On the 40,000 acres of public land that Gayel Alexander grazes each year with her 200-head of beef cattle, there are a lot of unknowns.
The terrain is extreme –rugged and rocky – and the weather between far-stretching altitudes can vary wildly.
But, over the past two years, Alexander has tackled one big unknown – her grazing patterns.
“I have range cows, not pasture cows,” she says. “They are very agile, very smart and they are used to doing what they want to do to survive on their own.”
In the past, that meant that Alexander was turning her herd out in a rangeland “free-for-all” and then spending time and money herding them from public lease land boundaries and shooing them from neighbors’ cropland and hay barns.
Now, with the help of virtual fencing that she received through Farm Journal’s Trust In Food Connected Ag Project, Alexander is not only managing her cattle and their grazing, she is optimizing the data she collects, and turning it into market opportunities for her ranch.
Connecting Innovation to Legacy
In 1936 and 1942, through the Taylor Grazing Act, Alexander’s grandfather was able to secure two land leases.
“Even though he only had an eighth-grade education, my grandfather was a very smart man,” she said.
Now, these separate leases, managed first by her grandfather, then later by her mother and now by Alexander, combined with adjoining private property, make up the Ja Quidi Ranch.
“When I look at where my grandfather came from --the Dust Bowl and all that,” she says. “He was the one that built it and was smart enough to start doing things in the 20’s and the 30’s and the 40’s that were not common for ranchers,” she says.
“So then when I came into it, I wanted to take what my grandfather did and what he built and then take it into the next century with new technologies that were coming out.”
Connecting Innovation to Stewardship
Through the use of virtual fencing, Alexander is now able to track her cattle, learn their grazing patterns and move them easily and humanely. Virtually managing her cattle has opened up new opportunities for the environment and her farm economics.
“I normally had four allotments, but when we wrote my summer plan with the virtual fence, we tripled it to 12 allotments,” she says.
“Now I can do a lot more intensive rotational grazing which will increase forage and help bring back grasses that have been dormant for years because they haven’t had hoof and cow activity,” Alexander continues.
Range management practices will be beneficial for wildlife and allow Alexander to increase riparian areas that will revive springs and ponds for healthier habitats. Which, in turn, create improved pastures for her cattle.
“Some of this land just isn’t healthy anymore, and this will help it come back alive,” she added.
Connecting Innovation to Opportunity
Alexander doesn’t sell her cattle directly to consumers, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t aware of the downstream chain that they enter when they leave Ja Quidi Ranch.
“The way I look at it is, marketing of my cattle is a very, very important part of my business because that’s what keeps me going,” she says.
Courtesy of her participation in the Connected Ag Project, Alexander now has data rolling in about her cattle’s feeding and grazing that is proving to be a critical tool in her marketing conversations.
“In this day and age, people want to know where their food is coming from,” she says. “It’s important for people to know where our animals come from, how they are treated, what kind of vaccines they get.”
“When you market your animal, you need to be able to tell people what you’ve done with them, what you’ve done for them, how they have grown up and where they’ve grown up.”
The power of her herd’s growth and feeding data, combined with the environmental stewardship that her grazing planning is enabling, is unlocking opportunity for Alexander.
“People like that they can see the land, so they feel comfortable when they are buying animals from me, they know how I care and how they are taken care of,” she says.
Connecting Farm Data to Opportunity
In the same way that Alexander’s herd data is providing key information to enhance her marketability, other farmers and ranchers across the U.S. are using their precision data to monetize premiums.
“Diligent measurement of data like variable rate technology and high-resolution soil mapping allow farmers to track nutrient application and soil health over the growing season,” says Andrew Lyon, director of technical assistance at Farm Journal. “This information not only allows farmers to steward their land and resources better, which saves time and money, but it creates an opportunity for them to work with customers to get value from that information. Examples include premiums, accessible via carbon or sustainable sourcing contracts.”
“Those types of market opportunities are simply unavailable to farmers who do not keep those kinds of digital records.”
The Connected Ag Project can connect farmers in any sector to these market opportunities by providing financial and technical assistance to implement practices and gather digital data. Learn more about how it can connect your conservation and data to opportunity by visiting www.trustinfood.com/grow.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number NR233A750004G096
