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After corporate careers that took us all around the world, we moved out to our family’s ranch a few years ago. Our grandparents acquired the ranch in 1928. They managed it through the 60’s. Other family members have managed it continuously since then.

As we grew up in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, we spent many happy days hunting, fishing, hiking, hauling hay, working cattle and hanging out on the ranch. It is a beautiful 300 acre paradise straddling Long Branch Creek, a tributary to the Sabannah River in north central Texas.

Sabannah is a Spanish word for savannah, “a grassland with scattered trees.” Our ranch lives up to the name with a plentiful supply of post oaks, live oaks, mesquites and native pecan trees. Unlike many of the early ranchers in our area, our grandfather had seen fit to leave most of the trees standing. Rather than clear-cut the pastures for open hay fields and cropland, he left a good portion of the trees in place. The picture below is the view south from the master bedroom window of the ranch house. This view is typical of the rest of the ranch.

Returning to the ranch was a wonderful respite from the stresses we’d experienced in city life. But as we reacquainted ourselves with the ranch, we noticed that, in many ways, the ranch was different than how we remembered it 60 years ago. For example, when our grandfather took us fishing back in the 1960’s, we’d take a fishing pole, a fish stringer and a shovel. Once we arrived at a stock pond, we’d dig up a shovelful of dirt and pick out a handful of earthworms to use for bait. It occurred to us recently that the earthworms have disappeared. We’ve been digging post holes, ditches and creek crossings recently. We’ve encountered no earthworms in our excavations. Along with the earthworms, the horned toads, quail, dung beetles and fireflies have also disappeared.

We’ve observed that the creek running diagonally across the ranch is 10 feet deeper and 20 feet wider than we remembered it. We assume this is at least partially due to cattle overgrazing and eroding the creek banks.

The topsoil seems thinner and is devoid of organic matter. The pastures contain ravines that weren’t there when we were growing up. The grass is short and patchy. Some areas are completely bare.

The deterioration in our pastures over the past 50 years is so bad, we’re afraid that our ranch may not be viable for agriculture in another 50 years. Something has to be done to stop the deterioration and regenerate our pastures.

After much research and consideration, we’ve concluded that our family’s ranch management practices over the years are the likely culprit for the current deteriorated state of the pastures, grasses and soil on the ranch. In the words of cartoon character Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

We’re not singling ourselves out for being particularly poor ranch managers. Basically, we’ve been doing the same things as most of our neighboring ranches. On close inspection, other ranches in our area are suffering the same maladies as our ranch. In fact, we’ve noticed many of the same maladies in other counties and states throughout the south and west.

Our observation is that standard ranching practices in general may need some rethinking. For example, the miracle dewormers like ivermectin introduced in 1975 have done a great job of treating parasitic worms. But these miracle medications may have also taken out the earthworms. In addition, widespread use of cattle antibiotics may have killed the useful bacteria in the soil. While we can’t totally eliminate antibiotics and dewormers on our ranch, it may make sense to keep treated cattle in a salvage lot for a few days after treatments so the medications aren’t broadcast throughout our pastures.

The once-plentiful horned toads may have been killed by a combination of man-made harms and natural phenomenon. Herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, invasive fire ants, feral hogs and coastal bermuda grass were all probable contributing factors. The latter is an interesting connection. Coastal bermuda is a human-engineered hybrid grass that doesn’t bear seeds. Horned toads live on harvester ants that live on grass seeds. No grass seed = no harvester ants = no horned toads in a coastal bermuda field. Large swaths of pastureland in our area was converted to coastal bermuda in the last 50 years. It’s introduction corresponded with the demise of the horned toad population. Invasive fire ants and other factorrs may have also played a roll too, but perhaps the horned toads could have held on if the coastal bermuda hadn’t decimated the harvester ant population.

The local quail likely suffered a similar fate since they rely on grass seed to survive. Large coastal bermuda fields now dominate the landscape in our area. They are wastelands for all seed eaters.

Another common ranching practice that may bear much of the blame for the poor condition of our pastures is continuous grazing. This grazing technique allows cattle to wander at will in large pastures. In this situation, cattle will selectively eat their favorite grass down to the roots. When the favorite forage is depleted, they’ll move to their second favorite until it’s depleted. Continuous grazing can result in selective overgrazing of favorite grasses even when the pastures aren’t overloaded with cattle. Continuous grazing also contributes to erosion because cattle hang out in favorite locations and they beat trails between favorite locations. The cow paths and barren hangout spots are ripe candidates for erosion.

{Insert picture of eroded cow path}

Fortunately for us, some pioneering farmers and ranchers like Gabe Brown, Greg Judy, Joel Salatin and Alan Savory {insert links to regenerative ranchers} have spent recent years developing ranching techniques that halt the pasture deterioration we’ve observed on our ranch. Their techniques even hold promise of regenerating sterile soil and renewing the prairie grasslands to their former glory. These new ranching methods involve more judicious use of herbicides, insecticides, dewormers and antibiotics along with new grazing methods. The new grazing methods attempt to curtail the bad effects of continuous grazing. They do so by mimicking the salutary effects of buffalo herds as they once moved across the American plains.

Before European settlers arrived on the prairies en masse during the early 1800’s, the buffalo and the prairies had evolved together in a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship over thousands of years . Rather than wandering freely in a fenced pasture, the buffalo moved in mobs across the unconfined prairie. They moved in a tight formation to protect against predators. Our cattle today have lost fear of predators, so they wander around freely as individuals.

The buffalo never stayed in one place too long. As they moved, they fertilized the prairie with manure and urine. Unlike continuously grazed cattle who oversaturate their favorite hangout spots, the buffalo spread the fertilization evenly across the prairie.

The buffalo would typically eat 1/3 of the prairie grass, trample 1/3 and leave 1/3 of it standing as they moved across the prairie. The trampled grass decomposed and built up the soil. The standing third of the grass blades acted as a solar collector to regrow the grass and recover the prairie. The mob didn’t return to any given location for long periods of time, so the grass had plenty of time to recover between grazings.

In the fall, the mob trampled mature seed heads onto the ground. Their cloven hooves broke up the topsoil and pressed the seeds into the ground at the perfect depth for germination. The buffalo herd served as a giant no-till planter to continually re-seed the prairie.

To achieve the same benefial effects as buffalo grazing, pioneering regenerative ranchers are abandoning continuous grazing practices. They are adopting grazing techniques that more closely imitate the grazing habits of the buffalo. To accomplish this, they’re dividing their large pastures into small paddocks and moving the cattle to a different paddock each day. The small paddocks are created with a combination of permanent and moveable electric fencing. Another requirement is water distribution systems that deliver water to each paddock.

By moving cattle daily between small paddocks, regenerative ranchers can emulate the “eat a third, trample a third, leave a third” pattern of the buffalo. Each paddock is allowed to rest and recover for 45 to 60 days before it is re-grazed. The cattle tend to eat everything in front of them rather than focusing on favorite grasses. Since the cattle move to a new location daily, they don’t rut the pastures with cow trails that lead to erosion.The fertilizing effects of manure and urine are spread evenly across the pasture rather than being concentrated around favorite hangouts.

Project 1 – Infrastructure – 2020 to 2024

We moved back to the family ranch a few years ago following non-ranching careers that took us all over the world. Although our family members have continuously generated income from hay production on the ranch each year, we’ve leased out some of the grazing over the last 10 years. During that time, the fences, shop, barn, pastures, farm equipment and farmhouse had all fallen into disrepair. We’ve spent the better part of 2020 to 2024 getting the ranch infrastructure back into shape. Our infrastructure renovation efforts have included the following projects:

• Major renovation of the ranch house. Our grandparents built the ranch house in 1941 from recycled barn wood and native stone quarried on the ranch. When we moved in, it was much like they left it in the 1970’s along with 30 years of added wear and tear. We’ve now brought it up to modern living standards on all fronts. {Insert picture of the ranch house.}
• Shop renovation. Our father built the 40X48 metal-framed shop in the 1970’s. We upgraded the rudimentary electrical system and lighting, added propane heating, built a concrete slab over the dirt floor, added insulation and installed shelving. {Insert picture of the shop}
• Barn renovation. Our grandfather built the wooden barn in the 1930’s to store hay and cattle feed. Our father added metal siding in the 1970’s. We’ve added electricity, lighting and additional shelving for storage. {insert picture of the barn}
• Fencing. Around half of our barbed wire perimeter fence needed to be replaced. We’ve installed 2.5 miles of fencing to keep the cattle securely within the confines of the ranch. Another mile of fence is still serviceable, but it will need to be replaced in a few years. {Insert pictures of old, new and serviceable old fence}
• Roads, Water Crossings, Water Gaps. We’ve improved our roads and water crossings by adding ditches, road base and riprap. We’ve replaced and improved the water gaps where the fences cross our creeks. {Insert picture of water gap}
• Equipment Repairs. Our old 1962 model John Deere 4020 tractor needed a new clutch, major repairs to the front-end loader, hydraulic hose replacements and a starter. We’ve gotten it running like a top and expect many more years of use from it. {Insert picture of the tractor}
• Storage Yard. To de-clutter the area around the ranchouse and barn, we set up a storage yard with enclosed storage in the pasture away from the house. {Insert picture of the storage yard}

Having finished most of the necessary infrastructure work as of this writing, we’re now ready to take on the larger project of regenerating our depleted pastures and running our own cattle on the place.

