With all the snow stories lately - I thought I'd share some cattle wisdom with our readers. One of the toughest challenges Ranchers face is how to feed cattle during the winter months. Cattle were created to be natural wanderers, traversing great distances in search of food and water. In the past, during winter large herds would migrate from northern areas to the south in search of more favorable grazing conditions.

This migration, combined with a rest period for the northern pastures, created a mutually beneficial cycle that allowed the soil to support more plants and resources for summer grazing. As a result, the animals were able to put on weight and require fewer calories during the winter.

One of the primary ways ranchers prepare their herds for winter is by checking their backs for snow retention after the first snowfall of the season. Good, fat cows will carry snow on their backs for most of the day following a light dusting, thanks to the insulative properties of their back fat. This helps us determine if our cows are ready for the winter season. If not, we usually sell them off before the harsher winter weather arrives and their condition deteriorates.

In nature, we can see evidence of the benefits of mob-stocking, rotational, and management-intensive grazing practices that promote carbon sequestration. The cows themselves provide historical evidence of their preferred grazing patterns. However, many cattlemen today rely on selective grazing and continuous stocking techniques, which involve fencing in an area and leaving the cows to graze continually without any planned movement or management.

Despite the benefits that nature demonstrates, ranchers often deride these practices as "too much work." It is important to recognize that what is declared normal and beneficial by nature should be a guiding principle for ranching practices. By implementing these techniques, we can not only improve the health of our cattle and the land, but also promote more sustainable and profitable operations in the long run.

The key concept to remember here is that there is no such thing as a free lunch - we must invest energy into our food supply. However, this investment does not require 100% of our effort. In the past, there were likely times when humans had to work hard simply to survive. But with our brains and opposable thumbs, we have the ability to optimize our resources for maximum efficiency.

That being said, we must be careful not to become so complacent that we damage the soil and overuse or misuse resources, leading to unforeseen consequences. By practicing responsible agriculture and sustainability, we can ensure that our land and resources remain healthy and productive for generations to come. So while we should strive for efficiency and optimization, we must also remember to work in harmony with the environment, rather than at its expense.

​We invested over 400 hours writing that proposal. It had a 35 page line-item budget, alone. The proposal had been read by experts in numerous fields from finance, to technology to Agriculture. It was the second most intense academic project I had ever worked on.

After Ranching all day, running the company and being a world class grandpa, I came home, lit the midnight candle and hammered away at research, spreadsheets and curriculum.

Later that summer, we took on three interns. They were awesome! Each stayed on our Ranch in Wyoming, ate with us, worked with us and learned from us. I had not yet heard back on the Carbon Vault proposal, but was absolutely sure that the Government would want my idea. I was, after all, proving we could do what we proposed. 

So, what happened?
​
…drum roll please...

It was rejected. 

No explanation, no advisory notes, nothing. Zip. Zero. Not even "Hey, hippy-rancher-dude, your idea sucks, come back later when you learn to write"

Well, then, who did get the money?

You guessed it... Big Ag, Big Pharma and Big Ed.

The three evil twins of conventional farming. That's right folks, were not only going to ask the inmates to run the asylum, we're going to fund them too...

So, what do we do?

Well, I spent 12 months licking my wounds. And, now, I am healed. Next item on the agenda...

Yep, you guessed it...we'll go it alone.

That right. We're going to fund Carbon Vault and Rancher "U" to teach E2RP on our own. Oh, not to the tune of millions of dollars (at lest not yet) but to the tune of six lovely, hard-working, dedicated David's who are crazy enough to think they can toss a rock at Goliath.

(by the way, to give you an idea of the demand for this, for those 6 spots, we had over 50 applicants!)

We have recently closed our 2023 Internship Applications - we carefully selected six for this summer. We look for kids with heart, soul and integrity (the things we can't teach) so that we can show them soils, animals and skills (the things we can teach).

We plan on doubling our interns each year and will close our guest Ranch for the summer (crazy huh?). We plan to become a 90-day intensive, regenerative agriculture powerhouse. 

Here's the catch. We do this for free. The selectees this summer will stay on our Ranch, eat on our Ranch and learn on our Ranch. While we are closed to the public. It will be teach, teach, teach. 

My curriculum is not yet fully tested - so these first, lucky few will be the guinea pigs. And, at no out of pocket cost to them.

But, next year - we are asking for your support.

