Award winning environmental author, Richard Manning says we can reduce water pollution, increase soil-water percolation, decrease flooding, decrease soil erosion and sequester millions of tons of carbon each year by switching from a corn-based animal protein finishing system to one that lets animals harvest their own food from a perennial pasture. And to top it off, we can do all of that and make more money to boot.

In a recent article published in Mother Earth News magazine, Manning makes the claim that farmers and ranchers can produce the same amounts of animal protein using perennial pasture as they currently do using the industrialized feedlot finishing model, if a proportion of corn acres are restored to some semblance of native grassland. We can save the environment and produce much healthier meat at the same time.

I have been a proponent of meat production models that take advantage of the animals’ natural abilities for decades, so grass finished meat is a no-brainer to me. Animals raised and finished on pasture live a much better and healthier life, aren’t prone to becoming obese, and are more able to fulfill their genetic destiny. Healthy and happy animals produce healthy meat. I don’t care what any industry pundit says … fresh grass-finished beef is better for you than box-store meat that’s been injected with “flavor enhancers.”

As a child and student of the prairie, I am also thrilled that Manning makes the point that perennial grasslands, in conjunction with large herds of grazing animals, are precisely what built the fertile, farmable soils that we grow most of our corn and soybeans on in the first place. Plowing a prairie or pasture releases incomprehensible amounts of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere … and over time, the once fertile soil is depleted to the extent that it is little more than a medium for planting seed that will be nurtured with artificial fertilizers. It’s time to pay attention to how prairie soils were made and to use that knowledge to pull carbon back out of the atmosphere.

It’s not only about carbon and the air, however. It’s also about clean water and flooding Many folks don’t realize that water runoff percentages from tilled fields are surprisingly close to those from paved parking lots. If water was air, then perennial grasslands would be the lungs that pull that air back into the earth. Soils high in organic matter (exactly the kinds of soils that develop beneath perennial pastureland and prairie) have excellent water filtering abilities and sponge-like water storage capacities. You only have to look at a lush green stand of Kansas Big Bluestem in August to know that there is plenty of water down there … even though it hasn’t rained for a month.

I don’t suggest that all farmland should be converted back to perennial grasslands, but I am pleased that Manning challenges conventional agriculture and conventional environmentalism to rethink the role that animals might play in creating a healthier and safer food supply and a healthier and more sustainable environment. There is no magic bullet for these global problems. No single lifestyle change, no single food production model, no amount of legislation will fix the messes we have made. I believe that integrated solutions achieved with balanced thought will keep us keeping on ... not anti-intellectual zealotism, no matter how empassioned.

Manning’s analysis points to the importance of open-mindedness to the process. So let’s remove the single-issue blinders and face the true complexity of our environmental and food issues. I know we can do it.

It seems like a no-brainer and revolutionary grassfarmer Joel Salatin has been saying it for decades … it’s official now though, diversity in the pasture matrix is good for grazing animals.

According to a fantastic article in the current issue of Rangelands, which is published by the Society for Range Management, as higher costs and environmental concerns about fossil fuels push more people to buy locally produced food, demand for livestock raised on pastures and rangelands—rather than in feed lots—is spurring a return to greater reliance on native rangelands and cultivated pastures.

“By focusing on a few species, people transformed the diverse world of plants into a manageable domain that generally meets energy and protein needs and limits  intake of toxins,” writes Frederick D. Provenza and his coauthors in the article, “Value of Plant Diversity for Diet Mixing and Sequencing in Herbivores.”

But this practice limits genetic plant diversity and health benefits to livestock from combinations of available plants nutrients, while threatening ecosystems reliant on biodiversity to avoid catastrophe. The researchers suggest a new alternative for livestock grazing that calls for having animals eat a variety of complementary plants. They suggest that these varied plants would provide a range of primary and secondary nutritional compounds, along with greater health and nutritional benefits. No surprise there, but good for the SRM researchers for taking a stand.

The article, “Value of Plant Diversity for Diet Mixing and Sequencing in Herbivores,” is available in its entirety, here.

Years ago, instead of making hay to carry our Angus herd through the winter, we stockpiled pasture and fed the standing hay through the dark months. This year, we decided to try the same experiment with the Highland cattle here in Kansas. The winters are milder here in Kansas than in Ohio, where we winter grazed the Angus cattle. And since the farm has way more grass than animals to eat it, I figured winter grazing the Highland cattle would work. In fact, it appears to be working quite well, so far, in spite of the snow and ice that has accumulated off and on in the last several weeks.

This morning it is already in the 50s, so it hardly feels like winter, but suffice it to say, there is plenty of good standing cool season forage (with about 25 percent green) in the lows, and more shaded areas. The warm season patches are completely dormant, and not good for much more than roughage, but the combination has been more than sufficient to keep the Highland's condition scores up and the young heifers and bull gaining and growing.

Winter grazing isn't for everyone, but I believe in letting cattle and other highly adapted domestic animals have a chance at fulfilling their genetic potentials ... I don't mind subdividing and carefully managing pastures year-round either. People are most skeptical about winter grazing because of the chance for snow cover. I have discovered that seeding some of the stockpiled pastures with small square or little Allis-Chalmers-made round bales is all you need to train the herd to look under the snow for sustenance. Alternatively, you can sprinkle some of their favorite range cubes (in front of them) in the snow on some of the tallest stockpile. In both cases, the cattle will inadvertently discover the good grass while rooting out their "treats." Once trained, the herd doesn't bat an eyelash when you ask them to get after the good grass under the snow.

Days like today make winter grazing a complete no brainer. Why on earth would I carry hay to them, when they can harvest the hay themselves? Winter grazing of some sort has the added benefit of spreading excess nutrients around. Instead of finding tons of manure around hay feeders, the Highland cattle deposit it wherever they happen to be ... the way nature intended it. When I have fed hay, I fed it to the cattle on the meadows it came from, in windrows and not in bale feeders. But that's a story for another day.

November 25^th and there’s still at least two months of good pasture left … assuming continuous hard freezes or deep snow don’t shut it down. We put up about a quarter mile of temporary electric cross fence last weekend to give the cattle and donkeys a fresh break.

The east and west boundary fences on this farm are pretty well shot. The old barbed wire hasn’t had any but the most rudimentary maintenance for what appears to be the last decade. The north and south boundary fences, on the other hand, are in good shape. So far, we have reinforced the western boundary with a couple of strands of 14-gauge low-tensile electric wire that pulses around 8,000 volts with the makeshift grounding system we cobbled together. I just wrapped the ground lead from the charger around an old copper water pipe that goes somewhere beneath the barn … this is far from the right way. That fencer will likely send closer to 10,000 volts through the wire once I get a proper ground field put together.

At the moment, the cattle are far enough from the eastern boundary that we use a single strand of 14-guage wire stretched between the north boundary fence and one of the permanent cross fences, which is still in fair condition. We charge that single wire with a Premier IntelliShock 20B battery-powered charger. This little box sends a consistent 9,000 pulsed volts through the wire … which is plenty to keep the animals from testing it.

Those who believe that cattle don’t experience joy have never opened up a fresh break of grass to the herd. This is one of the special treats for those of us who choose to manage how the animals graze the pastures. The animals know when it is coming, they appear to anticipate it, and they burst through the gate, literally kicking up their heels, as they take mouthfuls of lush growth from all corners. Eventually they get down to business, put their heads down and don’t come up for air for more than an hour. There is nothing like the sight and sounds of contented cattle doing what they were designed to do … harvest grass.

Photos courtesy of Kate Will.