Well the man IS a vigorous 80!
Few personalities have been more consequential and just damned interesting than Jonathan Barry. Former Dane County executive, state legislator, UW Regent, deputy secretary at Workforce Development, business exec in the private sector, candidate for governor, and Democrat turned Republican. That’s only a partial list.
Probably his most enduring claim to fame is helping found Madison’s farmers market 51 years ago, after he parked his farm produce truck on State Street and the City kept ticketing it. The Saturday market on the Square is now as much part of the city’s culture as protest marches to the State Capitol.
Jonathan just turned 80 years of age but could pass for younger. He threw a birthday bash Sunday 06-22-25 on his small farm in the Town of Primose, not far from Robert M. La Follette’s birthplace. There is no direct route from Madison to Jonathan’s farm, requiring the motorist to slow down to negotiate hairpin turns in this hilly, unglaciated land as county roads yield to narrow town roads. The slower pace allows appreciation of some of the most beautiful landscape in America, a new vista over every hill. On this sweltering, 93℉ Sunday, the hills were alive with farmers making hay in a variety of ways: large square bales, big round bales, and chopped into large wagons for silage. That’s farming — got to make hay while the sun shines.
Farming with the land
Western Dane County is good country for alfalfa, clover, and birdsfoot trefoil — nitrogen-fixing, deep-rooted legumes that hug hillsides too steep for row crops like corn. The latter is grown in the valleys on the responsible farms and — from what we could see — in soil-saving strips contoured to the topography. If you want to see livestock grazing in the open air — increasingly uncommon due to 24/7 confinement barns — this is the country for it.
After feeding his guests beef brisket, Jonathan used the occasion for a chautauqua on regenerative agriculture, under canvas like the outdoor education and entertainment gatherings of Fighting Bob’s day at the turn of the last Century. (He was a Republican, too.)
The concept goes beyond controlling erosion to maintaining the organic tilth of the soil, recognizing that plant cover uses the sun’s energy to sequester carbon. (Move those solar panels to rooftops!) Bare soil doesn’t do that. Monoculture row-crop agriculture depletes the soil, which is why massive amounts of petroleum-based fertilizers are required. UW professor Randall Jackson talked about that Sunday. He is a professor of grassland ecology, which is something else we learned Sunday: that there was such a thing. Mr. Barry has not used manufactured chemicals on his spread in 35 years.
Dick Cates read from his book, A Creek Runs Through This Driftless Land. Dick, scion of a famous attorney and one himself, farms regeneratively south of Spring Green. His was the grass-fed beef we ate. Dick was proud that the stream on his farm — a class 3 trout stream when Dick and wife Kim started — is now designated class 1. Mdans the waterway need not be stocked; it can sustain its own fish population.
A stream runs through Jonathan’s farm as well. The first section of the farmhouse was built in 1860, attached to the original log cabin, long gone. Right at hand is a trout pond fed from a natural spring under the house that once cooled milk cans in the cellar. Behind one of his many sheds is piled firewood from his woodland. His niece told us Jon’s garden is much smaller than once was.
“This is pre-meditated poverty.” — Jonathan’s mother when he purchased the farm.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: We remain skeptical that America can feed itself through regenerative agriculture or practice same without pockets filled by other occupations — but it is a discussion worth having.
The UW prof maintains that “restoring the original prairie biome is not only a moral imperative but also required for our health and well being.” But upon intense questioning from a guest fueled by two cans of Spotted Cow, the prof was equivocal about RFK Jr.’s Make American Healthy Again.
6 responses to “Healthy soil, healthy folks?”
square hay bales!! Lord, I thought they, thankfully did not do that torture anymore. Yeah, they have machines that bale them, but then they have junior high school kids who have to throw them ten bales up on a flat bed…..
Actually, these square bales were huge. Guessing a front-end loader comes along to retrieve.
Save the bales!
You should have had to toss up the corn shock in th 50,s to the haynwagon. Almost anything was under them including skunks.
6 spotted cows later: Why can’t we use dead people for fertilizer???
AHH, I see you are an Allis Chalmers man, So am I farmed with my uncle in Bayfield county. I know all about making hay. the memories are priceless.