Project 2 – Planning and Preparation – 2024 to 2026

2.1 Planning

During our planning project, we'll be working with our Eastland County Texas NRCS and AgriLife Extension agents to develop a comprehensive ranch regeneration plan. Although we've developed a rudimentary plan on our own as of this writing, we expect that it will be modified significantly after consultation with our local ag experts. In addition to this Master Plan, we hope to develop the following detailed plans covering various aspects of our ranch regeneration efforts:

• Soils Improvement Plan
• Erosion Control Plan
• Pastures & Grasses improvement Plan
• Water Sources and Water Distribution Plan
• Electric Fencing Plan
• Invasive Species Control Plan
• Wildlife Cover Plan
• Cattle Herd Development & Stocking Rate Plan by Year
• Financial Plan

2.2 Create Ranch Website

We’ll be using this ranch website throughout our ranch regeneration projects in order to document and communicate our progress. The audience for the website are the following:

• Our extended family landowners and stakeholders
• NRCS, Agrilife, FSA, USDA and Veteran’s Administration agents who we hope to enlist as expert consultants
• Anyone interested in regenerative ranching

2.3 Set up Ranch LLC

The ranch property is currently owned by 4 family members, all of whom are descendants of Henry and Adella Reed, the original family owners. We plan to operate the ranch as an LLC on behalf of our landowners

2.4 Documentation of Baseline Conditions

Before launching our regenerative ranching efforts in earnest, we will start off by documenting the current baseline state of the ranch. This baseline will allow us to measure progress as our ranch regeneration plan progresses. To establish our baseline, we'll do assessments in the following areas:

• Soil testing for fertility, compaction, permeability, organics, biome, etc.
• Brush coverage versus grass
• Erosion in the creek and pastures
• Grass varieties, coverage, quality, etc.
• Water quality and quantity
• Livestock carrying capacity
• Etc.

We’ll record our baseline assessments on this website for future reference. As we proceed, we’ll post our progress (or lack thereof) to the website. The baseline conditions will be illustrated with test results, photos and drone videos. We’ll record before and after visual records as we progress. If we undertake projects that might be of general interest to others involved in regenerative ranching, we’ll post documentary videos to our ranch YouTube channel.

2.5 Acquisition of Basic Ranching Equipment

When we moved to the ranch much of the ranching equipment had been sold off. Consequently, we will have to repurchase basic ranching machinery. The items on our shopping list are the following: 

• Ranch truck
• Cattle trailer
• Hay trailer
• Seed broadcaster
• Hay bale unroller
• Shredder
• Disc plow
• Shallow water well drilling rig
• No-till seed drill
• High tension electric fence wire spool jenny
• Diesel fuel tank

We’ll be frequenting auctions and looking for used equipment to keep the cost of equipment down.

2.6 & 2.7 Electric Fencing Installation

Our regenerative ranching plan is highly dependent on electric fencing. Compared to barbed wire fencing, electric fencing is much more economical and flexible. This economy and flexibility will give us the ability to break our 300 hundred acre ranch into small 3 to 5 acre paddocks. We’ll move the cattle between small paddocks every day.

In 2025, we plan to install electric fencing around the entire perimeter of the ranch. The perimeter electric fence wires will be attached to the existing barbed wire fence posts using plastic insulators as illustrated in the picture below:

Along county roads, the perimeter electric fence will be comprised of 3 high tensile hot wires. On property line fences that are not adjacent to roads, we’ll install 2 high tensile hot wires. The existing barbed wire and metal t-posts will act as a reliable grounding circuit for the perimeter electric fence.

Once the perimeter fences are installed, we’ll build permanent interior cross fences comprised of 2 strands of high tensile electric wire – one hot wire and one ground wire. In our hot and dry Texas summers, a cow’s frame won’t always provide a sufficient grounding path to complete the electric circuit when the cow touches the hot wire. The ground wire will help to ensure that the cow “gets the message” when she touches the hotwire. These permanent electric cross fences will form interior pastures of 15 to 20 acres each.

In addition to the electric perimeter and cross fences, we’ll be using electric wire to fence off both sides of our creek from livestock. The large seasonal creek runs diagonally across the ranch. It is a fragile part of the ranch that is a major source of erosion. By keeping livestock out of it, we hope to minimize erosion and grow groundcover that will stabilize the banks. We’ll build some watering points to take advantage of seasonal water in the creek, but most of it will be off-limits to livestock.

Once permanent electric fencing is in place and livestock is re-introduced, we’ll be using reels of temporary moveable electric poly-wire to create 3 to 5 acre temporary paddocks within the large 15 to 20 acre pastures.

We’ll use the electric poly-wire to break our 20 acre pastures down into 3 to 5 acre paddocks.

Before the electric fencing goes up, we have a lot of brush clearing to do along the fence lines. At present, the fence lines are inaccessible via truck or ATV because they are too overgrown with mesquites and brush. In addition, trees and brush have grown into the fence. Brush and trees in the fence line have to be eliminated because they will ground out the electric fence wires.

{Insert photo of fence line brush}

2.8 & 2.9 Hay Fields

Our pasture regeneration strategy is highly dependent on a grazing strategy known as bale grazing. This strategy involves grazing unrolled hay bales. The bales are unrolled over pasture locations where we want to encourage soil regeneration and grass growth. These locations might be eroded, overgrazed or just thinly vegetated. Cattle will eat most of the hay, but what they leave behind will serve to protect the soil from further erosion. As it decomposes, it will build organic soil content.

We also plan to experiment with a grazing technique we call seeded bale grazing. This will involve scattering grass seed over the unrolled hay bales. Although we haven’t seen this twist on bale grazing in the literature, we think it might be a valuable addition to our buffalo grazing strategy. The native prairie grasses evolved along with the buffalo. We assume their seed heads may have evolved to exploit the trampling action of buffalo hooves. We’ll see if seeded bale grazing is competitive with broadcasting seed or no-till planting.

Since we’re going to need plenty of hay for bale grazing, we plan to operate 3 hay fields covering about 90 acres in total. We plan to rejuvenate a deteriorated coastal bermuda field (Lower Place Pasture), convert one unimproved pasture (Middle Poe Pasture) to a hay field and convert one tilled pasture (South Poe Pasture) to a hay field. We plan to rejuvenate the coastal field in 2025. We’ll convert the unimproved pasture in 2026. Since the unimproved pasture will need to sit for 2 years after seeding, we’ll wait until 2028 to seed the tilled pasture.

Project 3 – Implement Grazing Strategy

Grazing Strategy Overview

At present our pastures are divided into 3 large pastures – 160 acres, 60 acres and 80 acres as seen in the map below:

These pastures are too large to implement any type of regenerative grazing plan. In the first stage of our regenerative grazing strategy, we’ll use electric fencing to subdivide these 3 large pastures into 18 smaller pastures covering 15 to 20 acres apiece as illustrated in the following map:

Once our regenerative grazing strategy is fully implemented, we will use moveable electric fencing to further subdivide these 18 pastures into small paddocks covering 2 to 5 acres. We will move cattle to a new paddock each day. The exact size of these paddocks will be determined by the available forage and the size of our herd. We will size the paddocks dynamically to meet the following grazing objectives:

• Cattle will eat a third of the available forage
• Cattle will leave a third of the forage standing. This remaining forage will leave enough of the leaves and stems to encourage regrowth of the forage.
• Cattle will trample a third of the available forage. The trampled forage will decompose and build up the soil over time.

Our grazing strategy is designed to mimic, as closely as possible, a herd of buffalo moving slowly across a grassy plain. The native grasses we plan to use in our pasture regeneration efforts evolved in tandem with the buffalo that grazed the plains for 100’s of thousands of years. The buffalo were dependent on the grasses and the grasses were dependent on the buffalo. The soil of the plains also benefited from this co-dependence between the grasses and the buffalo. It was rich in organic material, earthworms, beneficial insects, fungi and bacteria. Our grazing strategy is designed to mimic this co-dependence between grass, grazing livestock and the soil. We plan to follow the patterns of nature rather than fight against them.

Various grazing strategies have been developed over the past few decades to implement this general strategy of mimicking the buffalo. These strategies are listed in the lefthand column of the following diagram. We plan to select the best aspects of these strategies for our specific situation. Accordingly, we’ve collapsed all of the various regenerative grazing techniques into one strategy we refer to as Buffalo Grazing.

We have a lot of work to do before we’re ready to fully implement our Buffalo Grazing strategy. Pre-requisites for achieving our ultimate grazing goal include the following:

• Clearing brush and mesquites
• Building electric perimeter fencing
• Building electric cross fences
• Building a ranch-wide water distribution system
• Growing our livestock herd to carrying capacity
• Improving the grasses in our pastures and hay fields

Rather than wait until all of the above tasks are complete before we implement our grazing plan, we will move toward our ultimate objective in stages. These stages are as follows:

• Regenerative Grazing Phase 1: Rotational grazing in 18 pastures covering 15 to 20 acres apiece. Before we can implement rotational grazing, we need to install permanent electric perimeter fencing and permanent electric cross fencing to break our 3 large pastures into 18 smaller pastures.
• Regenerative Grazing Phase 2: Buffalo Grazing in approximately 60 small paddocks of 3 to 5 acres apiece with no pumped water. During this phase we will break down our 15 to 20 acre pastures into 3 to 5 acre paddocks using moveable electric fence wire. Cattle will walk back from the paddocks to our existing ponds for water during this phase.
• Regenerative Grazing Phase 3: Buffalo Grazing with pumped water to each paddock. Phase 3 is the same as phase 2, except that we will pump water from existing ponds into each paddock. Cattle will no longer have to walk back from the paddocks to get water. Before we can implement this phase, we have to implement a water distribution system using plastic water pipe, moveable water troughs and solar-powered water pumps.

