USARAAI SUMMIT 2023 Part 5
Final
Dr. Forbes Walker is a UT professor of soil science and has been a speaker at several of the Summits. His presentation was on the overview of the UT USDA funded “Smart Climate Grassland Project”. He showed an EPA inventory of the breakdown of greenhouse gases – Co2, nitrous oxide, and methane – and where they come from.
Agriculture was #4, making up 10% of the greenhouse gases. Where that 10% is coming from is first how we manage our soils (tillage, inputs). Industry, basing their opinions on CAFO’s, wants to put the blame for agricultural gases on cattle, but Dr. Walker believes the cattle are actually a solution.
He gave a concise breakdown of who’s involved in the Grasslands Project and the scope to which it is projected to reach, with commitments from big ag industries committing to net carbon zero by a specific date. The plan is to enroll many farms in the project who are willing to try new methods to reach the goal. He says everything boils down to the roots. Roots help build resilience of the soil and encourage better water infiltration.
Plant natives and encourage diversity, which in turn attracts wildlife, makes habitat for birds, and the insects they need to survive. Integrating trees into pastures draws down carbon, creates good biomass, and provides needed shade for animals. Dr. Walker ended by saying this whole project is all about improving grassland stewardship, and the benefits it brings.
His fellow professor, Pat Keyser, who is with the school of natural resources at UT, spoke as well. His subject was regenerative grazing research at the Greeneville Research Station. He started with the thought that “grasslands are a heck of a carbon sink.” Dr. Keyser said that grazers can be the heroes of the story, simply by changing the way they graze, with the soil in mind. Some benefits are lower feed costs, greater returns, healthier pasture/soil, better buffer against drought/flood, and access to future markets.
In a nutshell, we’re back to better roots through good pasture management. He said good grass management is good business, and overgrazing is not that. He concluded with an explanation of the controlled experiments and projects coming up, to measure soil carbon and the impact it all may have on future cattle operations.
These two professors always bring a lot of eye-opening stats and information, coming from right here in upper East Tennessee.
As it was last year, Holiday Ranch from Florida, brought some of their beautiful South Poll cattle for an auction – 4 heifers and 4 bulls. It wasn’t quite as furious as it was last year but the animals sold for good prices to the highest bidders. I’m hoping they all went to places where they’ll make more beautiful babies.
As I’ve mentioned several times, you can see most of these speakers in various videos on YouTube, and most have a Facebook page. If you like what you learned and you’d like to hear more, this is a good place to start! Stay tuned for USARAAI Summit 2024!
