Conservation

Spring Success: How Strategic Pasture Planning Boosts Annual Productivity

Mon, 04 May 2026 15:31:03 GMT

Springtime on-ranch can be a make-or-break time for the entire growing season, especially when pastures come out of dormancy and animals emerge from their low winter energy levels. This is especially true for regenerative ranches.

Putting your herd out on dormant pastures or pastures with depleted resources can negatively impact both herd health — leading to decreased body condition and overall health — and pasture health. Both of these eventualities can cause stress that lingers throughout the entire growing season.

We tapped the expertise of Travis Jones, regenerative ranching adviser for Noble Research Institute , for the top tactics his team recommends to start your high-impact grazing season off in a way that helps you finish with strong productivity, animal health and profitability.

Master the Art of Spring Monitoring

For Jones, this is the time for graziers to open their eyes.

“Spring is usually the time when grazing land producers start to monitor perennial forage growth and forage vitality coming out of dormancy,” he says.

That means it is the perfect time to evaluate past management decisions and determine what has benefited a ranch’s overall goals and objectives and what has caused challenges.

A good monitoring plan is a safe place to start, Jones says. Each spring, he encourages ranchers to get out in pastures to get eyes on the following:

Grazing enclosures
Watering systems
Photo points
Soil health systems
Grazing patterns and rotational grazing systems

In the spring, graziers should spend time diligently monitoring and tracking their grazing infrastructure and forage. Accurate data can help ranchers make better operational decisions in the following year.

(Noble Research Institute)

But monitoring shouldn’t be limited to infrastructure; observing and tracking forage is also critical.

Jones recommends keeping diligent data around the following forage observations:

Plant health and vigor
Winter precipitation
Plant species
Plant growth phase

“These are all factors that help producers stay adaptive in their management,” he says. “Current data is a must for making good grazing decisions.”

From Data Points to Pasture Profits

If the data collected during spring monitoring doesn’t give you hope for the growing season, Jones says that forage additions can be a way to course-correct for the future.

“Overall, ranch productivity can increase with a bump in forage production and quality,” he says. “Often, producers can sustain livestock production with forage additions rather than feeding hay.”

While every ranch’s unique ecosystem drives which forage additions are needed, Jones says that vibrant native systems should have multiple species of plants representing all forage groups, including:

Woody
Legume
Warm-season annual grasses
Cool-season perennial grasses

Depending on a ranch’s goals and context, interseeding a primary warm-season perennial pasture with a legume or cool-season grass can not only boost forage quality for an introduced system but also extend grazing from fall into early spring, giving a marketable advantage over others.

“For animal health, having high-quality forage after the winter months when animal energy consumption may be higher can help increase body condition and overall health,” Jones says. “Often, this early spring growth is good for building condition in bred livestock expected to give birth during the spring months.

“The more options you have regarding forage quality and availability, the more you can take advantage of opportunities in market and seasonal weather dynamics,” he adds.

High plant biodiversity contributes to overall soil health, which can enhance the resilience of pastures, giving them the power to withstand drought conditions.

Step-by-Step Tactics for Forage Enhancement

For forage additions to work in the spring, Jones says that fall planning is critical. Following these steps can help you choose the correct spring forage addition for your ecosystem, environment and ranch goals.

Test the soil — Using a traditional soil test can ensure that you have the correct soil chemistry to make your forage additions work. “Seed germination can be highly dependent on soil pH; if your pH isn’t right, you might not get the forage intended,” Jones says.
Choose a trusted seed mix — Knowing the makeup of your soil can help you choose a seed mix that works for your soil type and management style.
Start small — Investing in forage additions on your most at-risk pastures is a good way to start a forage enhancement program in a way that is cost-effective and will have maximum impact on your overall grazing plan. Additionally, at-risk pastures can often benefit from investments in soil health that forage enhancements provide.

Whatever spring changes you make to your pastures must be part of your holistic management strategy, Jones says.

“New ideas and plans should be documented and discussed for how they will impact overall ranch goals and mission,” he explains. “The beauty in capturing this data is that it establishes a baseline for future decisions.

“In our education courses, we advise ranchers to prioritize capturing data that will help make future management decisions,” he adds.

Noble Research Institute provides education resources and courses that can help regenerative ranchers capture productivity, profitability and stewardship on ranches throughout the U.S.

Your Next Read: 4 Ways to Boost Profitability Through Soil Health

Primetime to Reform the Conservation Reserve Program

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:26:06 GMT

Droughts, border closures , New World screwworm (NWS) , Argentina beef imports, wildfires, packing plant slowdowns and a 75-year-low in the U.S. cattle inventory — those aren’t just headlines, they are the realities cattle producers are working through every day. They have added volatility to the markets, but they have also created something else. Opportunity.

From my perspective as a feedlot operator in northwest Iowa, that opportunity is sitting right in front of us. When cattle numbers get this tight, everyone feels it. Feedlots are not running at capacity. Packers adjust. Rural communities feel it too. The market is sending a clear signal. We need more cattle.

Iowa is in a strong position to respond. We have the feed, the infrastructure and the people to not only finish cattle, but to help rebuild the cow herd. The piece we continue to run up against is access to land.

That is where the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) needs a harder look.

CRP was designed with good intentions, and it has delivered real conservation benefits. But today, it is also functioning as direct competition for land. When government-backed payments are strong enough to take acres completely out of production, it shifts the market. It drives up rental rates and limits access for farmers and ranchers who are trying to actively use that land.

At the same time, program requirements have created unintended consequences. In many cases, land has needed a recent row-crop history to qualify for enrollment. That has led to pasture being broken out and fences coming out, not because it made sense for the land long-term, but because it made sense to fit within a program. Once that infrastructure is gone, it is not easily replaced.

On the other side, Iowa producers are often shut out of opportunities like Grasslands CRP. Because our land is so productive and has a strong cropping history, we do not always meet the eligibility requirements that favor existing grass-based systems. So we end up in a situation where working pasture is reduced, and at the same time, we are limited in accessing programs that could actually support grazing.

That is a disconnect.

We are taking land out of livestock production, discouraging long-term pasture investment, and making it harder to rebuild the cow herd. All of this is happening at a time when cattle numbers are historically low, and demand signals are strong.

There is a better way to approach it.

Managed grazing within CRP offers a solution that keeps conservation goals intact while putting land back to work. Grazing, when done right, improves soil structure, supports plant diversity and maintains ground cover. It keeps the land functioning as it was intended, while also contributing to the food supply.

