Our Principles
FIVE PRINCIPLES OF SOIL HEALTH
The ranching operation is highly flexible and context-based, reliant on daily observation of how the cattle are interacting with the landscape. Managing for abundance, whether it be biodiversity, biomass, compost building and native seed propagation through trample and manure, allows greater climate resilience in the face of increased severity of drought and flooding.
grazing based on soil type and ecological zone
Using temporary fencing to optimize cattle disturbance based on soil type has been a game changer for the operation. Fencing off deeper soil types allows greater trample in denser areas pushing oxidized leaf matter into the soil allowing it to break down into compost and build the soil layer. Fencing off shallower soil types allows for light flash grazing of those areas and creates greater rest periods between grazes.
FOCUSING ON MATERNAL QUALITIES IN CATTLE
The operation focuses on maternal traits of the females it retains in the herd. Focusing on expected progeny differences (EPD’S) often overlooked in the industry such as fertility, yearling height, heifer pregnancy, docility, milk, and $EN. The operation’s focus is not on growth and pounds of beef, but adaptability and resilience within the landscape in which they live. The ranch prides themselves on gentle handling practices: calling cows to follow them to new pastures rather than pushing them, adhering to BQA guidelines, and knowing that the level of chill in the herd is critical to the success of the operation.
SCIENCE/RESEARCH:
Installing a carbon flux monitoring tower for the 3M research project.
RESEARCH RESOURCES:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=meredith57&verifiable=any
https://thesoilinventoryproject.org
https://ecosystemservicesmarket.org
https://www.fws.gov/program/central-grasslands-conservation/about-us
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/378e6f734579408e910d075a6a5939e0
INTERPRETING SOIL HEALTH METRICS IN SEMI-ARID GRAZINGLANDS: AN ASSESSMENT OF MEASUREMENT APPROACHES AND RELATIONAL GRADIENTS. A Dissertation by DOUGLAS JEFFREY GOODWIN
https://www.proquest.com/docview/2681845992?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
RESEARCH PAPERS:
1 Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2016. US Environmental Protection Agency. EPA 430-R-18-003. 2022. [cited 2022 May 4] Available from: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks-1990- 2020
2 Rotz, C.A., S. Asem-Hiablie, S. Place, G. Thoma. Environmental Footprints of Beef Cattle Production in the United States. Agricultural Systems. Vol 169, February 2019, pp 1-13.
3 White, Robin R, M.B. Hall. Nutritional and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Removing Animals from US Agriculture. November 13, 2017. Edited by B.L. Turner.
4 Freedgood, J., M. Hunter, J. Dempsey and A. Sorensen. 2020. Farms Under Threat: The State of the States. Washington, D.C: American Farmland Trust. 65 pp.
5 Follett, R.F., J.M. Kimble, and R. Lal [eds.]. 2001. The Potential of U.S. Grazing Lands to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect. Lewis Publishers, CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, USA. 422 pp.
6 Project Drawdown. December 2020. A Drawdown Primer – Farming Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis: Changing Our Land Use, Agricultural Practices, and Food System Offers Numerous Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Sequester Atmospheric Carbon, and Help Address Climate Change.
7 Rowntree, J.E., P.L.Stanley, Isabella C.F. Maciel, M. Thorbecke, S.T. Rosenzweig, D.W. Hancock, A. Guzman, M.R. Raven. 2020. Ecosystem Impacts and Productive Capacity of a Multi-Species Pastured Livestock System. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Vol 4, p 1- 13.
8 Mosier, S, S. Apfelbaum, P. Byck, F. Calderon, R. Teague, R. Thompson, M.F. Cotrufo. 2021. Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing Enhances Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks and Stabilization Through Mineral Association in Southeastern U.S. Grazing Lands. Journal of Environmental Management. Pp 288
9 Stanley, P. L., et. al. (2018). Impacts of Soil Carbon Sequestration on Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Midwestern USA Beef Finishing Systems. Agricultural Systems, 162, 249- 258
10 Paustian, K.,. (2019). Soil C Sequestration as a BiologicalNegativeEmissionStrategy..
11 Conant, R. T., et. al. (2017). Grassland Management Impacts on Soil Carbon Stocks: a New Synthesis. Ecological Applications, 27(2), 662-668.
