Regenerative Livestock Management #2

Welcome back, folks. Robin Hood here to talk about what regenerative livestock production looks like. Last time I defined a couple of terms and addressed the question of what regenerative agriculture means. Next time, I will address the question of why it matters.

So, what does regenerative livestock production look like? (I will search for other voices to address the regenerative grain and vegetable production - that is well outside my expertise.)

The fundamental principle of regenerative agriculture is that our soils and the forages they support MUST improve over time WITHOUT the use of petroleum or other chemical based soil amendments. That is, the animals on the land do the work of healing the land.

The burning question is then, “Where does the farmer or rancher come in?” Glad you asked!

Going back to Andre Voisin in his great book published in 1959, it is the way the animals are managed that makes ALL the difference. He coined the term “rational grazing” to encompass the ideas that would become our regenerative agriculture principles today. (By the way, Voisin’s book is LOADED with data from many sources, including his original research.) There are fundamentally two modes of grazing:

continuous
interval

Continuous grazing puts a herd or flock into some area with little or no restriction on their movements within that area. It provides much more area per individual than some other modes of grazing. The animals have essentially complete freedom of movement within the area and complete freedom to choose which forages to consume or not consume. This is a “set and forget it” way of grazing.

Interval grazing is more complex. It requires planning and more labor. It comes in a variety of flavors, too. Central to the notion of interval grazing is that forage needs a rest period after a grazing event.

fixed rotation
Animals are moved at a pre-selected interval without regard to actual grass of animal conditions. To be sure, the intervals are normally analyzed to determine the “best”, but all of the intervals are the same.
mob grazing
Animals are closely bunched to obtain very high weight to area ratios. This technique usually involves full-time herdsmen and very frequent moves - like every hour or two. It is comparatively labor-intensive.
non-selective grazing
Animals are confined into a small enough area that their movements are restricted. Feeding areas are sized to provide the herd with enough forage for a two to four hour stay, typically. They are held on a area just long enough to consume all of the forage in the area, then are allowed to rest prior to being moved to the next feeding area.
holistic grazing
This is probably the most complex of the modes of interval grazing. It uses everything in the local context - water, grass, animals, people, politics, law, weather, etc. - into consideration to determine when to move and to where. It also confines animal into a limited area so that their movements are restricted and virtually of the available forage is used before moving the animals again.
rational grazing
Voisin’s model relies on the herder to determine when to move. That is, this mode uses the experience and judgement of the herder to “know” when the time is right for the herd to move to the next feeding area. His teachings have been formulated into four laws
Voisin argued that these principles were applicable universally, "whatever the soil conditions, climate, altitude, latitude or longitude."
- First Law: Before a sward, sheared with the animal’s teeth, can achieve its maximum productivity, sufficient interval must have elapsed between two successive shearings to allow the grass:
  - to accumulate in its roots the reserves necessary for a vigorous spurt of re-growth;
  - to produce its “blaze of growth” (or high daily yield per acre).
- Second Law: The total occupation period on one paddock should be sufficiently short for a grass sheared on the first day (or at the beginning) of occupation not to be cut again by the teeth of these animals before they leave the paddock.
- Third Law: The animals with the greatest nutritional requirements must be helped to harvest the greatest quantity of grass of the best possible quality.
- Fourth Law: If a cow is to give regular milk yields she must not stay any longer than three days on the same paddock. Yields will be at their maximum if the cow stays on one paddock for only one day.

Regenerative agriculture hearkens back to Voisin’s observations about "Lilliputian ploughmen” and micro-fauna. Richard Perkins of Ridgedale Permaculture asserts that we should be bending our efforts to enhance this micro-fauna with every aspect of our practices using our animals to do as much of the work as is possible. Savory gives us a great understanding of the interaction of the animal, the forage, and the soil micro-fauna. Salatin and Perkins show us how to put it all together as commercial enterprises, not just as subsistence farmers.

So, what does it look like? Regenerative livestock management is:

interval-based, where the intervals are determined by the specific conditions present at a specific point in time
focused on soil, where the micro-fauna and micro-flora, especially fungi, are enhanced continuously over time
allowing livestock to live and move as much as possible as if they were in the wild, but under control of herders so that they and the forages they consume come as close to their natural behaviors, and thus potentials, as possible
resting forages enough to restore root reserves and regrow leaf and stem, but not so mush as to go beyond senescence to death
workable within a given societal context

Regenerative Livestock Management #2

Hood Family Farms