Grazing Management Plans

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

5 Ways Smart Collars Improve Grazing

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:31:22 GMT

Virtual fencing is suddenly everywhere in ranching headlines — but not every operation is a fit. In a wide-ranging discussion on the “ Future of Beef Show ,” Halter President Andrew Fraser walks through the practical questions producers should ask, from herd size and terrain to water infrastructure, labor and available cost-share programs.

Fraser, originally from New Zealand, with a background in management consulting, mining and tech startups, was the featured guest on episode 20 of the Future of Beef podcast. Halter spent about five years in research and development, and is now commercially active in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. with more than 750,000 animals on the system.

“If we were being fancy, we would say that it’s an operating system for a farmer. But really at the heart of it, we are a collar for cows,” Fraser explains.

Beyond grass and fencing, Fraser sees Halter as a tool for addressing some of ranching’s most pressing human challenges: labor and succession. By automating low-value tasks like shifting poly wire and checking distant pastures, Halter lets employees focus more on animal care and land stewardship.

A Collar, an App and Virtual Fences

Halter’s system centers on a lightweight, above-neck collar and a phone app. Ranchers use the app to draw virtual fences or breaks on a map. The collars then hold or move cattle using sound and vibration cues, with a very mild pulse as a back-up.

When an animal approaches a virtual boundary, it hears a directional beep in one ear to encourage it to turn back. When it’s moving the right way, it feels a gentle vibration — something Fraser likens to a smartwatch buzz — as positive reinforcement.

Halter can also shift cattle between paddocks, replacing the need for riders, dogs or temporary electric fence to move a herd. Behind the scenes, the collars continuously track behavior such as grazing, ruminating, resting and walking, plus GPS location.

In dairy herds, Halter already uses this behavior data for heat detection and health alerts. In beef systems, it’s being used for grazing management, stock location and early warning of unusual behavior.

Training Cows with Sound, Not Shock

Fraser is quick to point out that Halter is designed around sound, not pain.

“Even our strongest pulse is 1/50 the strength of an electric fence,” he says. “So, this is not a significant shock, or anything like what cows are used to with hot wire or poly wire.”

Training a herd typically takes two to seven days. Ranchers start with an existing strip of hot wire, then gradually move it and pair the fence with sound cues, teaching cows to use sound instead of a visible wire as their boundary.

According to the podcast discussion, here are five ways a smart collar can change how producers graze cattle:

1. Turn Fixed Fences into Flexible, On‑Demand Paddocks

With virtual fencing, producers can draw the paddock on an app instead of building it with posts and wire.

“On your app, you’ll draw where you want your cows to stay, or your cattle to stay, and they will stay there,” Fraser explains.
Using the Halter system, producers can:

Tighten or loosen breaks day‑to‑day.
Change paddock shape, for example hub‑and‑spoke around water instead of rectangles.
Redraw setbacks along waterways or sensitive areas instantly as rules or conditions change.

According to Fraser, using Halter, producers can graze to the residuals they want, in the spots they want, without being locked into permanent fencelines.

2. Intensify Rotational Grazing and Boost Pasture Utilization

For all the technology involved — solar-powered collars and towers, satellite data, and machine learning — Fraser insists Halter’s value proposition starts with something simple: better grass management.

Because cattle can be kept in tighter areas and moved frequently with sound cues, rotational grazing becomes much more precise and practical. Fraser says producers “should be able to make the cost of Halter back from gains in pasture alone.”

By holding cattle in small areas and moving them often, Fraser says:

You push cattle to eat more uniformly — not just the “ice cream” spots.
You protect regrowth by not overgrazing favorite areas.
You can raise stocking rate or hold numbers steady with fatter cattle.

He gave an example of a Wyoming ranch that went from grazing approximately 800 to 1,500 head in a year, pairing Halter with better water infrastructure to fully use its grass.

3. Replace Chase-and-Pressure Moves with Calm, Low‑Stress Shifts

Instead of horses, bikes, dogs and yelling, with the Halter system cattle learn to move on their own in response to sound and vibration. Fraser explains the cues are beeps in one ear or the other to turn left or right. Apple Watch–style vibrations are positive reinforcement when they’re headed the right way.

This changes how producers graze by turning musters and shifts into scheduled, low‑stress, almost “hands‑off” events, which is better for cattle, people and time use.

4. Use Data on Behavior and Biomass to Refine Grazing Decisions

Smart collars and supporting tools give real data on what’s happening in the paddock, not just gut feel. Behind the scenes, Halter has invested heavily in data science and artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Halter uses on-collar machine learning to interpret behavior, plus satellite imagery and weather data to estimate pasture biomass and residuals.

Halter helps producers track where cows are, how long they graze, ruminate, rest and move. It can help calculate how many tons of dry matter are consumed.

“We’re able to tell you what the residual is when the cow goes in, what the residual is when the cow leaves,” Fraser says.

This helps ranchers understand herd-level dry matter consumption between moves. Looking ahead, Fraser is especially interested in individual cow feed efficiency — answering a question many ranchers have wondered about for years.

Right now, he said, producers know which cows are the heaviest or give the most milk, but not how much forage each one eats to get there. Halter hopes to help identify animals that eat less but still perform well, offering new levers for genetic selection, profitability and sustainability.

Today, consumption data is built from satellite data plus time in paddock plus behavior. He says the research and development aim is to go from herd-level to cow-level intake, so producers know which cows are genuinely efficient, not just big eaters.

5. Integrate Grazing with Water, Labor, Risk and Regulations

Fraser summarizes once producers can move virtual fences easily, grazing decisions connect more tightly to other constraints:

Water access: Producers can design hub‑and‑spoke paddocks around fixed water or move small troughs and redraw breaks to match.
Labor: Less time on poly wire and fence repair frees people up for land and animal work; Fraser notes that avoiding “boring tasks” is a big benefit.
Risk and emergencies: Ranchers have used Halter to move cattle in floods or fires when it’s unsafe or impossible for people to go in, and fences might burn or wash out.
Changing rules: When riparian buffer rules tightened in New Zealand, farms with Halter simply redrew the virtual exclusion zones. “If you had fencing, that would have been a huge cost to move all of that. If you had Halter, you just drew a different break on your phone,” Fraser says.

Those factors change grazing from a mostly fence‑ and labor‑limited system to one that’s more data‑, water‑ and policy‑aware, and much quicker to adjust.

Not a Fit For Everyone

Fraser was upfront that Halter falls short or isn’t a fit yet for:

Very small “hobby” herds — fewer than 50 head — return on investment doesn’t pencil out.
Extremely large, ultra-extensive ranches — tower-based communications still limit practicality.
True cow-level feed intake/efficiency today — still herd-level, with individual metrics as an research and development goal.
Full system integrations and “AI for everything” — they’ve done relatively few integrations so far and intentionally avoid AI where it doesn’t clearly help producers.

For an industry built on barbed wire and sweat, the idea that cattle might one day move mostly to the sound of a beep and the buzz of a collar is a big shift. But for Fraser, that’s exactly the point: use technology to make ranching more controlled, more flexible and more humane — without losing sight of what matters most on the land.

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Building Resilience from the Ground Up: How Grazing Management Supports Climate Solutions

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:30:07 GMT

Across the globe, ranchers and pastoralists are navigating increased weather variability along with shifting ecosystems, among other pressures such as economic uncertainty. Strengthening resilience in these systems requires practical tools and adaptive management strategies, along with a deeper understanding of how land, livestock and people interact.

One of the most valuable tools available to producers is the written grazing management plan (GMP) — not simply as a document, but as a process that supports long-term ecological and economic sustainability.

A Global Perspective: Resilience Starts with Management

From the grasslands of Argentina to the rangelands of East Africa, producers face diverse challenges shaped by climate and policy. Yet a common thread unites them. Resilient grazing systems are built through intentional management.

Healthy rangelands play a vital role in supporting thriving ecosystems. They store carbon and support biodiversity while also improving water infiltration and reducing erosion, among other benefits. These ecosystem services ultimately depend on how land is grazed, rested and managed over time.

Globally, there is growing recognition that grazing lands are a key part of the solution.

