So far in our Climate Beneficial Wool series, we’ve taken a look at four different techniques of sustainable farming that leads to the production of climate beneficial wool. These eco-friendly farming practices include:
Although our blog series is coming to a close, there are so are many more ways a farm can implement simple changes that allow carbon to be sequestered back into the soil and help promote sustainability. Some of the more well-known techniques include:
- No till farming. By not disturbing the soil through tillage, the ground retains much of it’s organic matter and water.
- Silvopasture establishment. Integrating trees and forage into pasture provides food and shelter for grazing sheep, with the potential for additional carbon sequestration.
- Native seed collection. Native grasses have longer roots and sequester more carbon than non-native annual grasses. Sheep hooves trample the grass, packing it down into a shade-producing layer that shelters the soil from direct sunlight. With careful grazing schedules, grasslands can produce food for sheep year-round, while simultaneously pulling carbon back down into the soil.
- Pollinator strips. Creating pollinator habitats on farmland attracts domestic honeybees, but it also attracts beneficial insects that prey upon the pests that damage crops. By keeping the good bugs in and the bad bugs out, the land stays healthy above ground and below, allowing vegetation to grow and soil to flourish.
- Filter strips. Narrow tracts of land between fields and streams can be used as a riparian buffer. These vegetated (but commonly uncultivated) pieces of land are used to control runoff pollution from agriculture, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous. Some filter strips can be populated by indigenous trees and shrubs, thus significantly reducing the risk of soil erosion.
Carbon farming has the ability to offset our footprint on this planet. The sustainable farming practices we’ve discussed above and in previous blogs are how Shepherd’s Dream is able to source climate beneficial wool for our all-natural and organic bedding.
We stand alongside every farmer, rancher, shepherd, and shepherdess willing to look into the future and imagine a better world. We believe every life depends on it. That’s our philosophy and mission.