Yep, you read that right. We are looking for sponsors for our interns. We will be launching a website with their biographies, once selected, then you'll be paired one-on-one with each intern. You can offer to sponsor the total cost of the summer or $10 bucks - it doesn't matter to us. Each intern will communicate directly with their sponsors, in video, writing weekly concerning what they are learning, and hopefully, stay in touch after the program.

Our goal is lofty - we estimate that we'll need $18K per intern to keep them on the Ranch at full speed for the summer. SonRise Ranch, INC is going to cover $6K per student and I will donate all my labor and teaching. This leaves a funding gap of $12K per intern. 

Its a huge ask, I know. But I also know how you folks are. How many of you stood in the rain at Farmer's Markets to keep us going during our start up. We just want to see that grow. We've got the knowledge, the kids have the desire, we just need the bridge between the two.

Next year, in 2024 - we will have a perfected syllabus a summer's worth of class room and academic teaching experience and our Ranch to launch the first ever, regen Ag school.

But, we've got to start somewhere. 

So, if this thrills you, stay in touch. We are not accepting donations as of yet, but we will be for next summer's "school-tern-ship" soon.

In the mean time, pray for us. This is a huge undertaking and we want to be sure it succeeds. 

Thanks for all your support. 

On a crisp, cool morning in October 1781 General Cornwallis marched his troops into an open space between two armies that had, for eight, long years been engaged in an epic struggle eventually resulting in the birth of a new nation.
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During this momentous event, however, General Washington would not allow the honors of war- a long held belief, amongst gentleman worriers, to which both Washington and Cornwallis subscribed, dictating that the loosing party march to the beat of the victor’s tune. Most assuredly this would have been Yankee Doodle Dandy or something of the type – an ostensibly American melody.

No, not today. On this day Washington would demand that the British march their formations of surrender, one in which each soldier would lay down his musket, to the tune of their own choosing.

Their choice – “The World Turned Upside Down”, a ballad dating to the 1640’s borne of anger to protest the rule of parliament in that day, of the belief that Christmas should be a solemn occasion and thus outlawing the gaiety and celebration we all enjoy surrounding the yuletide season, even today (yes, they could do that back then – hence one of the reasons for a revolution)

You can listen to it here, sung by a modern folk band, but this line in the lyrics is especially poignant…

“Command is given, we must obey, and quite forget old Christmas day: Kill a thousand men, or a Town regain, we will give thanks and praise amen.”

Harkening to the scriptures of Acts 17, the writer reveals his motivation for rebellion and stubbornly refuses to submit – kill an entire town, we will still celebrate joyously.

I find it incredibly odd, that Cornwallis, or his deputies even, would choose such a song, for without understanding the context in which it was written, and only observing the title, one might conclude this to be appropriate tune of subtle protest - after all, the most powerful military on earth had just been defeated by a rag-tag group of rebels and misfits. ​

And so today, I stumble upon this headline. 
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​"Farmer Gives Cooped Up Cows VR Headsets to Increase Milk Production"

Wherein detailed are the exploits of a CAFO dairy operation, that places a VR headset playing videos of lush green pastures over the face of confined cows, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, knee-deep in their own waste and slop, being force-fed a daily ration of grains intended for maximum milk production.

If that is not a world turned upside down, I don’t know what is.

Of late, regardless of your political, social, or religious views, you may certainly conclude that the world itself has been not only been turned upside down, but violently shaken and had the pennies dropped out of it’s pockets.

There seems not a day gone by in the last two years that I’ve not been traumatized in amazement and disbelief at the actions of our society – frankly, for a simple Rancher guy, just trying to bring righteous food to my constituents, I am often bewildered by the schemes I read about in the agriculture community and our country in general.

I may be too simple – but to me, it seems madness abounds.

Perhaps, I am too unsophisticated, traditional, or old-fashioned.

But may I ask…

Why don’t we just put the cows back out on pasture to let them see lush, green pastures for themselves, without the VR technology?

Would that hurt so much?

Are we so in love with our ideas, so enamored with our hubris that we must pervert nature to this degree?

If you are not aware, dairymen, keep their Cows in a barn, close to the milking stall for good reason.

Why?

First, they must feed them an artificially high, grain and corn-based diet to keep milk production levels elevated. They must do this because dairy farms survive on pounds of production, per hoof-pound of cattle. Meaning, as a dairyman, I calculate my success (and thus income) by dividing the total weigh of my heard, by the total output of milk (measured in pounds, not gallons). This keeps the math simple and can tell me if I am not getting enough production from my heard and thus need to make a change in feed or procedures.

