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Soil Carbon Cowboys

A team of researchers from Arizona State University and Carbon Nation and filmmaker Peter Byck to study and show to the world the impacts of adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing on farms and ranches in the U.S. and Canada.

Ranchers, particularly in states west of the Mississippi, face multiple challenges in today's world.

First, in the past decade they have experienced severe, multi-year droughts and improved range management that fosters water retention in soils and grasslands is both a priority and solution to an enduring problem.

Second, commodity prices are in a low cycle and ranching is often a marginal financial enterprise in the best of years. Anything that can improve the productivity of grasslands and thereby cattle health improves the financial ledger and the economic sustainability of ranching.

Third, in today's world of environmental crusaders emanating from our urban and metropolitan populations who attack and critique ranchers as environmental degraders and locusts on the land, when in fact healthy grasslands are carbon sinks and bring widespread environmental benefits under holistic management in addition to providing the porterhouse for your grill.

Peter Byck's superb videos tell the story of multi paddock grazing, long promoted by Alan savory as holistic management, and demonstrate the superb carbon capture and water retention capabilities of progressive grazing techniques. These are the stories of a number of ranchers who are improving the land we live on. Bravo!

Below is the first video in the Soil Carbon Cowboys series. I encourage everyone to see the rest of their video on their website soilcarboncowboys.com, and follow them on Facebook at @carbonnationfilm and Twitter  at @co2nation.

SOIL CARBON COWBOYS from Peter Byck on Vimeo.