More importantly, it creates access. It gives producers, especially younger ones, a way to get started without competing against a system that is designed to sideline the land entirely.
For those of us in the feeding sector, rebuilding the cow herd starts with grass. Without it, there is no pathway to expand. Without it, we continue to tighten supply and limit the future of the industry.

The current situation should push us to think differently. Conservation and cattle production are not opposing goals. In many cases, they are strongest when they work together.

Reforming CRP to allow for responsible, managed grazing and to remove some of the barriers that have worked against pasture and livestock production is a practical step forward. It keeps conservation benefits in place while recognizing the need for active land use.

If we are serious about rebuilding the cow herd, supporting rural economies, and creating opportunities for the next generation, we have to address how land is being used.

This is one of those moments where policy and opportunity line up. We should not let it pass us by.

— Craig Moss from Hull, Iowa, is currently serving as the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association (ICA) president

How This Oregon Ranch is Using Their Cattle as Firefighters

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 16:30:59 GMT

Ranching in the Pacific Northwest means you get comfortable with extremes.

High elevations, severe winters, large allotments and mountainous, rocky surfaces intermixed with timber forests – all of it adds up to an ecosystem that can put up a fight to infrastructure-building for effective grazing management.

And that’s before you add in the wildfires.

In 2024, 1.9 million acres burned in the state of Oregon alone – the state where Dean Defrees manages his generational ranch.

Each fire season, Defrees watches the wildfires around him inch closer and closer, remembering the one year where they destroyed nearly everything.

“In the ‘80s, we were logging our timberland — about 1,100 acres,” he recalls. “In 1986, the part we had not harvested yet was burned in a forest fire and it wiped us out timber-wise. That really got us interested in fireproofing the rest of the property a bit more.”

Firefighting Cattle

Defrees put his cattle to work, factoring in his 1,500-acre timberland forest allotments into his whole-ranch rotational grazing plan.

Now he works to ensure that brush, which can act as kindling in a wildfire, is managed.

“I graze the timberland in June and have it pretty well grazed down by July, which gets rid of a lot of the fine material on the ground where the fire won’t spread nearly as bad if it comes,” he says. “In fires, you see a big difference in ground that has been grazed compared to ground that hasn’t been grazed.

“Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t stop it. But it certainly does help to get as much fuel off the ground as you can early in the season.”

Along with pastureland, Defrees Ranch uses their timberland as additional grazing land for their 300 heifer cattle and 300 yearlings. Predominately Angus, black Angus and Hereford breeds, the cattle help to keep brush down, decreasing the risk of wildfire damage to the ranch.

(Defrees Ranch)

Without a sawmill left in the region to market his timber, Defrees is using financial and technical incentives from USDA-NRCS to further manage his forests, keeping them suitable for grazing and manageable for fire prevention.

“With EQIP , I’m going through and removing pretty much everything under 9" in diameter, which allows the bigger trees to keep growing, but it also opens up the understory for grazing and makes it much more fire resistant,” he says.

The federally funded program is largely offsetting the costs for the work.

“I probably wouldn’t be able to do it without their help, at least to the scale I’m doing it. I’m not making any money off of it, but I am paying my expenses,” he explains.

Restoration Cattle

Defrees knows he won’t be able to keep the fires at bay forever from his 100-plus year family land. He’s seen his neighbors lose their land, their cattle and their livelihoods because of them. In 2024, the Durkee Fire nipped at his heels and became the largest active blaze in the country, devastating more than 268,500 acres of land in its path.

His daughter, Dallas Hall Defrees, now works with a non-profit organization, Sustainable Northwest , to help ranchers prepare for and battle back after these devastating wildfires.

She says the key to the ecosystem restoration needed in the wake of a fire is deploying cattle with effective grazing management practices.

“This is invasive annual grass country, so that’s one of our biggest threats out here, especially after these ranchland fires,” Hall Defrees says. “Studies have shown that through targeted grazing you can actually reduce the prevalence of those grasses. If you target those and then get off of that area when the perennial grasses are coming in and recovering, it can be really beneficial.”

But, letting cattle graze in areas burned by fires is tricky. In most instances, the fire has not only decimated the grassland, but it has stripped the allotment of reliable infrastructure as well. When wildfires spread, it can take with it miles of hardwire fencing, making grazing difficult.

Organizations like Sustainable Northwest are touting virtual fencing as a tool that ranchers in wildfire-prone areas can use to remove the need for fencing infrastructure and build back grasslands in the wake of disasters.

(Vence)

That’s where virtual fencing has become a game-changer, according to Hall Defrees.

“What you don’t want after a fire is for cattle to come into a heavily burned area or a stream or riparian area that needs a little bit more recovery,” she says. “Before, with hard wire fencing, you’re either on the allotment or you’re off of it. You can’t really cut the allotment into a whole bunch of different pieces. But now with virtual fencing, we can hit those areas that would actually benefit from the targeted grazing and exclude those areas that might need a little bit more rest.”

Vence , a virtual fence management system from Merck Animal Health , has seen their technology play an integral role for many ranchers both during and in the aftermath of disasters.

“We’ve had ranchers use Vence to protect their herds from hurricanes to wildfires to blizzards,” says Allison Burenheide, Vence marketing lead. “One of our Florida ranchers was able to move cows inland and away from highways as they saw a hurricane approaching, and we had a rancher in Washington last year experience a devastating wildfire, and we were able find all their cattle with the Vence GPS collars and move them down to where they could gather them and move them to safety. Without Vence, they would’ve had to ride through the fire to find cows, drop a fence and hope for the best.”

Sustainable Northwest is working with ranchers to remove cost barriers to virtual fencing technology and enhance technological awareness of the innovation’s benefits. She believes that, though fires may forge the need, many ranchers are reaping the full reward of adoption and then sharing it with their peers.

“There’s a snowball effect that’s certainly there,” she says.

A Marketable Advantage

At Defrees Ranch, the intensive land management is about more than just fire protection – it’s a holistic stewardship mindset that amounts to a marketable advantage for its cattle.

Defrees became part of the Country Natural Beef Cooperative early in its growth trajectory and has never regretted the decision.

