Ep 054 Dugan Tillman-Brown, Firefly Farm: My, those Randall Cattle sure are shiney.

Dugan Tillman-Brown and Firefly Farm in North Stonington, Connecticut.  Our second Holstein Dilemma film interview ever, and the moment Elara fell in love.  

There were so many things we talked about on that lovely day in July, standing in that sunny and grassy pasture with a herd of amazingly picturesque Randall Cattle.  Birds chirped in the trees and the insects lazily buzzed about.  The cows, with their panda color points and horns curving like halos around their heads, were watchful of someone new in their paradise.  The little spotted young calves cautious, but curious of the newcomers.

Dugan spoke to me about the Randalls and how their thriftier nature, good mothering ability and easy keeping worked beautifully for small family farms.  How the pastures had become measurably healthier and drought tolerant with the cattle, their nicely dispersed manure, the free choice minerals, and dung beetles all helping to improve balance and increase soil elasticity and aeration.  And then, the moment happened.  It was as if my husband, the second camera man, and 250 pounds of audio and video equipment ceased to exist.  Love.  

I have always been enthusiastic about the opportunities nature gives us, if we just work with it instead of against it.  I am happiest when I am up to my elbows in healthy, vibrant, heavily amended soil, sitting in my garden with a chicken on my lap, or listening to horses or cattle munching on hay while inhaling the wonderful barn smell of animal, sawdust, manure and old wood.  But standing in that pasture that day, head next to Dugan as we bent over a pile of fresh manure and talked about how the dung beetles made such an impact, my passion for all of those things deepened into a long-term love affair with the potential agriculture has to change our lives in a hugely positive way.

Dugan showed us the whole farm that day, including pastures with Mulefoot and Guinea Hogs and Dorking Chickens.  We had a difficult time picking just one for our podcast, but we are taking a snippet a from the place it all started.  Here is a conversation about Randall Cattle, one of the rarest breeds in the world.  Less than 500 of these animals exist in the world, but the numbers are slowly growing, thanks to the valiant efforts of a group of farmers and ranchers who have decided to fight the good fight.  

One of the farms leading the charge is Firefly Farm in North Stonington, Connecticut, one of the vanishing number of small family farms in the country.  There is much to admire about Certified Humane status was not enough for this family farm.  It is a bastion of small breed preservation, and 

All this, and of course they named the farm Firefly.  No doubt, this family aims to misbehave (thank you, Joss Whedon) in the best possible way.

 
Links:

http://www.firefly.farm/about-us.html
http://www.firefly.farm/what-makes-us-special.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_cattle
https://certifiedhumane.org/firefly-farms-2/
http://www.cynthiasrandallcattle.com/
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/randall
http://www.randallcattleregistry.org/
https://firefly.fandom.com/wiki/Quotes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1