Balancing Ecology, Economics and Legacy

In the U.S., cattle producers operate within their own unique set of challenges and opportunities.

According to Jeff Goodwin, director of the Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management with Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension, long-term success in the cow-calf sector depends on balancing three core priorities:
● Ecological sustainability: protecting soil health, forage resources and biodiversity
● Economic viability: maintaining profitability in a fluctuating market
● Social sustainability: ensuring operations support quality of life and generational transfer

“Producers aren’t just managing cattle,” Goodwin explains. “They’re stewarding complex ecosystems while running a business.”

Today, that balancing act is becoming more difficult as producers contend with various pressures alongside the conversion of grazing lands to other uses.

Environmental Stewardship Award 2024 Region VII Winner Downey Ranch, Wamego, KS

(NCBA Environmental Stewardship Award Program/Baxter Communications Inc.)

The Value of Grazing Management Plans (GMPs)

While grazing management plans are often discussed as technical documents, their true value lies in the planning process itself.

Goodwin emphasizes that successful producers are not defined by rigid plans, but by their ability to adapt.

A written GMP helps producers:
● Define clear goals and objectives
● Inventory available resources (land, water, livestock, forage)
● Evaluate management options
● Implement strategies and monitor outcomes
● Adjust based on weather, markets and ecological feedback

“It’s not the piece of paper that matters,” Goodwin notes. “It’s going through the process and staying flexible.”

This adaptability is essential in a changing environment. Producers who actively plan, and revise those plans, are better equipped to respond to pressures as they arise, such as shifting seasons and market volatility.

Read More About Grazing Management Plans:

Grazing Management Plans: The Power of the Pen

State of Grazing Management: To Plan or Not to Plan

Grazing, Carbon and Land Resilience

As the role of grazing systems in maintaining healthy landscapes becomes clearer, they are gaining recognition not just for their use, but for the ecosystem services they support and the outcomes they can deliver when managed well.

Grazing management is now central to discussions around carbon sequestration, soil health and land resilience — and the broader supply chain is starting to take notice.

“For the first time in my career, grazing lands are getting the attention they deserve,” says Goodwin. “People are recognizing the value producers bring beyond just food production.”

A written grazing management plan helps turn that recognition into action. By linking ecological goals with day-to-day decisions, it gives producers a practical framework to apply soil health principles, adapt to changing conditions and build long-term resilience through intentional stewardship.

Resources and Support for Producers

For producers interested in developing or adapting their written grazing management plans, a variety of resources are available:
● U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef : Offers a Grazing Management Plan Development Module and template in addition to other sustainability tools
● Natural Resources Conservation Service : Provides technical assistance and conservation planning support
● National Grazing Lands Coalition : Connects producers with grazing specialists and educational programs
● Noble Research Institute : Hosts grazing and soil health workshops
● Ranching for Profit : Focuses on financial and ecological decision-making

Learning from peers is an important part of day-to-day decision-making. Some of the most practical insights come from neighbors and fellow ranchers dealing with the same conditions and challenges.

Looking Ahead

The April IYRP theme reinforces a powerful idea: resilience is not built overnight. It is developed through intentional management, continuous improvement and adaptability.

For U.S. cattle producers, written grazing management plans offer a pathway to strengthen both land and livelihood. By focusing on soil health, ecological function and strategic decision-making, producers can position their operations to withstand uncertainty while contributing to thriving ecosystems.

As more attention turns to rangelands, their importance is coming into sharper focus. A grazing management plan may be simple in structure, but it can play a powerful role in strengthening the long-term resilience of grazing systems and the people who depend on them.

— Provided by the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB) in recognition of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).

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Spring Pasture Growth Raises Grass Tetany Risk in Beef Herds

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:07:13 GMT

As spring moisture and fluctuating temperatures drive a surge in forage growth, conditions are aligning for an increase in grass tetany risk across many beef operations. The same environmental shifts that are jumpstarting wheat pasture and other small grains can also create the mineral imbalances that trigger sudden losses in lactating cows.

With rapid pasture growth underway in many areas, grass tetany risk is rising in susceptible herds, according to Paul Beck, Extension specialist for beef nutrition with Oklahoma State University. High-quality forage is often directed toward cows with the greatest nutritional demands, placing early-lactation animals directly into higher-risk environments.

Fertility and Forage Growth Driving the Issue

Cool-season annuals are a valuable resource, particularly when they reduce reliance on hay and supplemental feed. But as pasture quality improves, mineral balance can shift in ways that are not immediately visible.

“Our best managed cool-season annual pastures have had adequate fertilizer high in nitrogen and potassium, both of which are necessary for grass growth. But high nitrogen and high potassium interacts with the marginal magnesium level in these forages and create issues with beef cows as they begin lactating,” Beck says.

Nitrogen and potassium fertilization support aggressive forage growth, particularly during periods of favorable moisture. At the same time, they can interfere with magnesium uptake, leaving cows vulnerable even when forage appears nutritionally rich.

Magnesium absorption occurs primarily in the rumen and can be impaired by high potassium levels, which reduce transport across the rumen epithelium. This is why fertilized, rapidly growing forages create a consistent risk pattern.

Periods of rain followed by rapid pasture growth can further amplify the risk, especially when cattle are transitioned quickly onto highly digestible forage.

Early Signs Easy to Miss as Cases Develop Quickly

Grass tetany remains a neurologic condition driven by low blood magnesium, and clinical signs can escalate rapidly once levels fall.

“Cows will start shaking and have uncontrolled muscle movements. They will lose their balance. That will be one of the first signs you see,” Beck says.

In the early stages, affected cattle may appear nervous or uncoordinated. As the condition advances, animals can go down and become unable to rise, with death occurring shortly after if intervention is not successful.

Because of this rapid progression, cases are often first recognized only after severe signs appear.

Early treatment with intravenous or subcutaneous calcium-magnesium solutions can be effective, particularly before animals become recumbent. Relapses are possible, and animals should be monitored closely following initial treatment.

Grass tetany should be differentiated from other causes of neurologic signs and sudden death, including hypocalcemia, polioencephalomalacia, and lead toxicity. History, pasture conditions and response to magnesium therapy can help support a presumptive diagnosis in the field.

Prevention Hinges on Timing, Not Reaction

Despite the speed at which grass tetany can develop, the risk itself is highly predictable. That makes prevention the most effective strategy, particularly during periods of rapid pasture growth.

“The best way to counter the problem is to act before we get to it,” Beck says.

That means preparing ahead of turnout, not reacting after symptoms appear. In practical terms, that looks like identifying high-risk pastures and production stages in advance, then ensuring supplementation is in place before cattle enter those environments.

This is especially important during spring transitions, when forage conditions can change quickly over a short period of time.

Mineral Intake Remains the Weak Link

While most producers are aware of the need for high-magnesium mineral, consistent intake remains the primary challenge.

“Magnesium oxide does decrease the palatability of mineral mixes, making it important to manage the feeding of these minerals,” Beck says.

Magnesium oxide is widely used due to its availability and cost-effectiveness, but reduced palatability can limit voluntary intake. Without active management, even well-designed mineral programs may fall short.

Management Focus as Risk Window Opens

With pasture conditions improving and turnout underway or imminent in many areas, attention is shifting toward practical prevention.

Risk mitigation should focus on:

Ensuring high-magnesium mineral is available before and during turnout.
Monitoring intake closely, rather than assuming consumption.
Placing feeders in high-traffic areas to encourage consistent use.

A Seasonal Risk That Follows Predictable Patterns

Grass tetany tends to emerge when rapidly growing forage, high-producing cows and inadequate magnesium intake intersect. Spring conditions consistently bring those factors together, making this a predictable — yet preventable — challenge.

Outbreaks often affect multiple animals within a short timeframe, particularly when herd-level mineral intake is inconsistent. This makes grass tetany both an individual animal emergency and a herd management issue.

Timely supplementation and close management of intake can help you stay ahead of the problem before clinical cases begin to appear.

From Forage to Fertilizer: Iowa Farmers Turn Cover Crops Into A Profit Engine

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:37:00 GMT

Where the borders of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois converge above the Mississippi River, Jack and Maria Smith, alongside their sons Nick and Ted, have turned cover crops into the strategic backbone of their diversified farming operation.