“Through the cooperative, the tenants arose that we want to differentiate ourselves as good stewards who take care of the land, who take care of families, who take care of community, and take care of our cattle,” Defrees says. “The great thing about the group was everybody was so excited about those. The exciting thing is now we’re into the regenerative program, which really gives us a lot of tools to measure what we’re doing and make sure we’re doing the right things while giving us some latitude to experiment.”

The land that makes up Defrees Ranch in Oregon has been in the family for 100+ years. Dean Defrees is the fourth generation on the land and his sons and daughter are now part of the overall management of the ranch.

(Maddie Jo Neuschwander/Defrees Ranch )

At Country Natural Beef, their Grazewell program leans on regenerative ranching practices to help ranchers be better stewards of their people, land and animals.

“Good grazing practices and land stewardship are not just about managing cattle. They are about enhancing the health of the ecosystem itself,” says DelRae Ferguson, ranch program manager, Country Natural Beef. “This proactive approach sets our ranchers up to successfully navigate the certain challenges that are now the norm in the arid West — namely drought and wildfire— and our commitment to superior land stewardship moves all cooperative members beyond simply being reactive to environmental threats and establishes ecological and economic resiliency.”

Country Natural Beef uses the program to gain marketable advantage through their branded beef products.

“Increasingly, people are viewing their purchases, whether food, clothing or vehicles, not as status symbols but instead as a reflection of their core values,” says Valerie Rasmussen, Country Natural Beef vice president of marketing and communications. “For us, that movement started 40 years ago when we began our co-op and started selling all natural, no antibiotics/no added hormones and animal-welfare certified beef. Beef raised in a regenerative system is the next frontier for us as a beef company. We have plans to make regeneratively raised beef available to our shoppers so that consumers can be part of a food system that works to improve the planet we all share.”

Trust In Beef™ works to secure the future of American ranching by providing the information ranchers need to make the decisions that impact the resiliency, profitability and resource management of their working lands. Learn more about Trust In Beef and their Sustainable Ranchers Tour by visiting www.trustinbeef.com

Your Next Read:

Ranchers Make Tough Decisions to Weather Intense Southwest Drought

Beyond the Fence: 5 Keys to Successful Winter Adaptive Grazing

Beyond Barbed Wire: A Look At Virtual Fencing

Natural Resources Conservation Service Lays Out ‘Farmer First’ Vision

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:14:59 GMT

“I started as a customer of NRCS first,” says Aubrey Bettencourt, chief of the USDA agency that helps farmers and ranchers manage natural resources on private lands. As a third-generation California farmer, Bettencourt is leading the effort to make the Natural Resources Conservation Service work more efficiently and effectively for farmers.

Outlining four efforts, Bettencourt and NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey laid out their “farmer first” approach at the 2025 Trust in Food Symposium in Washington, D.C.:

Upgrade technology.
Revive hands-on service through field offices.
Improve data management and use.
Simplify programs.

Tech Overhaul to Reduce Burdens

Consolidating five internal systems into a single mobile-based platform will allow NRCS staff and farmers to access farm data while sitting on the pickup tailgate in real time, say agency officials. The initiative, referred to as “One Farmer, One File,” is intended to reduce duplicative paperwork and streamline conservation plan development.

According to Aspey, the new system will allow farmers to enter information only once, with NRCS and partner agencies, such as Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency, handling verification behind the scenes. He also notes the agency is experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) to help generate and certify conservation plans with basic farm data, which will get projects off the ground faster. [1] [2] Farmers will play a key role in providing a “reality check” in ensuring AI models accurately reflect real-world conditions, Aspey adds.

Improving rural broadband access [3] [4] [5] is essential to making the new system work, stress Bettencourt and Apsey. Without faster internet connections, agency service centers and farmers alike will continue to face what they call the “spinning wheel of death.”

Renewed Focus on Field-Based Service

NRCS was founded to provide one-on-one support and technical assistance, Bettencourt says, and changes are in the works to return to the agency’s field-based origins. While headquarter operations are being downsized, she says local service centers will remain open. The goal is to equip local offices with the tools and talent needed to meet farmers where they are.

The agency is reviewing staffing needs across its network of service centers, Aspey says, to identify and address regional gaps. Future hires will be fluent in the technologies used in modern production agriculture, such as drones, precision irrigation and autonomous equipment, Bettencourt adds.

Data Use and Farmer Trust

Knowing many farmers are wary of how their conservation data is used, Aspey says part of the agency’s modernization effort is to ensure data is not only protected but used in ways that benefit the farmer — such as helping them qualify for market premiums or regulatory recognition of conservation practices.

He also emphasizes the importance of streamlining recordkeeping across USDA, saying farmers should no longer have to submit the same information across multiple programs.

Partnerships and Program Tweaks

Bettencourt says NRCS wants to collaborate more with food companies, cooperatives and local conservation groups through existing vehicles such as the Conservation Partnership Program and Regional Conservation Partnership Program. She describes NRCS’s role in these efforts as the federal “gold standard” for conservation practice validation.

Within NRCS, agency officials are eyeing reforms to make conservation programs more accessible and responsive. For example, Aspey emphasizes programs must be designed to scale not just for large operations, but small family farms that typically face higher per unit costs. To better adapt to dynamic market conditions, Aspey says his team is considering tools such as payment schedules tied to inflation.

He points to the length and complexity of the easement process as a key barrier, saying simplification is a top priority. Acknowledging farmers have been frustrated with delays in the Conservation Stewardship Program, Aspey stresses farmers should be paid promptly after completing their work.

When it comes to program timing, NRCS deadlines often fall during the busy planting season, for example. NRCS officials say they aim to better align program timelines to farmers’ off-season schedules when possible.

Another target of farmer scrutiny is NRCS program language. Terms such as “eligible” and “accepted” might be familiar to agency staff, Aspey notes, but they can confuse or deter farmers who aren’t used to federal program jargon. NRCS officials say they aim to reduce this jargon to make programs more accessible. According to Bettencourt, they are also working to improve understanding of NRCS programs with other federal agencies, such as EPA, and food company partners. Her goal is “to be the farmer in the room,” so farmers get credit for engaging in voluntary conservation.

What Farmers Might Expect

If plans move forward, officials hope farmers will see faster service, reduced paperwork and improved access to mobile tools that allow them to work with NRCS on their own schedules. Bettencourt emphasizes changes are already underway but should be implemented in 2026.

“This is not a pipe dream,” she says. “We’re already demoing the system.”

According to Aspey, farmers will play a central role in shaping how that change unfolds — through feedback, collaboration and by challenging the agency to better reflect the realities of farming in 2025.

