Carbon sequestration, also known as “carbon farming” or “regenerative agriculture,” includes various ways of managing land, especially ranchland, so that soils absorb and hold more carbon. The soil needs actively growing plants, vibrant communities of microbial species, and well-managed animal grazing.

Holistic Grazing Management is a decision making framework that assists farmers and others in establishing a long-term goal, a detailed financial plan, a biological plan for the landscape and a monitoring program to assess progress toward the goal. Holistic Management helps managers to ask the right questions and guides them in setting priorities.

Biodiversity creates positive environmental effects in agricultural landscapes. The complex interactions of roots and other living organisms within the soil impact soil dynamic properties, affect carbon sequestration and enable nutrient availability for plant productivity. Managing for increased diversity can also be applied to grazing animals, wildlife, and other organisms above and below the soil for a more substantially healthier and more productive operation.

The amount of water that ranchers can capture on their land can be impacted by their grazing management practices.

Water management uses measures to conserve water involving strategies to manage water on your operation as it feeds back into the environment.

By keeping the ground covered with plant life and utilizing proper adaptive grazing of one or more animal species, soil microbes become available to form soil aggregates — which help turn the soil into a sponge that soaks up air and water.

Grass-fed animals contribute to soil fertility, resulting in substantially higher absorption of CO2 emissions— an important step toward decreasing the carbon footprint and mitigating climate change.

What does that mean? Animals are regularly moved to a new grassland area. This allows the already grazed paddock to regrow before the next grazing cycle begins, resulting in replenished soil that promotes new grass growth. Allowing the soil to renew and plant life to develop before the next grazing session enriches the land while also ensuring that the pasture stays healthy and rich in nutrients for the animals to graze.

Pasture-raised animals provide nutrient-dense proteins, offering a diverse micronutrient profile. This investment means equal dedication and effort into decreasing or neutralizing ecological footprint as generating revenue to preserve and restore natural resources.

Including livestock grazing provides a financial return that enables a cover crop, or forage crop, to be left in the field for much longer than a normal cover crop, even if growing the cover as a substitute cash crop during the main growing season.

Another way that nutrient inputs are reduced with the integration of livestock grazing is by having active plants growing year-round especially deep-rooted perennial species as is common with grazing systems. This reduces losses of nutrients from leaching and tightens nutrient cycling. The main goal is to minimizing synthetic chemicals and pesticide inputs over time.

Regenerative agriculture is intrinsically good for business. This is a result of farmers benefiting from lower input costs, secure yields, increased natural capital and higher margins for their produce.

Many farmers may be worried about the reduction or drop in yields in the first few years, but as regenerative agriculture is about learning what works for an individual farming system, changes may be a phased approach, trialling new or moving back to traditional methods that work on their farm.

Staff and local communities are key to any farming system. Regenerative agriculture engages in issues including a living wage, living conditions, working hours and conditions for any person employed on the farm, alongside how the farm business communicates and interacts with local communities.

Reduced exposure to pesticides and synthetic fertilizers lowers the risk of health issues, resulting in improved well-being for owners, staff, the community and the environment.