Each of these stages is described more fully in the project descriptions below.

Project 3 – Grazing Phase 1: Rotational Grazing – 2026

We plan to re-introduce livestock in Spring 2027 after our permanent electric perimeter fence and cross fencing is in place. By the time our grazing strategy is fully implemented we'll be able to subdivide these 18 pastures into 60 smaller paddocks averaging 2 to 5 acres apiece.  

With 60 small paddocks, we'll be able to rotate our herd to a new paddock each day. Each paddock will be grazed intensively for a day, then it will have a couple of months to recover before we return to it. 

We'll still be working on clearing brush and building our water distribution system during this stage, so we won't have sufficient available manpower for daily cattle moves. Accordingly, we'll implement rotational grazing at this point. During this initial stage, we'll be rotating our cattle every few weeks amongst 18 large pastures every couple of weeks rather than moving cattle between small paddocks daily. Rotational grazing in 18 pastures will be a big improvement over continuous grazing in 3 large pastures, but it won't yet give us the full benefits of buffalo grazing in small paddocks with daily cattle moves. 

We plan to develop a herd of registered purebred SouthPoll cattle over time. 
We'll bootstrap this herd from a small starter herd by retaining our heifers. Since our South Poll herd will be small at this point, we will purchase mixed breed stocker calves in the Spring and sell them in the Fall. The stocker calves will bring our total herd up to the carrying capacity of the ranch determined by pasture conditions at the time.

Project 3 – Grazing Phase 2: Buffalo Grazing With Partial Water Distribution System

By 2027, we expect to have our permanent electric perimeter and cross fencing in place. The majority of our pasture brush should be cleared by then. We don't expect to have our water distribution fully installed by this time. Since we won't yet have water distribution into our small paddocks, we will give the cattle direct access to stock ponds via an access lane from each paddock. 

Two of our large pastures (Southeast Homeplace Pasture (HP8) and North Poe Place Pasture (PP1) have no water on them other than seasonal water in the creek. We will give these pastures highest priority in our water distribution plan. 

During Project 3, we will continue to develop our South Poll herd via purchase of additional heifers and via retaining our own heifers for breeding stock. We'll supplement the herd to carrying capacity with purchased stocker calves. 

Project 4 – Implement Water Distribution System Using Existing Stock Ponds

All of our pastures except two will have reliable access to year round water via stock ponds. Our SouthEast Homeplace pasture (HP8) and North Poe Place pasture (PP1) only have access to seasonal water in the creek - typically 4 to 6 months out of the year.

In Project 3, we'll give cattle direct access to the stock ponds and creek via walking lanes running back from the paddocks. This temporary solution is sub-optimal for the following reasons: 

• Cattle will have to walk long distances from some of the paddocks back to the water source.
• The walking lanes will become compacted and overgrazed
• Cattle will relieve themselves in and around the stock ponds, affecting the water quality

We’ll alleviate these problems in Project 5 by fencing off our stock ponds and supplying water directly to each paddock via a ranch-wide water distribution system.

Project 5 – Implement Buffalo Grazing Phase 3: With Water Distribution System

In Phase 3 of our Buffalo Grazing plan, we’ll cut off livestock access to our stock ponds and start delivering water directly to each paddock. We’ll accomplish this using/ plastic pex water pipe, moveable water spigots, moveable waterng troughs, water storage tanks and solar-powered water pumps. Grazier extrordinaire Greg Judy provides a rough explanation of what we have in mind in this video. Paddock water will either be pumped directly from ponds or gravity fed from elevated water storage tanks. The water storage tanks will contain water pumped from ponds and/or wells.

Once the water distribution system is fully operational, livestock will no longer have to walk long distances to access water. They will no longer foul the ponds with manure and urine.

Project 6 – Build Additional Wells and/or Stock Ponds

At present, the water resources on the ranch consist of the following: 

• 6 stock ponds (2 of the 6 are double ponds)
• 1 10gpm well
• Metered city water
• Seasonal water in a creek that runs diagonally across the ranch

{Insert photo of our large pond}

While our stock ponds have never run completely dry during memory, it’s not inconceivable that they might, especially as we improve our grasses and increase stocking capacity. At that point, water will be the limiting factor to increasing our herd size.

Project 7 – Grass and Pasture Improvement

With the exception of one 40 acre coastal bermuda field and one 30 acre cultivated field, all of the grass on the ranch consists of unimproved volunteer varieties. The coastal bermuda field has not been fertilized for many years, so it has deteriorated. This field is also becoming infested with prickly pear and mesquite.

Before we undertake improving our pasture grass, we will complete a comprehensive pasture-by-pasture grass plan. Objectives of the plan will be as follows:

• A diverse mix of grasses and forbs that will provide all the nutrients needed to keep our livestock happy and healthy
• A mix of warm and cool season forage in order to extend our grazing season
• Deep rooted grasses to help protect topsoil in erosion-prone areas
• Grass species matched to sensitive terrain such as bare hillsides, pond dams, ravines, washouts, creek banks and creek beds
• Nitrogen-fixing forbs for self-fertilizing pastures

Since we’re novices when it comes to grass varieties, we’ll mostly accede to experts in our selections. We’ll keep an open mind, but our preferences are as follows:

• Native grasses that would have been prime forage for the buffalo – We assume that these grasses would have evolved in symbiosis with the buffalo. Since we’re trying to duplicate this symbiosis, it seems reasonable that we should foster grasses that evolved in tandem with the buffalo.
• Seeded grasses as opposed to sprigged grasses like coastal bermuda – The mechanisms by which Buffalo Grazing regenerate pastureland would seem to require a seeded grass. Grazing ruminants spread the seed via manure and their natural movements through the pasture. Their hooves push the seeds into the soil for germination. As they move from paddock to paddock, they carry any undigested seeds to the next paddock. As a side benefit, seeded grasses will assist in restoration of habitat for horny toads and quail.
• We’re in favor of soil additives such as lime, carbon and potash that are necessary components of healthy soil, but we would prefer to minimize the recurring use of chemical fertilizers. Ergo, we’d prefer to not use grasses such as coastal bermuda that are dependent on added nitrogen. We will overseed native grasses with nitrogen-fixing forbs to achieve adequate nitrogen levels in the soil.

With respect to seed planting and propogation, again we’ll keep an open mind, but we prefer no-till methods to tillage. Also, we’d prefer to not root plow the fields in preparation for reseeding. Much of our property slopes downward toward a creek that runs diagonally corner-to-corner across the ranch. Root plowing and tillage is going to exacerbate the erosion that’s already decimating our topsoil. We’re keenly interested in restoring the subterrainian health of our soil. It seems to us that tillage would expose whatever soil micro-organisms we have to sunlight, the great disinfectant.

Bale Grazing

Many regenerative ranchers are having great success with bale grazing. Hay is normally fed in stationary hay rings. The area around the rings will typically become mucked up over a winter of feeding. In bale grazing, bales are either plopped or unrolled into a different pasture location at each feeding. In the plopped technique, the bales are unwrapped and placed into the pasture intact. In the unrolled bale technique, the bales are rolled out over a long stretch using a hay unrolling device pulled behind an ATV. In both bale grazing methods, the livestock trample about a third of the hay, leaving it to decompose over time. The trampled, decomposing hay provides the following benefits:

• Soil stabilization in erosion-prone areas
• Lowers the soil ph to discourage weeds and encourage grass growth
• Seeds in the bales will germinate into new grass
• The ground in not mucked and compressed around a hay ring
• When hay is unrolled, more cows get access to the hay without jockeying for position
• The hay decomposes into an organic layer
• The decomposing hay builds up a thatch layer which acts as a sponge to retain water
• The decomposing hay fosters growth of beneficial earthworms, insects and microbes

We plan to use primarily the unrolled bale grazing technique since this approach spreads the hay and its associated benefits over a larger area.

Hay Field Development

Since we plan to use bale grazing as a primary method of soil development, we need a ready, economical supply of hay. We assume it will be cheaper to grow our own hay than to purchase it. At present we have one hay field. We plan to develop 2 additional hay fields initially.

Our existing hay field is Poe Place South (PP3). It’s planted in sorghum sudan in the spring and wheat in the fall. We will transition it to a permanent stand of native grasses and forbs to avoid the annual tilling, planting and fertilizing expense.

We will develop a second hay field in Poe Place Middle pasture (PP2). It will first need to be cleared of mesquite prior to seeding with native grasses and forbs. Our third hay field will be Lower Place pasture. This pasture is currently planted in coastal bermuda. It will need to be cleared of encroaching mesquite and fertilized annually.

