Ultra-High Stock Density System Boosts Forage Production

Dan Crummett, Contributor

Alan Newport hasn't looked back since implementing ultra-high stock density grazing (UHSDG) in 2018 on his Oklahoma operation. He's seen impressive positive changes to grazing land soil, which allows him to continue to build stocking rates.

His 40-head cow herd grazes year-round on 120 acres of warm-season perennials and stockpiled standing forage. During the past two winters, he's fed only two big round bales to the Mashona/Beefmaster cows and their calves. Even then, despite snow on the ground, Newport says they only ate part of the hay before returning to stockpiled forage.

Newport and his wife, Debbie, operate Newport Farm on long-term family-leased land near Newkirk. The couple have adopted a summer calving schedule to take advantage of local prime forage growth and marketing opportunities to avoid traditional cattle-price lows in October.

UHSDG typically sees 200,000 pounds of livestock per acre, a figure the now-retired beef industry editor has pushed up to 1 million pounds (or the equivalent of 1,000 head of 1,000-pound cattle per acre) when tallgrass native pasture is most productive in late spring. Such densities are possible by crowding the cattle into small paddocks and increasing the number of times they are moved to fresh forage -- sometimes three times per day under ideal growing conditions.

ENTHUSIASTIC STUDENT

Newport, an avid reader who shared what he learned along the way with his own audience over three decades of state and national farm magazine writing, says his interest in intensively managed rotation grazing dates back more than 30 years. That was his first exposure to Allan Savory's writings on holistic resource management and the regeneration of degraded lands damaged by continuous grazing.

About the same time, he also was learning about the interplay of historic native ruminant herds in South Africa and the American Great Plains. Newport was challenged by a rhetorical question posed at a "rotation-grazing" meeting touting newly introduced, easy-to-use portable electric fencing.

"Someone at that meeting talked of the immense bison herds that once roamed west of the Mississippi River and asked rhetorically, 'Who hauled hay to the buffalo?'" he recalls. The elusive answer to that question sparked his interest in finding a different way to run cattle in a more economical and environmentally friendly manner.

Newport put what he learned into practice seven years ago, which now typically carries triple the accepted "stocking rate" for the bluestem pastures located at the southern end of the Flint Hills. Since the turn of the 20th century, a cow and calf per 17 acres has been the standard stocking rate for continuously grazed native range in the area.

MICROBIAL BENEFITS

Six years of farm records and systematic soil PLFA analysis (test for the presence of functional biological populations) comparing the grazed pastures with an adjacent 20-acre native grass hayfield control plot (mechanically harvested once a year) showed a roughly 10% increase in microbial populations under hoof. Regenerative Agriculture Laboratory results on Newport's grazed acres also disclosed a similar increase in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). These are the building blocks of interplant networks that enhance moisture and nutrient uptake, as well as desirable soil aggregation.

"Tallgrasses and other plants found in healthy warm-season native prairies are fungal obligates," Newport explains. "They require AMF to thrive. So, populations of AMF must be going up if your tallgrass prairie is getting better. Good grazing fosters healthier plant roots and soil life, and is a principal player in all other improvements associated with AMF."

Soil analysis studies by multiple private laboratories show overgrazed pastures and frequently tilled farmland are consistently low in AMF, while up to 90% of those soils' microbial populations are bacteria.

Over six years, Newport's fungi-to-bacteria pasture ratios have improved from 0.076 (very poor) to 0.639 (excellent). The recommended ratio numbers for "excellent" are anything over 0.35. While the hay meadow also posted an over-the-period improvement, 0.220 to 0.422, both treatments had suffered drought in 2022. Newport says more normal rains boosted both from that low point. However, the overall improvement of the grazed acres shows a significant difference he attributes to improved soil health under controlled grazing conditions.

MIMIC ANCIENT HERDS

Newport explains what he learned over his career came with the realization a system was possible to wed animal traits and genetics to plant physiology and climatic conditions -- along with management -- aimed at best mimicking the habits of ancient ruminant herds.

He says cattle eat what they want based on quality, taste, smell and perceived needs, much like humans do while rummaging through the refrigerator. In the case of animal forage, the best is eaten, the worst left behind. That allows the worst to thrive while the best is weakened.