Based in eastern Dubuque County, Iowa, the family combines no-till corn and soybeans with a 420-head beef operation. They utilize a spring and fall calving schedule to produce registered seedstock and yearling bulls, while also finishing select calves.

One of the things that makes their farm unique, Nick Smith says, is how completely they’ve integrated cover crops in all aspects of their operation.

“We cover crop every single acre now. We’ve been able to do that for the last five, six, seven years, somewhere in there,” he told Andrew McCrea, during their recent discussion on Farming The Countryside.

Smith Family Farms got its start in 1853. In addition to their conservation efforts, the family is dedicated to preserving the state’s history through the Iowa Barn Foundation, which has saved more than 300 barns.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Matching Cover Crops To Cattle And Terrain

Because their land is prone to erosion, the Smiths first used cover crops to protect the soil from heavy rains. However, the practice quickly became a “no-brainer” feed source for their beef herd.

On their steepest slopes, the family often uses a two-year rotation centered on covers. They plant a spring cover crop to graze or harvest, then follow it with a diverse “summer cocktail” that is harvested once and grazed in the fall. This rotation prepares the fields for no-till corn the following year.

“With some of our steepest slopes, that’s what we typically do,” Smith says. “On ground that’s not as steep, we grow more continuous corn.”

Cattle graze the rolling hills that make up a significant percentage of the land the Smiths own in Dubuque County, Iowa.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Most of the family’s cover crop acres are grazed by cattle at some point.

“In the fall, I would say we’re grazing all of them,” Smith says. He notes that distance and accessibility sometimes limit spring grazing. “Probably 50-plus percent of the acres do get grazed in the spring. It just depends on the weather. You can’t really have the cattle out there if it’s wet.”

Custom “Cocktails” For Summer And Fall

Smith chooses different cover crop mixes based on the season and the next crop in the rotation. For summer covers, he prefers diverse blends based on sorghum-sudangrass.

“We love that stuff,” he says. “It’s really hard to screw it up. It’ll grow pretty much anywhere, and it grows quickly. It’s great feed; cows love it.”

He typically adds legumes like clover and buckwheat to those summer mixes. For fall and winter grazing, the farm relies on small grains and brassicas, including triticale, cereal rye, turnips, and oats. These fall covers are usually seeded in August and September.

The Smiths use a corn-soybean rotation along with some continuous corn. Cover crops help fuel the family’s row crops and feed their cattle herd.

(Environmental Stewardship Award Video)

Smith adjusts his seeding rates based on the upcoming row crop. If a field is headed to soybeans, he seeds cereal rye at a heavier rate.

“Beans like cereal rye,” he said. “If we’ve got a thicker stand out there, that’s not going to bother me.”

If he is planting corn the next year, he uses a lighter rate of cereal rye, especially on fields that won’t be grazed in the spring. The family has also experimented with camelina ahead of corn to add more diversity.

From Planes To Drones — And The Combine

Smith’s father, Jack, began aerial seeding cover crops more than 15 years ago, but the rolling terrain made it difficult to get consistent results.

“In our topography, we haven’t had great success with that,” Smith says. “It’s hard to get good coverage over every acre.”

In recent years, the Smiths have used drones for more precise seeding, especially to drop oats, radishes, or turnips into standing corn to create high-quality fall forage.

“We’ve had years where we’ve had knee-high oats while we’re harvesting corn,” Smith says, though he notes success depends on timely rain.

One of the most significant changes the family made was five years ago when they decided to mount a Gandy air seeder on their combine to plant cereal rye during the corn harvest.

“It’s hydraulically powered and blows the seed so it drops right at or through the header, just before the residue goes through the snapping rolls on the corn head,” Smith says. “As that material goes down through the corn head, it basically covers the seed up and helps trap a little bit more moisture there for it to get going.”

Smith can seed about 15 acres per fill. He dismisses concerns that the practice slows down the harvest.

“Everybody’s excuse is, ‘I don’t want to stop harvest,’” he says. “You can refill in 5 minutes with the right kind of tender. We’re saving a whole other trip, saving a lot of fuel, and we’re getting more growth because it’s done earlier.”

Soil Health And Nitrogen Efficiency

Smith credits no-till and consistent cover cropping with improving his soil function. He has observed faster residue breakdown, more earthworm activity, and higher microbial activity.

Earthworms are the only tillage tool on Smith Family Farms operation in northeast Iowa.

(Environmental Stewardship Award)

“The pace of the increases in organic matter have gone up a lot since we started using the combine, because we’re getting seed in every square foot of every acre, and we’re doing it on a consistent basis,” he reports.

Grazing cover crops has also allowed the family to reduce commercial nitrogen rates over the last six or seven years, even as corn yields have increased.

“From an efficiency standpoint, we’re way more efficient as far as pounds of commercial nitrogen applied per bushel of corn,” Smith says. He attributes this to cattle returning nutrients to the soil via manure, though the exact fertilizer value is hard to quantify.

Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has played a central role in helping the Smiths refine these systems. Nick says he uses the organization’s website, events, and on-farm trials to guide experimentation with new cover mixes.

Labor And The “Cheat Code” Of Cows

Smith says labor is the biggest barrier for most farmers considering cover crops. However, he argues that seeding during harvest removes that hurdle.

“That’s where the combine’s a no-brainer, because that’s not labor — you’re saving time,” he notes.

He also acknowledges that having cattle makes the financial risk much lower.

“Compared to other farmers, we’ve got a mulligan, if something doesn’t work,” Smith says. “If you’re a cash-grain farmer only and you’re spending money on some cover crops and it doesn’t really work, it’s hard to stomach that cost. For us, if we have something that’s a failure, we can still recover some of that cost — and in a lot of years, way more than recover the cost. The cows are a little bit of a ‘cheat code’ for us in that aspect.”

The Smith Family Farms received the 2025 Regional Environmental Stewardship Award for their efforts in sustainability, which were highlighted during the CattleCon 2026 conference.

Listen to the complete discussion between Nick Smith and Andrew McCrae on Farming The Countryside here .

Dakota Ranchers: New Program Available To Promote Data-Backed Grazing Management

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:36:10 GMT

Ducks Unlimited and AgriWebb are joining forces and taking aim at addressing the challenges of grazing on public lands in North and South Dakota.

Supported by a grant through National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the program provides livestock producers in cow-calf or stocker operations with digital tools and infrastructure to manage their public land, livestock and profitability more effectively. Ranchers enrolled in the program benefit from AgriWebb software combined with temporary and virtual fencing to holistically manage their livestock and land.

“Keeping grasslands intact is essential to the long-term sustainability of waterfowl and other wildlife,” notes Billy Gascoigne, DU senior director of agriculture & strategic partnerships. “Ranchers are the primary stewards of these landscapes, and it’s imperative that we develop solutions that help them implement adaptive, profitable grazing practices while ensuring the next generation can continue this important work.”

According to the organizations, the partnership will provide a streamlined way to report livestock numbers and managed acreage to NFWF. By capturing this data, the partnership is tackling some of the industry’s biggest challenges, including:

● Enhance grassland health: Promoting vibrant nesting cover for waterfowl through ample rest and rotation.
● Empower producers: Providing the “productivity-driving” insights needed to manage herds more effectively on complex public lands.
● Strengthen the food chain: Ensuring long-term land fertility to support a growing global population.

“Producers wear many hats, but none are more critical than feeding the world while stewarding the land,” says Campbell Mauchan, AgriWebb vice president of partnerships. “By combining DU’s conservation expertise with AgriWebb’s ability to turn simple data collection into actionable insights, we are helping ranchers nurture the ecosystems we all rely on. When a rancher is equipped to not just record their data, but use it, they are able to make decisions that help them nurture the ecosystems that support their legacies.”

According to the organizations, the initial roll out focused on Dakotas state trust lands is being considered a pilot for a scalable model in how technology and conservation can work to support ranchers across North America.

For more information, ranchers can visit ag.ducks.org .

Why Rotational Grazing Isn't Working

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:08:47 GMT

Rotational grazing is often promoted as a cure-all for pasture health, soil conservation and ranch profitability.

