Editor’s Note: Jay Fuhrer, retired NRCS soil health specialist and conservationist at the Menoken Farm demonstration farm in Menoken, N.D., wrote the 5 principles of soil health. In this series, Fuhrer explains each principle and provides an on-farm example of the theory in practice. In the fifth and final installment of this series, Fuhrer examines soil health principle 5: livestock integration.

Imagine if we could invent a way to distribute aerobic and anaerobic microbes effectively and economically across our agricultural landscapes: something mobile and capable of processing plant material into nutritional protein.

The invention should also come in various sizes suitable for specific needs, like playing a close role with plants, soils and the carbon cycle. Yes, this is a little tongue-in-cheek comment!

The fossil record tells us our planet has a long association with animals. Plants, animals and soils have coexisted and supported each other over geological time, to which modern agriculture owes its existence. 

One of my favorite quotes explaining the landscape magnitude of animals is from The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Bernard DeVoto: 

“This scenery already rich, pleasing and beautiful was further heightened by immense herds of buffalo, deer, elk and antelope which we saw…