When Amanda Gergen and her husband started their sheep farm in rural Illinois, her initiation in sheep midwifery began. Before acquiring the farm, Amanda was no expert on what to expect when a sheep is expecting. Occasionally she turned to the internet, or her smartphone, for answers.

“Google was my best friend,” Gergen said reflecting on her first lambing season. “I would walk in and out of the barn on a very regular basis and say, ‘Okay, I just saw that’ and then look at Google to find out what I should do.”

Gergen and her husband purchased the farm about three years ago. Since then they’ve been solving problems and searching for answers to questions that crop up on their 20-acre property. One of their first concerns was how to make sure their operation grew in harmony with the environment. 

Runoff, from the farm’s row crops, was polluting water in the river that ran along the property line, creating soil instability, and carving out some significant ravines. Although no expert on sheep, Amanda’s environmental background in hazardous material management helped her  find ways to decrease the runoff and improve the health of the soil. 

“We put in pasture grass so the roots were really long and deep in the soil. We’re bringing water back into the ground,” Gergen said. “The amount of runoff, compared to the very first year when the roots were the least developed, was significantly less. It was so rewarding. When you do the right thing, nature responds so quickly.”

To implement their restoration plan, the Gergens worked with local Natural Resources Conservation Service officials to prepare and submit a grant request through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program. That program, known as EQIP, received a substantial boost in funding from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden. Just five days after being approved for the grant, the Gergens began planting their pasture. 

The following spring they introduced a modest herd of sheep to graze across the eight acres they had planted. And with a lot of research and hard work, they welcomed 17 ewes the first year and are now up to 45 sheep in total. But, the size of the herd fluctuates, in part because the Gergens secured a separate grant that would allow them to supply a certain number of sheep to the local food bank in order to support food scarcity initiatives in their community.

“It’s been great,” Gergen said. “Trading the row crops for pasture grass paid off almost immediately and the sheep have been a great addition. They’re happy. They make me happy. And our neighbors are happy. It all works out.” Gergen said her neighbor loves seeing the sheep in the pasture so much she even finds footage on YouTube of sheep grazing when the real sheep are gone from the pasture and resting in the barn.

Recently,  the Gergens say  they see more and more birds finding comfort in the environment they’ve established. There are more hawks and owls than before. And although she hasn’t seen any just yet, Gergen assumes the arrival of  predatory birds may be inspired by more rodents making the  pasture their home.

“The ecosystem changed and became more stable,” she said, noting that a smartphone app (known as Marlin) confirms more songbirds are now making the farm their home too. The app generates a list of birds it hears through the phone. “We’d go out with our app and you’d just hear the list in the morning. And the list kept getting bigger and more diverse. I just felt like as we were doing it this year, the full scope, nature was telling us we were doing all the right things. If you get quiet enough, nature will tell you what it needs.”

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed by the 117th Congress and signed by President Biden is a piece of federal legislation that aims to reduce inflation by lowering the cost of prescription medications, investing in domestic energy production, and promoting clean energy, among other objectives