Regenerative Livestock Management #1
Hi, there Folks. Robin here. Just exactly what does regenerative ranching or regenerative livestock management mean? What does it look like? Why does it matter? (I may have to do this in parts…)
“Regenerative ranching”…sounds great. In our times, we hear a lot about sustainability, not so much about regeneration. Let’s take the two terms, sustainability and regeneration, and look at them individually.
Sustain, the root of sustainability means to hold steady, keep at the same level, maintain the status quo. That means for us, you and me, in the climate change equation that we do no more harm to the environment, that we do what we do in a “carbon neutral” manner. It does not actually imply or infer any restoration or correction of the current state to a better state.
Regeneration brings to mind a rebirth, making new again. It is a stronger and more positive word, to me. With regeneration we not only stop inflicting damage, we heal and renew.
This next part is not a political statement, so hold your flamethrowers. The data are in. Satellite imagery and boots on the ground measurements confirm it. Our world is heating up. The unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries claimed many explorers’ lives. Today, Maersk has determined that the Northwest Passage is navigable, although not yet commercially viable. That is a LOT of ice and snow gone! Forests are burning around the globe all day every day. And the most significant but least reported issue is the destruction of our grasslands. This needs to be fixed.
Allan Savory is arguably the father of regenerative ranching, although he points to a predecessor, André Voisin of France . Savory’s fundamental principle is that we MUST use livestock to stop and reverse the growth of deserts around the world. Believe it or not, some of the fastest growing deserts are right here in the United States in Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Numerous others like Johann Zietsman, Jaime Elizondo, Joel Salatin, and Jim Gerrish all talk about Savory’s principles, but with their own spins.
Savory’s principles reduce to one single principle: herbivores, grasslands, and predators exist in a symbiotic relationship with countless other creatures to form an ecosystem.
Forests sequester carbon in trees. How do grasslands sequester carbon? In the soil. Forests, it turns out, sequester very little carbon in their soils. It goes into their leaves, trunks, and branches. Grasslands put little carbon into their leaves and stems, but a lot into the soil.
The tundra in melting FAST. Boots on the ground verified. Aerial photography confirmed, too. What is in the melting tundra? Not trees. A Russian scientist is running a project to use large herbivores to restore the tundra grasslands - even to contemplating bring back mammoths! His team has horses, bison, reindeer, and other large grazers at work on the project at this time. Why does he think it will work? Because the exposed strata from soil slumps and gullies and ravines shows the effects of grazing animals. And that is where we come in.
The HERD EFFECT restores land. MIRG, rotational grazing, intensive rotational grazing, non-selective grazing all are efforts to create the HERD EFFECT in our pastures. Creating the HERD EFFECT is not a system, though. It is a principle. We have management protocols at our disposal to make this happen. Savory states that it works EVERY TIME. In fifty years it has not failed once. (He even says that if you can make it fail, please let him know so that he can broadcast the failure.) He even says that LIVESTOCK are the ONLY means of saving our planet.
Links:
Allan Savory at Black Leg Ranch NDGC
Allan Savory at the North Dakota Grasslands Coalition
Joel Salatin on Allan Savory and Holistic Management
Next time, I will take up the “What does it look like?” question.
Think on these things. Let me me know your thoughts.
Robin Hood