My grandfather used to say, “Cattle do better on a mixture of grass.”
He may not have known it, but he was talking about biodiversity, which goes beyond a “mixture of grass” and includes the deep, intrinsic connections between the way we ranch and the health of fish, mammals, birds, predators, and millions of species in the soil.
I began putting ideas of biodiversity into practice on my ranch in the foothills of Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. Admittedly, it was difficult to shift perspective. I needed to turn loose how I was “supposed to be” ranching and watch the land change in new ways.
When we increased beaver, the creatures long seen as nuisances, then willows, shrubs and moose populations responded positively. Bird populations increased by 50 percent, and the total number of species jumped 70 percent.
I saw other benefits when rethinking weed management.
By killing a weed, plant succession moves backwards to bare ground, which requires re-populating the area with annuals and weeds until the soil and plant complexity can support perennial plants. But I don’t have to remove the weeds. With proper time along with sequencing animal impact and grazing, the succession process will move naturally toward a perennial grass plant community.
For example, Canada thistle cannot stand hot season grazing. Planning the timing of cattle grazing riparian areas during the hot season every three to five years keeps Canada thistle in check.
Managing grasslands with these connections in mind is called Holistic Grazing Planning. The idea is to graze with respect to how our grasslands evolved.
Natural grassland ecology involves an intense period of grazing, dunging, urinating, and hoof impact followed by a long period of rest.
When I first started running larger herds and moving cattle more frequently, I was concerned about increased labor cost. It seemed counter-intuitive to increase herd density. But I learned that when we concentrate cattle, we concentrate labor, which makes the labor force more efficient.