"When we rented this farm from my uncle in 2018, the goal was to move as quickly as possible into nonselective, high-stock-density grazing to improve the soil and increase stocking rate as rapidly as possible," he recalls. Newport explains nonselectivity is grazing with enough stock density and competition over time to graze everything evenly.

Eliminating spot-grazing of higher-quality forages then allowing grazed areas to rest over time results in a sward of forage with more leaves of greater surface area, fewer stems and increased density plant spacing, he explains.

"This is like putting up more solar panels to feed the plant and soil life," Newport continues. "It's also creating more groceries of higher quality for the livestock."

Through years of his own experience and observation of the results produced by other "holistically minded" graziers, Newport says higher stock density changes the land and forage quicker than low-stock-density grazing found today on most ranches and farmsteads.

CLOSE MONITORING

It quickly became evident his once-a-day grazing plan wasn't performing as it should. Today, Newport visits his herds on one of four major pastures sometimes up to three times a day, depending upon growing conditions. He visually monitors forage and cattle condition, and calculates the size of his next paddock to provide even grazing, good cattle performance and the reservation of enough stockpiled forage to get through the winter. All the reading and writing about it over the years now requires the "'rithmatic" on a daily basis.

Newport uses a 4-wheeler equipped with racks for trod-in electric fenceposts and reels of Polywire and various other grazing-specific tools and supplies. He primarily works by himself. With a trained eye to pasture species, a cynical approach to local weather forecasts and a pocket calculator, Newport makes daily adjustments to the smorgasbord his herd is consuming. Essentially, no paddocks are ever the same size or dimension, but each is custom-designed to daily and expected conditions.

A CLOSER LOOK AT NEWPORT'S GRAZING PHILOSOPHY

STOCKING RATE. The starting point for all of Newport Farm's pasture calculations is: "Take the estimate of total forage dry matter produced and half that (the take half and leave half rule of thumb), then half that again (25%) before beginning paddock size calculations.

His assumptions use a basic animal unit of an 1,100-pound cow and her calf, consuming roughly 3% of body weight per day forage consumption, and dividing that by the 25% of forage figured in the initial calculations.

DENSITY/GRAZING PLAN. The farm herd can vary from 20 cows (drought times) to more than 40 during good growing conditions. Newport uses 30 head for the following illustration.

He paces off paddocks each day and estimates forage based on height and density. Let's say a paddock is 15 paces x 15 paces -- that's 225 square yards or 2,025 square feet (Newport is tall and covers a lot of ground in a "pace"). Now, divide that into 43,560 square feet in an acre, and you'll find it goes 21.5 times. Multiply stock weight (33,000 pounds) by 21.5 to get 709,500 pounds stock density per acre.

Using these calculations, Newport determines how much acreage he's grazing each day at any time of the year and projects that forward in the larger paddock division the cattle are grazing or across his expected winter stockpile.

"For example, my northeast pasture is about 31 acres. Using the previous example of grazing paddocks 2,025 square feet, and I'm using three of these per day, that's 6,075 square feet, or just under one-seventh of an acre. That means I'm using 1 acre every seven days. If the forage ahead of me is relatively similar, I can now project how many days grazing I have there," he explains. "I can also measure how much is grazed in one of these divisions and across how many days, then project forward in roughly the same fashion."

He says one can use the pacing method or the free version of the GPS Fields Area Measure app for smartphones to check acreage grazed and the acres ahead.

DON'T SKIMP ON PROTEIN. "The more you want to pressure them [the cattle] during the dormant season, the more you need to be willing to feed protein as a supplement," Newport says. "During the growing season, you should not need as much protein, especially during the best part of the summer, which for us is May and June."

He recommends ensuring the cows are full and then watching their dung and body condition to monitor their diet.

"Success at this kind of intensive management depends upon your own goals and a willingness to make the changes necessary, your view on land stewardship, learning about pasture and range plants and their habits, and realizing there's more to beef production than pounds of beef sold," Newport says.

He admits he could reclaim the old farm ground more quickly by spending money on cover cropping and such. However, at age 66, he says he's unwilling to spend the money to do that at his stage of life. "So, I put the most powerful grazing techniques I know into practice along with daily boots on the ground, and as slow as that may be, it's working."

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