Can Wisconsin cows graze the way to more sustainable farms?
Origionally published in The Cap Times, March 11, 2024
For years Roman Miller raised corn, soybeans and alfalfa on his farm west of Devil’s Lake State Park in Rock Springs. After a storm, he’d spend a lot of time dealing with gullies that formed in his fields and repairing washed-out driveways.
When the rain came down it took his soil with it. Miller realized he had an erosion problem, like farmers across Wisconsin who lose an average of four tons of soil per acre per year, according to the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.
“That's kind of what got me started on the track of seeing if there was a little bit better way to do it,” Miller said.
In 2017, Miller received a $50,000 federal grant to cover the cost of converting 175 acres of his cropland into pasture and he began raising beef through a method called rotational grazing. The herd is moved from one small area of pasture — or paddock — each day to another. Cattle feed themselves on the perennial grasses and fertilize the vegetation as they go.
Over time the pasture grows dense, the roots grow deeper, and the soil quality improves and is better able to hold water and sequester carbon.
Roman Miller has been rotationally grazing his cattle since 2017 and says he's noticed a huge change to the ecosystem.
Courtesy of Roman Miller
Miller has noticed changes to his land in the seven years he’s been grazing. The ecosystem is more diverse, evidenced by the increase in birds and insects.
“There's a lot more life out there,” he said.
It’s also solved his erosion problem. Perennial roots in the soil increase water infiltration. Now when Sauk County gets a big rain the ground on Miller’s farm absorbs more of that water instead of creating gullies and washing out roads and driveways.
“There's very, very little water runoff and if there is it's totally clear … that's a huge deal,” Miller said.
Rotational grazing — also called mob grazing or concentrated grazing — is seen as an environmentally sustainable way to raise cattle that’s also good for the farmer’s bottom line. Grazing significantly cuts back on livestock producers’ biggest expense — feed. While agricultural costs rise and farmers see firsthand the effects of climate change on the land, rotational grazig is viewed as a solution to both.
However, it requires significant upfront costs to transition a farm that operates conventionally to one that’s managed for environmental sustainability. Federal programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offer some help. Farmers can apply for grants to cover the cost to buy and install the fencing and water lines and plant pastures. But each year more farmers apply than there are funds available.
A bill pending in the Wisconsin Legislature aims to start a state program to fill that gap, putting grazing in reach for more farmers. With the legislative session coming to a close the bill is unlikely to pass this year, despite bipartisan support. However, advocates of the program say the idea has momentum and they’re optimistic it will be included in the next state budget.
Environmental benefit, financial risk
The bill would create a “transition to grass pilot program” that provides farmers up to $40,000 over the course of three years to create perennial grass pastures from row cropland or lesser quality pasture.
Sen. Patrick Testin, a Republican representing Stevens Point and central Wisconsin, co-sponsored the legislation and said it's costly for farmers to make the transition from conventional agriculture methods to sustainable practices like rotational grazing.
“That's a tall, tall ask for farmers — especially in this current environment where … input costs are through the roof, inflation has been impacting everyone from just buying groceries to the fuel that they put in their tractors,” Testin said. “I view this as a supplement to help move them in the right direction.”
The pilot program would initially fund around a dozen farmers a year. Testin anticipates that if the bill passes, demand will be much higher.
“I hope that's the case because that will make a stronger case moving forward that we can put more money into this program,” he said.
Connor Laukant was preparing to take over his grandfather’s traditional beef operation in Reedsburg after he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 2020. As he analyzed the farm’s expenses and profits, he worried he wouldn’t be able to make it work.
Growing corn and alfalfa to feed to the livestock was costly. He knew about grazing operations and saw how having the cows feed themselves for half the year saved a lot of money. He was nervous about the risk of a huge agricultural change, but a neighboring farmer’s success with rotational grazing convinced Laukant to take the plunge.
“It seemed like it was working for him. He was grazing his cattle up in December and we'd been feeding ours hay since August,” he said. “So I figured he was doing something right.”
