How cattle grazing improves soil diversity: saving our soil
During my previous job at Borders Forest Trust, I was fortunate to meet Mr Roy Dennis, a virtual giant in the world of conservation and a pioneer in habitat restoration and reintroduction of mammals and birds. Roy had previously lived and worked in Abernethy Forest and in 1998 published a paper entitled ‘The importance of conventional cattle to forest biodiversity in the Scottish Highlands’, which we came across when we were at Lynbreck.
He wrote about the potential benefits of raising cattle to fill a niche in our natural ecology, the importance of manure for soil and insect health, the creation of different habitats through their presence and movement across the landscape, and the recycling of plant material through grazing patterns and preferences. Roy made a compelling case for using hardy native breed cattle in compact numbers and at low densities this would ultimately also provide exceptionally high-quality beef that could be brought to market and sold at a higher price.
Adopting a natural cattle grazing system
We wanted to keep our Highland cattle in as natural a grazing system as possible, with the plan being to move them regularly and take advantage of their instinctive behaviors. This would support ensure that excrement and urine were distributed more or less evenly over the fields, and in the case of hardy cattle such as highlanders, there would be no need to maintain steep quarters for the winter.
We prevented the soil from becoming too damaged and filthy by moving a compact number of animals to grassland where the plants had deep root systems capable of supporting the weight of the lighter-bodied Highland cattle. The plan was to avoid unnecessary soil compaction, a condition caused by repeatedly moving ponderous loads, such as gigantic groups of ponderous animals or vehicles, literally squeezing oxygen from the soil and robbing it of life.
In contrast, our goal was lightweight, friable, aerated soil that could literally absorb water like a sponge when it rainedwater is an crucial natural resource that we wanted to store in as many ways as possible for the above plants.
The most crucial part would be ensuring that the area where cattle have just been grazed has enough time to rest and recover. Once a plant is grazed by an animal, it needs time to fully regrow, and if it is not given this time and is grazed again, it draws energy from its root reserves to continue functioning, which is called overgrazing. When this happens repeatedly, the plant will eventually stunt, producing less biomass, and eventually die. With careful planning, we could avoid this, helping keep our pasture robust and vigorous.
Our responsibility would be to supervise these movements, which would take place mainly on a daily basis during the summer, taking into account issues such as the availability and variety of feed, water and shelter, as well as seasonal factors such as calving and weaning. This consistent interaction would also give us the opportunity to regularly monitor the impact of grazing, make changes to our plan when needed, and gain knowledge and experience over time.
Our now famed animal writer, Fred Provenza, claims that herbivores, if given the chance, will graze as many as fifty different species of plants in a single day, depending on their need for specific nutrients and minerals. Our pastures began with a plate of diverse flora for cattle to choose from. We hoped that, over time, their work would support raise the diversity of what people could choose from.
Cattle grazing in bales: everything is in hay
Throughout our carefully planned summer grazing, we have tried to make the most of available forage, taking advantage of one of the many superpowers of Highland cattle, which allows them to live on nutrient-poor vegetation and still thrive.
But as fall turned to winter and the remnants of the standing grass were grazed, we unrolled our first bale of hay, releasing the warming scent of summer grasses and wildflowers and carrying armfuls to our corral that began to express their dissatisfaction with the fodder leftovers left in the field.
Ronnie in particular looked at us with great dissatisfaction. She always had a robust appetite, perhaps her figure was a bit larger than others as she certainly enjoyed food, which is another trait that has just become a part of Ronnie. They all hugged each other with such joy as we stood back and watched them eat each stalk before falling in heaps to the challenging, frozen ground, chewing their food with complete contentment. From that moment on, when we watched them lie there with full bellies, we affectionately called them “lumps.”
We started using our twice-daily hay ration to continue moving the cattle regularly, feeding them in different areas, but this time in much larger paddocks so that if a winter storm came, they would always have access to shelter from the trees. Since the cattle did not stay in one place for long periods of time, this helped prevent the ground from becoming muddy and compacted. Any scraps of hay they didn’t eat simply decomposed, feeding the soil as the displaced seed heads were trampled into the ground, and planted them to sprout up-to-date shoots in the spring.
We also started experimenting with a technique called bale grazing, which is simply placing a bale of hay in a spot in the field that we felt needed an raise in fertility, removing the mesh holding the layers in place and allowing the cattle to eat directly from it. Once everything was ready, we brought the cattle to the bale. It was a time of obvious excitement, with boys banging their heads against it and girls sticking their horns straight into the side, sometimes tipping over a bale before sitting down to feast.
It would take us two to three days to complete an all-you-can-eat buffet that resulted in a gigantic, round piece of hay several inches chunky. We had to fight the urge to rake up the leftover hay, taming others’ doubts that the “waste” would “choke” the grass in the summer, knowing that we had to leave this “wasted” hay with its excrement stains to pound into the ground.
By the following summer, these swathes were transformed into a lush and diverse forage, teeming with insect life as compact field voles took advantage of the up-to-date cover to move around their territory. With this very plain technique, we slowly began to raise the amount of varied grazing for our highlanders, now viewing “hay waste” as food for the soil and a compact investment in a flourishing soil bank.