Additionally, having the cows nearby is a matter of convenience.

Let me explain.

On a Ranch or a Farm, a key component that contributes to burn-out is repetition. Dairy farms are the hardest to endure in this respect. Twice per day, seven-days a week, 365 days per year, every year, you must milk your cows.
Want to jet out of town for a week?

That might be impossible – you must find a substitute. The Cows have got to be milked. Period.

When Eve and I had milk Cows the whole family involved to some degree or another. Eve’s father would help milk when I couldn’t. The kids would help by gathering our small Jersey Cow herd from the pasture in the morning and “warming up the milk barn”. It was an all-hands effort and, might I add an incredible repetitive one at that.

Having Cows right next to, or in a Barn would be a boon for moral – 20 minutes could be saved by not having to go round up the herd, twice per day, all year long. That’s over 240 hours per year! Imagine what you could do with that amount of time on a Ranch? How many fences could be repaired, chicken tractors built, or beaver analog dams constructed to help repair a stream that was eroding?

So, both nutrition and convenience would lead to having your dairy cattle nearby, or even better, confined – thus the incentive for a Farmer to keep dairy cattle on pasture is practically nil.

But, what about the benefit? Could that outweigh the cost of gathering the Cows morning and evening for milking?
The benefits of pasture-based milk production are so numerous, they reach beyond the scope of this blog, but just to whet your appetite, here are a few…

• Beta-carotene in the milk would increase substantially
• Animal health would exponentially improve
• There would be no need for sub-therapeutic, or prophylactic antibiotic use
• Breeding and cycling would become far more efficient
• Nutrient transfer would cease (if you don’t know what this is, see my blog here)
• Plant health would increase dramatically, thus resulting in better water retention, carbon sequestration and less erosion
• Cow manure would be distributed, thus decreasing, or eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers
• The Rancher’s health would improve (walk out and get the cows)

And so, I ask you this… is the world turned upside down? If, so, then let’s have the bravery to turn it right-side up again.

A World Turned Upside Down was written as a protest and evidently only the title was considered by General Cornwallis and his staff as dissent to the breaking down of old ways – how dare the rebels defeat us?

But isn’t what we need today, a deeper understanding for the hidden lyrics of society? Should we be those who, agriculturally speaking, read only the title, or ought we to look at a deeper meaning, a better solution to our problems?
Can we do that?

I’ll tell you we can and here at SonRise Ranch - and we do!

Beginning this summer, we will be adding our milk cow herd at our Guest Ranch. Not only will our visitors we able to see a real, working regenerative Agriculture Ranch, ride a horse and eat from the bounty of the Ranch larder, but soon also be able to drink milk, make butter and add cream to their coffee from a real, pastured Cow. No grains. No homogenization. No pasteurization. No funny business.

Just real, down home, gritty Ranching – in short, a world turned right side up.
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Come join us – it will be an experience you will not soon forget.

The signs are everywhere - Nature wants to grow grass.

We just wont let it...

Now, if you were in the cattle industry - wouldn't you want more grass? I mean lets think here... Grass makes Cows, Cows + Bulls make Calves and Calves make Dollars! Makes sense to me, how 'bout you?

But, in the United States, and many other countries worldwide, the exact opposite is underway. Cattle are let loose on the land to pick and choose only the grass(es) they like most, then overgraze them to extinction. The only remaining plants are those of lower nutrition, less filling and poor taste. Over a long period of time, cattle exposed continuously to an ecosystem will create a landscape less favorable to themselves and their offspring.

How do we combat this?

Well, first, we stop continuous grazing. Then we must rebuild the ecosystem, with the help of the Cow - they can build as efficaciously as they destroy, if managed properly.

​That's a big "if"...

But, to begin, we must shift that damaged ecosystem in the right direction - just ever-so-slightly.

We figured something out recently. We found that ten feet left or right of nearly any road in America has great grasslands - why?

​Because they are pruned once per year for fire or weed control (some jurisdictions spray them - lazy dopes). This is done mostly by mowing with large tractors. Trimming and mowing are what the grasslands responded to for millennia before we got here. This was compliments of nearly 70 Million Buffalo, roaming, ranging and tilling our soils.