“You all are what makes the engine of the American economy go,” he says.

New Partnership Supports Ranchers in Grazing Management and Soil Health

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:57:20 GMT

Trust In Beef empowers a more resilient future for America’s beef supply chain by leveraging the power of Farm Journal’s Trust In Food and Drovers brands with the ingenuity and innovation of private-sector and non-profit partners.

Entering the program’s third year, Trust In Beef welcomes two new partners, National Grazing Lands Coalition and EarthOptics , to bolster the technical expertise provided by the coalition’s existing partners – which include ABS, Merck Animal Health, Ducks Unlimited, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Enogen/Syngenta, Tyson Foods, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, PowerFlex and Country Natural Beef.

“Trust In Beef is experiencing significant momentum in supporting a resilient future for our beef supply chain at a time when ranching is facing significant challenges,” says Andrew Lyon, director of technical assistance, Farm Journal. “Bringing partners like National Grazing Lands Coalition and EarthOptics to the table expands the technical expertise that we can use to meet ranchers where they are and provide tools to build resilience, productivity and legacy on the nation’s grazing lands.”

The mission of the National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) is dedicated to providing voluntarily ecologically and economically sound management of all grazing lands for their adaptive uses and multiple benefits to the environment and society through science-based technical assistance, research and education.

“At NatGLC, we believe resilient grazing lands are the foundation of a strong beef supply chain. While we have supported the mission of Trust In Beef since its formation, we are excited to formally partner and expand opportunities to provide ranchers with science-based technical support that enhances productivity, profitability and the overall benefits to society as a whole,” says Rob Cook, chairman. “Healthy grazing lands contribute to improved soil health, water quality and biodiversity, all while ensuring long-term viability for ranching families. We are excited to collaborate with Trust In Beef to bring practical, on-the-ground solutions to producers across the country.”

Through innovations in soil health analysis, EarthOptics tackles agriculture’s most elusive challenges: accurately measuring and mapping soil nutrients, soil compaction, biology and carbon with a solution that gives ranchers and farmers precise insights while reducing unnecessary input costs and promoting carbon retention for healthier soils. EarthOptics is committed to advancing sustainable ranching with a new level of data-driven insights from cutting-edge technology – at prices that deliver high, in-season ROIs.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Trust In Beef and join this impressive coalition of organizations working to secure a more resilient future for American ranchers,” says Lars Dyrud, EarthOptics CEO. “At EarthOptics, we believe advancing soil health through innovation can transform ranching and agriculture, and this partnership represents a powerful opportunity to bring our technology and insights directly to those who steward our grazing lands.”

“Ranchers are at the heart of sustainable grazing practices, and we’re proud to support their efforts with practical tools and data they can trust,” James Clement, EarthOptics vice president of grass and rangeland. “By helping producers better understand their soil health, we can work together to improve productivity, increase resilience and ensure the long-term viability of rangeland operations — so that today’s stewards can confidently pass their land on to the next generation.”

Trust In Beef provides technical resources, insights, data analysis and support to help empower beef producers to understand, value and implement conservation practices while also connecting consumers to the industry’s accomplishments in conservation.

To learn more about Trust In Beef and its partners, visit www.trustinbeef.com .

Against the Odds: How One LA County Rancher Controls the Uncontrollable

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:09:19 GMT

Ranchers deal with forces outside their control daily, including markets, weather and public policy. While these issues present challenges to cattle producers, focusing on what can be controlled gives them opportunities to remain viable in the industry.

Los Angeles County cattleman Mike Williams has found ways to use a grazing management plan, virtual fencing technology and involvement with his local and state cattle associations to meet the unique challenges of being a rancher in southern California.

“I think ranchers should always be looking for ways to improve their operations, improve their pastures and improve their genetics,” says Williams, who ranches with his wife, Lynda. “Don’t get into a comfort zone, but stay on top of what you can control.”

Williams grew up in a farming family in Idaho, and cowboyed before serving in the Army. After his time in the service, he moved to California and shod horses. The couple began Diamond W Cattle Company, a cow-calf and stocker operation, and leased land in both Ventura and Los Angeles counties to begin ranching in 2002.

Creating a flexible grazing management plan allows ranchers to adapt as needed.
Currently, the Williams’ cattle graze on 12,000 acres of leased private land in Acton near the Angeles National Forest. Even though it’s not a requirement of the lease, Williams has a written grazing plan. The high desert climate and average rainfall of 6" to 12" makes flexible resource management crucial.

“I use a grazing plan to better utilize the forage and improve the overall condition of the pastures,” says Williams, who makes decisions based on forage quantity and quality.

“The rain in this part of the country isn’t much and is highly variable in how much you get and when it comes,” he explains. “One year to the next, the amount of forage you have can vary significantly.”

Cattle graze in the meadows where Mike Williams has seen perennial grasses return since focusing on resource management. The view over the ridge is the San Fernando Valley.

(Mike Williams)

While the past few years have been better, the area experienced several droughts for about 10 years.

“You have to consider the times of year you can spend in certain parts of the pasture,” Williams explains. “There might be grass in some areas, but the water might not be adequate. In wintertime or at wetter times of the year, there is enough, but maybe not in the hottest part in the summer. I might move to another pasture sooner than I had originally planned in order to take advantage of the forage production while the temperatures are low enough there will be enough water to sustain the cows.”

The forage availability also plays a role in how Williams manages his cow herd.

“I wean my calves, and on good years I’ll keep my calves another year or at least through another season if I have the forage,” he says. “If I don’t have the forage, then I may sell the calves just after I wean them or I may keep just the heifers. Part of the drought management plan is whether or not my calves stay on the ranch or go someplace else.”

When Williams took over the lease, the land was degraded with fences, infrastructure and water resources being neglected. He began improving water sources and has two wells and three springs.

“This mountain is dry,” he says. “But the mountains are like a sponge. The water comes down out of the sky, and it just sinks into the ground, and then it comes out in springs over the years.”

Due to a lack of cross fencing and the expense of putting in fences on the nearly 12,000 acres of land, Williams began using virtual fencing collars on his cow herd two years ago.

(Mike Williams)

Incorporating technology can help save time and money.
Through the years Williams began incorporating new technology to help increase grazing capabilities, including photo monitoring, pasture management software and virtual fencing. He says he is seeing improvements, which he attributes both to grazing management and two good years of rainfall.