12 Herrero, M., et. al. (2016). Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potentials in the Livestock Dector. Nature Climate Change, 6(5), 452-461.
13 Chirinda, N., et. al. (2019). Adequate Vegetative Cover Decreases Nitrous Oxide Emissions From Cattle Urine Deposited in Grazed Pastures Under Rainy Season Conditions. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-9.
14 Franzluebbers, A.J. 2020. Chapter 2 - Cattle Grazing Effects on the Environment: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Footprint. Eds. Rouquette, M. and Aiken, G.E. Management Strategies for Sustainable Cattle Production in Southern Pastures. Academic Press. p 11-34.
15 Chirinda, N., et. al. (2019). Adequate Vegetative Cover Decreases Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Cattle Urine Deposited in Grazed Pastures Under Rainy Season Conditions. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-9.
16 Herrero, M., et. al. (2016). Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potentials in the Livestock Sector. Nature Climate Change, 6(5), 452-461.
17 Malik (2015) “Feed-Based Approaches in Enteric Methane Amelioration” in Malik et. al. eds Livestock Production and Climate Change, CABI. Edited by: Pradeep K Malik, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, India, Raghavendra Bhatta, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Junichi Takahashi, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary medicine, Japan, Richard Kohn, University of Maryland at College Park, USA, Cadaba S Prasad, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, India. April 2015. 408 pp.
18 Marcia S. DeLonge, R. Ryals, and W.L. Silver. 2013. A Lifecycle Model to Evaluate Carbon Sequestration Potential and Greenhouse Gas Dynamics of Managed Grasslands. Ecosystems. 16: 962–979
19 Smith (2019) “Interlinkages Between Desertification, Land Degradation, Food Security and GHG Fluxes: Synergies, trade-offs and integrated response options” in IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land.
20 Amonette, J.E., J.G. Archuleta, M.R. Fuchs, K.M. Hills, G.G. Yorgey, G. Flora, J. Hunt, H.-S. Han, B.T. Jobson, T.R. Miles, D.S. Page-Dumroese, S. Thompson, K.M. Trippe, K. Wilson, R. Baltar, K. Carloni, C. Christoforou, D.P. Collins, J. Dooley, D. Drinkard, M. Garcia-Pérez, G. Glass, K. Hoffman-Krull, M. Kauffman, D.A. Laird, W. Lei, J. Miedema, J. O’Donnell, A. Kiser, B. Pecha, C. Rodriguez-Franco, G.E. Scheve, C. Sprenger, B. Springsteen, and E. Wheeler. 2021. Biomass to Biochar: Maximizing the Carbon Value. Report by Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Pullman WA. csanr.wsu.edu/biomass2biochar
21 R. Ryals, M. Kaiser, M. Torn, A.A. Berhe, W.L. Silver. 2014. Impacts of Organic Matter Amendments on Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in Grassland Soils. Soil Biology & Biochemistry. 68, 52-61
22 Amonette, J.E., J.G. Archuleta, M.R. Fuchs, K.M. Hills, G.G. Yorgey, G. Flora, J. Hunt, H.-S. Han, B.T. Jobson, T.R. Miles, D.S. Page-Dumroese, S. Thompson, K.M. Trippe, K. Wilson, R. Baltar, K. Carloni, C. Christoforou, D.P. Collins, J. Dooley, D. Drinkard, M. Garcia-Pérez, G. Glass, K. Hoffman-Krull, M. Kauffman, D.A. Laird, W. Lei, J. Miedema, J. O’Donnell, A. Kiser, B. Pecha, C. Rodriguez-Franco, G.E. Scheve, C. Sprenger, B. Springsteen, and E. Wheeler. 2021. Biomass to Biochar: Maximizing the Carbon Value. Report by Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University, Pullman WA. csanr.wsu.edu/biomass2biochar
23 Project Drawdown. December 2020. A Drawdown Primer – Farming Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis: Changing Our Land Use, Agricultural Practices, and Food System Offers Numerous Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Sequester Atmospheric Carbon, and Help Address Climate Change.
