11 weeks of life (Manger et al., 1998). For the first three to four months, offspring will remain in the burrow protected from outside dangers. Here they will start to feed on milk produced from the mothers mammary glands. These glands are located under the skin of the mother and occupy most of the abdomen . As the lactation period begins to close around 114-145 days after hatching, the juvenile platypuses will lose their teeth and replace them with grinding pads made out of keratin (Grant 2015).

All platypuses are born with venomous spurs that are used later in life. These spurs are present in both males and females when hatched, contained within a sheath until about 9-12 months of age. At that point, females will permanently shed these spurs while the males will retain them and start producing venom (Whittington and Belov 2014). It is speculated that males use these spurs primary during matting season, causing seasonal production of venom. The platypus is the only mammal currently known to produce venom seasonally (Grant 2015, Wong et al., 2012). Although capable of causing extreme pain, and in certain cases causing paralysis to other male platypuses, the venom will only be fatal to smaller animals (Bino et al., 2019).

One of the most well known features of the Platypus is the ‘duck-like’ bill. Although their bill can resemble that of a duck’s, it is actually much more similar to that of a shark’s nose. The Platypus bill is made up of a 40,000+ mucous receptor glands that can conduct electric signals and acts as an antenna when searching for prey. This type of electroreception has been originally observed in fish and some aquatic amphibians. Because of this, the Platypus uses its bill as a primary tool for hunting prey (Czech-Damal et al. 2013, Fjallbrant et al. 1998). The Platypus will rely solely on its bills electroreceptive capabilities while hunting underwater and because of this has a groove on either side of its head that will shut, concealing its eyes and ears underwater (Bino et al., 2019).

**Figure 3.** Up close look at Platypus bill and head (© San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance).

Unfortunately, the platypus has faced several threats over history starting in the late 19th and early 20th century when platypus populations were being hunted for their high quality fur. This was before scientific interest really took off, and only until 1912, when the platypus became legally protected, did studies of their unique anatomy and ecology start (Bino et al., 2019). Although there have been many studies done on the anatomy, ecology, and evolution of the platypus there has been little research interest in their conservation. The platypus faces many synergistic threats to its habitat including the increase in pollutants, changes in river/stream structure and hydrology, and the creation of dams and roads. Due to these issues, platypuses have been and continue to be displaced from their natural habitats and suffer consequences from the drastic change in its ecology (Bino et al., 2019). In 2016 the platypus was marked as a ‘Near Threatened’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

There were several names the aboriginal peoples developed for the platypus, including ‘Mallangong’, ‘Tambreet’, ‘Gaya-dari’, ‘Boonaburra’, and ‘Lare-re-lar’. Along with these names, the aboriginal people also developed folk-lore that included biocultural and ecological connections to the platypus. One of the stories begin with Ancestral Spirits deciding on a totem’s formation. As the fish, birds, and marsupials of the land plead and reasoned with the platypus to join them in their group, the platypus consulted with an echidna and decided that it was not a part of any of these groups. The platypus explained to the fish, birds, and marsupials that since it shared traits with all the groups, it would remain friends with all of them instead of picking one identity over the other. Here, the platypus is commemorating the Great Spirit for its wisdom and creation of different animals (Bino et al., 2019).

Thanks for reading all about the wonders of platypuses! We hope to see you back for the next edition of Monotreme Monday!

Did you learn anything new? Feel free to share with us below!

References

https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/platypus/summary

https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus

Bino, G., Kingsford, R. T., Archer, M., Connolly, J. H., Day, J., Dias, K., … Whittington, C. (2019). The platypus: evolutionary history, biology, and an uncertain future. Journal of Mammalogy, 100, 308–327.