“I’m seeing an increase in my perennial grasses,” he says. “There’s a lot of variables, but I am seeing more resilient pastures. I’m able to see some of the spots that were degraded from the cattle spending way too much time there starting to rehabilitate. It’s a slow process, but I am definitely seeing improvements.”

Prior to starting to use virtual fencing two years ago, Williams had used a stockmanship technique to keep his cattle bunched up and herded together on horseback. This new system gives him better management.

“The problem was if you’re not there every day, or every two to three days, the cows would start getting spread out, and that’s a lot of work keeping them together again,” Williams explains.

The condition of pastures and forage availability helps Williams determine if he will keep calves and background or sell at weaning.

(Mike Williams)

The virtual fence has cut down on time and labor.

“I thought it would work as a backup; if my cows started to spread out, they wouldn’t go all over 12,000 acres, which has no cross fencing,” he adds. “I still use the herding when I really want to get impact in a certain area, but virtual fencing has been a game changer of giving me more control over land and cattle management.”

Williams also appreciates the data he receives from using technology.

“It gives me a snapshot of what my pasture is doing, and I can understand if what I’m doing is having a positive effect or a negative effect,” he says. “It takes a certain amount of time to really understand the impact your decisions are having, versus the impact of all the other variabilities you’re having, so it’s a process that takes time to kind of realize and understand.”

While grazing data is important to individual ranchers, Williams understands the importance of the science when it comes to reducing fuel loads and dry vegetation. Located about an hour northeast of the city, the LA fires in January 2025 didn’t affect Williams’ ranch, but he has been affected by previous wildfires in the state. A fire in 2017 pushed him off his lease in Ventura County, and since then he has focused on improving the soil conditions, grass and water infrastructure on the Ritter Ranch property where he runs an Angus-based cow herd.

“The worst of the fires were in areas that don’t have a lot of cattle,” Williams says. “The cattle were pushed out of those areas a long time ago, which I would attribute to be a major reason why the fires were so catastrophic.”

At one time, all those hills were grazed by cattle, Williams says.

“Fires are going to happen, but they don’t have to be as devastating as they are, and management decisions all over the state are largely responsible for the conditions we’re seeing today,” he says. “There’s no rancher I know in the state of California that hasn’t been affected at some point by fire.”

Mike Williams became involved with the California Cattle Association after they intervened in a water issue he had and were able to present science-based data that cattle were helping the streams on his property versus harming them. He sees the value in the work cattle associations do to be the voice of ranchers.

(Mike Williams )

Becoming involved in local and state cattle associations that focus on making policy decisions makes good business sense.
Wildfires in recent years have brought more awareness to the role cattle and grazing play in resource management. Williams encourages ranchers to get involved, and he currently serves as the first vice president of the California Cattlemen’s Association and the Chairman of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB). Williams has seen the positive impact they can make for the cattle industry firsthand.

“I’m definitely sensing an attitude shift in the state among the more urban citizens,” Williams says. “People are starting to question the narratives environmental groups have been pushing, and opening up to the idea that cattle and other livestock can be a net benefit in protecting those communities from these catastrophic fires, but also in restoring these rangelands that can be better than if it just sits fallow. It’s actually worse to leave land alone than it is to use it.”

Williams sees opportunities for ranchers to stay engaged in the process and continue the momentum.

“We need to be on our game and doing things right,” Williams says. “We need to be looking for how we can be better stewards of what we got. Most ranchers are, but every one of us can improve, and we need to be looking for opportunities to improve. It’s not only good for the overall image of ranching in general, but it’s good for each of our operations. With today’s challenges, whether it’s input costs, the markets, the droughts, all the other things, you got to be firing on all cylinders in order to keep your operation afloat.”

Your Next Read: Beyond Barbed Wire: A Look At Virtual Fencing

Producers Urge Congress for Grazing Policy to Help Prevent Wildfires

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:34:22 GMT

Wildfires have been in the news recently with many West and Midwest states burning acres in 2025. Texas had the second largest fire in history a year ago, burning 1,058,482 acres. The West also had an extreme fire year in 2024 with four states burning at or close to a million acres in each, including California, Idaho and Wyoming. Oregon set a record of burning 1.9 million acres.

Kaitlynn Glover is the Executive Director of the Public Lands Council (PLC) and works on natural resources for the National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA). She spoke about wildfires and the importance of common-sense grazing policy as a wildfire prevention tool with guest host Michelle Rook on AgriTalk.

“I feel like no matter any time in the year, no matter which year we’re talking about, there’s always going to be an anniversary of a big fire in the West,” Glover says. “The fire in Texas was absolutely devastating, and we’ve seen fires since then in California and Idaho and Washington and in these western states, and even in these Midwestern states, where you have a lot of grazing, you have a lot of forage build up, these grasses that dry out, especially if it’s dry later in the year. Grazing really is the best tool to be able to remove that risk from the landscape.”

Glover says it’s a huge asset to be able to raise cattle on grazed acres. But all that green grass in the spring turns into a liability if it’s not grazed off and dries out in the later months of the year.

“We have several 100 million acres that are public land, where you have a much wider space, and somewhere on the order of 145 million acres of those are grazed,” Glover says. “Each of those animals removes 1000s of pounds of fine fuels that that really can ignite on a dime. You just need a bad lightning storm to be able to have the next big fire conditions. So, grazing is really important.”

In his testimony on Feb. 11 in Washington, D.C., Tim Canterbury , Public Lands Council President and Colorado rancher, talked about the benefits of grazing, Glover shared.

“One thing that really stuck out to me was this number 45,” she says. “ Grazing reduces the risk of fire ignition by 45% and that doesn’t matter whether you’re on public land or private land pasture. Whatever it is, reducing that risk is absolutely critical. Whether you’re in Washington or you’re in the Texas panhandle, you’re really looking at how you can apply grazing in a way that reduces that risk and allows you to protect those acres for the future.”

When it comes to policy, PLC looks for approaches that respect multiple use of public lands.

“It’s sort of like the Swiss Army knife of Land Management in the West,” Glover says. “Whether you’re hiking or biking or hunting or having energy development, the piece that makes public lands work is making sure that they’re healthy, they’re open and available.”

Glover points out that for western rangelands, grazing is what has kept them healthy over time.

“64% of Western cattle spend time on federal lands grazing,” she says. “It’s valuable forage, but it also is a huge protector of those landscapes in a very direct way.”

