Spring Valley EcoFarms is a non-profit organization focusing on education, research, and outreach to promote more ecologically sustainable agriculture. Its seat is Spring Valley Farm, 100 acres in the Georgia Piedmont. The vision is to reduce reliance on external subsidies in agricultural systems through incorporating free services of nature. The goal is to develop a model for conservation of biological diversity and to provide a laboratory where ecological science and theory are put to a real-world test.

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Spring Valley EcoFarms Inc.
1695 Spring Valley Road
Athens, Georgia USA 30605
info@springvalleyecofarms.org

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15 December 2008 – Project Update

by Kathleen Frey

Cow-insect relationship could be studied more with a grant

Soil doesn’t enjoy the glitzy glamour given to the electric car—a fast-growing symbol of the sustainability movement. Its low profile doesn’t make the ground any less important.

Two Spring Valley researchers await news from the southern region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) on a producer grant that would allow them to study the dirt. Josh Egenolf, a doctoral student at UGA’s Odum School of Ecology, specializes in measuring nutrients in the soil. He wants to know this: If the native dung beetle is reintroduced to a 26-acre plot on Spring Valley EcoFarms, will the insect decompose cow manure and put more nitrogen back in the ground? The project would directly benefit Tad Brown, also a doctoral candidate at UGA in anthropology, who oversees the pasture-fed livestock on the farm.

The grant, dispensed over a two-year period, is crucial for Egenolf’s study. He plans to visit Ossabaw Island, a Georgia barrier island, to collect native dung beetles. The beetles were once plentiful in the Piedmont Region. The advent of antibiotic treatments for ruminants contributed to the beetle’s demise. But the cows need the beetles’ decomposing services. Cows—like almost all mammals in nature—refuse to eat in areas containing their feces. Without means to dispose of the cow manure, the area of grazing pasture decreases over time.

“If the project works, then I will have more pasture. I’d manage the cows and the beetles would manage the dung,” Brown said. He collects cow manure old-fashioned style right now – with a shovel and sweat.

Egenolf’s expertise lay in calculating carbon and nitrogen levels in the soil. Non-organic farmers rely on chemical inputs to keep nutrients in the soil. But nature’s mutualistic relationships have long provided a nutrient-retention service for soil.

“If we can get enough dung beetles here (at Spring Valley), then we’ll be able to retain all the nitrogen in the ground from the cow manure,” Egenolf explained.

The two researchers continue preparing for the project while they await word from SARE’s southern headquarters.

FUN FACTS:

-Horses eat grass by nibbling the plants all the way to the ground. Cows feast by grabbing a swath of greens with their tongues. This method leaves the bottom layer of grass intact on the ground. Which animal helps prevent erosion in pastures? The cows!