About the Farm

In late spring, Szarzynski identified a cow with a glossy coat, already fleshy and healthy after recently calving. “She’s 15-years old, just had a calf, and looks like that,” he said. “That’s a good cow. Fat again and in such good condition, and it’s not me.”  Mountain Glen Farm has a conception rate of about 95 percent with cows 10-12 years old still calving. The farm attributes cows’ health and fertility to the South Poll breed and to the practice of almost exclusive grass feeding and rotational grazing. Eighty percent of the calves are usually born in less than a month. 

For a practice called rotational grazing, we use polywire electrical fencing to confine cattle in a section of pasture. When that section is grazed, the cattle are moved to a new section, sometimes as often as every day or two. “The electrical fence is a modern-day predator,” Szarzynski said, adding that when cows are spread out, they are not as protected. “They are herd animals.” As much as possible, cattle thrive more easily when living in ways that are natural to them, grazing as long as possible, about 9 – 10 months of the year, he said. During winter months, cattle also eat hay.

Cool and warm season grasses, including Rye grass, clovers, alfalfa, bluegrass, fescue, orchard grass, Timothy grass, and legumes are planted for cows’ diet and to create diverse plant species to build soil health. With rotational grazing, the cows get the best nutrients, and the forage (grasses, clovers, and legumes) is given a chance to rest and deepen roots. Forage grows thicker and faster. 

Rotational grazing creates and sustains diverse plant life and diverse animal life in the soil. “It’s all about diverse and abundant life,” Szarzynski said. “Nature loves diversity.” 

This kind of grazing also benefits the environment, Szarzynski said. A moving herbivore, like cattle, in a rotational grazing environment, creates a natural pairing. Cows eat grass in a section, causing the roots to die back; worms, bugs, and microbes eat the dead roots, adding nutrients to the soil. When cows move from the area, grass is given time to rest, reinvigorating growth and deepening roots. Roots are feed continuously by organic matter, created when roots die back. Grass growth is continually stimulated in this cycle of rest and growth, death and rebirth, and cows are fed the most-nutrient rich grass, Szarzynski explained. “It’s like a heartbeat,” he said. 

“The best way to keep a cow is to let her graze,” said Szarzynski. He added that conventional cattle farming methods require feeding corn and hay more often, which is more expensive and not as good for the animals. Modern agriculture and factory farms create mono-cultures in which cows are fed corn and kept in feed lots, whereas rotational grazing creates abundant wildlife, produces heathy diverse plant communities, which produce healthy nutrient-dense livestock, Szarzynski explained. “Mother nature flourishes when you treat her well and work with her, not against her. Let her do what she does naturally. It’s like the Garden of Eden,” he said.   

“This buzz word, regenerative agriculture, that includes rotational grazing, may go away, and another term may replace it,” said Matt Booher, Extension Agent for the Virginia Cooperative Extension. “What we are really talking about is a mind-set of intensive practices for cleaner water, better soils, healthier animals, and high profitability.” Rotational grazing is better for the environment because it does a better job of ensuring that there is adequate cover on the soil, so there is less run-off, and the practice actively grows roots to capture and hold nutrients in the soil, Booher added. 

In 2019, the Natural Bridge Soil and Water Conservation District Board (SWCD) awarded Mountain Glen Farm the Clean Water Farm Award. Virginia's General Assembly established this award to recognize farms in Virginia that use practices designed to protect water quality and soil resources.

According to Robert Hickman, Conservation Specialist for Natural Bridge SWCD, Szarzynski has worked with the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Natural Bridge Soil and Water Conservation District to install multiple best management practices, such as fencing cattle away from live streams, increasing plant diversity in pastures, and installing cross fencing and watering systems for intensive rotational grazing.

“Virginia is a lot more like Ireland than Iowa,” said Tom Stanley, Virginia Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources and Farm Business Management for Rockbridge, Augusta, Rockingham, Highland, and Bath counties. “Our region of small farms and small irregular fields is not well-suited for big equipment and machine-harvested crops. We are blessed with a temperate climate and abundant rainfall, relative to other parts of the U.S.”

“The natural beauty of our countryside and proximity to urban centers makes us an attractive destination for people,” Stanley said.

Some of this section was excerpted from an August 4, 2020 article, “Farmer Says Rotational Grazing Creates Health and Diversity in Virginia,” published in The News Virginian.