Moving Forward with

Soil HealthGabe Brown

Brown’s RanchBismarck, ND

Ranch GoalSustainability Through Soil Health

Season-long to Planned Grazing

Converting CRP to Grazing

BEFORE

Converting CRP to Grazing

AFTER

Recovery-Based Grazing

High Stock Density

Strip Grazing for Soil Health

Automatic Gate Opener

Grazing Tall…Improving Soil Health

Livestock Integration

Extending the Grazing Seasonwith Cover Crops

Tillage

No-till

The Answer is to Imitate Native Range

Diversity in the Cropping System

Diversity Above & Below Ground

Never a Monoculture

2 – Way CombinationsWinter Triticale & Hairy Vetch

Plants Interacting with Mycorrhizal Fungi

►Assists with P uptake from the soil

►Moves P from the non-legume plant to the legume plant

►Moves N from the legume plant to the non-legume plant

The Nature and Property of Soils, Brady and Weil

Nodules Fixing Nitrogen

Tracking Organic Matter…

Upward Trend

Improving Organic Matter

Continual Live Root 24/7

Large Radish

Cool Season Cocktail

Warm Season Cocktail

Tumble Wheel

Cowpea & Millet

Cowpea & Sudan Grass

Mechanical Harvest

Livestock Harvest

Bare Ground?

Foreground – Chopped Cowpea/Sudan

Spring 2008Planting into grazed Cowpea/Millet

Animal vs. Mechanical

Does harvest method affect crop response?

Harvesting Cover Crops

Grazing 2007 91 bu/ac Corn (’08) 1 Herbicide Application Value of additional

nutrients from manure?

Chopping 2007 68 bu/ac Corn (’08) 2 Herbicide Applications Value of nutrients

hauled away?

Winter Grazing – First Choice

Bale Grazing – Second Choice

Resource ConcernBare Ground

Implementing Bale Grazing

July 2, 2009

Baled GrazedConcentrated Area

Non-Bale Grazed

Quality & Quantity Comparison

Bale Grazed

► 8573 lbs/ac

► 11.9% Crude Protein

► 59.4 TDN

Non-Bale Grazed

► 2559 lbs/ac

► 7.9% Crude Protein

► 60.7 TDN

Harvest The Sunlight, Feed The SoilTie the Grazing and Cropping Systems Together