Regenerative Grazing Helps the Environment and Ranch Economics By Becky Gillette

BIG TIMBER, Montana. 

Betsy and Roger Indreland of Indreland Ranch, have been raising Black Angus cattle for 46 years.

Known for being innovative, they continue to hone their regenerative grazing operation that includes prac- tices to improve soil health, sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) and also maximize profitability. Their mission is to provide genetics and services that help cattle producers attain more freedom and profitability in their business and life.

The Indrelands are involved in a grazing project measuring growth in organic matter in the soil that improves plant growth and pasture productivity, sequesters more CO2 and helps retain water. They are com- ing up on year five of the Northern Great Plains Regenerative Grazing Project that pays ranchers for carbon sequestered by adopting conservation practices to remove CO2 from the air and store it in the soil.

A non-profit in their area, Western Sustainability Exchange (WSE) works with area ranchers to adopt these practices and get paid for the carbon sequestered by Native, a public benefit corporation. Native then sells carbon credits to companies like Xanterra Parks and Resorts to offset its carbon emissions.

Roger, who serves on the board of directors for WSE said, “It is based on increasing stock density, the frequency of moves, and rest in order to improve carbon sequestering. The process started with baseline testing. From that point on, they do follow-up testing every five years. We have signed a 30-year contract with Native.

The model of how much extra carbon will be captured is based on the best available knowledge of regenerative grazing practices. Native works to compare and refine that model.

 “At this point, it has helped us to install infrastructure that enables us to improve our grazing, such as water and fencing,” Roger said. “However, it also improves our bottom line. In our case we were doing a fair amount of Management-intensive Grazing (MiG) anyway because we benefit from increased production due to the additional organic matter in the soil enhancing plant growth, but this project has accelerated our ability to accomplish this.”

More information is available at www.westernsustainabiltyexchange.org.

Betsy said the great thing about regenerative grazing is that it helps not just the environment, but also the economics of ranching at a time when many ranchers are finding profitability elusive. “We focus a lot on lower-cost practices including our cattle being able to graze most winters,” Betsy said. “We are able to reduce our input costs, which helps the bottom line. Our resilience vision is for both the land and the economic part, as well.”

The proof is in the numbers. In 2011, they were running 21 acres per 1000-pound animal. In 2022, it took only 14 acres to run a 1000-pound animal. That was an “ah ha” moment showing how much progress they have made on the 7,000 acres they graze, mostly leased from private owners. The area has lower average rainfall than many areas of the country. The holistic management part of their vision includes leaving quite a bit of carryover feed, standing forage, for several purposes. It gives cattle winter forage. And once cattle graze it and upcycle the nutrients, it slowly but surely increases organic matter in the soil, which also increases its water-holding capacity.

They have experimented with lots of different brands of posts for the polywire used for temporary fencing to allow for MiG. They have quite a variation in the kind of ground they are fencing and have learned which products work the best in which areas at different times of the year. For the most part, they use Speedrite Energizers, both solar and plug in. It takes a lot of labor to move the cattle as frequently as needed, so they employ apprentices with the Quivira Coalition New Agrarian Program. Betsy said their apprentices are young, typically college-educated peo- ple who want to learn about this part of the food system.

“They understand what a positive impact cattle can have if grazing is done properly in a managed way versus conventional set stock grazing,” Betsy said.

The Indrelands work to educate people about grazing programs that mimic nature. They spread knowledge through putting on workshops and field days. Roger said that leading by example might, at the end of the day, be more powerful than just making theoretical arguments.

Through the years they have read Stockman Grass Farmer fairly religiously looking for resources and interesting reading that supports the type of agriculture they are doing. Another publication they have found helpful is Acres USA.

A big leap for them was attending the Ranching for Profit School in 2012 and joining its alumni group, the Executive Link. One of the things they have found is that forage-based, regenerative ranching is not all about how you work the cattle; genetics is a huge component.

“The main thing from our perspective is that our Black Angus are adapted to our management and our environment,” Betsy said. “We practice line breeding and try to have as many half and three-quarter blood calves as possible. We use multi-sire bulls. What we do to mimic nature is turn out multiple bulls with all the cows and then do DNA testing to determine the sire. In that process, we are able to identify bulls that are really prolific in production. One of our bulls who is nine years old has produced about 400 natural service calves. One year that bull sired 75 calves. Other bulls aren’t really get- ting the chance. You really discover a lot about your animals in that situation. I think nature is a lot like that as well. We use mostly all of our genetics instead of bringing in outside influences.”

They are mimicking what would be a natural selection. The cattle have to adapt to their area and to their management. Those that fall through the cracks are culled. In nature, those animals would not have survived. But most of these are highly adapted to their environment and their resources.

Their production philosophy is that the cattle must consistently excel at converting their basic grass resource to beef. Practicing this philosophy has refined their cowherd into trouble-free and productive cattle. They do not select for any extremes in performance, but demand functionality.

Trying new things sometimes has setbacks. But they have the mindset that they aren’t afraid to fail because often that is how they learn.

“Being willing to fail but also being committed to making some- thing work by tweaking it is a critical component,” Roger said. “We can do one thing that works for us, and the neighbors might not be able to make it work, or vice versa. Just have that mindset of wanting to make positive change. Also, it is good to avoid looking for the one thing that might be a silver bullet.” While they avoid high input costs, they have found Thorvin kelp meal and Neptune’s Harvest beneficial as mineral supplements.

While some people sell bulls at 12 months, the Indrelands believe an older bull is a better product when developed on forage versus grain. It provides a bull with more capability to breed more cows and allows bulls to grow out to let them develop at their own speed. The Indrelands will be selling 80 18-month-old bulls at their annual sale scheduled for December 4. This year they will also be selling 100 bred females.

They were fortunate this year in that their immediate area had almost a record good year for rainfall. Other areas around the globe have been suffering from drought, heat waves and flooding.

“You see more sporadic weather around the globe,” Roger said. “There is no doubt about that. However, I think that is part of the resilience component leaving stockpiled forage and not taking everything. We are trying to leave a pretty good forage buffer to add to that resilience for us.”

“We are managing for abundance so you can weather those things,” Betsy said.

For more information, see the website www.indrelandranch.com 

 Becky Gillette is a staff writer based in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.