Yet adoption remains surprisingly low, says Carson Roberts, state forage specialist with University of Missouri Extension. USDA data shows that only about 40% of cow-calf operations use any form of rotational grazing, and just 16% use intensive systems with paddock rotations of 14 days or less. Many producers conclude that the daily labor rarely justifies the payoff, Roberts said.

He notes that virtual fencing, while helpful, doesn’t solve the core challenges.

“It sidesteps the real killers: herd fragmentation, water limits, performance trade-offs and inflexible stocking,” he says.

Why Rotational Grazing Often Fails

1. Frequent moves with too few animals. Moving cattle takes time — typically 15 to 45 minutes per move for experienced graziers. With small groups, that labor doesn’t scale, Roberts says. His research shows that daily labor costs can range from 50 cents per cow to as low as 1 cent per cow, depending on herd size and rotation length.

2. Too many separate groups. Fragmentation is one of the biggest efficiency killers. Roberts shares an example of a producer running 350 cows in 17 separate groups across 93 paddocks, or about 5.5 paddocks per group. Daily moves required more than 12 hours of labor, and even twice-weekly moves burned roughly two hours each day. Monitoring multiple groups and the forage resource remains challenging even with virtual fencing.

3. Poor water access. Water, not fencing, is often the limiting factor. When cattle must travel more than 800 feet to drink, their intake and forage utilization decline. That leads to back-grazing, trailing and pugging. Virtual fencing can’t fix these water access problems.

4. Lower individual animal performance. Some producers back away from rotational grazing because calves may wean lighter, even though pounds per acre usually increase due to higher stocking. Experienced graziers accept lower individual gains in exchange for better overall output, but many producers abandon rotational grazing to focus on individual animal gains.

5. Stocking rate rigidity in variable conditions. Drought and seasonal swings can quickly derail a rigid rotation. When forage crashes and regrowth slows, overgrazing can occur even in rotational systems. Fixed plans that don’t account for year-to-year and season-to-season variability often fail to maintain adequate rest periods

How To Make Rotational Grazing Work Without Burnout

Roberts offers five practical strategies to capture the benefits of rotational grazing without being overwhelmed:

Set an economically smart rotation interval. Weekly moves often deliver most of the benefits — improved recovery, utilization and soil health —without the labor burden of daily or three-day rotations, especially for smaller herds. “Weekly hits the sweet spot for many,” Roberts says.
Combine animals into larger herds. Merging groups into one larger herd reduces labor per head and increases grazing efficiency. Common fears about trampling, bull behavior or calf performance are often overstated, and well-managed large mobs typically improve both pasture health and animal outcomes.
Fix water infrastructure first. Water access within 800 feet improves intake, encourages even grazing and reduces trailing and pugging. Roberts emphasizes that water improvements often pay off faster than adding physical or virtual fencing.
Monitor continuously. Cow body condition, manure quality and pasture appearance provide real-time feedback. Look for good residual forage, well-formed dung pats and cattle maintaining flesh. Use observations to adjust rotation timing, stocking or supplementation. Remember that rotational grazing increases total production, not individual animal performance.
Build flexible stocking and drought plans. Pasture growth changes dramatically year to year. Producers should prepare to destock early during dry periods, maintain hay reserves or designate sacrifice areas. Adjust rest periods to grass recovery.

“Implement these fixes and rotational grazing stops being a chore and starts delivering real, sustainable returns without the 12-hour move days,” Roberts says.

He also encourages producers to attend grazing schools to strengthen their management skills.

(University of Missouri)

4 Ways to Boost Profitability Through Soil Health

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 13:25:46 GMT

In ranching, there are no easy buttons — certainly none exist to achieve overall profitability — but there may be one factor that can come close.

Adaptive grazing practices on ranch, which means using forage observations to determine the best time to move cattle, can be a key that unlocks higher productivity.

“Adaptive grazing to accomplish better grazing distribution across the ranch will almost always result in higher plant productivity, higher carrying capacity and higher profits,” says Josh Gaskamp, associate director of outreach and partnerships for Noble Research Institute.

Gaskamp has seen the practice in action on Noble’s ranches.

“On Noble’s ranches, bare ground averaged 13% in 2019 and is close to zero now,” he says. “We got 13% of a ranch for free, and now it is productive for our livestock.”

He adds: “It’s not always about finding the best forage, the best livestock or the best market; management for soil health does pay.”

Gaskamp says healthy soils can boost bottom-line productivity and profitability. He encourages producers to consider these tips and how some simple moves can translate to cost benefits on the ranch:

1. More Grass = More Cows + Less Feed Cost

Overgrazing, either through continuous grazing or not achieving full pasture recovery between grazing events, can limit a plant’s ability to grow.

“The ultimate result is less grass,” Gaskamp says. “When a rancher more closely follows the full potential of their forages’ growth across the growing season by implementing timely, intentional grazing, they not only put more of that grass in the cow, but they also grow more grass.”

It’s not hard to follow the direct line between more grass and more cows.

“Growing more grass means improving the carrying capacity of the ranch, and that means more money,” he says.

The significant savings, according to Gaskamp, comes in avoiding substitution feeding costs — feeding hay in times of the year when forage would normally be available. Improving your pastures’ ability to grow grass limits the amount of feed you purchase out of pocket.

2. More Ground = More Cows + Less Maintenance

Better-performing forage can be the key to gaining more “ground” on a ranch, but making the most of marginalized areas can boost productivity as well.

Certainly there are areas where cattle simply don’t want to be. Gaskamp says that adaptive grazing can be the investment those areas need to flip them to optimization.

“Underperforming areas of the ranch can often be improved by bringing livestock, nutrients, organic matter and proper recovery times to them,” he says.

Two ways to attract cattle to marginalized areas on ranch are:

Planting cover crops to graze
Bale grazing

“When followed by appropriate rest and recovery, these hotspots of organic matter and animal density are revitalized,” Gaskamp says.

“When energy is flowing through our soils through photosynthetic solar capture rather than coming out of them through overgrazing, soil is building and biological communities are thriving. It’s great that these impacts also come with greater forage production,” says Josh Gaskamp of the Noble Research Institute.

(Noble Research Institute)

3. More Diversity = More Cows + More Biodiversity

There are a variety of benefits to having diversity in forage.

“Diversity provides resilience to weather and climate extremes (with more days having living roots in the soil), and when cover crops are developed to complement available forages on the ranch, they drastically extend the number of grazing days,” Gaskamp says.

Many ranchers capitalize on diversity by implementing cover crops, especially in marginalized lands or in diversified operations. Pragmatically, cover crops can cover a lot of ground, including:

Keep supplementation costs down by extending grazing.
Break up compacted soil.
Finish livestock on high quality forages for human consumption.
Provide a supplemental forage that has good quality when other plans are dormant.
Provide habitat for wildlife.

4. More Investment = More Opportunity

While the goal is to use soil health as a profit-generating strategy in and of itself on-ranch, there are opportunities to cash in on healthy soils that can present additional opportunity to enhance the bottom line.

“There are a number of established ecosystem services and carbon markets that can help ranchers capture value from the improvements they make to the land under their management for soil health,” Gaskamp says. “These provide an opportunity for ranchers within the right context.”

These opportunities may not work for all, and Gaskamp recommends that you do your homework to find the right partner, but he considers them “icing on the cake” for the proper soil health investments.

Farm Journal’s Trust In Beef™ and Noble Research Institute partner to share information about how investing in your soil health can build profitability and legacy on your ranch. Visit www.TrustInBeef.com or www.Noble.org for additional resources or to tap into Noble’s education opportunities on this topic and others.

Your Next Read:

Fall Grazing Management: Balancing Forage Use and Recovery

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:19:29 GMT

After several years of dry conditions limiting fall pasture growth in cool season pastures, this year may look a little different. Moisture and moderate temperatures are setting up the potential for some extra grass growth. While it’s tempting to use this forage right away, taking time to think through fall grazing strategies can pay dividends for both short-term feed needs and long-term pasture health.

Stockpiling Opportunities

One option is to let pastures rest this fall and stockpile growth for later grazing. Cool-season grasses like smooth bromegrass, Kentucky bluegrass and fescue often respond well to cooler fall conditions, if moisture is present.