​Now, if you know anything about grazing cattle (and really if you just have common sense) you can see that the plant systems outside the "mow-line" are much less healthy, less nutritious and more erosion prone than those inside the line. 

As show in the pictures below... 

Take a look at those pictures again... they are astonishing. Here we see the grazing area (outside the fence) in deplorable condition, with tap-rooted, fire prone and non-nutritious brush in abundance. The area between the fence and road provides much more nutrition - why? Because it has been trimmed (on a time-oriented basis) by a tractor, but that is essentially what controlled grazing is, at its root - time oriented trimming.

So, my question is this...

Can we pit a tractor against 50 Cows? Who would be better for the environment? Who would add manure back to the ecosystem? Who would not need a defined benefits retirement plan? 

Our Cows need salt.

They like it, and salt provides them an efficient way to uptake certain minerals no longer present in the biosphere.

Years ago, an abundance of minerals resided in the soils and plant life - today, they are all but gone. As the great western herd of 70 million bison moved over the vast landscapes of California, they would ebb and flow with the natural flora present.

Driven by taste, pressured by predators, the massive, heaving mass of Bulls, Cows and Calves would meander from site to site, uninhibited by your swimming pool or interstate 5.

Seasonal and geographical variations would permit rooting depths of the perennial grasses to forage deep within the crevices of ancient buried rocks and mine out minerals from eons ago. This, combined with the natural growth cycle would present various plants of diverse size, shape and color to the heard. Each individual inside the group would select its grazing requirements based upon need and metabolism. A wonderful and magnificent dance of give and take would result. Those not capable, or adapted to ferreting out the right plant, at the right time, with the right nutritional uptake would fall to predation and not reproduce. The cycle of life is far more efficacious, and might I add, brutal than our puny brains and opposing thumbs could ever be - nature is, if anything - a strict schoolmaster.

In today's world of modern Ranching, none of this is true.

The animals cannot roam freely, at least not to the extent they once did. They cannot cross from the pastures outside of your community, over the streets, past the grade school, behind your backyard BBQ, and near the coastal shrub plains to gobble up a snack of Arizona Bunch-grass for that boost of iron or copper they so desperately need. 

Conventional Ranchers - the majority of producers, today, do not salt correctly. The Cow must choose their nutritional uptake. When a Rancher puts out a salt block, it is usually what the Rancher thinks the Cow needs - the Cow cannot speak, so the husbandman must interpolate its needs - right?

Wrong - the Cow can speak, just not with words. 

In fact, nature speaks all the time, we just choose not to listen. 

Here is a short clip of how we manage and handle Salt on our Ranch (BTW - we are not conventional Ranchers if you haven't figured that out yet)​

​This week Eve and I are visiting Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Swoope, VA. 
 
Polyface is a legend in the integrity farm and food movement. Started by the Salatin family in the 1960s, Polyface became an organic, food freedom and teaching hub - long before organic was even a cool buzzword. 
 
Joel has authored over ten books, all aimed at helping turn the tide of the failed food and agriculture policy in the United States towards integrity, locally sourced small-farm success. His farm trains and equips the next generation of food freedom fighters on the East Coast. 
 
Our goal is to become the same hub of inspiration and teaching on the West Coast. Stay tuned for exciting developments in the next few years.
 
Like Polyface, SonRise Ranch cattle are fed only grass - a stark contrast to the industrial farming method used to produce 90% of all beef.

​Henry Ford is widely considered to have been the father of the assembly line method of production. With a predictable output and consistent product, his model "T" Ford became the first mass-produced automobile in history. This is a reductionist’s dream - defined inputs, predictability, and steady product. Who could ask for more?
 
The problem is, of course, that such a linear and parts-oriented approach works perfectly for any given mechanical object.

But not a biological one.

Cows were never created to be reared in a factory setting. They were never designed to be confined, to have consistent feed (called a TDR or "total daily ration") of measured corn day after day and never given freedom to roam on grass. 

How would you feel if I trapped you behind bars and fed you only oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Every day, each day, for your whole life - you never move more than 100 feet and eat the same thing no matter what.

In human vernacular, we call this "prison."