After graduating from college, Laukant applied for and received an EQIP grant of about $200,000 over a few years. By 2021, 350 acres of his family farmland had been turned into pasture. The team at Sauk County Land Resources and Environment Department helped him develop a grazing plan.
A few years later Laukant is now managing 900 rotationally grazed acres and moving a few hundred cows a day.
“The math really convinced me because there wasn't any other real way to make a living in agriculture anymore,” he said.
The federal grant was essential to his success, Laukant said. Profit margins in agriculture are extremely tight, making it difficult for farmers to shoulder the initial investment in adopting sustainable practices.
“It takes a lot of money to make an operation go around. So getting paid to do something right is pretty nice,” he said.
Environmentally sustainable farming methods can contribute to long-term economic viability for small and mid-size farms. Non-agriculture minded people might not understand why taxpayers should foot the bill for the upfront investments farmers need to make to adopt environmentally friendly practices, said Sara Walling, water and agriculture program director for Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy organization.
“They don't really understand and appreciate just how challenging it is both for timing, expense … and just all that worry and risk that goes with that,” she said.
Clean Wisconsin is among the varied interest groups supporting this legislation — including The Nature Conservancy, The Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association and the Dairy Business Association.
“This program is really designed to help take a little bit of the weight off of that process of integrating conservation — in this case grazing — into their operations by helping to give them a little bit more financial support,” Walling said.
Chuck Anderas is the associate policy director of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and has been working with farmers, rural communities and ag groups to build grassroots support of the bill.
Reducing erosion through grazing benefits the broader community because rain infiltration limits road and infrastructure damage from storms, which is ultimately a more expensive issue to address, Anderas said.
“You're gonna be spending money to solve a problem or you can spend less money to prevent a problem,” he said.
Anderas said if the program were to grow beyond a pilot and serve many farmers it “could be really transformative for rural communities, economic development and water quality for everyone downstream from them.”
Federal money falls short
For 30 years Serge Koenig has been working in the field helping farmers incorporate conservation into their agriculture production, including rotational grazing. As conservation analyst with Sauk County Land Resources and Environment Department, he reaches farmers one by one by knocking on their doors.
“I may knock on 10 doors and get two or three yeses,” Koenig said.
“Tradition is a hard one to shake and things get passed down,” he said.
But as climate change threatens the environment and the land farms need, conservation practices have risen to the top of mind for farmers in the last decade.
“Often the hardest part of the job is talking someone into adopting these practices and when you have momentum you want to keep it going,” Koenig said. “It's the whole idea of strike while the iron is hot.”
Other agriculture conservation practices like reducing tillage or planting cover crops are methods farmers can incorporate into their existing operation — and they can start small. But transitioning row cropland into rotationally grazed pasture is a whole-scale change in the farming operation, requiring technical support from people like Koenig.
After a farmer agrees to try rotational grazing, they’ll then apply for federal funding to cover the start-up costs. That process can take a year and a half, Koenig said, potentially discouraging the farmer.
“You got him all excited to go — this happens all the time — like OK, yeah, now go ahead and apply and hold your breath. I hope you get funded and a year and a half later you can start but they've lost momentum,” he said. “Now the iron is not hot.”
Koenig said a state grazing support program would likely be much faster, helping a farmer get up and running in three months.
Wisconsin had a grazing funding program previously, called the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, that started in 1999 and provided over $1 million for grants, technical assistance and research at its peak. The program was eliminated in Gov. Scott Walker’s 2013 state budget because it was seen as duplicative of federal options.
Sen. Brad Pfaff, a Democrat who represents La Crosse and southwestern Wisconsin, co-sponsored the recent grazing bill and said federal farm conservation programs are important, but very competitive. Last year only 37% of Wisconsin farmers who applied for conservation funding through EQIP received grants.
Pfaff, who has a background with the USDA and briefly led Wisconsin's agriculture department, said a state funding source for rotational grazing can complement federal opportunities.
“It makes sense for Wisconsin to continue to invest in conservation,” the senator said, “because it allows our family farmers to stay farming.”