Stockpiling can provide high-quality forage for late fall or even winter grazing, reducing the need for harvested feeds. Fertilizing earlier in the season and allowing pastures to rest now sets up the best stockpiling response, but even without those steps, deferring grazing can build feed reserves. Research at the University of Wisconsin has shown that cool-season grass stockpiled with 40–60 lb. N/acre can produce nearly a 75% increase in forage over unfertilized fields, depending on rainfall.

Fall Fertilization

Fertility is another tool to consider in the fall. Applying nitrogen in late August through early September can boost fall growth and improve stockpiling potential. While we are now on the back end of the ideal window, some benefit can still be seen if moisture is available to move nutrients into the soil profile. Beyond immediate growth, fall-applied fertilizer can also enhance early spring vigor by ensuring adequate nutrient availability as plants break dormancy.

However, nitrogen isn’t the only nutrient to keep in mind. Phosphorus and potassium applications are also worth considering. These nutrients don’t produce the same rapid flush of growth as nitrogen but play a critical role in stand persistence, root development and winter hardiness. Fall can be a good time to correct deficiencies since soil tests taken after summer growth provide a clearer picture of nutrient status, and applications can be made ahead of next year’s needs. As a rule of thumb, aim to maintain soil test phosphorus above 15 ppm (Bray) and potassium above 120 ppm for cool-season grasses. Alfalfa and mixed stands may require higher levels.

On native range or warm-season species, however, fall fertilization is not recommended since these plants are headed toward dormancy and won’t respond with additional growth.

Weighing Trade-Offs: Forage Now vs. Forage Later

The key question for many producers is whether to use the extra growth this fall or leave it for later. Grazing now can relieve pressure on other feed sources, but it comes with trade-offs. Grass plants need time in the fall to rebuild root reserves and set buds for spring growth. Over-utilization in September or October can weaken stands and reduce vigor next year.

Think back to this past spring. With slow green-up and delayed growth, early grazing pressure often left pastures short well into the season. Heavy use this fall could set us up for a repeat scenario. Leaving enough leaf area for photosynthesis and recovery heading into dormancy is critical to avoid slowing spring growth. A practical rule: if plants have less than 4 weeks of good growing conditions left after a grazing event, the chances of full recovery before dormancy are low.

Strategic Approaches

Rotate, don’t concentrate. If you choose to graze this fall, rotate quickly to avoid overgrazing any one area.
Watch residuals. Leave at least 4 inches of stubble on cool-season grasses to maintain plant health. For native range, leaving 6 to 8 inches is a safer target.
Target less sensitive acres. Native warm-season rangeland doesn’t respond as strongly to fall rest, but it also won’t provide much regrowth. Use caution if grazing these areas and avoid heavy pressure.
Plan for next spring. Pastures rested this fall will often be the first and most productive next spring. Factor this into your grazing plan.
Discuss with landowner. If you’re leasing or custom grazing, discuss fall use and fertility decisions with the landowner to avoid conflicts over spring performance and/or conflicts with the current lease terms.

Bottom Line

This fall may offer a rare chance for some extra pasture growth. Using it wisely can either fill feed gaps now or set up strong forage supplies for the months ahead.

The right choice depends on your operation’s forage needs, but keeping long-term recovery in mind is key. Fertility, rest, and careful use of available forage all play a role. Including cost-checks on fertilizer ROI and monitoring residual heights can help producers decide which strategy fits best. A little restraint today can mean more grass tomorrow.

Two Grazing Tools Ranchers Need to Know About

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:54:14 GMT

With cattle markets on the rise, many ranchers are culling more aggressively. Once the old, open and ornery cows are gone, the question becomes: Which cattle are truly weaning heavier calves on fewer resources?

Two technologies — RangeView by Envu and Ceres Tag — are working together to help ranchers answer that. Combined, they not only track individual animal intake on grazing cattle but also measure forage availability and pasture improvements.

“RangeView is a digital land management platform that is part of Envu’s range and pasture portfolio,” says Justin Hossfeld, national sales manager for range and pasture at Envu. “We can use RangeView to scout and create treatment plans for invasive species, monitor forage and build grazing plans, to name a few features. It’s like having another hired hand checking on the day-to-day details so you can focus on other areas of the ranch.”

Within RangeView, ranchers can also adapt grazing plans in real time.

“You can make adjustments based on rainfall,” Hossfeld says. “This helps determine whether you need to move sooner, later or adjust based on percent utilization.”

That’s just the beginning. The data captured through Ceres Tag takes monitoring to the next level.

“Ceres Tag is the world’s first direct-to-satellite animal intelligence platform,” says Shane White, national sales manager for Ceres Tag. “These tags measure dry matter intake in forage settings and show where cattle spend their time grazing and resting.”

The solar-powered ear tag, which has been tested in research trials for more than 15 years worldwide, provides ranchers with near-real-time accuracy.

“No one is going to say intake measurement is 100% accurate, but 90% accuracy is far better than assuming every 1,300-lb. cow eats the same,” White says.

Location tracking is another advantage.

“Peace of mind is a big benefit,” White says. “We no longer have to assume where cattle are on the mountain. High activity alerts can also notify you when cattle are under pressure, whether from predators or theft.”

Ceres Tag uses RangeView as its data hub, giving ranchers more than just intake and movement information.

“Dashboards can include local weather, commodity markets and other key data alongside Ceres Tag information,” Hossfeld says. “RangeView brings your most important information together in one place.”

The synergy between these two tools ties land stewardship directly to profitability.

“The primary return on investment comes from being better land stewards,” White says. “For years, we’ve used AUMs to estimate intake, but now we can measure the individual grazing cow.”

That data can also strengthen relationships with landowners by providing transparent reporting on forage utilization and grazing days. It can reduce input costs too.

“If I take out a cow that eats for two but weans one calf and replace her with two efficient cows, I’ve just created an additional $2,000 calf on the same resources,” White says.

RangeView complements that by integrating other features. “Ranchers like having everything in one place,” Hossfeld says. “Whether you’re checking weather, markets, water systems or forage utilization, it’s all there.”

Still, both White and Hossfeld stress that technology should support — not overwhelm — ranchers.

“Technology should work for you. You shouldn’t work for it,” Hossfeld says. “I know it seems intimidating, but embrace it because you need it.”

White agrees. “When ranchers start seeing the animal-level data, they’ll wonder how they operated without it.”

Their advice? Start small. Test the tools. Learn how they fit your operation. As White sums it up: “The technology might feel intimidating at first, but once ranchers see the decision-making power behind it, the benefits become clear.”

Listen to the full conversation on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast .

The Realities of Ranching on the Range

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 17:11:48 GMT

Restoring dormant land to become a productive cattle operation began 11 years ago for first-generation, southern California rancher, John Austel. He operates 4J Horse and Livestock Co. with his family, and has used targeted grazing to clean up the 10,000-acre property, which used to be a Spanish land grant. After being used as a large-scale farming and ranching operation for many years, the property changed ownership several times before selling to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and it was designated as the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve. The property, located in San Diego County, remained fallow for 25 years and burned twice during area wildfires in 2003 and 2007 before Austel began leasing it, restoring habitat and using cattle to mitigate wildfires.

“Targeted grazing, adaptive management, or prescribed grazing is a way to get these properties back into play, or at least get them managed,” Austel says. “A lot of grazing there was prime grazing that was not just good for livestock, but deer and other wildlife. A good percentage of it would turn into weeds after the wildfires.”

The Austel family have been raising cattle in San Diego county since 2014.

(John Austel)

Austel began setting up a rotational grazing program.

“I don’t know if I’ll get 3" of rain, 6.5" of rain, or 25" of rain, which is the reality of ranching on rangelands,” he says. “This process of rest and rotation lets me adapt to what the range needs and still manage the condition of my cows.”

With the backing of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Austel restored the ranch infrastructure, which had burned along with the power lines to the wells. He replaced electric wells with solar wells using NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding. They broke the part of the property they currently graze into 24 different paddocks ranging from 40 to 700 acres, depending on the resource concerns they have.

