GLENMONT — Four members of the Cutlip family gathered on the porch of one of the homes on their 200-acre farm on a quiet morning in June.
Jeff Cutlip’s mother is renovating the house and will soon move in, making four generations of the family connected to the Jefferson Township property.
That continuity is exactly what years of careful farming have been working toward for Jeff and Mary Jo Cutlip.
The family received the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award during the Buckeye Cattlemen’s Summit on Jan. 24.
“The Environmental Stewardship Award is presented to Ohio farms who have demonstrated a strong commitment to being good stewards of their land, water and air resources, as well as their livestock and operate their farms in a sustainable manner.”
Ohio cattlemen’s association
Earning the award, however, was never the family’s primary goal.
The couple owns and manages the farm with the help of their two daughters, LeighAnn and Laura.
Their operation is home to around 80 head of cattle and a small group of show cows, managed, maintained and loved by Laura.
The family consider themselves first-generation farmers. Although the farm was originally owned by Jeff’s grandparents, the property was purchased at market price.
It has been a steady learning experience for the family. This award may not have been an active goal, but it does reflects years of intention and understanding of the environment.
In fact, much of the family’s environmental stewardship begins in the pasture.
Cutlips practice the ‘art’ of rotating cattle
The pasture is divided into small paddocks and the herd is moved every two to two-and-a-half days in the summer. Each move requires tearing down and rebuilding a temporary fence.
But this hard work isn’t for naught. By moving the cattle often, the family is able to maintain their fields for longer.
Cattle given too much time or space to graze will weaken — and eventually kill out — the grass. Rotating the herd frequently gives the grass time to recover, and the cattle access to healthier pastures.
Mary Jo is often in charge of cattle rotation.
As first-generation farmers, Jeff said it is “absolutely necessary” that they have other forms of income.
Jeff works in construction, oftentimes traveling out of town for jobs. LeighAnn, a recent graduate of Ashland University, works in accounting for Heimerl Farms. That frequently leaves Mary Jo and Laura to handle the majority of day-to-day farm work.
“It’s an active sport – you’ve got to be involved, put your boots on, walk out in it. But (Mary Jo’s) gotten it down to a science, an art,” Jeff said.
Healthy pastures create healthier soil, and it takes generations to develop good soil, according to Jeff.
Roughly 80% of the nutrients from the grazed grass returns to the ground through manure, along with organic carbon. This carbon promotes grass growth and acts as a sponge-like collector for water and nutrients.
“It’s a circle … We’re harvesting the sun through the grass into the cow, and it starts with the dirt … A byproduct of that is a service: we’re trying to take carbon out of the air and put it back into the ground where it started,” Jeff said. “…The award is just kind of a byproduct on what we’re doing, and it makes sense for us to do it.”
Long-term improvements and maintaining the health of the pasture matters more to the family than any recognition.
“When you figure that land is your biggest asset, and if you’re not willing to protect it and grow with it, then you’re just kind of wasting your time and energy… it’s kind of neglectful to not do the best that you can with it… so we just try to make the right decisions… and protect it so it’s there for our kids and their kids,” Mary Jo said.
They are also laying seed for future generations
The family will spend the day making hay to feed their cattle through the winter. Behind the tractor that Mary Jo drives buzzards hover overhead like flies to a cow — the raking process stirs up small creatures living in the grass, providing a quick meal for the vultures.
It’s a clear indication the farm supports far more than cattle. The family often sees herds of deer — more than 80 at times — traveling across the property. While the family knows it would be viable to turn their land into hunting reserves, that’s not their plan.
Like the steady rotation of the cows from pasture to pasture, the relationship between the farm and nature is give-and-take, a strategic process built over years of work.
The cattle farm is a long-term, multi-generational investment that is just getting started.
“We’re not getting immediate gratification on our investments, it takes 20 and 30 years to see the return on on most everything we do,” Jeff said.
According to the family, Jeff often jokes that farming is an “addiction” or “disease” that draws people back despite long hours and financial challenges.
But its clear that passion has been passed to the next Cutlip generation.
Laura, now 21, grew up showing cattle throughout Ohio. She recently graduated from The Ohio State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute. She plans to continue showing cattle while building a breeding program for show cows of her own.
“(Showing cattle) teaches you responsibility from a very young age, because if you want to do well, you got to work for it, and you can learn from your mistakes … Then you can teach that to the younger kids … I call that my little circle of life,” Laura said.
LeighAnn, despite working off-farm in accounting at Heimerl Farms, remains committed to helping keep the family operation running.
“I work off‑farm for a place that has thousands and thousands of head and farms thousands of acres—you pretty much have to have a whole multi‑million‑dollar business to do that. We’re here trying to make a hundred head work … It falls back to the ‘disease’—you do it because you love it,” LeighAnn said.
For the family, the Environmental Stewardship Award recognizes years of work spent improving the land. But the family’s focus has always extended well beyond the next season.
“Our kids are here, and their kids could be here. They’ll have opportunities, and most kids won’t. And that’s more rare today than it’s ever been. And in 50 years, it’ll be even more rare,” Jeff said.