We’ll rotate hay baling between these 3 hay fields to avoid soil depletion from over-haying. Once we have consistent grass growth throughout the ranch, we’ll bale all of our pastures in rotation to avoid stealing soil nutrients from the same locations year after year.

Since we plan to employ bale grazing aggressively, we’ll need more hay than a typical cattle operation. To store all of this hay, we’ll need to build a hay shed.

We hope to develop a comprehensive grass development plan with NRCS covering all of our pastures.

Soil Biome Restoration – Worm Farm

After being exposed to dewormers and antibiotics in livestock manure over many years, our soil harbors very little subterranean life. These medications have inadvertently eliminated earthworms, dung beetles, fungi and microbes in the soil.

Over time, we plan to phase out the use of dewormers and to use antibiotics only when absolutely necessary. Buffalo grazing makes this possible since parasite larvae will hatch and die in any given paddock before the livestock return to re-graze the paddock. Moving livestock frequently and resting paddocks between moves provides a natural method of minimizing livestock parasite infections.

Until our South Poll herd is fully developed, we’ll be bringing in stocker calves from unknown origins each year. These stocker calves will need to be dewormed. Once they’ve been dewormed, we’ll hold them in a salvage paddock until the medication works through their rumens.

We still need to research methods for restoring earthworms, beneficial insects and microbes to depleted soils. We assume that we may have to propogate our own earthworms. We also assume that we’ll have to wait a couple of years after the lessee’s cattle have been removed from the property before the residual deworming medications dissipate in the soil. In the meantime, we’ll set up a worm farm in an area that we fenced off from cattle 5 years ago. Once the residual dewormer has dissipated and we have sufficient worm stock in our worm farm, we’ll systematically distribute the earthworms into our pastures.

We’ll be consulting with experts on methods to restore and nurture beneficial soil insects and microbes to come up with a plan for doing so.

Experiment: Buffalo Cultivation

Regenerative ranching practitioners seem to gravitate toward no-till methods for re-seeding pastures. No-till avoids the soil damaging effects of plowing up the pastures. Other regenerative ranchers have had good luck with bale grazing to improve their soils. We plan to experiment with a related grass propogation technique we refer to as Buffalo Cultivation. Our thinking is that native plains grasses evolved along with the buffalo. They were probably dependent on the buffaloes’ actions for their cultivation. As the buffalo moved through grasslands having mature seed heads, they would have dislodged and distributed the seeds. Some of the seeds would have passed intact through their rumen. The seeds would been trompled into the ground and prairie thatch via hoof action. Following these hunches, our grass seed cultivation plan is roughly as follows:

• Unroll hay in areas we want to re-seed
• Broadcast or no-till grass seed into the unrolled hay
• Intensively graze the seeded hay for short periods
• Monitor the variables that seem to provide the best stands of re-seeded grass
• Compare results of this cultivation method to conventional tillage and no-till grass cultivation methods

Pasture Aesthetics

You’re free to differ, but we think beauty happens on a ranch when the form of something is especially well-suited to its function. For example, a cow is beautiful when she looks like she’d birth and raise a great calf – when her form is especially well-suited to achieving her function.

The function of our regenerative ranching effort is a win-win relationship between our pastures and our livestock. At present, that relationship is win-lose. Continuous grazing, antibiotics and dewormers are eroding our soil and sterilizing it. We’re not going to have any pastures left if we continue on our current path. We hear a lot about sustainable agriculture, but we’re not going to settle for that. We’re hoping to improve both our pastures and our livestock every year, not just to sustain them.

What will our pastures look like when our regenerative ranching efforts are accomplishing that win-win relationship between our pastures and our livestock every year? We’re envisioning the West Central Texas version of a Japanese garden landscape – a functional but aesthetically pleasing woodland savannah punctuated by happy, healthy livestock.

A well-executed Japanese garden looks like an idealized version of nature. Japanese garden designers recognize that Nature is the greatest artist. Their role is to help Nature realize the full potential of a site without a heavy-handed human influence. They don’t ask Nature to do anything she’s not capable of doing on her own. Every element in the garden has a purpose in achieving the garden’s aesthetic objectives. Unneeded elements are eliminated. In keeping with these thoughts, here’s a description of how our pastures should look when we’re well into our regeneration plan:

• Tall grass
• A good mix of grasses and forbs
• Both warm and cool season grasses to ensure coverage over a longer season
• Full coverage of grass, eliminating bare spots. Where we have bare spots, we’ll bale graze with seeded hay
• Trees distributed randomly with one tree every 20 to 30 feet. We want enough space between trees to allow plenty of sunlight through and to be able to maneuver equipment between them. Where we don’t have sufficient tree cover in a pasture, we’ll transplant pecan and oak saplings from elsewhere on the ranch
• In our 3 designated hay fields, we’ll leave them mostly clear of trees to allow for efficient baling. We’ll place a few trees scattered around in hay fields for shade when these fields are being grazed
• Tree trunks pruned high enough that a tractor can get by without hitting lower branches
• Tree canopies thinned just enough to let some sunlight through but still provide shade
• We’ll leave enough brush thickets sufficient to provide wildlife cover. Where we don’t have sufficient wildlife cover, we’ll create it by planting berry vines.
• Where there isn’t a natural wildlife trail such as a creekbed across a pasture, we’ll create one with sufficient wildlife cover to encourage animal movement around the ranch
• Other than our planned wildlife cover thickets, we’ll eliminate all extraneous briars and brush
• Over time, steeply cut banks of creeks and ravines will be contoured and seeded with deep rooted grasses. This effort may take some time to accomplish.
• Creek beds will eventually be planted with long rooted grasses suitable for that application
• All fence lines completely cleared of brush, trees, briars and tall grass
• Plenty of spring wildflowers

We’re not talking about aesthetics for the sake of aesthetics. We’re just saying that, as long as we’re going to all this trouble to regenerate our pastures, we might as well put in an extra 3% of effort to make the pastures look good. The one advantage we’ll have over conventional Japanese gardeners is our happy healthy cattle enjoying the ambiance along with us.

Project 8 – Soil Conservation and Erosion Control

We have 3 major erosion problem areas on the ranch

• A large seasonal creek subject to flash floods and having insufficient groundcover on its banks and bed
• Ravines forming in pastures
• Bare slopes and other sensitive areas having no groundcover
• Widespread loss of pasture topsoil due to exposed dirt

Our plans for controlling erosion in each of these areas are as follows:

Creek Erosion Control

There is a large seasonal creek (The Long Branch) that crosses the ranch diagonally. The creek was our main source of adventure whenever we visited the ranch as children. Over time, we pretty much memorized every aspect of it. Sixty years later, erosion has deepened it by 5 to 10 feet and widened it by 10 to 20 feet. Some of the 150 year old oak trees along its bank are starting to collapse into the creek. Feeding into the main channel, there are major ravines that weren’t there 60 years ago. We’d like to pass on a less eroded creek situation to our grandchildren, turn it into wildlife refuge and make it a recreation spot for hiking, biking, wading and tadpole hunting. Our plans for achieving these objectives include the following features:

• Use electric fencing to keep livestock out of the creek.
• Install beaver dam analogs (BDA’s) at intervals in the creekbed. These structures will serve to slow down floodwaters, not to dam the creek

• Supplement the BDA’s with leaky weirs (loose rock dams) where stones are readily available in the creek bed

• Contour the cut banks of the creek, unroll hay bales to stabilize the banks and overseed the banks with long-root native grasses
• Encourage native grasses and reeds to grow in the creek bed
• Plant a riparian buffer of pecan and willow trees, native grasses and berry vines along the contoured banks. Tree saplings will be transplanted from other locations on the ranch. This planned riparian buffer and deep-rooted grasses will replace the impassible brush/briar barrier that currently occupies much of the creek banks.

The BDA’s will be formed by driving steel pipes into the creek bed in a v-shape pointing upstream. We will then stack trees and brush against the pipe. The trees and brush will come from deadfalls and brush cleared from pastures adjacent to the creek.

Before tackling the entire creek, we’ll try out the formula outlined above on a test section. If the test section yields good results, we’ll proceed up and down the creek tackling one section at a time.

This is what the creek looks like at present:

• Steep cut banks
• Little groundcover on floodplain, banks and bed
• Unstable bank
• Insufficient tree cover on banks and floodplain
• Cattle have free access to the creek

We would like the creek bed to look more like the one pictured below, except we want taller grass and more trees, when our restoration efforts are complete:

• Contoured banks
• Native deep-rooted grass for groundcover on floodplain, banks and channel
  • Note: We want taller, thicker grass than that shown in the picture above
• Stabilized banks
• Riparian tree buffer along banks and floodplain
• Cattle fenced off from the creek

We have already begun work clearing a narrow fence line paralleling the creek on both sides. This fence line will be used for the electric fence that will keep livestock out of the creek. Based on our observations of erosion after clearing those fence lines, it’s obvious that we’ll need to go slow in removing the brush. As with most of the soil covering our ranch, the soil along the creek is very loose and sandy. Right now, the brush along the creek is the only thing holding the soil in place. We’re already seeing some erosion in the narrow strip we’ve cleared. We’ll need to go slowly as we replace the brush with reseeded grass along the creek bank.

