Managing for Animal, Pasture and Soil Health By Greg Brann

ALLEN COUNTY, Kentucky: 

Animals, pasture, and soil health are all connected, and those connections become stronger through regenerative practices. With every grazing, we should strive to improve our animals, pastures, and soil health, but it’s a journey, not a destination.

85-90 % of the forage our ruminants consume will return/cycle to the soil, and our job is to manage those resources to ensure that the returning manure and urine hit a location that is beneficial and not detrimental to animal health and the environment.

When it comes to maintaining a pasture’s fertility, ruminant animals can be a powerful tool. By grazing a herd of 1000 lb cows on an acre for just five days a year, you can keep the land in medium-high fertility. Even a small herd of 25 on a quarter acre can accomplish the same thing. In fact, ruminants can speed up soil health improvements by up to three times, thanks to their unique digestive system. As they digest fiber, they prep it for soil life to further digest it and return it to the earth. It’s a natural cycle that helps keep the land healthy and productive.

Ruminant animals are very efficient at digesting forages; soil life is even better at digesting fiber. High utilization of forage is often promoted, and rightly so, but we also need to feed the underground herd, and harvesting too much is stressful to everything. Harvesting too much is a harmful practice that causes stress to our animals, pasture, soil, and that stress brings on disorders.

When we harvest too much of the pasture, our animals have less biomass to consume and are exposed to more internal para- sites. We set back the pasture with overgrazing since we left less leaf area and carbohydrate reserves, so regrowth is slow, and weeds invade, reducing pasture quality. Soil health is severely impacted with less cover, roots, moisture, and hotter temperatures. Roots are very important for soil health and reduced compaction, and you will only see significant root growth once the leaves have regrown, so it is important to graze taller to develop roots for more moisture and nutrient availability.

Suppose growing conditions for forage were dependably consistent. In that case, a 6” height is the perfect bite size for a cow. An 8-10” height is more desirable for plant growth in cool-season forages since we are optimizing the solar panel of green leaves to capture sunlight. Seven layers of leaves are ideal before grazing and 3-4 layers after grazing. This extra height is also beneficial in canopying the soil, conserving more moisture, storing more biomass per acre, and creating a more hospitable environment for soil life and plant growth.

Soil fertility is also important for optimum grass production. Maintaining a balanced pH level is crucial for ensuring the availability of nutrients. In my experience, a pH level of 6.8 is optimal for promoting soil life, while a level of 6.2 is also good for agronomic purposes.

Carbon is considered the most crucial nutrient but is not absorbed from the soil. Instead, it is taken in as CO2. The other essential macronutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Most soil tests won’t test for Nitrogen; however, they do make a general recommendation. Secondary nutrients, Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur, are also important but needed in lesser quantities. Micronutrients are needed in even lesser quantities.

I’ve found that soil testing labs approved by the North American Proficiency Testing organization are reliable. However, it’s import- ant to note that these labs can offer a wide range of recommen- dations, often varying as much as twice the cost. If it’s not feasible to apply full rates, even a small amount of the most necessary nutrients can significantly impact the plant community and production. In fact, soils that test low respond the most to nutrient applications. Organic sources are best for soil fertility improvement, but inorganic sources are better than nothing. High-density, short-duration grazing will help to keep healthy soils balanced but won’t be enough to improve low fertility quickly. To speed up improvement, consider strategically feeding hay.

When deciding which field to graze next, it’s important to take multiple factors into consideration. Is the pasture at the right height? How does it compare to other pastures? Is it in need of manure or clipping? What’s the plant community like, and what are the weather conditions? It can be overwhelming, but ultimately your gut feeling is important - does the pasture need disturbance through grazing, or does it need time to recover and grow? 

When it comes to feeding the underground herd (your soil biology), it’s important to consider how to improve their habitat. Managing grass growth is a great way to do this, as it helps keep vegetative cover, plant residue on the surface, and a diversity of plants growing as much of the year as possible. It’s also important to avoid tilling the soil and manage for deeper roots, both fibrous and tap roots.

When evaluating your grass and soil, it’s important to consider a few key factors. Take a close look at the color of the grass - is it a healthy shade of dark green? It’s also important to pull back the canopy and check for vegetative growth. Make sure brown leaves aren’t shading the green ones. The grass can stand so long that it shades out the lower canopy. This can be great for soil health but not the best for your next grazing.

Look for multiple layers of leaves capturing sunlight and residue on the soil. In ideal conditions and with proper management, you should be able to dig your hands into the soil with little effort. The soil surface should be dark and have a pleasant earthy aroma. Keep an eye out for signs of soil life, like earthworm holes. When your soil life is very active, you likely won’t have plant residue on the surface because the soil life has consumed it.

For your next grazing, consider making long, narrow paddocks to lay down more grass in touch with the ground to feed your thriving herd better. Remember to strive for grazing one-third of the grass, laying a third down, and having a third standing to keep your soil healthy and thriving.

When managing your herd, it’s important to consider how your actions above ground can impact the underground herd. One area where this is particularly important is in fly and worm control. To reduce the need for pharmaceuticals, it’s important to selectively cull animals that don’t fit your management style. Additionally, slick oily animals tend to have fewer flies and worms. If you need to treat internal parasites, it’s a good idea to stop treating the cows first, as they should have a tolerance. Instead, focus on treating unthrifty calves, but remember that their lack of feed (grass or milk) may be a contributing factor. 

Finally, you might consider using one to two pounds of garlic powder mixed in with 50 pounds of mineral or add some garlic powder to the water tank for fly control. This can be a natural and effective way to control flies.

One way to “turn on” severely degraded land, bringing it back to life, is to unroll mediocre hay followed by higher quality hay. However, keep in mind that hay can be expensive, so it’s important to ensure it is being consumed. Wet soil conditions can be used to your advantage if you want to change your current plant community. Allowing your cattle to pug it up will also help boost the soil’s carbon levels when residue is tromped in. Just be sure to give the area a long recovery time of at least twice as long as you would normally allow for regrowth. Typically, in my area, around 100 days is sufficient before returning to the pugged-up ground.

When managing for animal, pasture, and soil health, the most important thing to remember is to keep the soil covered. Without cover to the soil, the connections fail, and when one element suffers, they all suffer. 

Greg Brann farms 700 acres in Allen County, Kentucky. With experience in grazing manage- ment with NRCS, he now consults with farmers, ranchers, and city planners. Contact him at greg- [email protected] or www.gregbrann.com for additional resources such as grazing management calendars for cattle and small ruminants, indicator plants, cowboy math, silvopasture and more.