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Is this actually validated? Living in an area heavily deforested for cattle grazing, the cattle grazed land does not look like a healthy land. The cattle keep

Is this actually validated? Living in an area heavily deforested for cattle grazing, the cattle grazed land does not look like a healthy land. The cattle keep all plant life cut right back. Hot sun can easily access the soil drying it out, then when heavy rains come, the top soil all runs off the land. Land that is left without cattle fares better, land that is actively reforested and trees helped to get established looks infinitely more healthy.

wlib 7y ago
I'm on my phone in the country side with slow internet so I cant look up a link, but if I remember correctly, you should search "Alan Savory TED Talk" on youtube for an introduction to the use of livestock to reclaim land. Essentially, the issue with most livestock grazing is that it does not mimic natural grazing, which is a seasonal, high volume, high density event where the herd moves on and allows the grazed area time to recover.
- SideburnsOfDoom 7y ago
  > Alan Savory TED Talk I'm no expert, but I would approach this with extreme caution. There are a lot of replies that he is "misleading", "wrong", "dead wrong" etc.
  - jillesvangurp 7y ago
    There are also quite a few projects where this has been shown to get results in the real world. Enough that it's probably worth trying to replicate the results. Worst case it fails and you hopefully learn something.
barry-cotter 7y ago
The effects of having cattle/area constant over time are very different from having it change a lot cyclically. Flora, fauna and soil health will all be a lot better if you rotate a large herd over a large area, as a herd, than if they just roam freely the whole time. With a lot of cattle in a small area for a short time the ground will get chewed up and manure will be quite thoroughly mixed in. Leaving long periods in between this treatment means there’s a strong root system though so if the land isn’t grazed again for a long time it recovers well. The closer you approximate hordes of buffalo, aurochs or wildebeest thundering over the plains the closer you’re going to get to savannah/prairie/tundra. http://www.econtalk.org/moises-velasquez-manoff-on-cows-carbon-farming-and-climate-change/ http://www.econtalk.org/moises-velasquez-manoff-on-cows-carb... > Journalist and author Moises Velasquez-Manoff talks about the role of dirt in fighting climate change with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Velasquez-Manoff explains how changes in farming can allow dirt and plants to absorb carbon and potentially reduce climate change.
cgh 7y ago
>> Land that is left without cattle fares better This is not true of North America's grasslands. Pre-contact, tens of millions of bison fed on the grasslands much like cattle do now, with certain differences. Most cattle ranching operations are small so there are a lot of fences, which leads to intense grazing in some areas and relatively little in others. Grasslands have a symbiotic relationship with grazers. Without regular grazing and lightning-caused fires (indigenous populations also regularly burned large areas to help grazing animals), grasslands tend to progress to either bushy forests or dustbowls. In fact, the greatest danger to the grasslands of North America is farming.
ahje 7y ago
Overgrazing will ruin the land, and will counteract/nullify the benefits compared to well-managed grazing, and it's a no-brainer that further deforestation is a bad thing regardless of what we are using the land for afterwards.

wlib 7y ago

I'm on my phone in the country side with slow internet so I cant look up a link, but if I remember correctly, you should search "Alan Savory TED Talk" on youtube for an introduction to the use of livestock to reclaim land. Essentially, the issue with most livestock grazing is that it does not mimic natural grazing, which is a seasonal, high volume, high density event where the herd moves on and allows the grazed area time to recover.

SideburnsOfDoom 7y ago
> Alan Savory TED Talk I'm no expert, but I would approach this with extreme caution. There are a lot of replies that he is "misleading", "wrong", "dead wrong" etc.
- jillesvangurp 7y ago
  There are also quite a few projects where this has been shown to get results in the real world. Enough that it's probably worth trying to replicate the results. Worst case it fails and you hopefully learn something.

barry-cotter 7y ago

The effects of having cattle/area constant over time are very different from having it change a lot cyclically. Flora, fauna and soil health will all be a lot better if you rotate a large herd over a large area, as a herd, than if they just roam freely the whole time. With a lot of cattle in a small area for a short time the ground will get chewed up and manure will be quite thoroughly mixed in. Leaving long periods in between this treatment means there’s a strong root system though so if the land isn’t grazed again for a long time it recovers well. The closer you approximate hordes of buffalo, aurochs or wildebeest thundering over the plains the closer you’re going to get to savannah/prairie/tundra. http://www.econtalk.org/moises-velasquez-manoff-on-cows-carbon-farming-and-climate-change/ http://www.econtalk.org/moises-velasquez-manoff-on-cows-carb... > Journalist and author Moises Velasquez-Manoff talks about the role of dirt in fighting climate change with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Velasquez-Manoff explains how changes in farming can allow dirt and plants to absorb carbon and potentially reduce climate change.

cgh 7y ago

>> Land that is left without cattle fares better This is not true of North America's grasslands. Pre-contact, tens of millions of bison fed on the grasslands much like cattle do now, with certain differences. Most cattle ranching operations are small so there are a lot of fences, which leads to intense grazing in some areas and relatively little in others. Grasslands have a symbiotic relationship with grazers. Without regular grazing and lightning-caused fires (indigenous populations also regularly burned large areas to help grazing animals), grasslands tend to progress to either bushy forests or dustbowls. In fact, the greatest danger to the grasslands of North America is farming.

ahje 7y ago

Overgrazing will ruin the land, and will counteract/nullify the benefits compared to well-managed grazing, and it's a no-brainer that further deforestation is a bad thing regardless of what we are using the land for afterwards.