This creates disease, poor muscle structure, harmful pathogen explosion and a host of other issues. ​So we took the 2.5 hour drive from Alexandria, VA, to Swoope, VA, to visit the legendary Polyface. For hours we passed by civil war battlefields, picturesque plantation homes on hundreds of acres, marching routes of Washington’s revolution army. Each site basked brilliantly in the full bloom of a remarkable spring day in the Shenandoah Valley. Rural Virginia is nothing like the West Coast. At nearly twice the annual rainfall of our brittle environment in San Diego County, water is both prolific and abundant. Flowing water is everywhere. Streams, beavers, dams. Farms are ubiquitous. The majority of restaurants are some variation of Farm-to-Table, and I don't mean in name only. They really are directly supplied by a farm. Polyface alone supplies over 30 of them. 

​As we approached Polyface in our awesome and formidable compact rental car, Eve and I both commented at nearly the exact time - Where are the rotational graziers? Where are the temporary electric fences, Cows groped in small compact grazing structures that cause perennial grasses to proliferate and grow in abundance (all the while sequestering 15% more carbon than unmanaged, continual, dispersed cattle on pasture)? Where are all the pastured chickens?

The hours soon gave way to minutes on the GPS estimate time for arrival.  By now for sure, there would be plenty of farms and ranches (we call them ranches on the West Coast, back east they call them farms) that replicated, modified and repeated Joel's practices.

I mean, really folks, here you are within a stone’s throw of the father of the environmentally friendly land stewardship movement of the 20th century and you’re running a confinement, factory chicken house with 35,000 hens living on top of each other and a manure lagoon to catch waste runoff!

To set an accurate context here, you must understand that Polyface is the Jerusalem of the clean food movement. Joel has been featured in numerous books, movies, and high profile articles. He is sought by theologians and earth lovers alike. His methods have been replicated across thousands of farms in the United States. The day we stopped by, he had just returned from a two-week speaking tour in Australia. His influence in our ranching methods alone has been legendary.

As we turned the final left onto Polyface’s drive, we passed a confinement dairy with perhaps 1500 cows. The bare land erosion was stifling. Cattle left to pasture, with no management or rotation, had denuded the grass to zero.
Zero - really... nothing was left. Precious topsoil was eroding downstream.

For over two hours, our senses were bombarded with poor land management. We were acutely aware of the lack of eco-friendly farming surrounding Polyface. It was astonishing. When we finally arrive on Joel's farm we exhaled with a deep sigh of "finally." His farm was teeming with life, from bugs to chickens. Life was everywhere, the grass was the deepest and most vibrant I had seen yet.

I guess the light shines brightest in the dark. The contrast was palpable. 

With neat, orderly equipment placed as we would on our ranch, it was readily apparent that this was a working farm. We were just two of 15,000 annual visitors from nearly 20 different countries. The nearest gas station is a substantial distance, groceries are even further, and we hadn’t seen more than a few vehicles in the last 20 minutes. The farm is remote by any standard. The hum of activity and birds chirping greeted us as we exited our car and headed for the Farm Store.

Following a brief visit to the farm store, we ventured out. Walking out past the car, I spotted Joel from a few hundred feet.
“Joel” – I shouted, as he turned and walked towards us. “We’ve come all the way from California to see you!”
“Well that’s great,” he replied in his quintessential southern drawl. After a short introduction, we explained, rather quickly, the impetus for starting our ranch. Eve’s autoimmune disease and the dearth of valuable, righteously cultivated, local foods. We told him of the inspiration he provided us when we first viewed FOOD INC, and of reading his books feverishly, so as to boot-strap our fledgling business into what SonRise is today.
​
After the monolog, I embarrassingly stammered out, “Sorry, I am probability keeping you from work.” He was fixated on our story, as if we were the only ones around that day. It was humbling, to say the least - he kept asking engaging questions.

“Actually, we’re filming a documentary here today,” gesturing towards the film crew that had been listening intently. “Why don’t you jump in the back of my truck and join us?”

We traveled with Joel and the film crew in the bed of his truck up to the top of the farm, where the watershed and catchment ponds collect excess runoff from the mountain’s aquifer, supplying irrigation via gravity for a few thousand acres. It looked like a super-sized version of our Ranch. Innovation was everywhere. Healthy, well fed animals in plenty. Life was abundant.
​
What I hadn’t known, until later, was that Joel had only hours before disembarked from a 25-hour flight from Australia, a nation in desperate need of his counsel. He had been there for two weeks on a speaking tour. This film crew had booked their appointment four months in advance, and he was gracious enough to include an entire afternoon of his time with us.

I was stunned.

