Wildlife as an economic partner: Integrating rotational grazing into full season cover crop habitat programs

Commodities

Practices

Economic viability is perhaps the most critical hurdle in the movement to regenerative agriculture. The current crop insurance model incentivizes producers and land owners to remove pasture and replace with marginal crop ground generating a higher lease payment than pasture rent. Can cattle and wildlife working together build an economic option to compete with the current row crop lease rates? Pheasants Forever in Nebraska offers a full season cover crop program that excludes grazing. Their payment rate is about 80% of row crop rental rates. If grazing were allowed, the total revenue may be sufficient to compete with conventional row crop producers, thus getting green cover back on highly erodible ground. Their program is good for Pheasants, but the soil is missing out on the regenerative enhancements cattle bring and the farmer misses out on additional revenue from cattle. Can we illustrate rotational grazing on their full season cover crop does not adversely effect their wildlife mission? If so, full season cover crops are more economically viable, more acres could benefit from cover crops, and regenerative producers may be more competitive bidding on ground to expand their operations and soil health practices. 

Solution: Our trial will be conducted on 120 acres of leased ground. It is my neighbor's property and I have pasture and cattle facilities immediately adjoining. The 120 acres have been in a corn/soybean rotation for the last 5 years. This is my first year leasing his ground. He wants market rate on his ground, but is curious to see regenerative ag in action. Our first step is a soil grid sample and water infiltration test to baseline. In late March or early April we'll plant our full season cover crop. The blend, developed in consultation with Green Cover, Pheasants Forever and the Jakubs includes: forage peas, hairy vetch, cowpeas, mung beans, forage sorghum, cereal rye, radish, buckwheat, flax and sunflower at a rate of 35lbs/acre. We'll have a control strip for comparison. In year 1, 40 acres will not be grazed. The remaining 80 acres will be split into 40 acre paddocks grazed by 15-20 cow/calf pairs and rotated weekly. Grazing could begin in late June and continue thru September depending cover crop performance, rainfall received and wildlife counts. Wildlife in each grazed paddock will be measured with game cameras and whistle counts under the guidance of PF Farm Bill Biologist. We will be able to bench mark wildlife counts against our control pasture. The primary focus is the wildlife monitoring, secondary and tertiary objectives include measuring soil health benefits and animal performance grazing these crops. From a livestock standpoint, we will track calf performance based on weaning weight as well as cow breed back. We have previous herd performance data to compare. While cattle performance is not the primary objective of this grant, it is an important piece of the economic picture and should be tracked to potentially set up further research. 

Once animals have been pulled from paddocks the cover crops will remain idle for the fall and winter, wildlife monitoring will continue. The second year will follow the same seed mix as the first year. If wildlife numbers are sufficient in year 1 the paddock layout may change in year 2 to help us see how much grazing can be supported. Of our 120 acres, 4-6 paddocks will be created. One will remain idle, the remaining paddocks will be grazed at different durations to determine threshold of upland game use. For example, one paddock may be grazed for a week another for two weeks and another for three weeks etc. All paddocks will again be monitored for wildlife. We will conduct a grid soil sample and water infiltration test at the end of year 2. Since we are applying as a partner grant we will have sufficient funds to run for 2 years. Pheasants Forever is providing matching funds and helping with seed expense and in-kind labor. If we can demonstrate satisfactory wildlife counts with aforementioned density subsequent research could focus more pointedly on the density and duration of cattle. To identify the optimal blend of cattle, grazing and livestock. Future studies focusing on cattle performance could utilize Nebraska Environmental Trust funds.

Objective: We hope to show light density rotational grazing can be integrated into conversation programs without adverse impacts to the wildlife those programs target, in this case pheasants and quail. Wildlife conservation is a $6-$8 billion a year opportunity. Unlocking some of this capital can help regenerative producers compete with conventional row crop and crop insurance operators as we bid for land leases. Together, we can build an economically viable alternative particularly with marginal or highly erodible ground that is ecologically and socially responsible.