From Soil to Stream: How Regenerative Grazing Supports Texas Watersheds
As I am writing this, plentiful rains across East Texas are fueling an explosion of grass growth. Though ranchers are grateful for the rain and the forage, wet conditions bring to mind last spring’s veritable inundation. We received record-setting Spring rains, but then many of us struggled with droughty conditions for the rest of the season. Ranchers often feel powerless in the face of whipsaw conditions like these, but there are some ranchers that are changing how they think about weather extremes by changing how they think about the soil under their feet. Through regenerative ranching, they are working to increase the land’s ability to absorb and hold onto water, effectively buffering the harsh effects of climatic extremes.
The goal of regenerative agriculture is in the name. It refers to the potential for regenerating our soils while also growing food, fiber, and fuel. Proponents of regenerative agriculture argue that the name is more appropriate than “sustainable agriculture” because sustainability implies that you maintain the status quo; regenerative agriculture aims to improve land over time and leave it better than when you started. Farmers and ranchers use diverse management tools to accomplish this, but they are all grounded in the principles of soil health.
Healthy Soils
The soil health principles are based on biological processes, but before we can get into the biology, we need to acknowledge the alarming scale of soil loss since the advent of modern agriculture. Whether due to tillage or bare fallow, soil erosion continues to be an expected result in most of our agricultural systems. For the soil that didn’t wash away, 20th-century agronomic practice focused on soil chemistry and overlooked the power of biological forces in soil formation and function. The unintended consequences of our preoccupation with N, P, and K, both environmental and economic, have led to a deeper study of how natural soil systems thrive without external inputs.
Innovative ranchers putting these insights into practice are showing that managing their livestock with soil life in mind can transform their operations and increase profitability, both through a reduced reliance on purchased inputs and higher production. For example, when we work to eliminate bare soil on our ranches, we not only protect the soil from erosion, but also modulate soil temperature and increase the amount of time it is in the ideal range for soil organisms and plants. By staying in the “sweet spot,” we can grow more grass and reduce our reliance on hay and purchased feeds.