I soon learned that we held the same philosophy with respect to people and the leading of our hearts for our constituency. In a later conversation, I found him agreeing with me when I quipped that as integrity farmers our “greatest ability is availability” – a saying I am fond of teaching each person in our employ. Our people need answers, they need to be heard, and they need someone to take the time to focus on them, even if just for a moment, to see them through this difficult process of finding a food shed for their sustenance and healing.

Joel and I had a kindred spirit. For both of us, this was more than land stewardship, animal care and environmental engagement - it was a calling.
​
The day meandered on. Our conversation was rich and diverse. We shared our dreams with him. He offered only encouragement and insight. I don’t recall even a word of caution. His zeal for a food-freedom world and farms that honor creation was astonishing. In a short afternoon, we bonded. As Eve and I left, Joel jumped on a four-wheeler and made his way to a pasture with cows in it. He was checking the mineral lick for the cattle as we passed him in our car. We waved, he waved. After hours on a plane, hours of interviews, deep, thoughtful, meaningful conversation - his respite was to go check on the cows.

Kindred spirits indeed.

We reluctantly started the long journey back. Inspired and motivated, the same countryside greeted us in our return trip. This time I saw it differently. I was not saddened by the lack of regenerative and sustainable posture of the neighboring farms; Eve and I were too busy discussing the renewed hope and enthusiasm we had for SonRise. It may be true that no prophet is accepted in his hometown, but when you are the one who encountered the prophet – it doesn’t really matter. 

A heavy pall hangs in the air, visibility is down to a block or two while driving, and we haven't seen the sun for days. A few weeks ago in Southern Oregon, on a visit home, where Ranching first began for me, a record was set for the poorest air quality in the entire nation.

The Air Quality Index (AQI), used to measure smog and pollution, ticked up to 300+ in my little hometown. Hey, at least we made national news! 

This is the AQI range where mothers and the elderly are told to leave town. Folks are given masks at the local clinic for free and just about everyone you meet looks as if they've just finished a memorial service with puffy, red eyes.

As a young man, I well remember my first wildfire. It was in 1987 (I know, I just dated myself). My father, a Helicopter Logging Pilot for 30 years, was called off his logging assignment, to dump water on a wildfire near our hometown. The teams, both ground and air, extinguished the fire in a few days and returned to logging.

Back then, firefighting with a Helicopter was a narrow occupation. He was one of the first pilots trained for it - up to that point he had only used a "Bambi-Bucket" (the water tote under a helicopter) a few times in his whole career. It would be another two or perhaps three years before he would be ordered to fight his next fire.

By the time he retired, in the late 90's, fire fighting accounted for three quarters of the annual revenue for his company.  He often commented "we used to log these forests, now we get paid by the goverment when they burn"
​

​I've found a fascinating TEDTALK by Paul Hessburg on this subject. In about 15 minutes you too, can understand what is really happening.  

Here is where it gets interesting. The Native Americans actually lit fires...why?

​Well, I can tell you they weren't playing with matches. They intuitively knew that the Buffalo, their primary source of protein and central to their way of life, grazed in silvopasture - widely spaced trees interspersed with perennial grasslands. Thus, burning the forest served two purposes; first, this allowed the brush that had collected and dead trees since the last disturbance to be eliminated. 

Secondly, these wise stewards of the land (much wiser than their successors, I might add) understood the simple natural maxum - "death creates life".

Or, as America's favorite Farmer, Joel Salatin puts it "everything is either eating or being eaten"

Perennial grasses store their energy in their roots, below the surface. Annuals - crops that require plowing and planting, store energy in their seeds. A perennial has 2/3rds or more of its structure below ground and 1/3 above. Thus a wildfire would not destroy the perennial plant life, it would envigorate it. 

The opposite would be true of annual crops.

​Stay with me here - if I come and light your cornfield, an annual crop, on fire, you will lose all your stored energy in the ensuing inferno, much like Sampson did in the biblical book of Judges, when he lit a few foxes on fire and sent them running through the Philistines wheat fields. Have you ever uprooted a corn stalk? They are about foot deep.

​Not so with perennial grass. 

Now, with that in mind, take a look a this picture...

Here I am standing next to some perennial grasses that were restored with proper cattle management using a holistic, regenerative, management intensive approach - in other words, we move the cattle daily, just like they would in nature due to predation pressure. These grasses stand as tall, or taller than I do - about 6 feet. If the subsurface structure is 2x the above surface structure, then the roots stretch nearly 12 feet below the topsoil. 

What pretell do plant roots do?

