The beauty and sustainability of grass based ranching is that it can do wonders for both land and stock. The grasslands need the livestock and the livestock need the grasslands. Through smart utilization of both, the land heals and the livestock flourishes.
Grass and livestock need each other in a convoluted way that stretches far beyond the plants being a food source for livestock. To dismiss one in favour of the other is to ensure an overall decrease in health and vitality of the land.
We need to go back and learn the long forgotten link between grass and livestock. As long as we treat the land as secondary, or fail to appreciate it at all, we are failing to see the whole connective picture.
Ranching in this manner is about managing land for the sake of grass and the grassland ecosystem, not only the sake of ourselves or the livestock. It is understanding that we are primarily grass ranchers and the animals we use to harvest the grass is really secondary.
Grass based ranching requires the decisions be based on the main resource with an outlook on the whole system at all times. It is a production cycle that revolves around a whole year of grass not just four months of grazing.
It means challenging our thinking about conventional ways of agricultural production and running tractors less and enjoying life more.
Grass Based Ranching - A Way to Profit?
Grass is still the cheapest and healthiest feed, and still the feed ruminant herbivores prefer. They are designed to eat grass, not grain, not corn, not manufactured feeds.
A way of ranching that is developed around its natural resource will always be cheaper in the long term. By maximizing on the potential of that resource while maintaining respect for it, the rancher maintains the upper advantage.
Grass based ranching is one means for a rancher to begin to secure her own profit. Through a system that relies on the utilization of its cheapest resources we can realize how much control of our profit we really have and how much profit we were unknowingly throwing out the window when we didn't know any different. Then we can focus on the factors within our control instead of stressing over the ones outside of our control.
If the rancher is paying attention to those items she can control, such as expenses and overheads, she will be less susceptible to market crashes and price cycles for market animals and feed stuffs.
Ranching is this manner is perhaps the only way to give new folks a hope of getting into ranching. They are not faced with heavy equipment purchases, rising fuel costs, costs in managing excessive waste, extensive infrastructure costs, finding labor to manage harvest, etc. A piece of land, some fencing, a few head of livestock, some hard work, planning, dedication and a little bit of luck will get the ball rolling.
Grass based ranching is a simplistic way of life that reflects who we are and what we care for. It is ranching with the knowledge that we cannot toy with nature and hope to get away with it long term.
The system is a natural balancing act that once absorbed on a personal level leaves one wondering why we didn't start down this path much sooner. Or why we don't teach more of our children about it.
It means challenging our thinking about conventional ways of agricultural production and running tractors less and enjoying life more.
