Agriculture: can grazing improve the soil?

Self-tutoring about agriculture: the tutor asks a question that’s suggested itself to him.

Because I was a military kid, I lived in numerous places growing up, including the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia and near Summerside, PEI. Both of those are important regions for agriculture. Although my family weren’t farmers, you become aware of agriculture when you grow up around it.

A core principle of farming is that, when it’s done correctly, it always improves the soil. My father taught me this idea as he tended his garden the few years we lived in the Annapolis Valley. He began with a pile of sand, but three years later, the soil was much improved. His approach was organic – no chemicals.

Lately I’ve been wondering – does grazing improve the soil? Perhaps more precisely put: can grazing improve the soil, when done correctly? Given that, in nature, animals have always grazed the grasslands sustainably, I’d assume that yes, grazing can be done so it benefits the soil.

Indeed, it’s true: in fact, grazing is being adopted as a way to revitalize depleted soil. The key idea is that a grazing animal is constantly returning organic matter to the soil (urine, manure). What the animal returns to the soil is much more biologically active and complex than the grass it eats, so the soil benefits.

Another advantage to grazing is that it keeps the soil covered. Bare soil (for instance, because of crop removal or just ploughing) is vulnerable to overheating, which can kill the organisms that live in it. The only way soil is productive is because of those organisms. Grazing never demands that the soil be exposed, so naturally it’s more preserving of the soil than cultivation.

Some people think that only vegetable crops should be grown because livestock uses land inefficiently — perhaps that’s not entirely true. If grazing can improve the health of the soil, it seems unlikely it’s inefficient land use.

Source:

farmprogress.com