Holistic Management Practices in Action at the Ranney Ranch

RANNEY RANCHCORONA, NM

GRAZING MANAGEMENT

Continuous grazing Holistic Planned Grazing

Neil Dennis, 2014

Benefits of Rotational GrazingManagement

• Lower costs (feed, labor, fuel, few bulls)

• Increased animal productivity• Higher stock density• Increased biodiversity & resilience• Opportunity for grassfed beef

program

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"That was some of the best beef I've ever eaten" -Theresa, Norman, OK

Free-range Grass-fed/Grass-finished BeefAt Ranney Ranch, in the beautiful high mesa country of central New Mexico, we raise Angus calves on nothing more than native grasses and mother’s milk, producing healthy and great tasting beef while using only the most humane handling techniques and sustainable land use management and grazing practices.We have been at the forefront since 2004 producing and marketing entirely grass-fed/grass-finished beef and are proud to offer our superior beef directly to customers nationwide. We sell online half and whole beeves and will arrange for you processing, dry-ageing, packaging (into 1-2 lb. portions), and shipping.We are "Certified Grassfed" by the American Grassfed Association (AGA).Our eco-friendly practices were profiled recently in TIME magazine (9/7/2010).  Also see a story about our grassfed beef in the New York Times Magazine (10/10/2010) by food writer, Kim Severson.  Nancy Ranney will speak at the Quivira Conference in November on "The Carbon Ranch".  

90% of Soil function is mediated by microbes

Microbes depend on plants

So how we manage plants is critical

Soil is to the plant what the rumen is to the cow

ParameterGrazing Management

Heavy continuo

us

Light continuo

us

Multi-paddock

Grazing exclosur

e

Total bacteria (g m-2) 82a 74a 78a 98a

Total fungi (g m-2) 97b 98b 174a 105ab

Fungus to Bacteria ratio

1.2b 1.1b 3.1a 0.7b

Soil Microbes

BIOMASS AND CARBON

Text

One-seeded Juniper• Av. tree consumes 40-80

gal/day, or upwards of 8-12,000 gal/yr

• Tests show SOC levels plummet in soil horizons below litter layer

• Water holding capacity of soil greatly reduced

WATER MANAGEMENT

• Increased permeability, organic content & water holding capacity

• Healthier roots (30’’ v 4”)• Cooler soil temp; incr

biodiversity• Measured 25%+ SOC• Increased microbial activity

Soil Testing at 5 Yrs

Documented: 1% increase SOC can hold addt’l 60,000 gal

water/ac• On 10,000 ac, hold addt'l 600 M gal

• If even 80% evapotranspires, 120 M gal enters shallow & deep GW

• If 30% re-emerges from soil, approx 110 ac ft now available to ranch soils(36 M)

• 70% into deep GW (84 M gal water)

ASU/Shell Preliminary Results 2016• Potential: build SOC in grassland

soils by short-term/rotational grazing AMP

• Accrues 9 TCO2 equiv/ha-yr more than continuous grazing practices

• More methane taken up than emitted

• 30% increased infiltration rates• Grasslands 40% of global land

mass, significant potential for net GHG sink

Total agriculture Cropping + erosion

Cropping Soil erosion Ruminants0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Net

em

issi

ons

(Gt

C Ye

ar-1

Lal 2003O’Mara 2011 Vermeulen et al. 2012Ripple et al. 2013

Agricultural Sources of Emissions: North America

Importance for climate change mitigation

Emissions with adopting regenerative cropping practices and regenerative

grazing practices

Teague et al. 2015

Opportunities• Grassfed Beef (ranch sales/processing plants/distribution facilities)

• Pelletizing plant/biomass/energy/jobs

• Watershed mgmt (NRCS/low tech)• Wind Energy dev’t (jobs/ranch

income)• Compensation for ecosystem

services (inc Carbon offset sales)• Large-scale climate mitigation

(Carbon, methane, cooling/water holding cap