The question on everyone’s mind is what specific changes are needed from Congress or the Department of Interior to cover public lands and grazing of those lands to strike a balance. Glover has seen some traction in the targeted grazing space as private land operators, farmers and ranchers can look at their pastures and make quick decisions.

Creating fire break or using grass in a different way by moving animals around are examples she shares.

“That decision is very fast and you’re able to take action very quickly if it hasn’t been identified as a grazing allotment on federal land,” Glover adds. “In contrast, the agencies have been really reluctant for a long time to use grazing as a management tool.”

PLC continues to reiterate to lawmakers that grazing is not only a use, because it feeds into a commodity, but also a management tool that can be deployed in a lot of different places. Congress is working on bills that would direct targeted grazing in these other spaces.

“Typically, we think about reducing fire risk by cutting tall trees,” Glover explains. “We also are looking for some additional authorizations for getting some of the smaller fuels out through grazing, preventing that woody encroachment that we see so often in the Midwest.”

She says through those targeted grazing principles progress was made during the last Congress.

“We’ve seen the House pass targeted grazing legislation, especially related to fire,” she adds. “We’re looking forward to continuing that momentum in the Senate this year as well.”

State of Grazing Management: To Plan or Not to Plan

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 16:53:21 GMT

Rotational grazing is critical to maintaining the health of a herd and the overall stewardship of land and natural resources. Successfully managing a grazing plan year after year, balancing stable elements with shifting factors like weather, forage, rainfall and labor can be a juggling act that, when done correctly, could yield enhanced profitability, stewardship and legacy.

Despite the benefits, an overwhelming majority of ranchers and farmers who raise beef still do not maintain yearly rotational grazing plans in a written or digital form, opting for a free-for-all flow of grazing information or, most commonly, a grazing plan honed over years that exists only in the minds of the operators who manage it.

Bought In
For Steve Wooten, owner and operator of Beatty Canyon Ranch, a cow-calf operation in southeast Colorado, tackling a growing season or even a single day managing his overall operation without consultation of their digital grazing plan is unthinkable.

“Could you do the budget of a multi-million-dollar business in your head?” he says. “If you did, could you tell which parts of the business are helping you and which are hurting you?”

Beatty Canyon Ranch is currently managed by two generations of Wooten family members. Steve Wooten says their written grazing management plan keeps everyone on the same page and aligned with operational and resource goals

(Photo Courtesy of Beatty Canyon Ranch)

Wooten knows that managing the daily operational needs and the overall operational goals of Beatty Canyon Ranch are exactly what it takes to keep his business running. Every single day, the multi-generational family analyzes the environmental resources available on their 27,000-acre home ranch, the additional 25,000-acre state land lease contracts they manage and the health of their 600-head herd. All of this is on top of managing their overall business, actively led by two generations of Wootens, and keeping their additional wildlife enterprises afloat.

“Writing down the plan helps you remember it and gets everybody engaged with it,” he says. “Everybody has a say in it and you’re more apt to hold those trigger points.”

On the Fence
In South Texas at Running V Ranch, Suzanne Schuchart hasn’t needed a formal, written plan to tell her what she knows about her land, her herd and her resources.

Schuchart is the fourth generation in her family to manage this land, taking over from her grandparents.

“We have 5,200 acres of mixed South Texas brush land and 500 acres of open coastal Bermuda fields where we run our cow-calf herd of 175 head,” she says.

The land is broken into 30 different tracts where she and husband, Pat, can graze their herd. Like Wooten, Running V Ranch also manages a wildlife enterprise, capturing opportunity for seasonal hunters to hunt deer, turkey, hogs, quail and dove.

Running V Ranch in Texas is made up of a variety of tracts where owner Suzanne Schuchart can rotate her herd for forage. Until this year, Schuchart has not kept a formal written grazing management plan.

(Photo courtesy of Running V Ranch)

“Running a balance between cattle and wildlife is important to us,” she says. “We make sure we aren’t overgrazing to get a mix of open land and native grassland for wildlife.”

This past year Schuchart finally put pen to paper, working working with a consultant to establish a formal written grazing management plan for Running V. She combined all of the information she knew from daily management and the conservation projects they had done over her three-decade career.

“The biggest thing for us was to get it down on paper so it’s visual,” she says. “I didn’t have a visual grazing chart or plan because I just know my rotation in my mind. Now I have a nice grazing chart where I pencil in whenever the cows have been in one pasture or another.”

Adversity Sharpens the Pencil
Both Wooten and Schuchart learned the art of stewardship at the knee of their grandmothers and mothers, but the challenges that their modern-day ranches face are far from the ones their matriarchs saw.

Wooten and his wife, Joy, started rotational grazing when they took over Beatty Canyon Ranch.

“We experimented with trying to come around to pastures twice a year and realized, in our low rainfall, semi-arid climate, our best expectation for resiliency is to go through pastures one time a year and try to have pastures that don’t get grazed at all in in the growing season,” he says.

But then tragedy struck.

And in that tragedy, Wooten says he saw a new philosophy as their only path forward.

“In 2000 we had a six-year drought, and we completely destocked this ranch and leased a place in Kansas for a few years,” he recalls. “We came back with the decision that we were going to stop feeding hay to mature cows.”

Even with their average yearly rainfall hovering around 11 inches, they were able to cut hay by 70% and supplemental cake by 50% and made a five-year transition of the cows starting to live with forage.

This new philosophy required that Wooten ramp up his grazing management, moving from a paper copy to spreadsheets to record movements.

Over his career, Steve Wooten has transitioned from rudimentary paper data and maps to sophisticated web-based applications and software that analyzes high-resolution imagery of his pastures to track the impact of his grazing management plan on his resources and profitability.

(Photo courtesy of ESAP/NCBA)

“Ultimately we began to use pasture map and Agriwebb as our web-based data storage and now we use Enriched Ag high-resolution cameras that we drive through pastures, catching a picture of our route every six seconds,” he says. “Now we are working with Noble Research Institute to do soil probes to get a baseline of what our carbon level is in our soils.”

All of the data that Wooten collects adds up to an enhanced ability to manage the resources on his land, which can help Beatty Canyon mitigate weather stressors.

On Running V Ranch, Schuchart also knows a thing or two about dwindling rainfall averages.

“Water is a big deal with us not having a lot of rainfall here or very irregular rainfall,” she says.

