ABOUT REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Regenerative agriculture can be distinguished from traditional, and even organic farming, because of the step back it takes from chemical and mechanical actions to better resemble what happens in nature.
It reduces the amount of inputs (fertilizer, pesticides) and disruptive action (like tilling your field before planting) and includes the use of cover crops and animals. Its goal is to restore the biodiversity in the soil. According to the Noble Research Institute, at its core, regenerative agriculture is the process of restoring degraded soils using practices based on ecological principles. It mimics nature’s ways in balanced ecosystems. It results in better carbon retention and restoration of water cycles.
Main implementation of these principles look like:
Planting crops using no-till, which minimizes disturbance to the soil
Incorporating cover crops
Decreasing use of fertilizers and pesticides
Using adaptive managed intensive rotational grazing (or mob-grazing) — moving pastured animals through smaller sections of the overall land and allowing grazed land adequate rest and recovery.
Prevent Soil Erosion - No-till planting preserves existing soil’s structure. Cover crops improve the soil’s structure, and their roots anchor the soil in place. As well as this, the leaves of cover crops create a barrier between the rain and the earth. This barrier reduces the impact of rain and distributes it more evenly.
Improve Fertility and Quality of the Soil - Cover crops hold on to the nutrients in the earth and prevent them from leaching out, and legumes help with nitrogen fixation. The main crop depletes the soil of nutrients, so a cover crop will help to replenish the earth without chemical fertilizers. Cover crops also increase the organic matter in the soil and encourage microbial activity.
Weed and Pest Control - Cover crops are stronger than weeds, so weeds will find it hard to grow and germinate amongst cover crops. When cover crops die off, they also provide a weed-resistant mulch over the earth. Cover crops can also help break bacterial and fungal disease cycles. And they can lure pests away from the main crop whilst attracting natural pest predators such as birds.
Carbon Storage and Biodiversity - Cover crops absorb harmful carbon emissions from our atmosphere and store them in their roots underground. As well as this, cover crops improve the local biodiversity. They provide vital habitat for beneficial insects such as pollinators, and they'll attract wildlife to the area.
Cover crops and regenerative agriculture are closely linked together. Without cover crops, regenerative agriculture wouldn’t be half as effective. Overall, cover crops naturally improve the fertility and quality of the earth, which leads to higher yields and less soil erosion.
Managed intensive rotational grazing paddocks typically grow tall plants. Moved on a short period basis, sheep leave behind between a third and half the forage in the paddocks they grazed, so the pasture is never grazed hard enough to lead to the issues associated with set stocking and, left with a large surface area of ‘solar panels’ aka remaining leaves, the plants are able to re-grow more quickly.
When grazing animals are moved as a group (a mob) to a relatively small paddock of fresh pasture they instinctively become competitive for the available forage. They eagerly put their heads down and chomp whatever is in front of them, moving slowly and rhythmically across the paddock. They graze more evenly and less selectively and because the pasture has not been over grazed it retains diversity and interest for the animals.
Managed intensive rotational grazing encourages beneficial trampling that doesn’t take place for long enough to lead to compaction. Where trampled and put in contact with the soil, the forage covers the soil surface, protecting it from erosion and dehydration. It also protects the soil from being cut up by the feet of stock, even during heavy rain. As broken stems decompose, they feed the soil microbiology, increasing soil health by creating organic matter, building top soil and enhancing water retention, which also helps to alleviate flooding.
Drought tolerance - the amount of cover left on the surface not only protects the soil from drying out but because the plants have experienced less severe grazing it allows them to grow deeper roots so they can draw moisture up from much deeper down, making them far more drought tolerant too.
Even manure distribution – as the animals graze their way across the paddock they distribute their manure evenly, compared to a set-stocked field where animals often return to a preferred ‘campsite’ to sleep and dung.
Less compaction – animals do not have to walk far to search out their next juicy bite, so there is far less compaction from their feet.
Plant resilience & season extension – areas of pasture used for mob grazing grow more robust plants due to the longer recovery periods during which they are not grazed. This leads to increased plant density and deeper more resilient root systems, which enable them to find water during the summer dry periods, and cope with ’flash’ grazing early and late in the season, all of which extends the period for which they can be grazed.
The faster recovery and greater density of plants means the land is more productive also and is able to support more animals leading to increased stocking capacity.
Increased animal performance – a healthy soil with good biology makes more nutrients available to the plants. The plants have a higher nutritional content that helps animals to grow better. Taller grass also provides more fiber for the animal, which slows the transit and enables better utilization of nutrients.
Managed intensive rotational grazing is beneficial to the wild flora and fauna too: grazing animals in a ‘mob’ means all the plants get nibbled and this leads to greater diversity in the plant species. At any one time most of the grazing land is left undisturbed for many weeks and sometimes months, giving the grasses and wildflowers a chance to flower and set seed; ground nesting birds to raise their broods; nectar to be produced for bees; habitat development for bugs, beetles and voles; and ideal hunting for owls.
