Understanding regenerative grazing
December 2020
Melissa Henry Senior Natural Resource Management Advisor, Yass/Boorowa
Over the past few months I’ve been doing a lot of property visits in the Boorowa, Upper Lachlan and Yass area, talking with landholders about how they can improve the natural assets on their farms.
The impacts of 3 years of drought have resulted in landholders re-evaluating their management and the importance of protecting their ground-cover. Landholders are looking at ways to better conserve their ground-cover, increase the prevalence of native and perennial pastures to reduce feed-gaps, and to increase soil carbon and soil water holding capacity.
Regenerative agriculture is defined by Gabe Brown, farmer and author of “Dirt to Soil” as:
“a renewal of food and farming systems which aims to regenerate topsoil, increase biodiversity, improve the mineral, carbon and water cycles which improving profitability throughout the supply chain”.
Regenerative agriculture involves different management practices to what many would be accustomed to. Regenerative practices require fewer inputs and for grazing patterns to be managed differently to allow pastures longer periods of time to rest and recover.
To have highly productive and biodiverse pastures with lower inputs, requires livestock to be rotationally grazed and pastures given rest periods ideally of 60-120 days. To do this livestock need to be mobbed together whenever possible and ideally moved around 12+ paddocks per mob.
Having greater flexibility in stock numbers is also important in regenerative practices as it allows for greater flexibility managing seasonal conditions. Doing monthly pasture feed budgets and knowing your rolling rainfall is important in making decisions about your current and future carrying capacity. Grazing charts are a decision-making tool that can be used in making pasture assessments and in determining rest periods.
As rainfall patterns become more irregular with heavier rainfall events, being able to reduce run-off and capture as much water into the soil as possible is important. Having 100% ground-cover and deep-rooted plants allows rain to be absorbed into the soil where it lands and reduces erosion and prevents topsoil loss.
Want to learn more about regenerative grazing:
If you want to learn more about regenerative practices, I highly recommend joining a Landcare grazing group. The grazing groups provide a peer learning environment with facilitators and mentors to provide ideas and support decision making processes. These will take the form of information sessions, property tours, bus trips, and field days with specialist speakers. Producers in the Yass/Boorowa/Upper Lachlan area can contact their local Landcare group to learn more:
There are a number of podcasts on regenerative agriculture such as:
Ground Cover (Regenerative Ag Alliance/ Southern Cross University)
Sustainable Farms (ANU)
The Big Shift for Small Farms (Local Land Services)
The Regenerative Journey with Charlie Arnott
To listen, either click on the links above or download on your phone from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
There are also a number of short courses and university degrees in regenerative agriculture. Soils for Life have listed them here.
The South East Local Land Services NRM team are working with landholders in the Boorowa, Upper Lachlan and Yass areas under our Local Land Stewards program to sub-divide paddocks to implement regenerative grazing principles.
The objective is to maintain ground-cover at 80-100% at all times (even in drought), to increase herbage mass and to increase the diversity and perenniality of pasture species.
To talk with your nearest Local Land Services team about regenerative grazing, call 1300 795 299 or myself at Boorowa on 02 6385 1018 or by email.
The Local Land Stewards project is supported by South East Local Land Services, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.