This article is part of a series called Five Reasons Local Meat is Better. It describes Reason #3.
Cows get blamed for climate change, but they help support a carbon sink that covers a significant part of our planet: grasslands. When a cow walks on grass, its hooves break up dead plant matter and stimulate new growth. Bare soils are problematic, but taller grass isn’t necessarily better. That’s where an agricultural practice called rotational grazing comes in.
What is rotational grazing?
Rotational grazing is the practice of moving animals from pasture to pasture to improve plant, soil, and animal health. If a pasture is overgrazed, the grass can become rootbound, a condition that Canadian Cowboy Country magazine prefers to call “root-less” since the roots are actually at or near the soil’s surface.
Overgrazing can eliminate grass entirely and contribute to soil erosion, which deprives the soil of nutrients and can pollute nearby waterways. Some of this agricultural run-off may contain manure, a topic we’ve covered previously. Bare ground isn’t the best, but it’s what you’ll find in large stockyards where hundreds of cattle and thousands of hooves pound the same ground.
How does rotational grazing help?
Rotational grazing supports healthier grasslands – and the benefits go beyond greater carbon sequestration. When grass is shorter but not too closely cropped, it contains a higher density of nutrients. (It’s also easier for cows to digest.) As the grass grows, however, a structural carbohydrate called lignin increases. Lignin, a non-digestible structural carbohydrate, supports the growing grass like the steel girders in a skyscraper, but taller grass doesn’t have the same nutritional value as shorter grass for cows.
This Go Natural video explains.
Where does local meat fit?
Through proper pasture management, local producers of meat can avoid the bare soils that are associated with large stockyards and the overgrazed fields that are associated with some traditional agricultural operations. As the University of Kentucky College for Food, Agricultural and Environment explains, there are benefits for these meat producers as well.
“Rotational grazing can help improve productivity, weight gain or milk production per acre, and overall net return to the farm,” UK explains. Less machinery, fuel, and supplemental feed are needed, and “rotational grazing allows for better manure distribution that acts as a source of nutrients to the soil”. On farms where both crops and cattle are raised, this natural fertilizer can also replace petroleum-based products.
Keep Reading. Keep Thinking.
Thank you for reading this installment in our Five Reasons Local Meat is Better series. We hope you’ll check out these previous articles if you missed them.
About This Series
This article is part of a series called Five Reasons Why Local Meat is Better. Here is the full list of articles.
- Better nutritional value
- Healthier, well-cared for animals
- Sounder agricultural practices
- Greater consumer value
- Lower costs
Thank you for reading them.