“There’s a lot of terminology out there; targeted grazing is one of them,” Austel says. “I like to call it adaptive management. We’re adapting to whatever is on that particular property or resource concern.”

Using grazing to mitigate wildfires

Wildfires cost billions of dollars each year in suppression efforts and damage to property and economies. Austel would rather focus on proactive wildfire fuel reduction through grazing.

“It’s not that a paddock won’t catch fire,” he says. “It could catch fire still, but the flames are going to be four or five inches tall versus having standing dry vegetation that’s 2' to 3' tall and built up year after year after year. The flames will be 6' to 12' high. That’s been documented. The intensity of the wildfire is substantially different.”

It’s a win-win for everyone.

“The financial benefit comes for not just myself as a producer, but for my community, my county and my state from a safety and financial standpoint,” Austel says.

The Austel family set up a specific wildfire fuel removal grazing plan after almost getting burnt out in the Gate Fire in 2017.

“We had put in all this infrastructure and water sources, and I’m just watching this fire come right towards us, and it’s going to wipe us out,” he says. “We can’t just sit here and not do anything.”

The fire burned up to the two-lane road next to the ranch, and firefighters were able to put it out with hoses as that point, sparing the property. Afterward, Austel went to the captain and the local unit of CAL Fire at the time, and came up with a plan to graze around the wildfire prone areas.

San Diego county rancher, John Austel, estimated the removal of 137,500 lb. of wildfire fuel in 30 days before rotating to another field to do the same job for the wildfire fuel removal grazing plan. H braces the Grazing Exclusion Containment Area for biologists to study.

(John Austel)

“The areas that we graze in our priority area are just below million-dollar homes that are up on a hill,” Austel says. “Those people are elated that we’re there.”

Cattle are moved in for 30 days, and very little wildfire fuel is left, then the herd moves to another paddock.

“Sometimes we’re on horseback, cowboying the Western way, and we like that,” Austel says. “We love that lifestyle. Sometimes we just open a gate and call them, and they just come from one paddock to another.”

The efforts have been successful.

“Targeted grazing is an effective way of seriously removing a lot of wildfire fuel on a large landscape basis,” Austel says. “You’ve got the big girls coming in eating 25 lb. to 30 lb. a day of dry matter, and they will clean up something very, very quickly if you have it in a targeted area.”

Your next read: Wildfire Management: The Day You Plan For, But Hope You Don’t Experience

Success Strategies For Post-Wildfire Grazing

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 10:43:55 GMT

Wildfires can leave producers wondering how to manage burned pastures, but the good news is perennial grasses are resilient and will recover.

How wildfires affect grasslands

Dormant season fires (winter/early spring)
If a wildfire occurs when grasses are dormant (like in late February), the grass buds that sprout in spring should be unharmed.
Growing season fires (May through August)
If a wildfire burns during the growing season, grasses suffer more damage because they are actively growing.
Drought conditions
If pastures experienced drought last year and dry conditions continue this spring and summer, recovery will be harder. May and June rainfall is critical for regrowth and should guide range management decisions. More conservative measures might need to be taken if wildfire is coupled with drought.
Increase in annual weeds
Following a fire, an increase in annual weeds is common. This is normal and temporary.

Grazing strategies after a wildfire
“Recommendations for grazing after a wildfire used to be a lot more conservative,” says Jerry Volesky, Nebraska Extension range specialist. Recent research suggests grazing restrictions do not need to be as strict as previously thought.

However, these key strategies should be followed:

Protect the soil

Fire increases the risk of wind and water erosion.
Residual (standing dead plants) and litter (dead plants covering the soil surface) are removed in a fire, which increases the amount of bare ground following a wildfire or prescribed burn.
The goal is to build up biomass in the pasture to protect the soil from wind/water erosion.
Recent research in the eastern Nebraska Sandhills (Barta Brothers Ranch) evaluating dormant season prescribed fire (not the same as wildfire, but similar response) has not seen differences in grass growth in the summer following a fire. According to Mitchell Stephenson, Nebraska Extension range specialist, the big difference is the amount of carryover plant material (standing dead and litter), which increases the amount of bare ground following a wildfire or prescribed burn.

Delay grazing and reduce stocking rates

Wait as long as possible before grazing to allow residual plant material to rebuild and protect the soil.
In a normal precipitation year, delay turnout by one to two months.
Reduce stocking rates by 20% to 40% in normal years and even more during drought conditions.
The longer you wait to graze, the less you need to reduce stocking rates. If you wait until September or later, you can graze at full stocking rates because plant residual/litter has been established to cover bare soil.

Monitor rainfall in May and June

Good, early-season precipitation helps grasses recover quickly, often making burn areas hard to spot by mid-summer.
Continued drought will reduce grass production, requiring more conservative grazing practices.

If your pasture is dominated by cool-season grasses (like smooth brome), a quick grazing in early spring, sometimes called a “flash grazing” can help knock down smooth brome and promote growth of warm-season grasses.

Next year in 2026, pastures should return to normal grazing rates, pending drought conditions.

Assistance programs
Emergency or disaster programs for wildfire recovery might be available through your local NRCS or FSA office. Contact them to express interest and check for available support.

Article by Bethany Johnston, Nebraska Extension, Livestock Systems Educator; Jerry Volesky, Nebraska Extension, Range & Forage Specialist; and Mitch Stephenson, Nebraska Extension, Range Management Specialist.

Your Next Read: Prescribed Burns: Keeping the Prairie Alive; Preventing Wildfires

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

Grazing Mistakes that Could Cost You the Ranch

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:44:34 GMT

“Rancher” is a loaded job title. Cattle management and care come to mind first, but the finer details of managing grass and natural resources are key factors in staying in business and passing down the operation. Devlon Ford, a lifelong learner, facilitates grazing courses for Noble Research Institute. Through his experience managing grazing land and teaching others, he has noticed common mistakes that are costing ranchers across the country more than they realize.

Properly managing grazing lands begins with developing a grazing plan. Ford says, “Having a grazing plan allows ranchers to be more adaptive in their management.”

Ranching never goes according to plan, but not having one makes it more challenging to make informed decisions.

Part of creating a grazing plan is understanding the terminology associated with it. Carrying capacity and stocking rate are two terms ranchers must grasp.

“I often hear people use these terms interchangeably, but they are two distinctly different terms, definitions, and outcomes for your ranch,” Ford says.

Carrying Capacity is based on a mathematical formula that considers grazeable acres, forage production on those acres, forage utilization, and how many days will be spent grazing. Essentially, it tells land managers how many head of livestock can be supported on a specific area of land.

(Grazeable Acres x Total Forage x Utilization Rate)/(Daily Forage Demand x Grazing Period) = Number of Cattle

Factors to keep in mind when determining carrying capacity include the fact that owned acres are not equal to grazeable acres, cow sizes are likely larger than those of previous generations, and the utilization rate should probably be lower than you might expect.

“No grass is ever wasted. Even if it is used for soil health and goes back into the soil,” Ford says. Forage utilization depends on climate, land, and available forage. A higher utilization rate can be used on annuals compared to native pasture.

Calculating forage production can also be challenging for producers. It can be visually appraised and measured, but many ranchers probably have a rough idea of how many head can be supported on a pasture for a certain amount of time. The NRCS Web Soil Survey can be a good starting point for outlining a ranch and estimating average forage production.

Stocking rate is different from carrying capacity.

Ford says, “Stocking rate is solely a management decision. It is the number of animals we choose to put on a piece of land.” Land managers need to calculate their carrying capacity first to properly determine the best stocking rate.

(Total Land Area)/(# AUs) = Stocking Rate

The stocking rate decision can have major benefits or implications.

“Stocking rate is the primary determinant of profitability,” Ford says. “The problem with setting the stocking rate above carrying capacity is that ranchers will more than likely increase the cost per animal by creating the need for more supplementation and soil degradation from overgrazing.”

Another important grazing term is stock density, which refers to the total pounds of animals on a specific area. For example, a 20,000-lb. stock density would look like 20 1,000-lb. cows per acre.

“Stocking density allows us to do a lot of different things, and it’s one of the best tools in the grazers’ toolbox,” Ford says.

It encourages cattle to eat all available plants instead of being selective and creates more uniform grazing.

