Dick Cates’ journey to his land ethic wasn’t always a straight line. In fact, it took several twists and turns before he settled on a path that led him to not only preserve but also improve the land under his care.

Cates, a well-known leader in Wisconsin sustainable farming practices and formally trained soil scientist, is sharing his story with others in his latest book, “A Creek Runs Through This Driftless Land: A Farm Family’s Journey Toward a Conservation Ethic.” Cates and his family run a managed-grazing beef operation along the Lowery Creek in northern Iowa County near Spring Green, Wis.

The book chronicles Cates’ life, from helping on his parents’ farm as a child to chasing the big-farm model to settling into a system that takes into consideration the health and well-being of the land. Cates and his wife, Kim, have transitioned the business to their son, Eric, and his wife, Kiley, who now own and manage the cattle herd and marketing of grass-fed beef to households, restaurants and grocery stores throughout the region.

Cates worked on the book for four years before it finally came off the press in late summer. He says he put his words to paper so he “could have this conversation with people,” to encourage others to “take personal responsibility for Earth’s gifts.”

Related:Adamski family wins 2024 Wisconsin Leopold Conservation Award

“When I think about my talents, I can’t run very fast, I would never win at Jeopardy, I can’t play music — but I’ve seen these things, I feel these things, I’ve done these things, and I want to share them,” he says. “I wanted to tell a story from my heart.”

Early days as beef producer

Early in his career as an agriculturist, Cates thought the only way to be successful as a farmer was to keep expanding his beef operation. He had beef cattle in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, but struggled to make a profit as his costs would continually overrun his estimations. It was his wife who talked him into getting off the get-bigger treadmill.

“We were raising a few animals for ourselves and selling the meat locally, and Kim said, ‘There’s a return there. You’re not making any money with the stocker cattle business.’ I said, ‘Who wants to do that? I want to run a lot of cattle on a lot of acres. That’s what a farmer does.’”

The light bulb eventually went on in Cates’ head, and in the late 1980s, he began learning about managed-grazing practices from Wisconsin’s sustainable agriculture leaders such as Rick Adamski, Dan Patenaude, Charlie Opitz, Reid Ludlow and Larry Smith. He found a way to run a profitable beef business while at the same time restoring the health of the land on which he was farming.

Related:New take on rain simulator demo

Past farming practices resulted in soil eroding from the hillsides to the Lowery Creek valley. The water was brown and silty, and the native brook trout could no longer be found.

The Cates family’s managed-grazing system features beef cattle being carefully moved on a schedule that keeps forage plants productive and maintains continuous ground cover, mimicking the way the natural ecosystem had supported moving herds of grazing animals for millennia. Their farming practices have led to a virtual elimination of the runoff and the creek’s status being upgraded to a Class I trout stream. The brook trout are back.

Aldo Leopold’s influence

“Aldo Leopold’s land ethic really means taking personal responsibility for your actions,” Cates says. “It’s not complicated. Most landowners have this idea that ‘I pay taxes; I can do anything I want.’ I reject that notion. We are gifted with an opportunity to try to make a living from the land during the time we are on planet Earth. The soil, water, plants, the air we breathe — they are not ours. We want to pass these on better than we found them. I feel a tremendous responsibility to do it right.”

Related:Grant helps dairy farmers learn carbon score

Cates says he wrote the book because he believes a lot of people want to have the land ethic conversation. 

“It’s certainly not everybody — there’s a part of agriculture that isn’t interested in any of this,” he says. “There are still people interested in the model of producing more commodities at a lower price, regardless of soil and water consequences. But more and more people are realizing we live on a planet with limits.”

In the book’s preface, Cates cites recent research findings that conventional Midwest agriculture practices are eroding soil at “10 to 1,000 times the rate they are forming.” The lost topsoil ends up in the Gulf of Mexico and creates the largest “dead zone” on the planet, an area where aquatic life can no longer live.

“I am going to plant a flag: The greatest existential crisis human civilization faces is the destruction of the natural conditions necessary for our survival,” he writes. “We’ve got but one shot at checking human-induced climate change and species extinction. We must do it within this generation, or the game is over.”

Land ethic laws needed

Cates says while there is often talk of the need for a land ethic, there are still no laws to carry it out.

“If I steal something from you, I’m punished. But I can erode soil, watch it to go the Gulf of Mexico, and I’m not punished,” he says. “People say farmers should do it voluntarily. That’s because the ethic is not in stone yet. I believe we need it to be to survive on this planet.”

The Cateses purchased a portion of his parents’ farm in 1987 to begin their farming business. While continuing to farm, Cates led the development and oversight of the Wisconsin Sustainable Agriculture Program, an on-farm demonstration and research effort of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. In 1995, Cates helped develop and directed the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison program designed to train would-be farmers in business planning and managed grazing. He retired from this work in 2018.

The Cates family was recognized in 2013 as the Wisconsin Leopold Conservation Award winner. In 2016, Cates was named a Wisconsin Master Agriculturist, and in 2020, he received the Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Distinguished Service to Wisconsin Agriculture Award, among many other honors he and his family have received.

Cates’ latest book was published by Little Creek Press and is also available in local bookstores and via Amazon.