Back in 1988, she says they had grass but no water, so they began running water lines to help ensure that they could keep their inventory consistent.

Running V has 30 ponds and 30 water troughs across the ranch. From their seven water wells, they pipe water across the whole ranch.

Their freshly completed grazing management plan takes that water into account.

“By mapping out all the water sources, we could see where additional water would diversify grazing or shorten travel distance to water for cattle and wildlife,” she says. “That was helpful.”

With yearly rainfall averages that are nearing single digits, both Wooten and Schuchart utilize water sources on-ranch to ensure that their herd is well-managed.

(Photo courtesy of Beatty Canyon Ranch)

Wooten believes that his intensive rotational grazing is building resilience on Beatty Canyon Ranch, helping him to ensure that another prolonged drought won’t lead to tragedy. They can see the evidence of this when they ride their pastureland and gather data on its health and vitality. He says they have noticed more moisture has made a difference this year already.

“What will happen is the quick, rapid response of healthy plants with deep roots,” he says. “When they do get moisture, they grow rapidly. That alone means that we’re quicker to be able to get cattle back on the ranch and using pastures and get our stock back up again to numbers that are better in our budget.”

Managing the Future
Schuchart is entering her first season armed with the grazing management plan binder and rotational analysis chart at her disposal. She has been penciling in with colored pencils where her cattle have been grazing, using the data to plan their next move.

She has high hopes for the plan and its benefits to Running V.

“It will help with grazing rotation and setting goals of getting water to some other areas that aren’t as well-watered,” she says.

Through grazing management planning, Schuchart learned that her current stocking rate is accurate, but she is hoping that a well-managed grazing system can open up opportunity to increase inventory on Running V Ranch.

(Courtesy of Running V Ranch)

While the planning process revealed that her stocking rate is on-point, she’s hoping that by combining data around grazing, water and brush management, she will be able to increase her herd size.

“Hopefully the plan will help me with forage cover and better land management overall,” she says.

Meanwhile, Wooten, Joy and his children are taking a hard look at their plan for the season.

“We may not make an adjustment this year at all, but we’ve already been talking about it, about which pastures we think we want to try to leave rested this year and that, and then our target dates are still going to stay the same for liquidation or management numbers,” he says.

The plan and the daily management of it are one way in which Wooten says he’s helping to secure the legacy of Beatty Canyon Ranch, which now is under ownership of his daughter and son-in-law.

“You can’t believe how rewarding it is when you hand it over to these young people that you raised, taught and trained,” he says. “We have confidence in them, and they’re going to take care of it because they love it as much as we do.”

Steve and Joy Wooten have officially transitioned management of Beatty Canyon Ranch to the next generation of Wootens. Their grazing management plan is helping them to build the data needed for success into the future.

(Photo courtesy of Beatty Canyon Ranch)

“They might have ideas that they’re willing to take a risk on that maybe at my age, I’m not willing to take,” he says. “They see things different, and they’ve got foresight that comes from their years of experience.”

This article is part of an ongoing State of Grazing Management series brought to you by Trust In Food and U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. You can learn more by visiting www.trustinfood.com or www.usrsb.org .

Vence: Innovative Grazing Solutions Post-Wildfire

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:31:34 GMT

Like many ranchers in the West, the Thompson family manages cattle on large Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allotments of public land. Located in southwest Idaho, they experienced two wildfires within 10 days of each other in the summer of 2024, which burned approximately half of the fields used for winter grazing. Jessie Jarvis and her husband, Justin, ranch with her folks, Allen and Kim Thompson. Jessie worked with their local field office to utilize Vence virtual fencing to allow grazing on part of their allotment.

“Because we have BLM permits, putting a traditional five-wire fence wasn’t an option and due to the landscape, temporary fencing doesn’t make sense,” Jarvis says. “We were left with trying to find another place to run cows or feed them hay and supplement through winter. The cost of feeding the amount of cows we collared would have been about $26,000, so it’s far more financially friendly for us to use Vence than it is than any of our other options.”

This technology also allowed Jarvis to keep the cows in locations they were already familiar with.

“Virtual fencing allowed us to run our cattle in two fields they already know and do really well, which was a lot easier than putting them in a completely different field,” Jarvis says.

When it comes to fires on public lands, the BLM has two weeks from the date of containment to put together a fire recovery plan.

“The BLM office was under the clock to make decisions about the recovery and whether it will be seeded or it won’t be seeded, if it can be used, and how all that works,” Jarvis says. “We had less than two weeks to make our decision and how we were going to operate.”

The family worked with their local field office in Twin Falls, and the Shoshone office to borrow a base station, which had been used for a previous virtual fencing project. They purchased the collars and batteries themselves.

1 of 5:

Installing batteries and preparing collars to use for virtual fencing.

Jessie Jarvis

2 of 5:

Easy-to-install collars are adjustable to fit each cow.

Jessie Jarvis

3 of 5:

The Jarvis family uses virtual fencing collars and a base station on their BLM allotment to keep cows off area burned in wildfire.

Jessie Jarvis

4 of 5:

The base station would be moved three times within the allotment to communicate based on where the cows were located.

Jessie Jarvis

5 of 5:

Computer software shows where the virtual fencelines were and the movement of cattle throughout the boundaries.

Jessie Jarvis

Jarvis admits the first two weeks were a big learning curve as they had to work with Vence to determine where the base station would be located in relationship to the cows.

“We are moving the cows three different times, so there will be three different base station locations and they had to be predetermined so we knew we had the right amount of coverage for grazing that area,” Jarvis says.

All this took place during the fall and one of the busiest times when the family was gathering, weaning, processing different sets of calves, and preg testing. While learning new technology on top of all the fall work was a little overwhelming, Jarvis explains it was completely worth the extra effort.

“I think for us and other ranchers in our situation, being able to use this tool and continue grazing after a fire has such a positive impact,” Jarvis says. “I look around at all the fires that happened last summer, and I know how many people have had to liquidate their herds or completely sell out, and that breaks my heart. It takes so much time, energy and effort into building the genetics that are in your cow herd, and to have to completely get rid of that, that is life changing for all of us. We probably would have been faced with some of those very same difficult decisions had we not had this technology available to use.”

Vence Success Manager, CK Wisniewski, joined the Jarvis’ to help collar cattle and set up the system. She says every ranch has different goals for using virtual fencing.

