CALF_News_October_November_2021

27 CALF News • October | November 2021 • www.calfnews.net beyond the soil to include the plants, because plants and soil make up an interconnected ecosystem. However, periodic soil disturbance by the hooves of grazing animals and tun- neling by roots and earthworms is natural and good for soil health.  Increase plant and animal diversity: Community diversity is important for healthy, functional ecosystems. Thus, regenerative ranchers try to increase plant and animal diversity. They graze multiple species of animals on diverse mixes of forages in pastures that are alive with micro- and macro- flora, and wildlife above and below ground.  Maximize actively growing roots: Healthy rangelands consist of hun- dreds of species of plants. Something is nearly always actively growing, whether it’s the warm or cool season. Ranchers who introduce different forages to pastures benefit the land. They increase actively growing roots by managing for multiple cultures of warm- and cool-season perennial for- ages, or over-seed with annual cover crops to fill gaps when their primary forage is dormant.  Properly integrate livestock: What makes regenerative ranchers different from others is how their livestock is grazed. They manage and manipulate five critical grazing fundamentals – the time of the season or year when grazing occurs; how often plants are grazed; how heavily plants are grazed; how long a grazing event lasts; and rest periods to allow plants to recover from grazing during the growing season. They place emphasis on grazing adaptively with short graz- ing events followed by long recovery periods. “Regenerative ranchers know how they can apply these soil health prin- ciples in ways that align with, and make the most of what they have for the ben- efit of the land, their profitability and their quality of life,”Wells says. The Regenerative Cow As has been preached for generations, cattle that work well in a hot, humid climate likely won’t perform in a cold one, and vice versa. The same example applies to a good “regenerative” cow. “The type of cow that performs well at a regenerative ranch in one location may not perform well at another loca- tion,”Wells says. “It’s also likely that different types of cows can perform equally well within the same locale under different regener- ative-managed operations. It’s all about the cow fitting the context of any given regenerative ranch.” Like with soil health, Wells lists six aspects of a regenerative cow:  She fits her environment: There’s a saying that a bull only works for 90 days or less, but the cow never gets a day off. She is either gestating, lactating or has recently weaned a calf and is still gestating. If she does not fit the environment, whether natural or management-induced, she will either cost the rancher more to maintain body condition, or will not rebreed. She falls out of the system sooner than expected. Cows that are environmentally adapted to an area should naturally perform better.  She is moderate in size: Based on cow size, a moderate-framed cow (1,100 to 1,200 pounds) typically eats less forage per day than a large- framed cow. With efficiency of the two cow sizes being equal relative to their respective sizes, you can stock more moderate-framed cows on the same number of acres. This should lead to weaning more total pounds of calves per acre. An exception would be cattle raised to fit a specific niche or unique market.  She may be crossbred: Relatively straightbred, black-hided cattle have become more popular and have dramatically helped to increase consistency and quality of the beef. However, the cattle industry has lost hybrid vigor or other efficien- cies that come with heterosis, which may enhance pounds of gain that pastures may produce. Successful crossbreeding requires knowing what type calves they will produce. The crossed breeds should be complementary and build off the strengths of each other.  She does not have excessive milking ability: Milk expected progeny dif- ferences (EPDs) have increased in recent years. However, some breeds include cows with milking traits Continued on page 37  Noble’s regenerative ranching program gets the out of natural resources and leans toward crossbred cows to take advantage of heterosis.