The way that farms graze cattle today is nothing like how herd animals have grazed land in the wild – and this difference could be responsible for lifeless soil and poor-quality forage in pastures.

Many farms graze their cattle through a method called continuous grazing, where cattle have unrestricted access to graze in one large pasture. This method has been used generationally and its benefits include low fencing cost and low daily maintenance. However, this method can also result in reduced forage availability and quality, unequal fertilization and longer recovery after drought.

Herd animals like buffalo, deer and elk stick closely together when they graze, pounding the soil with their hooves while nourishing the land with manure. The animals continuously move across the land without over foraging an area and leaving it bare. This allows the vegetation in the area to regrow in a rich layer of soil that was created by the herd animals. 

Cattle farmers and researchers alike have realized that the grazing patterns of wild herd animals could be beneficial to traditional farms through a method called Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing. AMP grazing is a more effective form of rotational grazing where livestock are moved to portions of the pasture and are not given free roaming access to the land.

One cornerstone of AMP grazing is the paddocks. Cattlemen that practice AMP grazing fence their cattle in small paddocks, putting a high livestock density in one small area of the pasture at a time. The livestock consume no more than fifty percent of the total forage volume and trample the remainder of the forage in the area before they are rotated to another small paddock. Intensely but briefly grazing the cattle in one small, paddocked area at a time allows grass growth in the area to become more vigorous and allows manure from the cattle to be evenly spread in the area. Additionally, the cattle are herded together which means their hooves do the work to push their feces and urine into the soil and pack it down. 

Over time, the cycle of AMP grazing leads to more net grass growth and brings more nutrients to the soil through greater microbial activity resulting from the packed down manure and trampled forage. When more grass grows and when microbial activity is high, more carbon can be pulled into the soil. More carbon in the soil means that water retention is increased, keeping the soil rich and moist. Increased carbon in soil also helps to prevent soil erosion. The cycle is regenerative, which means that as cattle are rotated through the paddocks, each area that is grazed will eventually grow back with rich forage and more carbon can be held within the soil.

AMP grazing is not one size fits all. Instead, the method is meant to be highly adaptive with cattlemen observing the paddocked areas to anticipate when the next rotation should be. Depending on the size of the herd and the pasture, cattle farmers can create small paddocks that best fit their land.

Steve Apfelbaum, founder and senior ecologist at the Applied Ecological Institute, emphasizes that the barrier to entry of AMP grazing for farmers can be quite low. Farmers can use low-cost hotwired fencing to create the small paddocks and can create central watering locations with spokes that can be delivered to many paddocks at a time which can eliminate water costs.

Apfelbaum also notes that there are many benefits to AMP grazing, like AMP ranchers having green grass even during droughts, significantly higher forage quantity and quality, which can create healthier cattle, and being able to graze two to five times the number of animals compared to conventional ranchers. Farmers using AMP grazing could also expect to see more diverse wildlife on their farms as the animals have access to better and greater forage.

“The climate benefits, the biodiversity and the water benefits are significantly better for AMP grazers – not to forget animal nutrition, and human health from eating these animals. The research that’s been done by others suggests [the meat] has a whole suite of different omega fatty acid profiles that are associated with healthier humans,” Apfelbaum said.

Benefits to AMP grazing extend beyond the walls of the barn. Apfelbaum says that AMP grazing results in up to four times higher the amount of carbon staying in the soil, which has environmental benefits. Conventional grazing and other grazing methods allow carbon to escape from soil and become carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a primary greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and overheating the planet. AMP grazing allows carbon to remain in the soil, thereby eliminating some of the impact that cattle farming has on climate change.

While AMP grazing may have some upfront costs and involve more herd maintenance, the practice stands to ultimately benefit farmers while helping the environment. Apfelbaum says that AMP grazing is one of the fastest growing transitions in the ranching community across the world.

“The animals are healthier, and you can increase carrying capacity and spend less time physically managing the herd. I think it adds up to improved revenues and improved profitability for farmers and ranchers. It’s positive on nearly all fronts,” he said.