Soil Carbon Cowboys

Within the Soil Carbon Cowboys video, featured beneath, filmmaker Peter Byck follows three cattle ranchers – Allen Williams from Mississippi, USA, Gabe Brown from North Dakota, USA, and Neil Dennis from Saskatchewan, Canada – whose modern grazing methods are redefining how cattle can be utilized to profitably enhance the land.

The video talk about among the most vital advantages of rotational grazing – constructing natural matter by rotational grazing (carbon sequestration), elevated erosion resistance, improved soil moisture retention, dramatic decreasing of illness within the cattle herd, decreased fertilizer and pesticide wants, decreased labor and tools prices, and all this accompanied by a dramatic improve in land productiveness.

The video can be stuffed with sensible hands-on concepts, akin to methods to mix everlasting and transportable electrical fences, what stocking densities work properly throughout rotational grazing, and modern methods to drive over single wire electrical fences together with your ATV while not having to construct gates in every single place.

There’s so much packed into a brief 12 minutes…

I hope you benefit from the video as a lot as I did!

Need to be taught slightly extra concerning the three ranchers featured within the video?

Extra About Neil Dennis

Many due to Neil Dennis for contacting me by my web site to inform me of this glorious video and for taking the time to reply my questions on his operation throughout our subsequent cellphone name.

A little bit extra about Neil’s ranch:

Neil’s ranch – Sunnybrae Farms in Saskatchewan – is strictly targeted on customized grazing for the business cattle {industry}. He makes use of pasture-based cattle farming (holistic administration) strictly to cut back his prices, enhance his soil, and improve the productiveness of his land!

In his pasture rotation he sometimes lets the land relaxation for round 80 days between grazing passes and makes use of a stocking density of round 800 to 1000 head of cattle per acre! His cattle usually proceed to graze by the winter months.

He not often builds gates anymore in his fences due to the modern setup he is connected to his ATV, which permits him to drive over the wires (seen a number of instances all through the Soil Carbon Cowboys video, beginning on the 03:08 minute mark). He makes use of water alleys relatively than cellular cattle water troughs to offer water entry for his cattle throughout his pasture rotation.

One of many issues he emphasised throughout our phone dialog was that organising a pasture rotation is simply the very starting. After that the soil simply retains altering, and altering, and altering – for the higher – as natural matter builds up within the soil. This has translated into a giant improve in his pasture productiveness (his land has improved a lot since he switched to pasture-based rotational grazing that his stocking charges are roughly double these of his neighbor who remains to be managing his cattle within the ‘conventional’ approach).

He additionally emphasised how a lot his soil moisture absorption has improved since he started. Soil percolation checks on his farm confirmed lower than 1″ of water absorbed per hour earlier than he switched to rotational grazing. Now it’s extra then 8″ of water absorbed per hour. (The take a look at is carried out by pounding a pipe into the soil, pouring water in, after which timing the speed of water absorption). That represents an enormous improve in floor water to assist plant development as a result of the water is just not misplaced to runoff or evaporation. And that makes his pastures considerably extra erosion-proof!

Neil has additionally been working with the Soil Carbon Coalition, which is a non-profit group that does systematic natural matter testing on ranches to observe how numerous farming strategies have an effect on natural matter content material within the soil, with the objective of selling farming strategies that construct natural matter. In the event you use the “Discover” perform to seek for “Neil Dennis” on their homepage, you may learn extra concerning the testing accomplished on his farm.

The Soil Carbon Coalition has examined two websites on Neil’s farm – SUNB1 and SUNB2. Each present a outstanding improve in soil carbon in simply 3 years (2011 – 2014) in all three measured depths (0-10 cm, 10-20cm and 10-35 cm). It is notably noteworthy that the natural matter improve was so putting notably within the deeper soil horizons, not simply on the floor!

You may see how a lot his soil outcomes improved between 2011 and 2014 within the two charts beneath (courtesy of the Soil Carbon Coalition):

And at last, he additionally reiterated simply how rather more time he has on his fingers these days since switching to rotational grazing. Fairly spectacular, contemplating that his 800-1000 head ranch is a one-man operation!

Holistic Administration Worldwide has posted a wonderful case examine of Neil’s farm on their web site: Case Studies: Sunnybrae Farms.

And he has additionally been featured on the Sensible Farmers of Iowa web site: Trip to Sunnybrae Farm – Mob Grazing.

Neil has an internet site coming quickly by which he desires to share extra of his farming strategies (I will let you recognize as quickly because it goes reside).

Extra About Allen Williams

Allen Williams is the President of Livestock Administration Consultants LLC. You may be taught extra about Allen Williams on this extremely advisable Youtube interview that includes Allen together with Peter Byck, the producer of the Soil Carbon Cowboys video on Vimeo. Within the video interview Allen shares each his top-down industry-wide perspective of how the grass-fed beef {industry} is evolving in addition to a lot of his personal private experiences from his personal cattle ranch.

Extra About Gabe Brown

You may be taught extra about Gabe Brown’s ranch, which he additionally manages utilizing holistic administration practices, right here on his farm’s website.

Would you prefer to see your cattle ranch featured on this web site?

Do you’ve got a narrative to share about your pasture-based cattle farming experiences? I would love to listen to the way you handle your cattle ranch! Use the shape on my contact page to get in contact.