Intensive grazing
At Watson Farm today, the farmers use a system of management-intensive grazing to improve the fertility of the soil, increase forage production, and to sequester carbon in the soil. Permanent and portable fences control livestock access to the pastures. Lightweight polywire is used to divide large pastures into smaller paddocks. The farmers move the animals daily, sometimes twice a day, to a new paddock to provide fresh forage and allow the already grazed forages to recover. The animals’ manure returns nutrients to the land, enriching it organically, increasing biomass and enhancing the biology and life of the soil. This is a sustainable method of producing quality grass fed beef and lamb. Soil-renewing or self-sustaining agriculture is by no means new to Conanicut Island . The Narragansett people had summer encampment on the island and took care not to overuse the land. They cultivated a site for two or three seasons and then moved on to allow the soil to regenerate.
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