WHAT do you do when your paddock can’t handle a normal-sized cow?
Steve Leisk owns DoLittle Farm, and he found that the simplest answer was the correct one: get smaller ones.
Mr Leisk, who runs a regenerative farming operation, is now breeding miniature and micro-Galloway cattle, including one particularly diminutive five-and-a-half-month-old calf affectionately known as Nano.
It is a fittingly tiny solution to a big problem: standard-sized cattle and the farm’s sandy soil were not getting along.
“We had some cows actually go down to their bellies,” Mr Leisk said. “Almost like quicksand.”
The cattle eventually managed to haul themselves free, but the experience made one thing clear; conventional cattle were not well suited to the property.
So, Mr Leisk “sacked the cows” and moved on.
Several years into his regenerative agriculture work, however, he began to notice there was something missing.
“We need cow pats,” he said.
It may not sound like the most glamorous strategy, but manure is an important part of the system Mr Leisk is trying to build, returning nutrients to the soil and providing food for the countless organisms working beneath the surface.
The trick was finding cattle that could do the job without the several hundred kilograms of pressure attached.
Mr Leisk and his wife explored a few possibilities, before finding the right herd, at the right size.
And while the cattle are primarily being bred as pets, they also happen to fit neatly into the needs of people with five or 10 acres who want livestock capable of grazing their property without requiring the space, feed or infrastructure of a conventional cow.
But there’s a lot more going on beneath those little hooves than keeping the grass down.
Take a walk through the paddock with Mr Leisk and he will point out something most people would walk right over: tiny holes appearing in an old cow pat.
Dung beetles are busy tunnelling through the manure, while microbes in the soil break down and cycle its nutrients, turning what looks like a rather unremarkable pile of cow poo into a miniature ecosystem. Mr Leisk calls it a “micro ecosystem”.
Break open an old pat and the evidence is there. There is barely anything left; the dung has already been broken down and worked into the soil.
“That’s fuel for the system,” he said.
The effect becomes obvious once the cattle are moved on and the paddock is given time to respond.
Green mounds begin appearing where manure has previously been deposited, marking patches of particularly vigorous growth.
According to Mr Leisk, those nutrient-rich areas become productive pockets of forage, eventually providing more food for the animals.
It is a neat little loop; the cow eats the grass, the cow produces the pat, the beetles and microbes get to work, and the soil gets another turn at producing grass.
Meanwhile, the cattle themselves have become something of a niche commodity.
Mr Leisk said miniature Galloway heifers are selling for about $3300, while micro heifers are fetching roughly $5400.
There is already a waiting list of about 20 heifers for next year, despite Mr Leisk never having advertised them.
And when you’re surrounded by them, the appeal is obvious. Not only are they lovely to look at, but they also certainly have personality too.
All in all, Mr Leisk said they are pets, lawnmowers and manure producers, while also playing a part in his broader approach to regenerative farming.