Our plan for replacing the creekbank brush with long-rooted grass is to first re-seed the grass in the narrow strip we’ve already cleared. We’ll then clear and reseed narrow strips in sections along the length of the creek. Before we reseed, we’ll unroll hay bales on top of the cleared areas to stabilize the bare soil. Once we’ve reseeded, we’ll allow the grass to mature before we clear and reseed another strip. We’ll gradually move down the creek bank in narrow strips until we reach the creek bed.

This strip by strip approach to re-seeding the creek bank will require us to remove and replace the electric fence several times. We need room to maneuver a skid steer along the bank and the electric fence will be in the way. Removing and replacing the electric fence will be a pain, but it can’t be avoided.

Until we get our ranch-wide water distribution system installed, we will continue to give livestock access to the creek at designated watering points. To form these watering points, we’ll contour the banks on both sides and use hay to stabilize the banks. We will then overseed the banks with long-root native grass. We’ll place electric fencing upstream and downstream to block livestock access beyond the watering point. To help prevent erosion on the banks of the watering points, we’ll bale graze with unrolled bales on these banks. If necessary to prevent erosion, we’ll bury 8 inch corrugated drain pipe to direct water down the creek banks into the watering point.

Ravine Erosion Control

Over the past 60 years, several new ravines have formed feeding into the creek, expecially in the northwest corner of the ranch.

To prevent further erosion we will treat each of the ravines as follows:

• Contour the banks and the head of the ravine
• Berm the head of the ravine to slow water flow into the ravine
• Unroll hay bales to stabilize the ravine banks
• Overseed the banks with long-root native grass
• Build Beaver Dam Analogs (BDA’s) and leaky weirs at intervals within the ravine as described above
• Fence off the ravines to prevent livestock access and associated erosion
• Once the ravines are fully healed, bale graze them occasionally for brief periods during dry spells to exploit the regenerative benefits of buffalo grazing

Erosion Control on Bare Slopes and Sensitive Terrain

We have several locations on the ranch that have eroded down to bare ground. These are mostly on slopes with poor soil.

Our plan for treating bare slopes and thin vegetation on sensitive terrain is as follows:

• Fencing off bare and sensitive terrain to limit livestock access
• Overseeding with long-rooted native grasses suited to poor soil (such as a tank dam seed mixture)
• Unrolling hay to stabilize the soil
• Limited bail grazing with unrolled hay to give these areas the benefits of buffalo grazing

General Mitigation of Pasture Erosion

After years of continuous grazing, over-grazing, over-stocking, dewormer-induced soil sterilization and poor soil permeability, almost all of pastures have an erosion problem. This entire regeneration plan is targeted at resolving this issue moving forward. Specifically the components of the plan that address pasture erosion are as follows:

• Buffalo grazing to encourage better soil and grass health
  • Note: A cow can distribute 50 pounds of fertilizing manure per day. On hot summer days, a cow can distribute 25 gallons of urine on a pasture.
• SilvoPasture to reduce summer ground temperatures and provide windbreaks
• Smaller-framed South Poll cattle to reduce livestock impact on pastures
• Bale grazing to stabilize soil, spread grass seed, provide a substrate for microbial growth, increase soil organic matter and improve water retention.
• Overseeding with long-rooted native grasses to stabilize soil

Project 9: AgroForestry – SilvoPasture Woodland Savannah Development

The ranch is blessed with an abundance of beautiful trees. As we improve our pastures, we plan to have a tree every 20 to 30 feet as shown in the following picture:

Native species on the ranch include the following:

• Post Oak
• Live Oak
• Black Jack Oak
• Pecan
• Southern Rock Elm (aka Cedar Elm)
• Honey Locust
• Mesquite
• Willow

{Insert photos of different tree varieties from the ranch}

Many of the ranches in the area have been clear cut to make way for monoculture hay fields. While clear cutting trees may be convenient for hay production, we think it’s short sighted. Driving down the highway on hot Texas summer days, the cattle are bunched up under the shade of the few remaining trees at the edge of the pasture. Cattle bunched up under shade trees aren’t out in the pasture eating and gaining weight. With sufficient shade, cattle can be out in the pasture where the grass is, even in the summer heat.

In addition to providing shade for grazing cattle, trees provide the following benefits to pasture land:

• Lowered soil temperature to foster grass growth
• Soil stabilization via roots
• Windbreaks
• Addition of organic matter to the soil via decaying forest litter
• Hydraulic redistribution of water from deep aquifers to surface plants via tree roots

Regarding the last bullet point above, many ranchers have the misconception that trees steal water from grass. While this may be true in a limited number of conditions, the scientific concensus seems to be that deep rooted trees like oaks lift water from deep in the ground and share it with surface plants. To the extent that trees prevent grass growth, it’s usually because of shading. The effects of shading can be mitigated by thinning the trees and pruning them to allow sufficient sunlight to get through. We plan to thin and prune our trees so they can co-exist in synergy with our pasture grass.

As we’re clearing brush and excess trees, we plan to leave a tree about every 20 to 30 feet. We’ll prune the branches up to 6 or 7 feet so we can easily manuever equipment around the tree trunks. We’ll select the trees with the tallest, straightest trunks to leave standing as we’re thinning them out. In pastures where we don’t have enough trees, we’ll transplant saplings from the plentiful volunteer tree stock scattered around the ranch.

We have an overabundance of native pecan trees that have small inedible pecans. We plan to graft improved pecan stock onto many of the smaller natives so that we have pecans for harvest.

Other than some wild plums, we don’t have any fruit trees at present. We’ll be planting peach, plum and apricot trees for our personal use.

Although we don’t plan to engage in widescale timber harvesting, we will be cutting and milling a few trees each year to supply the business ventures described in Project 14. For each mature tree we harvest, we’ll replace it with a sapling transplanted from elsewhere on the ranch. At present we have many large dead trees around the ranch that need to be felled and milled for lumber. We’ll fell these trees as we’re clearing pastures.

Project 10 – Multi-species Grazing

A mix of different livestock species can multiply the benefits of rotational paddock grazing. The pasture development benefits of cattle have been described above. Goats can help with weed and brush management. Chickens can help by consuming parasites if they follow cattle in a paddock rotation. Although we plan to raise cattle as a cash crop, we eventually plan to add a small goat herd for weed and brush management and chickens for our personal poultry and egg needs. We may also rotate a couple of pigs through the paddocks for our in-house pork needs. Other regenerative ranchers in our area have had success with hair sheep as a cash crop, so we may experiment with them too.

Project 7 – Expand Buffalo Grazing and Regenerative Ranching to Additional Leased Pastures

Assuming that the results of our efforts show obvious benefits on our ranch, we plan to expand our regenerative ranching efforts to other leased properties in our vicinity. We think that this expansion might be a great business opportunity for the following reasons:

• There is a lot of land in our area that is in dire need of regeneration after decades of continuous grazing and soil sterilization via dewormers and antibiotics.
• There is a continual stream of families purchasing large acreages and moving into the area to get out of cities. Many of these families may want to engage a third party to restore their ranchland via regenerative ranching practices and manage regenerative grazing on their properties.
• Hunters are purchasing land in the area for use during hunting season. It is not used for anything the rest of the year. Buffalo grazing would be an ideal match for hunters because we can easily rotate the livestock off of a hunting property during hunting seasons.
• Property owners can save thousands in property taxes via agricultural-use exemptions.

If we can establish our home ranch as a showplace demonstrating the benefits of regenerative ranching, the ranch itself would be the best possible marketing tool for spreading these practices to other ranches in the area.

Project 12 – Fruit, Nut, Herb and Vegetable Production

It is becoming increasingly evident that the USA’s food supply is poisoning us. Certainly, processed foods with loads of preservatives, added sodium and added sweeteners are not good for us. Even our unprocessed fruits and vegetables are not ideal because we don’t know what herbicides and insecticides they’ve been exposed to. Because of these risks, we plan to grow as much of our diet as possible here on the ranch using organic, low-till methods.

Our first foray into gardening will be an irrigated vegetable garden located within the fenced curtilage of the farmhouse near a stock pond and well for irrigation. The second phase of the vegetable garden will expand to a full food-forest with the addition of fruit trees and berry vines. The third phase will be addition of a greenhouse so we can grow our own produce year-round.

Project 13 – AgroTourism and Recreational Amenities

Growing up on the ranch, we spent many happy hours of non-digital, physical recreation – activities that are increasingly rare for children today. Hiking, biking, wading, fishing, hunting, camping, shooting, archery, arrowhead hunting and tree-house construction were some of our favorite pasttimes with cousins and friends. We’d like to expose future generations to these activities as much as possible.

Our agro-tourism efforts will initially be focused on relatives and friends. We want the ranch to be a fun and educational resource that promotes cohesion and camaraderie.

If, as we hope, the ranch becomes a showplace for the wonders of regenerative ranching, we can open up the amenities we’ve created for our family to other families. Fortunately, the Texas Legislature has made this possible by providing liability protections for landowners under the Texas Agritourism Act. This act and its implementation are described in layman’s terms in the Texas Agriculture Law Blog. To avail ourselves of the liability protections, we’ll need to post appropriate signage and/or include required language in our liability waivers signed by agritourism participants.

