"Put down that veggie burger. These farmers say their cows can solve the climate crisis"

David McKenzie and Brent Swails for CNN; March 7, 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03...isis-intl/index.html

quote We can actually solve the climate crisis by sequestering carbon in the soil and paying farmers to do it. And if you say to a farmer that you will pay him a dollar more to plant grass [instead of corn or another human food crop] and sit on his butt, then he is going to take that deal every time.

Adopt ultra-high density grazing of cattle.

Use the same land (but at different times) for cattle grazing and for crop farming.

Stop the ploughing, artificial fertilizing and pesticide'ing of farmland.

Overcome the massively entrenched agro-chemical supply chain lobby.

It's all about the soil.

quote Researchers at Texas A&M University led by Professor Richard Teague found that even moderately effective grazing systems put more carbon in the soil than the [greenhouse] gasses [that the] cattle emit.

Achieving carbon sequestration on a significant scale by converting or displacing atmospheric carbon dioxide into a stable component of grassland soil covering large expanses of land is the "kryptonite" that neutralizes Global Warming.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-07-2020).]

I meant to address this last weekend but that was the day my wife just had to see what it was like to ride in an ambulance..

It's not a new concept at all, been known for many decades and a lot of small producers here in this country do use it. We call it MIG tho. Mob Intensive Grazing. Another name is Management Intensive Grazing and the 'M' part of that last one is why it isn't more prevalent in the US.
Allan Savory is probably the world's most well known authority on the practice and he has preached it for many decades, but he's from Zimbabwe and things can be done a lot different there, and successfully, than here in North America.
Why? The 'M' word. Management. You can exchange that for Labor and Time, both of which a cattle producer has very little of. Instead of putting a herd out on 500 acres and letting them eat and grow and reproduce, you subdivide that 500 ac up into many small paddocks depending on how many head of livestock you intend to run. You have to watch them constantly, knowing when to open the gate into the next little paddock when the grass in the original paddock is eaten down to just above the crown.

This practice also means more infrastructure cost. Fencing is NOT cheap, and then there's the problem of water.
Cattle will need about 30 gal ea every day, so you have to ensure they have it. Wells, piping, float valves, all expensive to buy, install and maintain...in EACH small paddock. Cattle producer right now, is only getting about $1.50/lb live weight.

The other difference is our relatively short growing season here. Even here in East Texas, my grass stops growing in Sept and doesn't green up again until beginning mid March and even thru March and early April, there is very little nutritional value in the green forage as it is mostly just water.
It's a good concept, but it would be very difficult to pull it off here in this country for most producers to make a profit.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-16-2020).]

That looks to be the "kryptonite" that stops this Raise More Cattle To Slow Down Global Warming plan in its tracks.


Back to Plan B.

CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: Back to Plan B. CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

I still say the best way to turn plants into hamburger is to feed them to a cow.

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: That looks to be the "kryptonite" that stops this Raise More Cattle To Slow Down Global Warming plan in its track.

That, and the fact that there is NO kind of cattle shortage in North America to begin with. Raising more (increasing the national cow herd size) would merely depress live cattle prices even lower (supply vs demand) and that would mean the true end of most producers with herds under 100 head. There were 94.5 million head of beef cattle in the USA Jan 1 2020, which more than supplies the US and export needs. Based on the most recent (2017) Census of Agriculture, the average beef cow herd is 43.5 head, but operations with 100 or more beef cows compose 9.9 percent of all beef operations and 56 percent of the beef cow inventory.Cow herd size expansion is over and done with now, as prices are too low, and high feed prices beginning in 2015 spelled the beginning of the end of the big expansion that started after the 2011 drought caused the national herd sell off to the lowest it had been in over 60 years. (avg live weight price going to the producer in 2014 was around $3/lb). I can still make $$ as low as $1.35/lb but barely and everything has to go exactly right all thru the year.

(No shortage of Dairy cattle production in the US either, but that might change if dairy farmers keep tossing in the towel due to depressed bulk milk prices. For Feb 2020, the average at farm price being paid to the producer was $16.84 per 100 lbs of raw milk. A gallon of raw milk (straight from the cow) weighs about 8.6lbs per gallon. )

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-16-2020).]