More time with the animals & better animal welfare – as shepherds manage a managed intensive rotational grazing system, they see the animals up close every day without having to drive around a large field trying to find them. As they walk directly past to their new grazing area, shepherds can watch them move and have a much better chance of spotting any that don’t look happy.
With daily movement, fewer parasites build up in the soil and affect the animals
Living and working in our high altitude desert, conditions for productive soil re-establishment, ecosystem balance and livestock husbandry can be challenging. Careful and intentional management is key to achieve and maintain sustainable farming practices. Before Europeans came to New Mexico, introducing sagebrush and relying on livestock heavily grazing the land, the plains of Northern New Mexico were covered with grasses, which were grazed by mobile herds of animals. The new introductions actively changed the landscape, resulting in a challenging environment to sustain healthy ecosystems and livestock today.
The scarcity and value of water in NNM is another distinct element: acequia irrigation and the monsoons draw a unique picture for successful land management.
Regenerative agriculture considers this ecosystem as a whole and creates a holistic plan that encompasses water availability, condition of the land, native crop species and adapted livestock management to actively improve the diverse elements of a healthy ecosystem. Similar conditions can be found in the Chihuahuan desert, and the work led at Las Damas Ranch, in Mexico, shows how much intentional management can do.
The benefit of using our herd of sheep is the flexibility it affords us: the herd is small enough to happily graze in a small paddock (10 panels 10 ft long). This paddock can be set up in most areas of the acreages we’re working on.
Sheep will eat a large diversity of plants. With the spacial constraint of the paddock, they browse evenly, creating stimulation with positive long term effects on the vegetation.
Sheep’s hooves and grazing habits are powerful tools for the land remediation work. Added to them are our donkey’s own contribution, making the impact a bit more diverse (including her manure that adds to the fertilization process).
Historically, sheep have been present in the Southwest. Our herd is mostly Navajo Churro sheep whose numbers are dwindling. Our work is a small contribution to the important endeavor of maintaining a hardy, multi-purpose breed (wool, meat, and even milk).
In light of the challenges of climate change, it is important to consider the impact of this work on a larger scale. Regenerative agriculture can directly be connected to two major outcomes: carbon retention and restoration of the small water cycle.
Plants are natural and efficient absorbers of carbon. They draw it from the atmosphere, and thanks to sunlight, transform the carbon and water into sugar, effectively storing it in their tissues. Regenerating land increases plant coverage and health.
The increased plant coverage of the land results in more evapotranspiration, which in turns, contributes to restoring the small water cycle. The small water cycle is the cyclical movement of water between land and air, where it evapotranspires into air, comes down again as rain, and then evapotranspires back up again. Currently about 65% of our rain comes from the small water cycle, and 35% from the large water cycle (ocean-land-ocean cycle). The small water cycle, aka precipitation cycling, is intimately linked with how well the rain can infiltrate into the earth. As we degrade our lands, and lower its ability to absorb rain, there is less water available to evapotranspire to form precipitation again, and so the small water cycle decreases.
Want to learn more about regenerative agriculture? We feel you. Below is a list of the resources that helped us construct our thinking and approach.
Kiss the Ground documentary
Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown
A recent conversation with Ray Archuleta on Regenerative Agriculture in Northern New Mexico (with our very own Alice Morillon, for the podcast she produces at the Taos Center for the Arts)
If you are looking for local organizations who are leading our region in this effort, check out:
About regenerative agriculture:
https://www.noble.org/regenerative-agriculture/
About cover crops:
https://www.regenerativefarmersofamerica.com/cover-crops#:~:text=With%20regenerative%20agriculture%2C%20rather%20than,rye%2C%20barley%2C%20and%20brassicas.
A description of mob grazing benefits:
https://www.smilingtreefarm.com/resources/mob-grazing#:~:text=Domesticated%20cattle%20and%20sheep%20still,small%20areas%20for%20short%20periods.
About the small water cycle:
[1] K.E. Trenberth, J. Fasullo, and J Mackaro, 2011: Atmospheric Moisture Transports from Ocean to Land and Global Energy Flows in Reanalyses. J. Climate, 24, 4907–4924. https://journals.ametsoc.org/configurable/content/journals$002fclim$002f24$002f18$002f2011jcli4171.1.xml?t:ac=journals%24002fclim%24002f24%24002f18%24002f2011jcli4171.1.xml
About plants' contribution to storing carbon
https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-human-produced-carbon-dioxide-taken-faster-plant-growth-around-world#:~:text=Plants%20are%20a%20natural%20%E2%80%9Ccarbon,2%20out%20of%20the%20atmosphere.