The Zimmers: Dairy Farmers, Innovators
Farm philosophy: "Everything we get from our food starts from the soil."
Posted: 02-Mar-2007; Updated: 26-Apr-2007
The Zimmers' manage their 1,200 acre farm to reduce chemical use. (Photo: Kerri Marshall-Edgerly)
The Zimmer family produces more than milk. They also produce clean water, clean air and habitat for wildlife.
Gary and Rosie Zimmer started their Wisconsin farm in the 1970's, raising their children on the land and instilling in them an interest in agriculture and conservation. In 1994, Gary, Rosie and their son Nicholas bought Otter Creek Farm. Originally a crop farm, the family decided to move into organic dairy and bought forty dairy cows. Nicholas Zimmer and three other families now run Otter Creek Organic Farm, a 1,200 acre operation that includes: 250 cows, pasture-raised beef and hogs, free-range poultry, and Local Choice Farm Market, where Otter Creek Farm products are sold.
Innovative Farming Techniques
At Otter Creek, healthy soils and healthy animals are top priorities and they believe you can not have one without the other. Gary Zimmer is a pioneer of a special type of farming called "mineralized balanced agriculture," which has farmers growing their own fertilizers, learning which fertilizers are best for their farm, and using farming practices that encourage beneficial organisms living in the soil. At Otter Creek Farm, this translates into a wide-range of innovative practices that produce high yields and healthy crops and animals.
Flame weeding is just such an innovation used by the Zimmers. Instead of using herbicides or multiple passes with a rotary hoe, the Zimmers use a custom-made flamer pulled behind their tractor. This burns the weeds, but leaves the corn relatively unscathed. Not only does it reduce herbicide use, but it also uses less fuel than driving a tractor around the field to control weeds using other methods. In addition, flame weeding protects the soil structure by minimizing the tearing of the ground.
(Photo: Kerri Marshall-Edgerly)
Healthy Soils, Healthy Streams, Healthy Animals
Nothing is wasted at Otter Creek Farm; nearly everything is produced and used on the farm itself, making the dairy a "closed herd." Pastures are seeded to provide a range of nutritional feed, and minerals are added to the soil to ensure the soil, plants and animals all receive full nutrition, minimizing the need for pesticides or antibiotics. Rotational grazing means that cows, then chickens, are released into a field to eat what they want, then rotated to a new pasture while the remaining grasses are harvested for hay. Hay is a feed source for the animals in the winter and any waste products from the hay harvest are used as animal bedding. This bedding material is cleared out every week and turned into compost for plants. At Otter Creek, even the house was built from trees harvested from the Zimmer's land.
Otter Creek Organic Farm is also careful to protect its namesake waterway. To keep the creek healthy, the Zimmers fence their cows and animals out of the water. This keeps manure out of Otter Creek and creates a healthy habitat for the wildlife that depend on riparian areas, the special strip of land along rivers.
Policies Could Do More
Regrettably, due to misplaced spending priorities, three out of four farmers in the U.S. are rejected by USDA when they offer to share the cost of a healthy environment through practices like those at the Zimmer’s farm. In Wisconsin, nearly 3,200 farmers were turned away in 2004 alone.
Unless we reward private landowners like the Zimmers, we can't meet some of America's toughest environmental challenges, such as clean drinking water and saving rare species.
Renewal of farm and food policies by Congress this year creates a rare opportunity to reward—rather than reject—farmers and ranchers when they offer to help meet our environmental needs. Read a dozen fresh ideas for farm and food policy and learn what you can do to help farmers like the Zimmers.