The recreational amenities we plan to implement on the ranch are as follows:

• Deer hunting blinds and feeders
• Hiking/biking trails through silvopastures and along the creek
• Fish feeders on stock ponds
• Stock pond improvements
  • Fence off stock ponds to prevent fouling from livestock manure and urine
  • Sandy beaches
  • Fishing piers
  • Rock walls and stairs
  • Fountains and water circulation system to improve aesthetics and water quality
• Pickleball/badminton court
• Archery and shooting ranges
• Disc golf course
• Walking clays shooting course

Project 14 – Complementary Ranch-based Commercial Enterprises

The reality of modern day ranching economics in Central Texas is that making a living solely as a rancher is an extremely difficult proposition. The crux of the problem is that land values are so high that the return on livestock sales barely covers mortgage interest, much less the opportunity costs. To realize the dream of ranch living for us and our descendants, we’ll have to be creative.

At 300 acres, our ranchland would be worth over $1.5 million if it were valued as non-agricultural property. In its present state the ranch can support approximately 30 to 40 cow/calf pairs. Even that stocking level may lead to overgrazing in dry years. If our ranch regeneration plan is wildly successful, we might be able to run 60 cow/calf pairs. Our net profit per calf will be somewhere between $600 and $1000 depending on cattle prices and depending on whether we run commercial or registered stock. Given those figures, our total net profit from calf sales will be between $24,000 and $60,000 per year. That puts the annual rate of return on our land investment at around 1.5% to 4% from cattle operations. This ROI does not take into account the value of our labor.

Texas ranch land has historically increased in value approximately 5.5% per year over the past 20 years. Between calf sales and increases in land value, our total ROI from our land investment is projected to be 7% to 9.5% annually unadjusted for inflation.

The S&P 500 increases in value around 10% annually unadjusted for inflation. If we were to sell our ranchland and invest the funds in a S&P 500 index fund, we could be making a higher return on our assets without having to work cattle. Sure, we haven’t factored in the intrinsic value in living on the land. You can’t take your dogs hunting in an index fund. But our current pleasure shouldn’t keep us from being responsible stewards of our nest egg for our progeny. We have an obligation to maximize the nest egg we leave for our descendants.

To be responsible stewards, we clearly need to generate more income from the land than whatever the cattle will generate. In our case, we already own the land outright. If we had to purchase land and pay mortgage interest, we’d have to be even more creative to justify the investment.

Regenerative ranching pioneer Joel Salatin advocates building a “poly-farm” with many different kinds of agricultural activity to earn a living on the farm. While we do plan to diversify our agricultural endeavors somewhat beyond livestock, we don’t think those other agricultural opportunities are likely to be reliable sources of income every year.

Our county averages 27 inches of rain per year, and the rainfall varies widely from year to year. The Trinity Aquifer that services our area won’t support large-scale irrigation. 50 years ago, our grandfather and his neighbors raised dryland peanuts to support the local economy. It turned out that the peanut crop was completely dependent on government price supports. When the price supports were dropped, all the peanut farming moved elsewhere to areas with irrigated fields or more rainfall. The same was true for peach and pecan crops in the area that thrived 50 years ago. The sandy soil is great for growing peach and pecan trees, but the unreliable rainfall meant that the trees didn’t produce a reliable crop each year.

The only other reliable cash crop in the area is coastal bermuda hay. We’re averse to pursuing hay as a cash crop for three reasons:

• Harvesting hay off the land every year will eventually deplete the soil
• Coastal bermuda hay is dependent on annual nitrogen fertilzer applications. Nitrogen costs are rising, and they will probably continue to rise in the future
• Coastal bermuda is a hybrid grass that doesn’t produce seed. As a result, coastal hay fields are devoid of birds and insects that subsist on grass seed. Native species like horned toads and quail can’t survive in a coastal bermuda field.

Because we’re not certain that agricultural activities will generate a sufficient return on our land investment, we plan to hedge our bets by launching a variety of entrepreneurial enterprises that are complementary to a ranching lifestyle. Following is a description of some creative approaches we have for maximizing returns on our ranchland:

Custom Manufacturing Facility

A while back, it occurred to us that ranching and ranchland were highly complementary with manufacturing of custom products. A factory can be established on rural ranchland much more easily than in town. Zoning restrictions are much less onerous. Noise is much less likely to disturb neighbors. Although expensive, ranchland is still much cheaper than city property. Although we’d have to give up some grazing footage for a factory building footprint, we can graze right up to front door. Ranch work lends itself to side-hustles as long as the side-hustle has flexible hours. When you’re busy on a ranch, you’re very busy. When you’re not busy, you have a lot of flexibility on how to use your time.

To capitalize on the complementarity between ranching, ranchland and a manufacturing side-hustle, we’re setting up a 3D printing and CNC robotic manufacturing shop to build custom-made products on the ranch. CNC carving machines and 3D printers are simple computer-controlled robots. Unlike the fancy robots of your imagination, a typical CNC carving machine only travels up-down, forward-backward and left-right. With these 3 motions, it can carve 3 dimensional objects. We’ll be making the following 3 products in our shop:

• Custom electric and acoustic guitars
• Custom loudspeaker cabinets
• Custom carved signs

The following developments in technology make these kinds of side-hustles possible for farmers and ranchers:

• The internet makes it possible for a rancher in Podunk County, Texas to sell merchandise in Paris, France or anywhere else in the world. Anyone can set up a virtual store as an internet website. Anyone can get on YouTube to hawk his products these days. Physical proximity is no longer a requirement.
• The cost of 3D printers, CNC carving machines and 3D design software has plummeted in recent years. A CNC machine with design software would have cost $100,000 a few years ago. Today, it can be had in the $5K to $10K range.

Photography, Music and Video Recording Studio

We have an old barn on the ranch that will make a great recording studio. Just like our CNC factory, our studio will benefit greatly from being out in the middle of nowhere. City zoning, traffic noise and noise-averse neighbors won’t be a problem.

{Insert picture of the barn}

Technology makes the studio possible. Music streaming services make it possible for anyone to distribute new songs these days without having to sign a record label contract. The streaming services are getting 100,000 new songs each day.

In addition to generating revenue from recording services, the studio will serve as a testing and demonstration lab for the guitars and and loudspeaker cabinets coming our of our CNC factory.

Rental Housing

We predict that there is going to be more and more demand for rural rental housing. As the cities deteriorate with crime and vagrancy, more people are going to desire an alternative. Many professions can work anywhere today as long as they have reliable internet service. With the advent of StarLink and fixed wireless internet, ranch life can be a reality for these professions. Frankly, we can’t fathom why anyone would want to live in a city when they could live on a ranch, but that’s just our personal preference.

Rather than converting farm and ranch land to subdivisions, our idea is to plop a few high end rental units into secluded areas in our pastures. The ranch has some good elevation changes, so there are several locations with beautiful views. The renters will have to understand that cattle are going to be grazing right up to their back doors a few times a year.

Our buffalo grazing strategy is much more amenable to rental housing than continuous grazing livestock would be. With the latter, cattle can be anywhere at any time. As we’ve experienced personally, continuous grazing around a house can be disastrous for landscaping and entertaining guests. With buffalo grazing, we can easily shield sensitive areas with temporary electric fence when cattle are in a paddock near a residence a few times a year. If a renter has a social event planned, we can easily reschedule grazing near the residence.

As tiny homes, accessory dwelling units (ADU’s), modular housing, 3D printed housing, structural insulated panels (SIP’s), hybrid barndo construction and similar technologies develop, we think that ranch life may be more feasible for more people. While we’re not keen on the mobile homes of the past dotting the landscape, we think that these newer housing technologies can be a welcome aesthetic addition to the ranch.

In addition to providing rental income, these rental units can complement the other ranch enterprises we have planned. Extra housing on the ranch can provide housing for ranch hands, our factory workers and visiting musicians using our recording studio.

It’s easy to foresee a dystopian future in which dense subdivisions gobble up more and more ranchland. This is a likely scenario as ranchland prices rise in line with its value as residential/commercial real estate rather than its value as agricultural land. If this phenomenon continues, more and more ranchers will be crowded out because their land’s value as commercial/residential real estate will outpace its value as cattle country. We think a solution to this conundrum could be, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” We foresee a brighter future where more and more people are able to benefit from country living. If every ranch contained one rental unit per every 50 acres widely dispersed around the ranch, and the residents were comfortable with a temporary grazing livestock herd in the back yard a few times a year, we could easily accomodate all the housing our country needs without compromising our agricultural land and our food supply. And the population would be living a much healthier lifestyle than they can experience living on top of each other in crowded cities.

Catahoula Cow Dogs for Buffalo Grazing

We’ve been a big fan of Catahoula Leopard dogs ever since we got our first one as a teenager. The breed originated in Catahoula Parish Louisiana as an all-around good farm dog well-suited for hunting, herding and hot weather. They have a short slick coat well suited to working in the Texas heat. Although they come in a variety of colors, they’re best known for a spotted merle coat. They frequently have beautiful blue or green eyes. Their high energy level makes them ill-suited to leashes and city life, but they thrive as ranch dogs where they can roam freely off-leash. They’re not overly needy. They’ll check in frequently, but they won’t shower you with affection. They’ll be off tending to other business after they check in. When they’re not napping, they’re always busy doing something.

{Insert picture of Catahoula with cattle}

We plan to train our Catahoulas to help out with daily cattle moves. If they work out in that role, we plan to raise them and sell trained cow dogs along with our registered livestock. We think other ranchers will get as much pleasure from these dogs as we do. There’s nothing better than watching an animal do exactly what it enjoys doing.