Stock density can also be used to lay down taller, lignified forage from previous grazing seasons and feed the soil.

“The soil feeds the grass, and the grass feeds the cattle,” Ford says.

Time is a critical piece of stocking density. Producers who choose to utilize this tool at higher rates will need to dedicate more time to moving their cattle compared to those who use moderate to lower stock densities. However, producers with higher stock densities will likely make improvements faster.

Ford reminds others, “A lot of this goes back to context for each producer and their ranch.”

Quality of life, goals and enterprises all need to be factored into the grazing plan. It’s also important to account for busy seasons and vacations when creating the plan.

Ranchers who want to improve their land but don’t want to move cattle every day can still make progress by moving them every three to five days in wet climates or every five to seven days in arid climates. The timing of these moves depends on how fast regrowth occurs because cattle will naturally eat the fresh regrowth, which isn’t beneficial to the plants or soil. If too many leaves are removed from a plant, it cannot perform its role effectively.

If all of this feels overwhelming but you know you want to make a change, start by asking yourself if you are over your carrying capacity and observing your ranch.

Ford says, “Our ranches will teach us a lot if we take the time to observe and monitor.”

Watch the whole episode.

Prescribed Burns: Keeping the Prairie Alive; Preventing Wildfires

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:08:46 GMT

It’s fire season in the Kansas Flint Hills. Research and experience have shown controlled or prescribed burning helps maintain grassland health and reduces wildfire risk.

Kansas cattle producer Debbie Lyons-Blythe says she can remember watching pasture burning at a young age.

“I grew up in the Kansas Flint Hills,” Lyons-Blythe says. “My family has always burned pasture. I remember being involved when I was a young. Burning promotes biodiversity. The absolute best way to control invasive species, specifically the eastern red cedar, is to light a fire. Burning promotes better grazing and improves weight gains for cattle.”

Lyons-Blythe shares her experiences as a mom, wife and rancher on a Kansas cattle ranch on her website, Facebook and Instagram accounts. You can find her at Kids, Cows and Grass .

She says even though the prairie was designed by nature, it is mankind’s responsibility to help maintain it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DebbieLB, Rancher & Speaker (@kidscowsandgrass)

One of her posts, written for a consumer audience, explained the top five reasons to prescribe burn.

1. Use fewer chemicals.
“We have lost 96% of the native prairie to cropland or it has become infested with trees. When the eastern red cedar engulfs the prairie, we lose deep-rooted, carbon-sequestering native plants. Without fire to control the woody invasion, we will have to turn to chemicals for widespread control. That not only increases expense, but also labor and safety.”

2. Better weight gain on livestock with fresh, green, more nutritious grass.
“The Flint Hills of Kansas is cow country. Our land is mostly grass and millions of cattle come here each spring to grow before heading to feedlots.”

3. Promote better use of grasses by livestock.
“By burning off the old, dead grass, fresh green grass regrows quickly and draws livestock to it. We can manage their grazing pattern based on where we burn.”

4. Weed control.
“Kill woody shrubs and trees and promote biodiversity. We don’t plant this grass; we just have to keep the invasive trees and weeds out. By maintaining a health prairie, we promote natural diversity in plant species.”

5. To encourage wildlife population.
“What’s good for cows is good for wildlife. Burning keeps trees out of prairie. Trees provide habitat for animals that prey on prairie chicken and other upland birds.”

Strategy to prevent wildfires
The thought of fire can be scary to those who have experienced a wildfire. But a well-planned controlled burn is a proactive and smart tool to prevent wildfires by reducing fuel sources, particularly cedar trees.

“You can talk about climate change, but the main driving force is fuels, and they’re not being managed,” says Terry Bidwell, Oklahoma State University retired Extension range specialist.

Fuel management is a strategy both Lyons-Blythe and Bidwell agree will be key to reducing wildfires like those that recently occurred in Oklahoma and California.

Lyons-Blythe explains the sparks to start a wildfire can be as simple as somebody dragging a chain on the highway, power lines sparking in the wind or a lightning strike.

“The problem is that if a spark gets into those tall cedar trees they go up like a torch,” she explains. “They throw sparks for miles if there is any kind of wind.”

Bidwell also shares his concern about the potential for wildfires in the Eastern U.S. if something is not done to stop cedar trees taking over forests.

“The Eastern U.S. is set up for worse, catastrophic fires under these long-term, periodic droughts,” he explains. “It will be much worse than anything we have seen out West.”

Listen to Bidwell on the “ Blazin’ Grazin’ and Other Wild Things ” podcast.

Your Next Read: Tips for a Successful Burn: A Natural Solution to Ecosystem Health

State of Grazing Management: Take Your Next Step

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:43:42 GMT

Whether you are managing a rotational grazing free-for-all, or analyzing every inch of your forage and pastureland, there is room to grow in honing a grazing strategy that maximizes your land and resources and turns them into a bottom-line success for your operation and the environment.

In previous articles in this State of Grazing Management series, we examined differing rancher perspectives on written grazing management plans and learned where the industry stands on data-keeping. In those stories, we shared the value of connecting multi-generational ranch leaders to one unified plan and the unique relationship between the environment and grazing planning. We examined ranching at every level and dug into what is holding ranchers back from writing down their plan to keep their strategy in check.

These barriers are something that Hugh Aljoe, Noble Research Institute Director of Ranches, Outreach & Partnerships, assesses every day when he works with grazers that fall into different mindsets.

“First are those that don’t believe planning will make a difference in the outcome - basically they believe the climate and the land resources have the biggest role in outcomes,” he says. “Second are those that don’t want to take the time because there isn’t an easy method to use. Then there are those who know they are doing a pretty good job, but are not sure what additional value planning and monitoring will bring. Lastly are those that just don’t know how to get started.”

We brought together industry leaders to share top ways you can take action today - from those interested in taking the first steps in beginning a written grazing management plan to producers who have a plan but feel it needs a closer look.

Industry leaders provide tools to begin or grow your grazing management plan today.

(Trust In Food)

Think Big but Start Small
Kason Haby, a contractor with Texas Grazing Lands Coalition who worked with Suzanne Schuchart at Running V Ranch on development of her ranch’s first written grazing management plan, believes that the value of grazing planning lies in helping ranchers to think holistically about their operations and their goals.

“As ranchers, we are in our operations all day, every day,” he says. “You get in the day-to-day grind, and you’re just doing these jobs and tasks. Being able to step back and think about our operations as a whole is beneficial from the standpoint of being able to make your operation more efficient.”

When Haby works with ranchers like Schuchart, he begins with the basics, narrowing down what is the most appropriate stocking rate for the resources available.

“Suzanne was close to that mark, but a lot of producers that I work with are not,” he says.

Once stocking rate is determined, Haby turns to grazing system analysis, looking at establishing a rotation in their system that would allow pastures to rest.

“Those are my two main focus points first because if we don’t get that right, then everything else we do is not going to work,” Haby says.

Producers who begin with that foundation can then incorporate other aspects of their unique operation including soil health practices, brush control, prescribed burning, weed management, nutrient management and livestock nutrition.

Haby suggests thinking of grazing and stocking rate as the jumping off point for holistic land management.

“Improving grazing management is one of the best ways to improve soil health and protect important land and water resources,” says Troy Goldhammer, CEO, PowerFlex. “When grazing management is led by a well-thought-through grazing plan, it results in a coordinated approach to land management.”

Pro Tip: Start with stocking rates and grazing management as a foundation, but don’t forget to scale your plan to include resource management that achieves other operational goals.

Just Write It Down
Written grazing management plan advocates stress the importance of getting the plan out of an operator’s mind and onto paper, whether that’s a written plan using pen/paper or a software or web-based platform.

“While writing down the plan may seem tedious or just like another box to check, the reality is that writing down your grazing management plan provides you with the dedicated space to reflect on how you are managing the land, your animals and your business,” says Dr. Samantha Werth, Executive Director of U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. “It helps you to place a critical eye on the process, determine what your operational goals are and the resources you need to see success.”

Writing down the plan provides more than an opportunity for introspection, though.

At the ranch-gate, Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado, says his digital planning process allows for better management at his multi-generational ranch.

