Getting Livestock Back on the Land
It's easier than you think... and fun!
Reasons to consider integrating livestock into cropland today are multiplying, as agriculture and food encounter new environmental risks and marketing opportunities.
Here are just a few:
Herbicide-resistant weed patches can get knocked out in one season by a properly-managed herd of grazing ruminants.
Diverse pastures hold and preserve soil moisture, creating crop resiliency to both heavy rains and drought.
The cash crop grown in the year following the grazing period can be produced with a fraction of normal fertilizer, without sacrificing yield, because the restoration of biodiversity and plant nutrient cycling unlocks chemical bonds freeing up minerals in the soil that were previously unavailable to the crop’s roots.
Infrastructure costs like fencing and watering are mostly covered by programs like the On Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) and others, translating into balance sheet assets worth a lot more than they cost.
Cattle prices have traded to all-time-highs, and there is a severe shortage of domestic lamb and goat meat production to meet consumer demand.
Recently, we talked about the mainstream demand-pull trends for pasture-raised local meats. Today, let’s review a couple of tips from farmers who’ve already successfully integrated livestock onto their cropland.
Partner with a Neighbor
Most grain farmers today haven’t had to contemplate the management, workload, and business systems of the livestock industry. Peer groups and mentorship programs are highly effective for those who want to learn to manage the herd themselves, as are partnerships for grain farmers who don’t.
The challenges for grain and cattle farmers to partner to share land typically revolve around the lack of familiarity with one another’s work flows. The seeding window on a grain farm is not a good time to bring a herd over, for example.
Mutual learning can happen amicably as long as each partner enters the arrangement in a spirit of openness, patience, curiosity and with an intention to work out the kinks one step at a time to ensure long-term success. The benefits of adding a grazing season to a crop rotation are so great, it’s not worth ignoring any of the details needed to get it right.
Get the Family On Board
Not all kids love animals… but most of them do. People of all ages obsessed with animals tend to have boundless energy to research and plan their care.
The responsibility for managing a new herd on a farm won’t be taken lightly if it was the family member’s idea in the first place. Their interest tends to be infectious, drawing in parents that never dreamed they’d be putting fenceposts back in the ground while it feels like they just ripped them out!
Introducing a managed grazing program typically involves seeding a grain field into a pasture mix, fencing it, and installing a watering system. Skilled service providers for this work can be very difficult to outsource, and at the same time, fun family projects to figure out and work on together.
Plan to Learn & Learn to Plan
Holistic management is a decades-old, tried and proven philosophy for managing farming decisions, to the benefit of people, planet and profit. There are chapters all over the world, offering networking events and a multitude of learning opportunities to ensure success.
The ecological benefits that come from managed grazing and animal impact on land will have benefits from new sources, for many years to come. Consider:
Using goats to graze underbrush for wildfire control, renting the herd out to other property owners and government lands.
Dropping crop insurance because the farming system can be trusted to produce profitably in a wide range of volatile weather conditions.
Replacing insecticide and fungicide applications with much cheaper beneficial biology and plant diversity.
Questions?
If you’ve read this far, you must be considering the idea of bringing livestock back into farmland. Just hit reply and tell us what you think!
Our team of consultants welcomes questions, comments, and consultations to work through all the moving parts of this important opportunity for farmers. Our expertise is deep and we are 100% independent, ensuring Prairie Routes’ farm clients receive only the best help and advice possible.