Sally Bernard
2024
Scholar
Sally Bernard is co-owner of Barnyard Organics in Freetown, PE, an organic grains and livestock farm as well as a feed mill serving the Maritime region. Sally’s topic will explore the incorporation of managed grazing within cropping rotations, particularly under organic or regenerative farming systems. She will examine the infrastructure, methods and ideas behind including livestock in rotation with crops.
The Golden Hoof: Why Cropland Needs Livestock
This report outlines how reintegrating livestock into cropping systems is a powerful, underutilized tool for building soil health, farm resilience, and long-term profitability, even when short-term financial returns are difficult to quantify. Drawing on global examples and on-farm experience, the report shows how managed grazing improves fertility through manure and carbon cycling, reduces chemical and feed inputs, enhances biodiversity (including soil biology, birds, dung beetles, and earthworms), and strengthens resilience to climate, market, and mental-health pressures.
Rather than offering a traditional cost-benefit analysis, Bernard frames livestock integration as an investment in natural capital—one that delivers ecological stability, diversified income opportunities, and renewed purpose for farmers—ultimately positioning grazing animals not as a liability, but as an essential partner in regenerative, future-ready agriculture.