Bingo, they transport minerals and nutrients to the surface - something cattle can sense, seek out and love to eat.

In other words, the Native Americans were doing good - pruning, vine dressing, stewarding the land - with the ultimate end state of attracting large Herbivorous Grazers back into the silvopasture and feeding them with the richest, deeply-mined, subterranean minerals they could get, all transported for free by well meaning perennial grasses.

Those grasses were pressed into service by being burned, grazed or trampled. They followed their one true instinct - rebuild for further propagation. It's akin to lifting weights at the gym for you and me. And without the weights - the whole symbiotic system falls apart. Without the grazers, the plants don't propagate. They die and build up flammable fuels. Increasing carbon in the atmosphere.

Ok, now for the punchline. 

The Native Americans were unable to control their herds. They didn't have the benefit of portable water troughs, mobile electric fence and salt licks that can be moved from field to field. Most importantly, their herds were not trained - heck, they weren't even domesticated. They were at the mercy of the herd mentality - seeking safety from predation, better grass, deeper springs. It was up to the herd.

Not so, us.
Not modern man. 

We can control livestock with biomimicry. Yes, biomimicry (haven't heard that before have ya?) It means to copy nature. How? By using systems that impersonate the predator, like a portable electric fence, that delivers a harmless tickle to the back end of a Cow when it brushes up against the fence wire. Or, to entice the herd to move by offering  better feed, salt or water.

Move where, you say?

To an overgrown forest that needs trimmed before it erupts in a fiery inferno - that's where!

If cattle graze a forest they remove the undergrowth, the stuff that burns real hot and boils the sap in trees - killing them instantly. They trample the branches that have fallen, reducing the fast burn fuels and speeding up the carbon-cycle. On top of that, the cattle grow - yes - grow. 

Grow what?

Milk, meat, hide - all good stuff.

And at what cost?
Free.

In fact, opposite of free. Think about it. I told you my Dad's company earned three-quarters of all their revenue from fire-fighting in the late 90's. That was 12 Million dollars! And that was "back then". 

We are spending millions per hour fighting fires right now. This could all be done for free with good, properly trained cattle managers, and the correct eco-regenerative-carbon-sequestration-fire-prevention mentality from our forest management.

Why not?

In our area of the Sierra Nevada Foothills a hideously invasive plant referred to as Scotch broom invades nearly every inch of open space.  This dominate species has no natural competition. It found roots in Sierras becasue of alcohol use during the mining days. 

During the mid 1800’s, Scotch whisky was highly sought after by the Miners and tradesmen who made a living working in the mining camps. I can’t really say I’d blame them, if I lived in near freezing temperatures, sleeping in a tent with no earthly comforts beyond a wood stove that barely warmed my toes and burdened with back breaking work for the modern equivalent of $20 per day – I give a lick to the bottle too… but I digress.

The best whisky came from Scotland and when shipped for that considerable distance, required protection from glass breakage in the form of a soft, pliable wrapping. Sequestered deep in this protective wrapping the original Scotch Broom seeds found their mission here in America. Once emptied of their precious content the useless bottles were often discarded on the ground and forgotten – seeding a perfect botanical rebellion that can be seen on the hills of Gold Country today.

Over the years relentless acres of once productive land, having long been abandoned by hearty Homesteaders who left for the bright lights of the city during the ensuing waves of Farm Crises, succumbed to the Scotch Broome invasion. The remnants of our once great agricultural powerhouse are now covered in Scotch Broome – depleting the local ecosystem of productivity and resources.
One tell tail sign of Broome infestation showed this last summer as a devistating 97,000 acre loss due to the enormous King Fire. It lasted from September to October, costing eighty structures, a dozen injuries and millions of dollars in firefighting resources.

Scotch Broom is cannibalistic – meaning that it grows on top of itself, so that previous generations provide layers and layers of bone-dry decay below. When ignited, Scotch Broome stands burn hot enough to boil the sap in the surrounding trees. Even when the trees don’t ignite directly they usually die from a  “boiling effect” they might have otherwise survived. Once they die, our laws often prevent their removal by logging and they simply fall down - only to decay and provide yet another fuel source for the next fire.

There is a dangerous movement afoot to “keep things natural”, in an attempt to “re-wild” areas of the United States by leaving them for dead, with no human interaction at all. Unfortunately, the window for this opportunity has long since passed.  The “natural” we observe today in our local forests is actually man-made - and like anything man-made, it must be maintained.