Summary – Ranching Side-Hustles

While we’re going high-tech with most of our side hustles, that’s not a requirement. To make their dreams of ranch life a reality while making ends meet, regenerative ranchers could be setting up other less tech-intensive enterprises on their ranches. If one of our neighbors were to set up an auto mechanic’s shop, an auto paint and body shop or a welding shop, we’d be happy to drive a few extra miles to get a car painted, get mechanic work done or drop a welding job off. I can drive 20 miles in the country in the same time it takes to drive 2 miles in the city. Again, all you need to attract customers to a rural business is a website, a Facebook page and/or a YouTube channel.

Project 15 – Farmstead Renovation

Farmstead Renovation Phase 1 – Essential Renovations

The farmhouse on our ranch was built by our grandfather in 1941. He built the house from rough lumber he recycled from another old house and barn. The exterior is constructed from red sandstone quarried on the ranch.

{Insert a picture of the ranch house}

When we re-occupied the farmhouse, it was a basket case. A leaky roof, 1960’s shag carpeting, cheap paneling, worn-out appliances, 2 small closets to serve the whole house, unvented propane heaters, noisy window unit AC’s, drafty double hung Sears & Roebuck windows, collapsed septic tank and rotted bathroom floors were just a few of the problems we encountered. Since then, we’ve completed the following renovation projects:

• New mesquite hardwood flooring
• New doors and casement windows
• Gutted and started over with the bathroom with tile flooring, all new cabinets and fixtures
• Central HVAC
• New vented propane heaters and fireplace insert to supplement central heat
• New hot water heater
• Replaced gutters
• Repaired roof leaks
• Replaced rotted siding
• Gutted and started over in the kitchen with tile flooring, new fixtures and new appliances
• All new lighting fixtures with smart switches
• Added new closets and storage cabinets
• Added electrical sub-panel
• Repaired septic system
• Relocated propane tank and propane lines further away from the house
• Painted exterior trim
• Expose original interior wood walls
• Painted interior
• Relocated storage sheds so they don’t crowd the house
• Built a remote storage yard to get stored items away from the house
• Flower beds and computer-controlled flowerbed irrigation
• Trimmed 40 years of dead limbs out of yard trees
• Enclosed yard to keep livestock away from the house (except for planned grazing in the yard)

Warning: If your ranch regeneration project includes renovation of an old farmhouse, assume it’s going to cost 5 times more and take 5 times longer than you expect. We’ll be writing up our farmhouse renovation experiences and lessons learned in a future blog post.

Farmstead Renovation Phase 2 – Curtilage Landscaping

We think it’s important to run a first class operation and to look first class while we’re doing so. Accordingly, we want the landscaping in the ranch house curtilage (the fenced no-tresspassing area around the house) to reflect the quality of our pastures and our livestock.

The grounds around the ranch house haven’t been landscaped in the past. Until recently, livestock were able to graze freely around the house so there wasn’t much sense in landscaping. We’ve now fenced off a curtilage area around the house so we can control how and when livestock have access. We still plan to permit livestock grazing in the curtilage area. This will give our yard the benefits of buffalo grazing. We’ll design the landscaping so that we can temporarily fence it off when livestock are present in the yard.

The fenced area around the house has about a 5 degree grade from the road in front of the house down to 2 ponds behind the house. This grade presents both challenges and opportunities. We need to berm and terrace the area to slow down and retain water running from the front of the property into the ponds. The grade change and the ponds provide a great opportunity for water features in the landscaping.

We have mass quantities of red sandstone scattered around the ranch. This is the same stone that our grandfather used in constructing the ranch house. We plan to make use of this native stone for rock features in our landscaping plan.

After designing the terraforming and landscaping, we’ll complete the following tasks to implement the plan:

• Install terraces and berms to retain water and prevent erosion
• Install a computer-controlled irrigation system
• Install rock and water features
• Reseed grass and wildflowers
• Install beds and plantings
• Install ranch signage at entryway
• Install driveways and walkways
• Install front curtilage boundary
• Seed bluebonnets in the farmhouse yard to supplement existing wildflowers

{Insert photos of wildflowers in the yard}

Farmstead Renovation Phase 3 – Farmhouse Additions

Now that we have our Essential Renovations largely completed in Phase 1, we’ll be taking a breather on home improvements for a while. We now have everything we need to live comfortably on the ranch. Once the pastures are in better shape and the cattle are generating some cashflow, we’ll think about some nice-to-have additions that will make ranchlife more enjoyable. These future additions include the following:

• A 3rd bedroom addition for a master suite. The 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom we have are adequate for the ranch manager and a couple of guests, but we’d like to have more room for large family gatherings. We plan to add this third bedroom on the southeast corner to take advantage of the beautiful view of the trees and ponds over there. We’re planning to include lots of windows on the south and east to take advantage of the morning light. The light should be great for lots of indoor plants in the master suite. We’ll also add a much needed 2nd bathroom in the master suite.
• Family room/Dining room addition. The house has a den of sorts that was added to the back of the original house in 1979. It is not rocked on the outside, so it doesn’t blend well with the rest of the house. We plan to tear down this addition and replace it with a new addition that better matches the rock exterior of the original structure. We’ll replace it with a combination family room/dining room. The existing dining room only accomdates 8 diners, so we hope to build a larger dining space for big gatherings and parties. We’ve found that a large, family room is essential for ranch livng. Since the nearest cinemas and music venues are 15 to 25 miles away, we do most of our movie watching and music listening in-house. A state-of-the-art audio/video setup in a family room is a good investment on a ranch. We also hope to host live music concerts for a small group of friends in our new family room/dining room, so it needs to be larger than average.
• Wine/Whiskey/Cigar/Music Instrument/Root Vegetable Cellar. Our grandfather built a rocked utility room behind the orginal house. It beautifully matches the rest of the house, so we want to preserve it. We think it will work well as a humidity and temperature controlled storage cellar for some of the finer things in life.

{insert photo of our rocked utility room}

• Porches. We love ranch houses with wrap-around porches. The original ranch house had a large porch in the back where we spent many happy hours shelling peas and churning homemade ice cream with our grandparents. Unfortunately, that porch was torn down to make way for the den addition in 1979. We’ll correct this unfortunate modification by adding large screened porches on the north and south sides of the house.
• Outdoor kitchen. We’ll be adding a large screened outdoor kitchen to accomodate our penchant for barbecued meats. This kitchen will be the centerpiece for our outdoor entertainment.
• Enclosed garage. The property currently has a 3 stall carport added by our parents in the 80’s. We’ll be enclosing that structure and adding HVAC to provide a warmer/cooler place for vehicle repairs in the winter and summer.

Project 16 – Manage Wildlife Diversity

When our grandfather operated the ranch 60 years ago, there was abundant wildlife in the area. We would frequently see foxes, bobcats, quail and horny toads in addition to the more prolific varieties such as deer, armadillos, raccoons, skunks and o’possums. There are still a lot of the latter, but foxes, bobcats, quail and horny toads are rarely seen of late. The squirrel population is even much lower than in the past. There are multiple causes of the decline in wildlife diversity over the years. Following are some of the probable culprits:

• Overuse of insectides and herbicides
• Overuse of dewormers and antibiotics. These compounds sterilize the soil, killing earthworms and insects that animals eat.
• Conversion of pastures to coastal bermuda fields. This seedless hybrid grass creates a food wasteland for any animal or insect that subsists on grass seed. Quail and horny toad populations have been wiped out by coastal bermuda fields.
• Indiscriminate elimination of groundcover and thickets where wildlife can hide and shelter to make way for improved pastures
• Invasive animals such as coyotes and feral pigs. These animals kill other species indiscriminately. They also compete for food sources, and they disturb any nest (quail, horny toad, etc) they encounter on the ground.
• Invasive insects such as fire ants. These insects compete with other native ant species that provide food for native animal species. People poisoning fire ants inadvertently poison native ant and other insect species as well.
• Indiscriminate killing of any animal that isn’t domesticated. This is a common practice that needs to be curtailed by ranchers and farmers.
• Cats and dogs tend to kill any animal that crosses their paths. Feral cats in pastures are especially destructive.

