The benefits of rotational grazing

Years ago, before being hunted to near extinction, millions of bison roamed the American Great Plains. Their slow grazing and continual movement to avoid predators helped the prairie thrive. Today, some cattle ranchers aim to mimic that process with rotational grazing, incentivized by voluntary carbon programs.

How it works

Instead of giving cattle full access to a field, ranchers practicing rotational grazing split the field into several pastures, or paddocks. After a set period, they move cattle from one pasture to another, giving the land and forage time to recover from intensive grazing. 

“We end up utilizing only 20% of the forage if we’re keeping a few animals in a large landscape,” says Brekke Munks, a carbon science agronomist at the Agoro Carbon Alliance, an organization backed by Yara International that works with farmers and ranchers to adopt practices that become carbon credits. “If we take the opportunity and divide large pastures, we can increase the forge that is utilized in that pasture.” 

Jeff Huinker, of Postville, Iowa, joined Agoro Carbon’s pasture and livestock program in 2023. He “cell grazes,” with four paddocks for each cattle group. Each paddock is grazed for a week and left empty for three. 

The paddocks require little preparation beyond maintaining electric fences. Huinker has frost-seeded clover and applied urea in early spring for extra benefits.

Benefits

Rotationally grazing cattle provides several benefits beyond carbon payments. 

“An immediate benefit is increased carrying capacity,” says Garth Boyd, a partner at The Context Network, an agricultural consulting group based in West Des Moines, Iowa. “Instead of running 100 animals, with rotational grazing, in theory, you can run more, sometimes up to 200 depending on factors like moisture, soil health, and grass quality.”

Restricting cattle to a smaller area incentivizes them to graze less desirable plants, and encourages more hoof action. This leads to more incorporation of manure into the soil, and healthier soil compositions.  

Some ranchers who have implemented rotational grazing have noticed increased yields, quality, and nutrient value of forage in rotational grazing systems. “The one big thing with overall soil health and carbon storage,” Munks says, “is there’s a downstream effect. Often, the overall health of the animals goes up, and vet bill costs go down.”

While rotational grazing can be more labor intensive, being more hands-on has made Huinker more familiar with his herd.

Program contracts

Agoro Carbon’s contracts span 10 years, an intimidating length for an industry as unpredictable as agriculture. The company incentivizes ranchers for practice changes and pays for carbon stored after verifying carbon sequestration, and sells carbon credits to companies looking to meet carbon targets. The long contract length allows Agoro to ensure permanence for these carbon credits. 

Once committed to an Agoro Carbon program, the rancher pairs with an agronomist team to gather historical data and log management practices. A third- party conducts soil samples. 

“Those samples are sent to a lab and tested for soil carbon,” Munks says. “The initial soil sampling results help us identify the baseline. Then, we come back and test two more times throughout the life cycle of the contract.” 

Besides physical sampling, Agoro Carbon employs modeling and data verification to understand and track carbon sequestration.

Huinker sees value in the contract because it allows him to stack practices while accounting for carbon’s continually rising price.

“The more we have programs like this, the more we’re going to have companies buying the sequestered carbon, and farmers getting paid more for it,” he says.

Editor’s note: The Context Network is a global agribusiness consulting firm that helps organizations achieve results through strategic management insights and a network of ag industry professionals, creating business solutions that deliver actionable outcomes. Learn more at contextnet.com.