“Writing it down helps you remember it and gets everybody engaged with it,” he says of the process, which includes he and his wife, along with their daughter and son-in-law.

“When everybody has a say in it, you’re more apt to hold to those trigger points,” he adds.

Wooten says that his digital plan allows the family management to consistently analyze its efficacy and use the data to make more sound operational decisions, a perk that is echoed by Werth.

“A written grazing management plan isn’t intended to be something you fill out once and come back to once a year,” Werth says. “It is intended to be a tool that supports a producer making the best possible decisions for their enterprise as they possibly can. It’s a living document that should be referred to frequently as you work to set goals, monitor progress and learn from your decisions – then adapt and adjust as needed to keep working toward your goals.”

Pro Tip: Making sure your plan is written down ensures that it will help achieve goals that are both short and long term for your operation.

Factor In Your Whole Operation
Standalone farms and ranches are increasingly becoming rare as operators understand that stacking enterprises can increase diversity and profitability.

Like many others, both Wooten and Schuchart also operate wildlife enterprises that use their land to capture opportunity.

Successful written grazing management plans take the whole business into account, factoring in management of resources that apply to those other enterprises as well.

On Running V Ranch, Schuchart’s grazing plan helps her to ensure that her mix of open land and native land will be conducive to wildlife. Her newly established grazing plan means she can use her cattle to keep brush down in some areas while ensuring that native habitats thrive in others.

Wooten uses the same philosophy on Beatty Canyon Ranch, ensuring that his management plan shores up natural resources for use by wildlife and biodiversity.

Pro Tip: Don’t limit your plan to only grazing. Make your plan work for your whole operation to ensure maximum impact for your ranch.

Take Advantage of Resources
A number of resources are available to help get you started on a new plan or help you maximize the efficacy of your existing plan, including:

U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef GMP Module and Producer Toolkit
These online tools take the guesswork out of grazing planning with step-by-step guides that take you through planning for your unique operation.

Noble Research Institute Courses
Online and in-person courses like Noble Grazing Essentials , Noble Land Essentials and Noble Profitability Essentials can provide access to experts that present information in a straightforward manner and cut to the heart of your operation’s bottom line.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
USDA-NRCS conservation officials in your local office can provide access to technical and financial assistance to achieve your conservation goals. Their grazing specialists can advise on tactics that are dialed-in for your local climate and ecosystem and provide access to financial incentives to make those goals possible.

National Grazing Lands Coalition and statewide chapters
Haby recommends tapping the expertise of the National Grazing Lands Coalition as well as statewide chapters like the Texas Grazing Lands Coalition , who often have grazing experts that can visit your operation and provide guidance on a number of conservation aspects.

Powerflex Ranchers Success Program
“Powerflex’s Ranchers Success Program allows grazers to visit one-on-one with grazing experts to review their goals and receive guidance on infrastructure that is needed to achieve those goals,” says Goldhammer. “With the help of Powerflex’s Rancher Success Program and Powerflex partnerships, including leading grazing individuals and organizations, we match those goals with the right products that help set them on the right path forward.”

Ducks Unlimited
The nation’s leading implementer of wildlife conservation efforts is also a leader in protecting the nation’s working and grazing lands. Their grazing experts can provide technical expertise as well as connections to financial incentives to implement conservation practices that benefit ecosystems as a whole.

Pro Tip: There are a host of opportunities available for you to learn more about grazing opportunity and get the technical assistance, and sometimes financial assistance, that you need to take the next step in your grazing planning journey today.

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 .

Your Next Read:

State of Grazing Management: To Plan or Not to Plan

State of Grazing Management: Paving the Way for Progress

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: Paving the Way for Progress

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 20:59:58 GMT

Rotational grazing is more than just a buzzword.

The practice of moving cattle and letting pastureland rest has a myriad of benefits to productivity, profitability, sustainability and legacy for America’s grazing lands.

To reap the most benefits from rotational grazing, farmers and ranchers can utilize written grazing management plans that allow them to track their success year-over-year, pulling in data they can use to make better decisions in the future.

With those benefits in mind, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef has established an ambitious goal of putting 385 million U.S. grazing lands acres under written management plans by 2050.

Anecdotally, USRSB leadership, which is made up of farmers, ranchers and value chain officials, knew that grazing management practices were as diverse as the lands and ranchers they represented. Common practices for managing grazing can range from plans that exist in an operator’s mind to pen/paper tracking and even to sophisticated software or web-based platforms.

In the previous article in this series, we heard from two generational ranches that have historically had different approaches to grazing management and planning.

In that piece, Suzanne Schuchart of Running V Ranch in Texas says, “I didn’t have a visual grazing chart or plan because I just knew my rotation in my mind.”

Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado countered, “Writing down the plan helps you remember it and gets everyone engaged with it.”

In order to more fully understand that diversity in planning, USRSB turned to data.

The Study
Recently, USRSB tapped the expertise of Trust In Food , Farm Journal’s social purpose initiative, to fully understand both where the industry stood toward its goal and to comprehend the unique barriers that stand between ranchers and the adoption of written grazing management plans.

“We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us to work with farmers and ranchers across the U.S. to put their plans to paper and support efforts for them to optimize their management strategies and build resilience in not only their businesses but in the land they manage and in their communities,” says Samantha Werth, PhD, executive director of USRSB. “Ultimately, reaching our goal of 385 million acres under written grazing management plans supports industry-wide commitment to continuous improvement while also helping to build a more resilient beef supply chain.”

The study, which pulled from quantitative and qualitative data gathered from ranchers across the U.S., dug into findings around:
- Grazing management plan goals and sentiments
- Approaches to planning
- Current acreages managed under best practices
- Potential value chain actions that would support more rapid transition to written plan

The collaborative has released the study findings in a public report titled, “ State of Grazing Management ,” which provides a tool for quantifying the positive progress that beef cattle ranchers are making so that a pathway will emerge for ensuring sustainability in the beef value chain through securing economic and environmental value simultaneously.

A free report from USRSB and Trust In Food details where the industry stands on written grazing management plans now and what opportunites exist to accelerate adoption.

(Trust In Food)

The Findings
The study found that ranchers who report managing their resources under a written grazing management plan overwhelmingly capture their entire acreage within the plan and utilize it in making operational decisions on their farms that ensure productivity and profitability. Additional key findings from the report include:

- USRSB’s goal of 385 million acres under written grazing management plans is 11% fulfilled.
The study found that 44 million acres would qualify now as managing under a written grazing management plan, representing 10% of all U.S. ranchers and 11% of USRSB’s target acreage.
- Grazing management is currently diverse.
372 million acres (40% of U.S. ranchers) are managed under grazing management plans that are undocumented. 66% of written grazing management plans utilize pen/paper and only a fraction (7%) use a farm management software or app to track grazing management.
- Stewardship drives the need and desire for grazing planning.
Ranchers who regularly face natural resource stress are more likely to have a grazing management plan than ranchers who are less likely to face similar stressors, indicating that they are using GMP to steward resources for their land. Additionally, 60% report that having a plan is the “right thing to do” for overall land and legacy stewardship. Conversely, very few respondents had a plan because it was a requirement or a condition of lease agreements, indicating that requirements may not be a significant driver.
- Producers without a formal, written plan are more diversified.
This group is less focused on cattle as core revenue drivers, may be structured around row crops or a more diversified income, are less comfortable with technology and less proactive in running their livestock operations and are less motivated by resource management.

“Interestingly, this report uncovered that ranches managed under a written grazing management plan are more likely to also have succession plans in place, which gives us some insights into the generational resilience of the beef supply chain as a whole and indicates that a leading indicator of change overall could possibly be written plans,” says Amy Skoczlas Cole, president, Trust In Food. “This is critical information as our industry faces a widening gulf between farm and table and also a tipping point for generational transfer of working lands.”

The free report , along with its methodology and further insights, is available online.

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 .

Your Next Read: State of Grazing Management: To Plan or Not to Plan

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.

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Installing batteries and preparing collars to use for virtual fencing.

Jessie Jarvis

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

Jessie Jarvis

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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

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

Jessie Jarvis

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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.”

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

Nofence

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Nofence

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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.

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