To help avoid these culprits as we implement our regenerative ranching plan, we will pursue the following practices:

• Build up depleted native quail population. We plan to raise and release quail on the ranch once we have re-engineered our pastures to better support them as described below.
• Reintroduce horny toads. At present, it is illegal to purchase, sell or even touch a horny toad in Texas. The state has a few test sites and zoos where they are attempting to breed them for reintroduction. We’ve joined the Horned Lizard Conservation Society and will be working actively to become a reintroduction site when that option becomes available. In the meantime, we’ll be doing research and trying to determine what can be done to accelerate the reintroduction efforts.
• Fence off most of our creek to serve as livestock-free wildlife habitat. This will improve water quality and reduce creek bank erosion in addition to providing wildlife cover.
• As we’re clearing brush, we’ll leave large thickets to serve as wildlife habitat

• Ensure that our thicket placement creates “highways” for wildlife moving around the ranch
• Conduct research on the best alternatives for controlling feral hogs, invasive coyotes, invasive ants and other non-native intruders. Methods that have been tried to date are obviously not working. The feral hog and coyote populations are as high as they’ve ever been nothwithstanding years of eradication efforts. In the case of fire ant control, the remedies have done more damage than the disease. Whatever remedies we come up with, we want to be careful about doing more harm than good.
• Research the effects of broadcast fertilizer applications on soil biome and wildlife populations. If fertilizer application is determined to be harmful, we’ll severely limit our use of it along with any grasses (e.g. coastal bermuda) that are dependent on it.
• Be extremely discriminating in our use of pesticides and herbicides. Under no circumstances will we be broadcasting pesticides or herbicides in our fields. If we have to use them, we’ll only administer miniscule amounts. For example, when we’re killing large trees in fence rows we’ll use the drill-and-fill technique. If we have to leaf spray mesquites, we’ll spot spray and dye the spray so we can limit any over-spray. If we have weed problems, we’ll mow them or goat-graze them before they seed out, adjust soil PH to discourage them and sow grass seed to compete with them rather than broadcast herbicides.
• Be extremely discriminating in our use of dewormers and antibiotics that sterilize soil along with the earthworms and insects that wildlife eat. If we have to use dewormers, such as when we acquire new livestock, we’ll hold the animals in a sacrifice lot for several days before including them with our herd. We’ll move our lifestock in such a way that parasite larvae will die off before cattle are reintroduced to any given paddock. Any animal that requires antibiotics for survival will be eliminated from our breeding stock.
• Avoid monocropping seedless grasses (e.g. coastal bermuda) in our pastures. Seedless grasses create food wastelands for any wildlife that rely on grass seed in their diets.
• Minimize tillage that exposes the soil biome to the disinfecting effects of sunlight, killing earthworms and insects that wildlife eat. We’ll be using no-till methods as much as possible.
• Research effects of electric fence on wildlife movements. If necessary, modify our fencing techniques to better accomodate natural movement of wildlife
• Research methods for peaceful co-existence with native predatory wildlife that might pose a danger to livestock (e.g. bobcats). Determine if electric fencing, shepherd dogs, etc. might provide peaceful co-existence.

Project 17 – Repair and Maintain Ranch Roads and Water Crossings

Our ranch roads are in a constant state of disrepair, primarily because they’ve never set up with proper ditches, drainpipes and culverts. In the absence of ditches and drainage, the roads becomes rutted and eventually turn into watercourses. We will be installing ditches on both sides of all roads. Wherever water has a tendency to flow across a road, we will install culverts. Where appropriate, we will install culverts in ravines and creek crossings.

{Insert photos of road and water gap washouts}

Project 18 – Registered South Poll Cattle Herd Development

We’ve tentatively made the decision to focus on registered cattle rather than commercial cattle. Since we live on the ranch, we’ll be able to provide the close attention required by higher-valued registered stock. Our buffalo grazing strategy will keep us in touch with the cattle on a daily basis. We’ll maximize our revenue per labor hour and per acre by concentrating on registered cattle.

The breed we’ve selected for the ranch is South Poll. This is a relatively new breed originated in Alabama for the following characteristics:

• Heat tolerance
  • Red color absorbs less heat than black
  • Short slick coat retains less heat and attracts fewer flies
  • Genetics have been selected for rapid weight gain in hot climates
• Grass-fed genetics
  • Genetics have been selected for thriving solely on grass without grain supplementation. Grass is a much less expensive food source than grain. Grass fed beef is healthier for humans than grain-fed beef.
• Smaller size
  • Mature cows average 1000 pounds as opposed to 1500-1600 pounds for most other breeds
  • Smaller size is associated with less grass consumption per cow and accordingly higher total stocking rates per acre
  • Smaller size creates less damage and erosion in pastures. This characteristic is especially important to us because our sandy pastures are highly sensitive to erosion.
• Docility
  • Cows and bulls are bred for gentleness. Aggressiveness and lack of respect for fences is selected out of the breed genetics.

Our plan is to buy a few young heifers and bulls and bootstrap our herd by retaining heifers until we’re at full stocking capacity. Until we’ve grown the South Poll herd to full size, we’ll purchase stocker calves each spring and sell them in the fall to reach are target stocking rate.

Project 19 – Financing

The principles of our financing approach for our regenerative ranching endeavor are as follows:

• Slow and steady growth – Rather than jump in headfirst and finance all expenses up front, we’ll be implementing our plans in phases. The phases are designed to spend the least amount necessary up front to begin generating revenue.
• Minimize debt
• Fund expenses from income
• Budget up front, arrange funding and spend down the budget
• Explore grants as a means of funding

We will be developing budgets for the following categories of expenditure:

• Pasture clearing
• Electric fencing
• Grass re-seeding
• Water distribution systems
• Water source improvements (wells and/or stock ponds)
• Ranching equipment
• Registered South Poll starter herd acquisitions
• Ranch building structure additions and improvements
• Annual working capital for stocker calf purchases, feed, supplements and livestock care

Once we have our budgets in place, we’ll arrange for financing via grants, loans, ranching income and our personal non-ranch income streams.

Project 20 – Monitor Health Benefits of a Regenerative Ranching Lifestyle

While we’ve always maintained a fairly active lifestyle, we’ve never been able to sustain a regular gym habit. Exercising for the sake of exercising just hasn’t been appealing. We’ve gotten exercise from working, walking, hiking, biking and hobbies, not from going to the gym. If it wasn’t a side-effect of some compulsory or enjoyable activity, it didn’t happen. As a result, our exercise regimen has always been irregular. As we studied regenerative ranching, it occurred to us that this would be a great way to achieve a regular exercise schedule as a natural by-product of our daily ranching routine. Buffalo grazing requires a daily commitment to exercise, much moreso than conventional continuous grazing practices.

In addition to exercise opportunities, regenerative ranching also provides an opportunity to consume a healthy diet. We’ll have access to all of the organically-grown grass-fed beef we can eat. We can be sure that our beef is free of antibiotics and growth hormones. We can be sure that our beef is fattened on grass, not grains. We can be sure that our pastures aren’t contaminated with herbicides and insecticides.

In addition to growing our own healthy beef, we can dedicate a small percentage of our ranch land to a garden and food forest which will supply organically grown vegetables, herbs, fruits and nuts. We can thereby avoid all of the highly processed and inorganically-grown foods that are poisoning the modern diet.

Most importantly, we can exploit our regenerative ranching lifestyle to improve our mental health. Some of the probable benefits we’ll reap from our regenerative ranching efforts are the following:

• Avoiding the stresses of city life
  • Traffic
  • Noise
  • Air pollution
  • Crime and fear of crime
  • Rude and annoying people
• Having a sense of purpose and observing accomplishments against that purpose
• Better sleep due to daily exertion
• Being in tune with nature
  • Grounding (Being able to physically touch soil, trees, wind and grass)
  • Hearing the sounds of nature (birds, cows, dogs, birds, the wind)
  • Watching animals doing what they like to do (cattle, dogs, cats, wildlife)
• Being in control of our own fate as opposed to being manipulated by outside forces
• Being part of a community of like-minded regenerative agriculture enthusiasts
• Fewer behavioral constraints – Ranch living imposes way fewer restrictions on simple everyday behaviors than city living does. No one is going to complain or think less of us if our dogs are offleash, if we play our music too loud, if we retrieve the mail in our bathrobe, if children are roaming free in the pastures, if our car isn’t washed, if we’re shooting skeet in the back yard or if we’re smoking cigars on the porch. There’s no homeowners association dictating the color of our shutters, where we park our vehicles and when we water our lawn. City dwellers may take these constraints for granted, but the thousands of rules intrinsic to urban living add up. Whether you notice them or not, they show up not just in your blood pressure but also in your brain pressure. After decades of subconsciously modifying behaviors to accomodate the the million written and unwritten rules of city life, the pressure release of ranch life is palpable.

We’ll be monitoring and reporting both our physical and mental health as we proceed on our regenerative ranching adventures.

Project 21: Apply for 100 year family ranch designation (1928-2028)

Our grandparents Henry and Adella Reed purchased the main plot of our ranch in 1928 when they were 31 years old. After farming on leased acreage for over a decade, they finally had enough saved up for a down payment on their own land. Despite hardships, including our grandmother having to put her jewelry up for collateral at one point, they farmed this land continuously until our grandfather died in 1972. They passed on the land to our mother, their only surviving child, and she ran the ranch along with our father until they retired. Our sister and brother-in-law managed the ranch as a cattle and hay operation until our sister passed away. At that point, the remaining family heirs banded together to keep the ranch running as a cattle operation.

As of 2028, the ranch will have been under continuous management as an agricultural operation under direct control of our family members for 100 years. To commemorate that milestone, we will be applying for official status as a 100 Year Family Ranch under the Family Land Heritage program of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Assuming our current regenerative ranching program is successful, we hope our descendants will be able to continue operating the ranch for another 100 years. Of course, that also assumes we’re able to come up with a business model that provides a decent ROI on the value of the land as agricultural property.

Like all other owners of family ranches, we have other alternatives that, at first glance, seem to offer better returns on the dollars invested in agricultural land. As we’ve outlined in this plan, we have some ideas for keeping the majority of our land under agricultural production. Only time will tell whether our strategies will be successful. We’d like to give our descendents good financial justification for keeping the ranch a ranch and not selling it off for greener investment opportunities. Wish us luck!