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cattle grazing

A collection of 25 posts

Working cattle on visibly covered ground

Livestock & Grazing

Can Better Grazing Improve Land? Ask What Changed on the Ground

Grazing is neither automatically destructive nor automatically regenerative. Results depend on timing, intensity, recovery—and what the land actually does.

New World Screwworm May Be in South Texas

New World Screwworm

New World Screwworm May Be in South Texas

AG Commissioner Sid Miller discusses the USDA's discovery that that the New World Screwworm may be in South Texas.

Research Shared On Cow Size Relative To Carcass Weight

Research Shared On Cow Size Relative To Carcass Weight

Increasing cow size has essentially no benefits to the cow-calf producer

Idaho Cattle Ranchers Seek Ways to Restore Western Land. But the Answer Isn’t Simple

Regenerative Ranching

Idaho Cattle Ranchers Seek Ways to Restore Western Land. But the Answer Isn’t Simple

Despite the benefits of rotational grazing, it’s still a limited practice, with less than half of cattle operations using it, according to a study published by the USDA

Vast Swaths of BLM Rangelands Don’t Meet Health Standards, Millions of Acres Remain Unassessed

Bureau of Land Management

Vast Swaths of BLM Rangelands Don’t Meet Health Standards, Millions of Acres Remain Unassessed

Declining rangeland health is almost always blamed on too many cattle.

Colorado Deploys New Wildfire-Prevention Tool: Cows

Colorado Deploys New Wildfire-Prevention Tool: Cows

Colorado, though, as it happens, already has something that can help prevent fires, at least on the open grasslands, and that something may come as an udder surprise to some:

Grazing Forested Rangelands

Grazing Forested Rangelands

Livestock producers use forest grazing to increase pasture acres, temporarily or permanently, while providing protection for livestock from the elements.

Cattle and the Environment: Leading the Way in Conservation

Cattle and the Environment: Leading the Way in Conservation

“As discussed below, properly grazed cattle can produce human food from land unsuitable for crops, regenerate land, reduce wildfire hazard, and help wildlife. NOTE: this article was originally published to BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com on April 12, 2023. It was written by Karen Weintraub. It is often an untold story, but ranching

The Function of Time in Environmental Recovery

The Function of Time in Environmental Recovery

Understanding the grass and grazer relationship NOTE: this article was originally published to ACHMonline.org A deep dive into a Holistic Management key insight Understanding how TIME affects overgrazing (environmental damage), rather than animal numbers is one of the Four Key Insights that Allan Savory describes in Holistic Management, A

How Cattle Ranchers Can Combat Climate Change

How Cattle Ranchers Can Combat Climate Change

“Planned grazing’s benefits to people, habitat and wildlife are the subject of the article below. NOTE: this commentary was originally published to Expressnews.com on December 1, 2021. It was written by Meredith Ellis and Suzanne Scott. Texas relies on the multibillion-dollar cattle industry for economic success and

Grass-fed: a Label Ingrained with Misleading Claims

“According to the article below, “The term grass-fed has become just another marketing strategy co-opted by large-scale meat-packers to trick consumers into buying grain-finished meat…” a scheme in which the regulatory agencies are complicit. NOTE: this post was originally published to TThe Regeneration’s newsletter

Grazing Naturally, by Dick Richardson, with Remarks by Allan Savory

Grazing Naturally, by Dick Richardson, with Remarks by Allan Savory

“Holistic Management International (HMI) published the article below by Dick Richardson, describing a better grazing system. I asked Allan Savory, HMI’s founder, what he thought of it. Dick Richardson’s article, and Allan Savory’s response, appear below. NOTE: this paper was originally published to HolisticManagement.org. It was

Stocking Rates vs. Grazing Days, Recovery Rates and Necessary Impact

Stocking Rates vs. Grazing Days, Recovery Rates and Necessary Impact

Below is an excellent piece by our friend “Cowboy Bob” Kinford. For several years, he helped us manage cattle herds on the high deserts of far-West Texas. Paraphrasing Bob: Many holistic/regenerative grazers think that ultra-high densities, by definition, mimic wild herds. These grazers oversimplify by ignoring, forgetting

"Invasion Biology"

Uprooting FDR’s ‘Great Wall of Trees’

This article highlights the environmental mentality of the modern farming methods taught in our universities. As described below, farmers are destroying the Northern Great Plains shelter belts which the WPA planted – for their benefit and at great cost – during the Great Depression. Quoting the authors: “FDR, long fascinated by forestry,

new_forest_england_cattle

Animal Development

If We All Stopped Eating Beef, What Would Happen to the Land?

The indictment of cattle as environmental polluters is correct with respect to factory meat farms, but completely mistaken as to cattle raised the old fashioned way – on grasslands, grazing as in nature. NOTE: This article initially was published to Popular Science (PopSci.com) on October 31, 2017 Does #NoRedOctober make

How and Why Holistic Planned Grazing Can Restore Habitat and Ranch Income

"Invasion Biology"

How and Why Holistic Planned Grazing Can Restore Habitat and Ranch Income

This paper, authored by Texas A&M range scientist Richard Teague and colleague Matt Barnes, discusses what has worked best for planned graziers across the world, and why conventional range studies have been unable to analyze their results. The paper was published in the African Journal of Range &

us_land_practices

Emerging Land Use Practices Rapidly Increase Soil Organic Matter

“Emerging land uses, such as management-intensive grazing, may offer a rare win–win strategy combining profitable food production with rapid improvement of soil quality and short-term climate mitigation through soil carbon accumulation (sequestration)” NOTE: This study was originally posted to Nature Communications / Nature.com Abstract The loss of

free_range_cattle

"Invasion Biology"

Holistic Planned Grazing on Rangelands: Why the Gap Between Researcher Beliefs and Rancher Experience?

In this paper published in the Journal of Environmental Management, Texas A&M range scientists and their colleagues discuss why—70 years after the development of holistic planned grazing, and notwithstanding the positive experience reported by so many producers who use it—academicians and researchers remain closed to its

deer_west_texas

"Invasion Biology"

Planned Grazing and Deer

“Properly grazed cattle can improve deer health. Cattle herds can replace the big nomadic grazers with which animals and plants evolved. Plants and animals are symbiotic: Plants need animals as much as animals need plants. What helps plants helps all animals. Biodiversity of plants and animals is good. Multiple species

circle_ranch_west_texas_cattle_feature

Killing Cattle a Felony Under Texas Livestock Bill Awaiting Abbott’s Signature

A very good law to defend stray livestock, including bison. NOTE: This post initially appeared on SAExpressNews.com on June 2, 2017 Careless hunters or trigger-happy gunslingers who kill Texas livestock …would no longer get a slap on the wrist under legislation awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature that

Creating A Flerd on the Circle Ranch

Creating A Flerd on the Circle Ranch

“Cowboy Bob” Kinford is working with us to combine all of our domestic longhorn, alpaca, llamas, horses and burros into a mixed flock/herd “flerd” as is done elsewhere around the world. These animals will then be run as a group according to a grazing plan. Bob, a master of