24 Stanley, P.L., J.E. Rowntree, D.K. Beede, M.S. DeLonge, M.W. Hamm. 2018. Impacts of Soil Carbon Sequestration on Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Midwestern USA Beef Finishing Systems. Agricultural Systems. 162, p249-258
25 SW. Culman, VR Haden, T Maxwell, H Waerhouse, W Horwath. February 2014. Review of CA Cropland Emissions and Mitigation Potential. Duke, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. NI GGMOCA R3. https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/sites/default/files/publications/ni_ggmoca_r_3.pdf,
26 Shaffer, S. and E. Thompson. 2015. A New Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from California Agricultural and Urban Land Uses. American Farmland Trust. 13 pp.
27 Jackson, L., Haden, V.R., Hollander, A.D., Lee, H., Lubell, M., Mehta, V.K., O’Geen, T., Niles, M.T., Perlman, J., Purkey, D., Salas, W., Sumner, D., Tomuta, M., Dempsey, M., Wheeler., S.M (2012) Agricultural Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Yolo County, CA. California Energy Commission Project 500-09-009, pp.153.
28 Sarah Brown. Fall 2019. Best Practices for Virtual Peer-to-Peer Farmer Learning | Organic Farming Research Foundation (ofrf.org) Organic Farming Research Foundation.
29 Helen Lammers-Helps. August 12, 2019. Want to Be a More Successful Farmer? Find a Mentor - Country Guide (country-guide.ca) by Guide Business, Guide HR.
30 Shaffer, S. and E. Thompson. 2015. A New Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from California Agricultural and Urban Land Uses. American Farmland Trust. 13 pp.
31 Jackson, L., Haden, V.R., Hollander, A.D., Lee, H., Lubell, M., Mehta, V.K., O’Geen, T., Niles, M.T., Perlman, J., Purkey, D., Salas, W., Sumner, D., Tomuta, M., Dempsey, M., Wheeler., S.M (2012) Agricultural Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Yolo County, CA. California Energy Commission Project 500-09-009, pp.153.
32 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2017). NASS - Quick Stats. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/nass-quick-stats. Accessed 2022-05-05.
33 Small Farms, Big Differences | USDA Research and Science. March 11, 2021.
34 Small-Scale U.S. Cow-Calf Operations. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services, National Animal Health Monitoring System. April 2011. Available from https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahms/smallscale/downloads/Small_scale_beef.pdf
35 Small-scale U.S. cow-calf operations. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services, National Animal Health Monitoring System. April 2011. Available from https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahms/smallscale/downloads/Small_scale_beef.pdf
36 Climate Action Reserve Soil Enrichment Protocol Version 1.0. 2020. Available from: https://www.climateactionreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Soil-Enrichment-Protocol- V1.0.pdf
37 http://comet-planner.com/ Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Evaluation for NRCS Conservation Practice Planning. Colorado State University
38 Paustian K, Easter M, Brown K, Chambers A, Eve M, Huber A, Marx E, Layer M, Stermer M, Sutton B, Swan A, Toureene C, S. Verlayudhan S, Williams S. 2018. Field- and farm-scale assessment of soil greenhouse gas mitigation using COMET-FarmTM. In: J. A. Delgado, G.F. Sassenrath and T. Mueller (eds). Precision Conservation: Geospatial Techniques for Agricultural and Natural Resources Conservation, pp. 341-359, Agronomy Monograph 59. ASA/CSSA/SSSA, Madison WI. doi: 10.2134/agronmonogr59.2013.003.
39 Available from:
Climate Action Reserve Soil Enrichment Protocol Version 1.0. 2020.
https://www.climateactionreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Soil-Enrichment-Protocol-
V1.0.pdf
40 Climate Action Reserve Grassland Project Protocal version 2.1. 2020. Available from:
https://www.climateactionreserve.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/02/Grassland_Protocol_V2.1.pdf
41 Methodology for the Adoption of Sustainable Grasslands Through Adjustment of Fire and Grazing. VCS Methodology VM0032. Version 1.0. 2015 [cited 2022 May 4] Available from: https://verra.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/VM0032-Meth-for-the-Adopt-of-Sustain- Grasslands-through-Adj-of-Fire-and-Grazing-v1.0.pdf
42 Dlamini, Phesheya, Pauline Chivenge, and Vincent Chaplot. "Overgrazing Decreases Soil Organic Carbon Stocks the Most Under Dry Climates and Low Soil pH: A meta-analysis shows." Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 221 (2016): 258-269.