TOMAHAWK, Wis. – Since the mid-1990s, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students in the College of Natural Resources have attended pasture walks as part of their required summer-school program at Treehaven. Treehaven is a natural-resources education, conference and research center between Tomahawk and Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Students from Treehaven visited Twin Creeks Cattle Company Aug. 12; the company is a managed-grazing beef farm operated by Tom and Linda Daigle and their son, Ben Daigle.
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Natural Resources students learn grazing
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Beef cattle at Twin Creeks Cattle Company near Tomahawk, Wisconsin, share their pastures with University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources students at a recent pasture walk. Students learned about the environmental benefits of managed grazing.
Paul Daigle, director of Marathon County's Land and Water Program and an avid promoter of rotational grazing, arranges for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point natural-resources majors to take pasture walks as part of their six-week studies at Treehaven, an environmental center between Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
Three University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students learn the ins and outs of managed grazing during a pasture walk on the Tom and Linda Daigle farm near Tomahawk, Wisconsin. The three said they were impressed by what they learned. From left are Andrew Becker of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a junior in water resources; Sam Peters of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, a senior in natural-resources law enforcement; and Jared Toro of Waukesha, Wisconsin, a junior in forestry.
Treehaven instructors Mark Krupinski, left, and Daniel Keymer say fewer natural-resources students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point have farm backgrounds. That's why it's important, the two say, to expose students to pasture walks during their required six-week summertime stint at Treehaven.
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point environmental-programs students inspect pastures at Tom and Linda Daigle's farm near Tomahawk, Wisconsin. They learned that farmland doesn't need to be set aside to provide environmental benefits, but can still be productive with grazing livestock while providing cover for songbirds and other wildlife.
Paul Daigle, Marathon County Land and Water Program director, left, and his uncle, retired farmer Jerry 'Bud' Schoone of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, converse during a recent pasture walk for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point environmental students, ahead on the lane. The pasture walk is at the grazing operation of Paul Daigle's brother, Tom Daigle, which was previously operated as a conventional dairy by Schoone.
Paul Daigle, left, and his brother Tom Daigle talk to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students during a pasture walk on Tom Daigle's grass-based beef operation in Lincoln County, Wisconsin.
A pair of creeks run across Twin Creeks Cattle Company near Tomahawk, Wisconsin, where a type of managed grazing will be used to restore native trout populations in one of the creeks. This creek runs underneath the barn on the farm; the barn no longer houses cattle.
Paul Daigle, far left, and his brother Tom Daigle, facing the group next to him, conduct a pasture walk on Tom Daigle's beef operation. The walk is held for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students in the College of Natural Resources. Paul Daigle, himself a graduate of the college, has been conducting such pasture walks for students since the mid-1990s.
