Soil fertility has come a long way over the years. From the age of moldboard plows to no-till planting, advancements have been made to improve overall soil health. Another agroecological approach to better the soil is regenerative grazing. This theory can help a farm’s bottom line by addressing environmental, societal, and other farm challenges.
Regenerative grazing is a practice that uses soil health and adaptive livestock management principles to improve farm profitability, human and ecosystem health, and food system resiliency, shared program associate Elisabeth Spratt of Winrock International at an Efficiencies for Scaled Dairy Grazing Workshop held in Manitowoc, Wis. Spratt and other collaborators recently published a paper on this topic, titled “Accelerating regenerative grazing to tackle farm, environmental, and societal challenges in the Upper Midwest” in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.
This practice for both perennial and annual systems generally revolves around a rest-rotation cycle. Animals are allowed to graze for short periods of time and are then transferred to another pasture while the previous one is allowed to rest, allowing adequate time for regrowth.
Regenerative grazing is also a concept that can reverse decades of poor tillage practices and synthetic inputs that have caused some farms to lose resiliency when it comes to extreme weather conditions. In doing so, these systems can create many benefits for farms that adopt its practices. Utilizing this system can boost forage production through pasture management, leading to better soil structure and improved animal health and nutrition. If animals are healthier, input costs are ultimately reduced.
Maintaining financial resiliency and being able to withstand volatility are two of the most important factors when it comes to a farm’s bottom line. Generally, a farm’s biggest cost is the feed bill. Using a grazing system, feed costs are reduced by maximizing the intake of high-quality pasture forage. When handled correctly, pasture forage can be the lowest cost source of high-quality feed for beef and dairy cows and allows farmers to limit purchases of grains and other forages. Other variable cost savings included lower repair and maintenance costs for machinery and equipment and reduced labor needs since cattle are harvesting more of their own feed and are distributing their own manure, noted the researchers.
Not only does regenerative grazing make the soil more dense, but it also has direct positive effects on soil erosion, fertility, and water infiltration. A pasture’s dense root system promotes healthy soil that can handle more extreme weather effects such as runoff, drought, and heavy rains. On the animal welfare side, it has been noted that animals in a regenerative grazing setting had lower stress levels, fewer disease incidents, less lameness, and fewer feet or leg injuries. With less frequent disease and injury incidences, medicine and veterinary costs are lessened.
The adoptions of new conservation practices have created the opportunity for reintegrating livestock grazing as a viable tool for farms while building soil health and its accompanying environmental and societal benefits, cited the researchers. Advancing our knowledge about the use of regenerative practices will require a new way of thinking when it comes to the future of dairy herds.
