When Alberta rancher Steve Kenyon takes over a new piece of leased land, the first thing he does is drive posts and string electric fence wires.
“It’s the biggest bang for the buck,” Kenyon told the recent Manitoba Grazing School in Brandon.
“I plant fence posts so I can manage my grazing. I need to manage my land.”
Dividing the pasture into cells to suit his grazing program is the initial stage in what Kenyon calls his long-term solution to reducing costs in his beef production system.
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“It comes down to management. I’m managing my agribusiness,” said Kenyon, who custom grazes cattle on 4,000 acres of leased land near Barrhead.
“Just moving cows in a circle isn’t going to do it. You have to understand why you do it and the economics behind it.”
Ranching according to Kenyon’s “cheap and lazy” philosophy requires correct management of the four main inputs: water; sunlight; recycled nutrients and living organisms, with the goal being to graze cattle all year.
“On my ranch, I don’t buy inputs, very few if any at all,” he said.
“I don’t want to do the work or use any equipment.”
Management, rather than costly technological solutions, is the key to pasture health, Kenyon said. For example, leaving 10 cows on a section of land for a month is overgrazing, but putting 400 head on 10 acres for an hour isn’t.
Water is preserved by grazing with the goal of leaving enough trampled plants to cover the ground and prevent evaporation loss, he said.
“Next time you complain about a drought, remember that it’s your fault. You’re the manager. It’s your job to hold onto that water. There’s a huge amount of growing potential in it.”
Grass residue on the soil surface after grazing provides the recycled nutrients needed to keep the system going. Also, plants slough off roots below the surface each time they are grazed, which over time builds up soil organic matter.
Kenyon said the overall production strategy is simple.
“Cover the ground, capture the sun. Don’t let the sun hit the dirt. It’s too simple. That’s why we don’t think about it,” he said.
“Healthy pasture is a profitable pasture. You can’t abuse the heck out of it and expect it to pay.”
By managing the grazing period, rest period, stock density and animal impact, he estimates that the value of the early springtime grass flush on his 4,000 acres is worth an extra $20,000.
“Do you think that makes my wife happy? If I can bring in an extra 20 grand?”
Adequate moisture and nutrients, and trash cover to keep the soil warm keep his pastures green into November, he added, which offers similar improved late season profit potential.
“So I get another two weeks in the fall. That’s another $20,000.”
Nutrient cycling is the work of an unpaid army of dung beetles, fungus, bacteria and earthworms that process the cow patties and dead plants back into grass.
“I see these guys as millions of workers who need just room and board. If I can keep the soil in a healthy state, they’ll do lots of work for me.”
Operating on leased land means he is often confronted with a new pasture covered with bare ground interspersed with weeds.
First, he broadcasts legume seed and sends in the herd for a short grazing period, followed by an adequate rest period. Within weeks, nitrogen-fixing clovers begin to appear, he said, which are followed by grasses in succeeding years once the nutrient levels balance out.
Kenyon called Canada thistle his “absolute favourite plant” because its appearance marks the beginning of restored pasture health.
“It came from Russia, but we should be proud to have our name on it,” he said.
“It’s a very powerful plant. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do.”
When conditions are harsh and dry, the thistle’s aggressive root system penetrates the soil as deep as 2½ metres.
“I don’t know of a four-wheel-drive tractor that can do that,” he said. “But thistle can do it. It opens up the land and can reach down to moisture and bring up micronutrients that aren’t at the soil surface.”
Cows don’t like to eat the thistle, but heavy stocking density forces them to knock it down, and their hoofs grind it into the soil, adding nutrients brought up from deep below.
“By the next year, we’ve changed the micro environment at the soil surface with trash cover, which stops evaporation. Now a grass seedling might be able to survive. This plant heals the land.”
By managing grazing properly, he said, the desirable grass species can outcompete the pioneer species.
Kenyon’s weed control philosophy often gets him into disputes with the county government, but he claims there isn’t a weed that he can’t get under control within three years.
Managing his grazing to create conditions that work to the benefit of the grass and the detriment of the weeds is far more cost effective than ripping up the pasture and reseeding.
“If I cultivate and those thistles come up, guess what, conditions are harsh again. Mother Nature is going to try to heal the land and I guarantee you that in the end, she has deeper pockets than you,” he said.
“You can spray them every year and they’ll still come up.”
Once, while converting leased former cropland to forage, he was confronted by a jungle of scentless chamomile.
The county, which recommended light tillage or spraying, demanded that he take measures to control it immediately. But Kenyon persisted, and solved the problem his way.
He broadcast legume seed and threw square bales onto the thickest patches. When the cattle came to eat the hay, the stocking density was increased in the target areas.
“They hammered it. The second year you could count the plants. The third year they were gone,” he said, adding he hasn’t heard from the county weed inspector since.
Foxtail barley can be controlled through winter bale grazing over the problem spots.
Soil salinity that creates favourable conditions for the weed can be eliminated by providing a trash layer, nutrients and reduced exposure to evaporation, Kenyon said.
