The 3 Rules of Adaptive Stewardship
This article first appeared in our April 4th, 2023, newsletter, and is adapted in blog form here.
We are continuing our discussion about the 6:3:4™ principles of regenerative agriculture, as coined by Understanding Ag, LLC, a team of grazing and soil health experts.
Last time we discussed the 6 in the 6:3:4™ - the 6 principles of soil health. Today, you will learn about the 3 rules of adaptive stewardship. In the next installment, we will discuss the 4 ecosystem processes.
The 3 Rules of Adaptive Stewardship
The Rule of Compounding – Each management decision made on one’s land produces a series of compounding and cascading effects, which may be positive or negative in nature. Astute observation is key here, and the better one masters this and is able to make better management decisions, the more positive the compounding effects will be.
For instance, let’s say we want to raise sheep on our farmstead. But we want a sheep that can handle our southern humid climate, one that is a hair sheep (less maintenance vs that of a wool sheep), one that is parasite resistant (in a humid climate this is a necessity), and will graze on the terrain on our land (our context – what we discussed last time). We select a breed that is the best of all those, and over time select for the most fit out of those sheep based on these environmental and body conditions. This is called epigenetics, which is a crucial part of compounding and cascading effects. The more positive the compounding effects, the more positive epigenetics we would have in our sheep.
2. The Rule of Diversity– Nature performs better the more diversity it has. Monocultures (having just one plant for forage or one animal on a landscape) only holds back the capability of that environment. Planting a diverse mixture of plants enhances not only the above ground biodiversity, but also benefits the diverse microbial activity, which then benefits life above the soil surface. Monocultures produce negative compounding and cascading effects, which then negatively affects epigenetics.
A truly diverse pasture or field will have a combination of grasses, legumes (nitrogen fixing plants like clover), forbs (some call “weeds”), and woody vegetation. And animals that graze these highly diverse plant species are typically healthier and perform better than those animals who don’t (see Dr. Fred Provenza’s book Nourishment).
Grazing a pasture mix like this goes a long way to both soil and animal longevity.
3. The Rule of Disruption – We will go more into depth on this rule of environmental stewardship as there are many ways in which one may introduce disruption on their landscape. Disruption here simply means how a landscape can recover after some form of temporary setback or challenge. In other words, this measures how resilient nature is.
Plant and animal cells each have a memory. If, for instance, our sheep in the above example graze the same area at the same time of year each and every year, then the memory cells of those organisms (both plant and animal) will respond by telling that organism it will not need to gain resilience. They will grow accustomed to the management practice and stagnate.
Similarly, you talk to any bodybuilder, or anyone who exercises religiously, and they will tell you that you must increase resistance to build strength, speed, or stamina. They must challenge their body in order to gain whatever it is they desire to gain. They must not become stagnant in their workout or their body will not respond well when a challenge outside of their control presents itself.
Concerning our livestock, how can we build resilience into our farm by introducing disturbance? Planned, purposeful disruptions include the following:
a. Alter stock densities of animals on a routine basis. If one was grazing a herd of cattle with a stocking density of 10,000 lbs/acre, then increasing that to 50,000 lbs/ac or more would definitely be a disruption. And if the stocking density was too high, then perhaps reducing the stock density would be enough of a disruption.
b. Alter paddock configuration and paddock direction. If you desire high impact in a paddock, then you want a long, narrow paddock. If you want a lower impact, then perhaps a square-shaped paddock is best. Change up your paddock direction – i.e. if you orient your paddocks north-south, then orient them east-west. Skipping a paddock may be in order. Then graze that paddock on the next grazing cycle.
c. Alter timing of rotations through your paddocks. Begin the next spring grazing cycle with the paddock last grazed in the fall instead of always beginning the grazing season with the same paddock. Altering your grazing pattern introduces a disturbance.
d. Alter season/month of the year for the first and last grazing in each paddock. For example, if you grazed paddock D in April and June of last year, then graze that paddock in May and July. This can introduce enough of a disturbance that the soil microbial life will respond well to.
e. Alter grazing forage height in each paddock. If you’ve allowed your cattle or sheep or graze the top 1/3 of the plant, then next time shoot for them eating ½ of the plant. Or, if they ate 8 inches of an 18 inch tall plant last time, allow them to eat 10-12 inches next time.
f. Alter the order livestock species graze through a paddock. If you usually graze cattle, then sheep, and follow that with chickens and then pigs, as many suggest, then alter that order occasionally.
g. Alter rest-rotation periods in each paddock. If you give a paddock a 30 day rest period, then increase that to 60-90 days. Many pastures in our temperate climate respond very well to an extra long rest period, perhaps even up to a year. This allows the soil microbial life to really rebound and essentially “restart.”
h. Planned prescribed burns. Fire has a profound impact on the landscape, as we can all attest to the wildfires constantly occurring out west. But no fire needs to be that destructive. When planned properly and executed well, burning out a pasture or the clutter on a forest floor can “reset” vegetation growth. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been a part of prescribed burns at Fort Benning and less than a week after the burn, I drive by that particular area and notice green shoots coming up from the soil already. Using this strategy on a farm may be a viable option if one wants to introduce a disturbance to their landscape. Just make burning a rare practice for your farm.
A prescribed fire, such as this one on Fort
Benning, timed and performed correctly,
can reset the vegetation succession back
to an early stage.
i. Bale grazing. Placing bales of hay on bare soil and then grazing that area hard is a great way to rebuild soil health in that area, with natural fertilizer to boot. This is a strategy we may employ on our farm in the future as we have a lot of bare soil to heal.
Bale grazing, whether whole bale or unrolled like here, combined with a high stock density, is a fantastic way to build soil.
j. Combinations of the above disruptions. Combining, say, an increase in stock density with a tweak in paddock configuration and direction and then providing a longer than usual rest period may all exponentially impact soil, plant, and animal health over time – all with just 4 disruptions working in harmony with one another.
Next time, I’ll discuss the 4 in the 6:3:4™ - the 4 ecosystem processes.