Abandoning ecosystems once touched by the human stain to suffer without proper management is tremendously destructive – and reeks of human arrogance.  We messed it up - we ought to responsible to manage it properly. Human interaction has happened; we have affected the eco system - There is no turning back.  In an often ill-advised, but well meant gesture we allocate incredible resources to an effort that is doomed to fail though generous donations to this or that club or society.  The sad fact is that a dangerous cocktail of legal environmental rulings and ignorance of ecosystems have overruled the common sense approach of properly managed domestic animals on the land. Our country is now horribly mismanaging our forests on a wholesale level. 

Scotch Broome grows at the rate of 1 foot per year if left unchecked and can produce approximately 18,000 seeds annually. Conventional methods for removal include pulling by hand, spraying, burning it, bulldozing - each having their drawbacks. 

We have acres and acres of Scotch Broom covered land that could be used for productive grazing. One of Scotch Broom’s good qualities is that is it a legume, a plant that fixes nitrogen to the soil. You might recall that nitrogen is very useful in good grass production – we use Chicken manure for nitrogen too.  

What we’ve found is that if we can remove the Scotch Broome, the fire hazard is reduced by 70-90% or more and the next season, a grass sod begins to develop. By season three or four we are grazing cattle on lush, moist grass with no fire hazard. 

The problem – how do we effectively remove scotch broom? Bulldozing creates erosion, is often dangerous and costs money. Hand cutting requires frequent visits to the back specialist - and we have acres of Broome. Spraying will kill broom but eventually find itself back into our beef supply.

Our answer – HOGS!

We found that our 150-200 pound Hogs, love to root up Scotch broom.   We place a border around them with electric wire, and give them a good source of clean water.  Together with soy-free, 100% organic feed they go to town…

In a few cycles of rotation, they have done what would have been extremely difficult for us using a dozer or manual labor. The Hogs are in heaven - "Hog heaven". They love being able to express their hog-ness. They eat roots, bugs, acorns and just about anything else they can find. And, boy howdy are they healthy, building muscle and living life to the fullest. Most of all (for my wife) - they don't stink! Our neighbors and visitors are absolutely amazed that our pigs don't smell like pigs.  It is truly amazing what happens when you allow nature to symbiotically intertwine with animals the way God intended.

Beyond clearing brush and saving homes, lives and possibly thousands of taxpayer dollars, our Hogs provide Good, Clean food for hundreds of families. They provide real, meaningful jobs to a small family of people who care deeply for the environment and their animals; they rejuvenate the soils with their manure, to make growing grass possible for the grazing of Grass-fed Beef.  They take food dollars away from Hormel foods and other disgusting factory food, industrial, government subsidized producers that make available nutritious products such as Spam to you and your neighbors.

Free-range, proper domestic animal management is a boon to the environment. By voting with your dollars, you are doing more to save the environment than any donation you can make to a club or society.

Our house here at the Ranch has a front and back yard. We love having a really nice grass stand and a well trimmed lawn – it looks nice, and feels great. Each year we take care to make sure the grass is nice and neat for the fun of the summer season.  Usually, about Spring time, we get real serious about it, trimming, edging – all the things normal “city folk” do to their yards to make them look neat and pretty. During the winter months, we let it get ragged and overgrown. 

Overgrown, that is, until I break out my lawn mowers. Yes, I said mowers with an “s”. I have a bunch of them. My mowers don’t take gas, do not require oil changes and never need their blades sharpened. I never have to empty the grass bag where the clippings are collected – they do that on their own. I don’t have to push them – they have “power assist”.  My kids don’t complain when I ask them to mow the lawn, on the contrary, they rather enjoy it.

It usually takes me about a day to mow the entire yard, and both sides of our 1/8 mile long driveway. When I am done, the place looks nice and clean.  All the weeds are gone, the grass is tidy, and my mowers are very happy.  I run them until I find them standing all day. I can tell the mower bags are full when the Cows sit down and chew cud. If I find them standing all day looking for grass, they are not getting enough. When you drive by Cattle and see them lying down, they are full and have plenty of feed. If they are standing all the time, they are underfed and the grass is usually overgrazed – you can tell when you see them in the same spot each day that they are not managed very well. Cattle need to rotate from one setting to the next to keep themselves and the grass healthy.

So, I don't sweat very much doing my lawn care... oh and my Cows are happy too.