HAMILTON, Ohio – The Butler Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) recently hosted a pasture walk at Reserve Run Family Farm. Topics covered were the new threat from Asian Longhorn ticks, pasture management, and how Reserve Run is evolving its farming operation.

Brady Smith, Butler SWCD Rural Specialist, introduced J.T. Benitez, Ohio State University Extension agriculture and natural resources educator in Butler County, who talked about ticks, especially the Asian Longhorn tick, a species recently found in Butler County.

Ticks in Ohio

“The Asian Longhorn tick was discovered in about October in Butler County on a dog,” Benitez said. “It has been in Gallia County since 2020 and has been working its way across the state. Our area is the right environment for this tick, which is from Southeast Asia.”

This tick has three cycles: larva, nymph and adult, Benitez said. The egg hatches into a larva, and feeds on a host; then the larva molts into a nymph after leaving the first host. Then the nymph molts into an adult after leaving the second host. Similar to other ticks, it must have three hosts.

A female can lay up to 3,000 eggs, and it reproduces parthenogenetically. That is, no male is needed. It is common to find hundreds of ticks on one animal. They have been collected from pets, livestock, wildlife and humans.

Unchecked, they can overwhelm cattle in massive numbers, presenting a severe, potentially fatal threat to herd health.

“This tick is a major concern for livestock,” Benitez said. “Livestock producers need to have a management plan working with their veterinarian. If you are raising livestock, you need to have that relationship.

“You may have to look into treatment of the pastures and fields,” he said. “There is a combination of things for that. The research is still small on this, so we don’t know how serious the problem will be. I don’t know how much the treatment might change because of the expansiveness of this tick.”

Reserve Run Farm regenerative ag practices

Reserve Run Farm owner Drew Johnson described his farming operation. He and his dad farm about 300 acres. Cattle are their primary end product, although they do raise hay for the horse industry.

“All of the crops we raise are primarily for the cows and anything extra we sell,” Johnson said. “Pretty much 100 percent of our cattle are direct marketed through our website. “

They have been evolving over the years to regenerative farming practices, just because “it seemed like the right thing to do,” Johnson said.

“We have been going more to intensive grazing where we try and put a lot of cows in a small spot for a little bit of time,” he explained. “Our goal is for them to eat half and stomp half, but they probably end up eating like 60 or maybe a little more percent of it and then stomping the rest.”

By keeping the cattle in a tight group, they can’t be as choosy about what they eat. Making them compress into a small area generates competition; it stimulates them to eat whatever is in front of them.

“By the time we rotate them to the next pasture, they have it pretty evenly eaten down and trampled,” he said. “It also keeps their manure concentrated in that area so we can do a better job of our manure management. In the bunch grasses and fescue, we usually move them when they are probably down to 6 to 8 inches.”

They have also switched to shorter-season soybeans. Johnson said he is still exploring that. But the hope is to get more grazing for the cattle. They will take the soybeans off as quickly as possible and plant cereal rye. That will give the grazers some variety, and it will stimulate soil health.

“In the springtime we will graze that cereal rye right before we plant it,” Johnson explained. “We’ll let them graze it down and then if the ground needs to be worked, like if it’s a wet spring, then we will do something to make the seedbed.

“There is variability, but on the whole, we are steadily making progress as far as the soil health benefits,” he said. “Getting a little more drought resilience is something we have been focusing on with the soil health, to maybe give us one more week when it is dry.”

The Johnsons started on the path to regenerative farming because the agricultural chemical industry, specifically the fertilizer industry, seemed like a “rigged game,” he said.

“My biggest push was to be less reliant on synthetic fertilizers and to decrease inputs as a broad statement, but to use less synthetic fertilizers and to try and grow our fertilizer, in a way, like legumes and things like that pulling nitrogen out of the air,” he said. “That’s a big thing for us.”

Grazing management

How to make pastures better and more resilient in the long run was the topic for Jarrod Hittle, state grazing coordinator for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, and he agreed with Johnson’s philosophy of keeping cover on the soil.

“A big thing from a management standpoint is keeping soil cover,” Hittle said. “Soil cover will help prevent erosion during excessive wet periods; it will help absorb some of the excess water. A big thing for absorbing water is organic matter, so working to build in as much organic matter as producers possibly can will help with excessive rainfall periods.”

The same thing is true with drought, he explained. Keeping cover on the soil keeps the soil temperature cooler; it helps prevent the soil from getting overheated, which puts cool season plants in a dormant-type state and slows their growth significantly.

“So keeping soil covered will keep the soil surface cool,” Hittle said. “Plus, you lose water retention if you have exposed soil. It is going to help with moisture retention. Overall, it allows us to protect the soil first and foremost. Then as rains return, when you get that growth coming back, you get a better recovery or better pasture if you run into drought.”

So managing is important. A producer can do more damage to a pasture in the summer months, during a drought, by not keeping the soil covered, by not keeping enough forage on the ground, than by winter feeding.

“If you overgraze those pasture fields during the summer months when they are dormant, when they are slow growing, you can set those fields back significantly by overgrazing,” Hittle said.

It is a combination of things that contribute to reducing the overall pasture health and growth during the summer. Producers should keep a minimum of 4 to 6 inches of growth, keeping the plants actively growing. If there is some thatch on it from mowing, it almost acts like a mulch.