“Some ranchers are wanting to track their cows more easily even within interior fencing,” she says. “Barbed wire fence is not fun to build, especially if you’re in very tough terrain. Sometimes that fencing cost can be $15,000-$50,000 a mile. When you have all those wildfires that are happening and it’s eight miles of fence, rebuilding is too labor and cost prohibitive. There are lots of different types of stakeholders who are always wanting to get engaged with our Vence system.”

Gary Tiller, director or commercial operations with Vence, which is a U.S.-based company owned by Merck Animal Health, says Vence focuses on three pillars — profitability, sustainability and legacy.

“Your first consideration is going to be, ‘how do I intend to make money using this technology?’” Tiller says. “That could be improved stocking density, saving on replacement or maintenance costs for fencing or replacing the cost of an employee to move fence.”

Tiller also notes what’s unique about virtual fencing is the ability to utilize ancillary benefits, which provide support to the main purpose of the operation.

“Ranching properties can also utilize wildlife habitat,” Tiller says. “For example, if fishing is an income stream to the ranch and protecting your stream sides is something that will make you more money in the end, you can exclude those cattle from going into the water and eroding the bank, which can improve your fishing population. That’s an ancillary profit center.”

Tiller points out, the second pillar — sustainability — can have multiple definitions.

“As a ranching community, we recognize wildfires aren’t going away,” he says. “When you look at the western states with a majority of ranchers relying on public lands grazing, if you don’t have fencing or funding to rebuild fences and you can’t keep cattle contained and manage the landscape, will we even have access to that land?

“It’s not only sustainability of the resource, but also of our industry,” Tiller adds. “We can’t lose 50% of our rangelands and still have 28-29 million cows needing to graze.”

Legacy is the third pillar that virtual fencing provides.

“Most everybody on the ranch has a dream of passing it down to the next generation and the only way we’re going to have the right to operate is by being really good stewards and making sure that the public understands how we are taking care of the land,” Tiller says. “I think most ranchers in general, prefer to pass on land at a better state than they inherit.”

Vence was designed for big remote areas to incorporate LoRa (long-range communication) through a system of base stations and collars that work autonomously once the directions are set. They utilize a high-density lithium battery mill spec battery designed to operate in the worse conditions, from hot and humid in Florida to below freezing in Montana.

“We designed a robust system around cattle and rugged conditions and landscapes with very minimal communications that we can magnify,” Tiller says.

The concept of virtual fencing technology has been around for decades but continues to evolve. Virtual fencing uses behavior modification based on audio and electrical cues from a collar device to keep cattle within a virtual boundary using GPS. This geospatial technology uses satellites to pinpoint a location. A virtual fence can also be used to keep animals out of certain areas. The collar can be controlled by a phone, tablet or computer using cellular data.

This is part of a four-part Smart Farming series on virtual fencing companies available in the U.S. — eShepard , Halter, NoFence and Vence .

(FJ/UA)

Nofence: Maximize Multi-Species Grazing and Small Paddock Advantage

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 19:34:00 GMT

Mark Mueller has been using Nofence virtual fencing for several months on his small operation outside of San Antonio.

“I’m using the virtual fencing because some of the areas I use are very small and don’t have great fences,” Mueller says. “We’ve been in a drought here in Texas for a while, so cows have a tendency to stick their heads underneath the fences, and tear them up. Once they get a hole, they want to escape and stand on the outside of the fence because the grass is always greener.”

The system has proven effective in meeting Mueller’s needs.

“I went from fixing fences two to three times a week to not having to fix fences since I put on the collars,” Mueller says. “The tracking on this system is pretty awesome. At any time, I can see where my cows are and if a cow or calf escapes from an area, which doesn’t happen very often, I get an alert on my phone.”

With plans to expand his operation, Mueller says virtual fencing is giving him peace of mind.

“As long as I have a comfort level of being able to put my cows in areas that doesn’t have as good of physical fences, that’s my goal in the future and I’m starting to realize the potential on that side,” he says.

Ease of use has been an added benefit to Mueller. He controls his cows from an app on his phone.

“It’s been easy to draw pastures on the phone; it’s just moving pins and creating boundaries,” he says. “I keep them about five feet or so off the physical fence, which helps with the training. It’s nice that you can see where the cows are on the app too and even which animal it is.”

1 of 3:

Rancher Mark Mueller uses virtual fencing to cut down on labor to fix physical fences.

Nofence

2 of 3:

Nofence

3 of 3:

Nofence

Nofence offers the possibility of multi-species grazing with collars for both cattle and sheep and goats, says Victoria Allers Wismer, VP of marketing.

She explains Nofence uses the collar and an app with no need for a base station.

“We need the cellular connectivity to set up and move the fence and make sure that the collar has uploaded the pasture,” Allers Wismer says. “The animals are contained on GPS, so even if they are in and out of connectivity, the fence will work, and they will still get the sound and the pulse.”

The collars have rechargeable batteries with a solar panel on them.

“We now assess that the battery for the cattle collars should last all year around in sunny areas,” Allers Wismer says. “It would be around nine months in geographic areas where there is more of a winter season.”

(FJ/UA)

Halter: Solar Charged Collars Aid Rancher Response to Summer Challenges

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 19:52:21 GMT

Sixth generation rancher Brent Hackley of Jacksboro, Texas, began using rotational grazing practices on his family’s ranch in the early 80s after attending grazing schools taught by Alan Savory and Stan Parsons.

“We knew rotational grazing was a great idea,” Hackley says. “In the beginning, it was a lot of trial and error. We experienced drought, had to evaluate where we made some mistakes and start again, but we knew the value of the concept.”

During the last 45 years Hackley has spent a lot of time developing electric fences and water resources, but never felt there was enough personnel to take full advantage of controlling stocking densities or grazing to the fullest potential. That’s where virtual fencing has provided advantages. He began using Halter in the summer of 2024.

“I know we’re able to utilize pastures better because there’s a lot of areas that the cattle don’t want to graze without holding them on it, and so we’re already getting more even grazing distribution,” says Hackley, whose family has been on the same ranch since 1865.

“We try and manage holistically, and sustainability is the key to everything we do,” he says. “We’re always trying to look for a better way to help out the employees and improve their lives as well as increase pounds of beef per acre weaned.”

Hackley is the sixth generation on the north central Texas ranch, and has a daughter and a son, who is back on the ranch. He says this technology offers better cattle management when dealing with the summer heat.

1 of 7: