Cows, Carbon and Climate | Joel Salatin | TEDxCharlottesville
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2024
- Joel Salatin, an organic farmer located in the Shanendoah Valley in Virginia, loves his grass - and so do his cows. In this talk Salatin outlines the role that this often unsung hero of the plant world plays in sustainable farming, and the effects that its efficient utilization can have on the world around us.
Joel Salatin is a third generation beyond organic farmer and author whose family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, forage-based rabbits and direct markets everything to 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, and 10 retail outlets. A prolific author, Salatin's nine books to date include both how-to and big picture themes. The farm features prominently in Michael Pollan's NYT bestseller Omnivore's Dilemma and the award-winning documentary, Food Inc.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
A society that doesn't respect the cow-ness of the cow will soon lose respect for the human-ness of you.
Interesting to see you here to recently. Isn't it crazy how much soil effects health?
Excellent
When the headlines started beefing about beef, I told my wife, “A bunch of city slickers equating grass fed beef with feed lot beef”. For years, we raised cattle using multiple cross fencing. I’d laid out the pastures of our hundred acres so that they intersected in the middle where the corral and windmill were. Changing pastures was easy. There’s not a prettier sight than cows in belly high grass.
Yes
Once the grass has reached belly height. the nutritional value is way past optional. ME value has dropped markedly
And what the cows don't eat (weeds), sheep will.
Agree! Weary of the move to force us to be vegans...
@@alexandrawhitelock6195 you know than you can pasturise animals without eating them
'Concentration Camp Meat' - That's the best way of putting it.
Joel expresses the most basic concepts of land and animal husbandry in ways that everyone can appreciate.
Sunbeams are not "esoteric", they are electromagnetic and can be absorbed with solar panels.
I like chicken somewhat and I don't eat beef very much anymore.
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Number File hi
@@alexd3693 sunbeams are not just electromagnetic. You can't capture the feeling of their warmth on your face with a solar panel. You can't bottle the lift it gives someone's spirits to see them after a week of gray skies. Diminishing things to just one aspect of them misses everything else and wastes our ability to see the big picture. Take time to appreciate the whole, and you'll start to feel the beauty whether it ever comes to actual poetry or not, you'll even see the beauty in the electromagnetic quality of sunbeams.
@@alexd3693 Why not to eat grass-fed beef, raised as Salatin teaches?
I wish this had a million views instead of one thousand . This is so important . Regenerative agriculture with both vegetables and live stock working in synchronicity just as they do in Nature is the way toward to sustainable food supply and indeed a healthier soil and Mother Nature across the globe
it’s amazing how simple something like this could have such a big impact. simply amazing.
it's amazing that it was done by our ancestors for years and years, many still does it because they were taught by their fathers and grandfathers, but many stopped because all they cared about was profit, so mny peopl now rediscover it as if it was something new....
Great presentation sir. If we don’t go back to the old ways humanity will pay dearly!!!
The best concept I have seen so far in sustainable farming. The "cowness of a cow" was sometimes seen as a problem in climate change but could be the solution to sequest carbon by pruning grass. After all, they are one of nature's gardeners. Can't wait to apply this in my farm. Thank you sir.
Love Joel.
The most passionate man I’ve ever heard speak.
He is amazing!!!!
Salatin only briefly mentioned it, but the secret to all of this is solar powered lightweight mobile electric fencing. It could go down as the most important agricultural invention in a century. The ability to move herds daily makes this all possible.
Electric fences are important for rotating small herds, but you can still do it with large groups of cattle and large pastures.
You can even simulate migratory grazing without fences. Look up Bud Williams. His goal was to utilize the entirety of pastures by keeping cattle more tightly grouped and moving and settling them on less desirable parts of large pastures. The cattle will do it almost naturally if you handle the right. It's in their nature to be gregarious and have a tight herd!
@@ianbatey3425 fences are certainly important for goats and pigs and poultry. As one travelling goat herder said that used to raise cattle in his former stationary life. When i leave a herd of cows in one place and come 5 days later I will find them. Goats cover a LOT of ground, I'll probably get a phone call from the Canadian mounties.
** that was a PBS Wyoming documentary about goats and their short term grazing of weeds and undergrowth. To restore pasture or to help with fire hazards. Highly recommeded to watch btw.
@@ianbatey3425 Cattle may have had the instinct to stay together when they knew to be afraid of predators, but I think they unlearned that instinct. So without at least a pair of good dogs ..... (Will check out Bud Williams, sounds interesting).
Grass has become a useful source of nutrition, shade, moisture and tool for helping build my farm.
Joel Salatin is such an impressive human! We met him this Summer at his farm and it was like talking to an old friend. He is definitely our first go to whenever we start thinking about, anything really, with our new farm!
Joel made a excellent speech! Can you please turn on the community contribution? I would like to submit a subtitle (traditional Chinese) so that more people in my country can better understand this video.
I’m actually thinking of the same thing!
Cattle is a marvel of nature. Put grass and water in one end, and fertilizer comes out the other.
Then after a couple of years, you can dress out 300 kg of the world’s favorite meat!
It’s almost a miracle ...
this guy is brilliant
I'm impressed! Not a big meat eater but now I want a cow. He is so right. Let the herbivore do its job and build the soil.
Unfortunately swapping wildlife for livestock doesn't work. This man is neither ecologist, nor agriculturist and shouldn't be regarded as an expert, as his views are ideology-driven.
@@strauchdieb7628 Can you explain what you mean by "doesn't work"?
@@TomHaws For the most part livestock takes up different ecological niches than wildlife (nutritional habits, migrational patterns, symbiotic circles, predatory pressure...) - without going into too much detail.
@@strauchdieb7628 your what are your alternative solutions? As the ipcc has the petty much back his ideas and recommendations integration of grass and live in arable rotoation to mitigate climate change and soil degradation.
@@robinlecocq7065 Can you provide a source for that claim? I doubt they even know of him. The IPCC presents several ways for combating climate change, which I won't go into detail about, because they are widely available. In short, we have to "clean up our act". There is no one-size-fits-all formula and especially no magic pill as Salatin claims. As I said, he's mostly ideology driven and possibly also a grifter.
Je découvre Joël Salatin, il est passionné et, de fait, passionnant ! Son approche écologique et économique de l'élevage est une véritable école pour qui s'intéresse à l'autonomie alimentaire.
My man, Joel, pulls through again. Keep up the good work
He talks about nature's choreography and presents solutions which are so simple but exactly exactly exact, only wisdom and experience can make such solutions possible. He not just saw but noticed the most obvious things that are very Easy to be ignored.
Farmers are the best!!
I LOVE THIS MAN
Best presentation about grass ive ever seen, and ive seen documentaries about weed.
I am super happy that Joel was around on the day of the youtube and free information
Amazing MAN! Thank you 🙏 Mr. Salatin.
👏👏👏 Great talk. See also Allan Savory ✊👍
One correction on grass production, the spanish lang subtitles reads "hectares", when actually Salatin says "acres". 1ha = 2.47 acres
Love this guy! Sorry I missed this presentation knowing now that it was just across the mountains from me.
Joel is da man.
What a great presentation!
His is an amazing individual, I just hope big corporations will learn something from him...
iLOVE Joel Salatin!!! "The Blessed Way!" Inspiring/informative! #genius #SuperFan
This guy is really good at talking
Very interesting. I often find that people who put science into practice have a much better grasp of the subject & can explain complex systems far better than academics as this lecture demonstrates.
Go Joel!
Everyone needs to visit Ireland and New Zealand to see optimum grassland management for dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. The top farmers can produce up to 17 tonnes per hectare or 15,000 lbs per acre.
Likely the higher rainfall (also during the warm season summer) makes that possible.
In NZ we call it rotational grazing. When low impedance electric fence technology developed in NZ during the 1970s it became possible to economically move livestock to a new area each day. Most NZ farms have used this farming system for 30 or more years. What beggars belief is our own government doesn't recognise or understand these natural principles and want us to follow a flawed regrenerative farming practice that doesn't include grazing ruminants. The lack of scientific reason from our politicians in the bid to be realected will be the down fall of us all.
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Simple and Perfect definition
Excellent Analysis, Deployed Worldwide Through My Deep Learning AI Research Library…Thank You
amazing, thanks for guidiing us back to life cycle
excelente sin desperdicios
what a go ahead I've leant so much today thank you
I have watched this video several times throughout the years and each time, I always click "like" but for some reason it goes away, every year, I have to re-click.... interesting....
He's a mad farm scientist
New Zealand still grows all its beef on pastures (we call them paddocks here).
In the USA, pastures used to mean large fenced areas, and paddocks were smaller, sometimes divisions of pastures. But Americans seem to be using any word to mean 'whatever'...
Anne Hurly And with the rising rate of droughts and higher corn prices, some farmers in America have been feeding their cows more of other grains, and even sugar cookies, gummy bears, and ice cream sprinkles mixed in. Dunno how common that is elsewhere.
Yes, NZ does raise it's beef on pasture, but it is not mob grazing, so we here have the same problem of over grazing, not allowing enough time for grass to regenerate. Our dairy herds, would come closer to what could be described as mob grazing, but are grazed on younger grass than beef cattle for milk fat. Mono-culture type farming is also the norm here.
NZ farmers are also farming with chemicals, which kill soil life, so are in this nasty cycle of having to add fertility in an ever degrading system.
Everything a plant needs to grow is already in the soil, and if we would just nurture our soil life, and actually get off our backsides and manage our animals, we would have a healthy regenerative system.
Another thing NZ does badly, is a dehydrating infrastructure, in which our plentiful rainfall, is directed to the nearest drain, stream, river and out to sea. Every year farmers will moan about drought in summer, yet make no attempt to keep that rainfall on the land longer, to absorb into the soil.
It is true, that us New Zealanders find cattle lots abhorrent, hence they are rare here, but we as a nation, still have a long way to go, to overcome the chemical corporations influence on our farming practices.
Anne Hurly
Here, paddocks could be small spaces also.
we call them paddocks here too !!
Thats awesome 👌, i never thought id find a Joel ted talk
Brilliant!
I seriously cannot believe that this was not titled, Respecting the Cowness of the Cow. Smh!!
Its not titled that because that is just a byproduct of following the process. Those pesky morals don't get in everyone's way so the title is about more about carbon. 😁
beautiful!
That was brilliant
Fantastic!
The funny part is he didn't even mention all the health benefits that come along with eating grass fed animals they are the ultimate alchemists turning undigestible, to humans, grass into the most nutrient dense food on the planet, and as he did say nurturing the planet and the animals, so they don't have to live a terrible life.
I've already commented that grass fed cows etc. produce vitamin K2-7 in their meat... which is essential to every cell in the human body !
11:30
@@pawsscience1020 that's a dangerous misinformation.
We never forget our planet without soil and crops correlation for long term Sustainable Agriculture.
Please come to Guelph, Ontario- They have one of the largest agricultural colleges in North America! They just built a multi-million Dollar research facility for dairy and beef. Conentration-camp style and pasture is only used to park cars on it.... Researching for the future of agriculture/livestock and not a single animal in their research facility ever sees the light of day. except the horses of course....
+putin88100 sad situation
employ a scientific mind - sceptically interrogate until you've distilled to the Truth ... I wonder about the ultimate source(s) of the funding for such a massive project, and - further - for the department that administers it.
The current world power structure is built on petroleum and petrochemicals. Since WWII, the push in America and Canada has been toward industrialization of what is a biological process: the production of food. This industrialization benefits the petrochemical industry almost exclusively.
Nonsense. Look at all the good union brothers and sisters at Dow and Monsanto(fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides) , John Deere and Case (machinery) and the ethanol producers plus their shareholders. Don't forget the trucking companies that haul all the above plus the produce and animals. You salad fixing might well be more widely traveled than you. Likewise your steak may have been born in Texas moved to a feed operation in Georgia to graze and be backgrounded on grain and then sent to an Iowa feedlot for finishing and finished off at a nearby packing operation.
you are right John. There is just more money to be made of a
centralized, industrialized agriculture with high tech and science to it
than from someone like Salatin who simlply produces food from soil.
Even a single concentration camp farm enterprize that displaces 100
small scale farmers moves more bucks around than these 100 small scale
farms would have. But, fortunately in a democracy the ultimate power
comes with numbers and I know for sure that more people are unhappy with
concentration camp farming than are happy with it. Joel Salatins
popularity confirms that.
Beautiful
Awesome
It's called holistic management
Holy Cow!
This great talk from a brilliant systemic mind has waaaay to few views
Facts? Fine, but Monsanto will not let go of the profits. That's where we, the Peeps need to put the pressure by not buying any corn or soy products. But this is all wonderfully exciting and so logical. Gives us all hope for the future and we can all contribute even if we don't have acreage, doing kitchen composting.
Patents grass
👩🌾 s need to money up and double pay for seed to get off contracts
Can’t afford it? Ive never met a rich farmer 😂 I kid of course most of them are big enough they can afford it
I will do it on family farm eventually
without the grazing herbivores the grasslands would turn into brushland in dry areas or forest in wetter areas. .
Who would have thought that we needed taught how grass works and what God's intent for it was.
Im glad we are seeing the other side of the argument I'm for helping the environment but I don't agree with most of the ways people are trying too
No argument. The less meat we consume, the better for our health and the environment.
Strauch Dieb obviously you didn’t understand what he was saying. Sad.
@@strauchdieb7628 well I would disagree but that's not the point of my argument but if you could explain how eating less meat helps I might be open to understanding your points and the facts about health are still debatable and might have to do more with vegans being more focused on what they eat rather than the fact that they aren't eating meat.
@@strauchdieb7628 also over farming is a serious problem and cattle can help restore nutrients back to the soil avoiding soil erosion and increasing crop yield.
@@thatoneguyc8312 just read any article about the environmental impact of the meat industry.
Consumption by far exceeds health experts´ recommendations, ergo not debatable.
this stuff is so simple is astonishing people dont understand that all that grass eaten turns into more fertilizer and then the grass grows back fixing more carbon and the world goes round, pruning almost any plant will result in increased growth, wonder why? because the plant assumes it was just eaten completely above ground so wants to bounce back to maintain its own existence, and we can take advantage of this . I blame the fertilizer industries for disconnecting farmers from the land
They missed that part of The Lion King where Mufassa explains the Circle of Life
“The cowness of the cow” very well put 😂
As we approach this time in history there will be people that are set aside merely for drawing back to the land and reactivating their innate system that has been dead for years. The good news is there is still the opportunity to do this for yourself and start your journey. I see it happening to people from all backgrounds living in both city and country.
All you need to do is come to new zealand and see our grass based farming systems
Nz still dosent let the grass get out of diaper stage.
Europe is largely grass fed too. Having said that, it’s often an intensely managed ryegrass monoculture.
Oliver Byrne and also grazed way to short especially when cows are dry in winter time.
Isn't life amazing ❤️
Awsome
go to New Zealand and learn about rotational grazing !!
Yep but they don’t grow it long enough to put carbon in the soil and graze it to short often
And often ruin what has been gain with chemical fertilisers
@@frederiksmees5503 Sorry I disagree .....
Dan Reinhard that is your full right to do so. I am totally not against farming. But chemical industry and the fertiliser industry are doing the damage. If you listen properly what this man has to say. Grass in nz doesn’t come out of the diaper stage as he calls it.
Dan Reinhard if you look at episode 7 2020 on country calendar you see a very interesting way of holistic farming where carbon is put back to the soil.
Whenever someone brings up climate and meat consumption, I have to redirect them to the historical 30 million bison that used to live in the US.
People need to quit bagging their grass when mowing also...
John Christiansen for sure and applying fertiliser on top of it contaminating rain water supplies
@@sweetvuvuzela4634 going to try this out… everything seems inverted in this dam world right now.
Just let it sit or?
Won't see this kind of truth on the mass media or making it's way into the class room too much.
+NCIcaucus talking thru his ass........how much water does it take to produce this dairy produce? unsustainable
+brendon smith where do you think the water goes? If a cow is on pasture and urinates, that water is put back into the natural cycle. just like when you pee out side
His process for raising animals is actually very water efficient. The largest waste of water in traditional livestock raising is to hose down and clean the shit off the floor (and other uses) in containment housing. Salatin's ways don't require all that water use. He also uses automatic waterers and other technology to be extremely efficient in the water use.
Actually, Salatin relies mostly on spring-fed ponds to water his livestock. Under this style of management, his land and the land he leases from others has been building soil, increasing in organic matter, with deep roots, and layers of vegetation- which all help that soil to absorb rainfall, and to soak it in, replenishing groundwater, springs, and deeper aquifers.
Do people ever stop to think how much water is soaked into their urban or suburban yards? Or on their favorite shopping mall and parking lot? Industrial agriculture, including CAFOs, is not a good idea for many reasons, but when talking about water waste (lawns?) and the broken water cycle, why do people point their fingers at ag, instead of urban sprawl?
None. He only produces meat and eggs.
I can't believe it. TED actually had a meat favorable presentation. They have plenty of vegan and vegetarian propaganda. I've read of paleo/primal heavy hitters trying to get an audience and they were ignored.
@@kellymcgowan3547 They understand alright.... but it goes against the agenda.....Agenda 21 !
I'm a little shocked too! It's rare to hear someone who isn't a neoliberal!
"Propaganda" aka "people with arguments who I don't wanna hear because it put my retrograde behaviours in question"
@@kellymcgowan3547 yeah sure, 1.500 millon cows on the world and all the land deforestation for meat consumtion are super eco-friendly
@@kellymcgowan3547 "livestock activity being literally the first enviromental issue" also livestock culture "we gonna keep on but now is gonna be diferent, we promese"
I was watching a Wyoming channel on UA-cam. I loved it, took such great care of their cattle, mowed their own hay when they could, help with birthing when needed, grew the babies all grass fed... then they sold to feed lots. I gave them a piece of my mind then quit the channel. Its so sad, all that great work and I'll never see it on my table.
Can we grow wild grass, plants and weeds in the forest in between trees? He was saying that grass captures the most CO2.
Or do the trees stop the sun from reaching the grass on the ground??
Managed forestry does just that. It looks horrid at the end and beginning. But the cycles between are beautiful to watch. However, we need both wild and managed forests to keep the balance between human needs/safety and environmental replenishment in check. Money and greed is where it all falls apart.
I live in southwest montana. zone 3a or b. this totally makes sense but does anyone have any experience of how to work this out in the Gallatin county??
Think of all the fallow fields? They could be used there to add money for the farmer.
This talk was okay. I I enjoyed it i guess 🙃🥳🙈🙉🙊
Listen to his videos because they make a better place for us in this world and for our food or animal or livestock rather he is the most valid points I've seen out of anyone I don't think I believe much anyone besides him I've looked at many different kinds of data on what he's talking about and even in South America they're starting to do this in their own countries and they know of him even in Colombia and Ecuador Peru all these countries there are we doing when he's talking about they're talking about feeding their own people first we used to be the breadbasket of the world why we not that again.... we do these simple things like he's saying in this video it would make a difference in the world....
People forget that before settlement by Europeans, North American Bison numbers were almost as high as the current number of cattle we now have in this country. As we were killing off the bison (to near extinction), we were in effect replacing them with cattle. Bison also produce more greenhouse gasses than cattle. Cattle are not the problem.
Nice
I'm not a scientist but it's interesting how small animals like squirrels and rodents are ending up in the attics of many homes in my area. So the home owners have to get exterminators to put a product to get rid of the rodents. I noticed that they're cutting down trees to build more and more of these homes. Less trees and grass for these rodents to live. The asphalt and concrete are heating up the ground making them look for shelter. So inadvertently they become pests, voila, the need for pest control and pesticides. These animals aren't trying to become pests on purpose for sure. Thanks for the information.
Now I'm not exactly sure how the chemistry works out, but I've heard that grass fed cows produce less greenhouse gasses than grain fed cows. My logic is that since the cow's stomach is meant to ferment the grass so that it can be broken down easier, when you give it grain you get a higher concentration of methane, or methanol. Think about it, grain is very easily fermented into alcohol (beer), but have you ever heard of a grass alcohol? I'm assuming that since the grass is easier to digest for the cow they don't end up burping up as much methane as they do when eating grain. Again, I'm not sure on how the chemistry works out.
Methane eating bacteria emerge in soil once organic matter gets up to certain level. Pastures build soil carbon faster than forests. Intensive grazing builds soil which creates sequestered carbon and digested methane via soil biology.
Good point makes sense !
...and feeding cows corn is like feeding them junk food - apparently, it burns holes in their stomach... don't know about you but I would suggest that would affect their digestion... I think that the idea of corn beer sounds pretty accurate.
Agree with David, but apparently its the other way round. Corn fed cows produce less methane - probably because it buggers their natural digestion process, which has now become a key argument against roaming cows 😪
There is a HUGE difference between commercial feed lots and local ranchers giving cattle the best life they could ever have. Don't lump them together
Could someone please help me summarize this process!!!!
Grass grow into stage one(20 days)
Grass grows into stage two(10 days)
Grass stops growing and starts oxydating
Or
Grass grow into stage one
Grass grows into stage two
Cow eat the grass back into stage 0-1
Grass regrows to stage two while the cow is away.
Basically, if the herbivore do not consume the biomass that the plant has made from atmosféric carbon and UV rays the plant stops growing and oxidizes. And without large mammals to fertilize the soil with their waste and to soften the soil with their weight, the soil will degrade and became infertile. Then the grass will stop being able do grow and will start to desertifie
We have known this so long ago, in this light how ridiculous are the modern attempts to reduce the carbon and methane emissions by reducing the numbers of cows... Look at Netherlands these days, in 2022 it is a tragedy...
Alan savory gives a much better presentation on a ted talk called holistic animal management.
Alan Savory is a fraudulent crank.
@@NoExitLoveNow His methods are being used to great success by farmers and you can go and see what he does at his farm.
Its basic biology of plants and grasses that have a symbiotic relationship to the animals that live on them and with them
NoExitLoveNow hahah. How can you say such things about Savory when this guy is using the exact same principals of migratory grazing. SMH.
Very good talk. However, there would not have been any pheasant in the Shanendoah Valley in the early 1700's. They were introduced in the late 1700's.
What about natural grazing lawns?
Goats?
Oh....That's Tai Lopez's first mentor❤
Why do I feel like his words fall on deaf ears
SHAME to all of those who didnt laugh at his wonderful jokes they lack his great humor
I laugh at him constantly :)
What if American farmers grew grass mowed it at the "right time" and fed it to their cows? Would the carbon sink equate to the deisel used?
Why not just let the cows mow it for you'? Why use a mower? Did you miss the part about the high tech electric fencing he was talking about. He keeps the cows penned in a very small pasture for a day or 2 then he moves them. The cow dung fertilizes the soil, he moves chickens back into the same pastures at after the cows to eat the bugs and to help spread the cow dung.
use your cows legs
@@jim6584 no high tech electric fence can keep in a scared animal, prevent a stampede, contain a _determined_ curious smart animal (like some goat individuals) or prevent a feral dog or mean human to get to the animals or to scare them into a stampede. Salatin lives in a rural area if one of his cows escapes or they have a stampede (let's say a feral dog would make it on the property), there can be damage done to the animals, but there will not be devastating accidents and liability claims. (at worst they would have to slaughter 1 or 2 cows or calves earlier).
If such a dog does not intend to harm, he just has fun scaring the cattle they will run a while and then stop (still on the property and w/o meeting a human or vehicle). At worst the predator(s) would attack and harm (but cows and bulls that live outdoors and in a more natural way, are well able to defend themselves and their young.
He lives "over the mountain" CLEVER
Do the grass fed cows produce methane?
They do, but a healthy grassland also hosts methanotrophs - a bacteria that feeds off methane. Another beautifully symbiotic relationship in nature.
Probably just a small point but Pheasants weren't introduced into North America until the 1770's
Grass absorbs carbon dioxide the same way trees do, but on a smaller scale. Large grasslands can be more reliable than forests, but trees are more effective. Don't know where he got that information... ?
Yes. But 60% of earth land mass that is non covered in ice only can have grass lands. Forests are much more complex and can only exist in certain areas. But both areas do a great job sequestring carbon and converting it into biomass and consequently life.
Soil degradation and desertification accounts for 30% carbon emissions, and annual burning of land that is being 'rested' from overgrazing a further 18%. Thats almost half the emissions that could be remedied just with carefully managed herds of herbivores. Nevermind the roll on effects of desertified lands becoming fertile, storing water.... crops can be grown, rivers run clean.. its quite awesome. Trees start growing of their own accord. Great stuff.
(Edit: silly spellings)
Forests need more and reliable rain (after a draught the grass will recover FAST, but it takes a long time for a forest to return to its former state). There is a reason there were huge forests (enough rain) and huge prairie steppes (less precipitation) when the Europeans arrived in North America.
The prairie was way too dry for forests, only nearby streams or where there was groundwater they could survive. The natives could not follow the bison herds when they wandered into the prairie land - until horses were reintroduced on the continent. That bought them 150 - 200 years, some tribes like the Sioux could get out of the way of Europeans who also could not put the prairie land to use (mid 19th century a plough was invented that could deal with the matted grass layers of the prairie soil to use the land for Europena style crops, and from then on they lusted after that land as well).
If managed carefully, intentionally and based on knowledge of the processes - the grass can be forced to continue to be in the growing stage. Which means that the grass always (except in cold winter or during dry times) HARVESTS solar radiation, Carbon and Nitrogen from the air. (not the grass but the microbes that are in their roots harvest nitrogen). That explains the gains and the higher output - the plants ADD from a free resource: air and sun.
If the grass stops growing in a steppe - until a wild herd or wildfire forces it to go into growing mode - it stops HARVESTING. It still protects the ground and retains water, and is a reserve of fodder - but it does not add soil or nutrients.
Herds of wildlife were good enough to "mow down" the grass in a random manner, but humans can optimize the process, so they can optimize the harvesting of free resources (CO2, nitrogen, water, solar radiation). Wildlife prefers of course young grass. So if one plot had old, coarser, standing hay, it was the reserve for winter and the bad / dry times - or if buffalo and deer did not get around to dealing with it - sooner or later it would be consumed by a wildfire.
If there was no water nearby (or in wandering distance) standing hay did nothing for the herds, they could not go there. Humans can even work around that (to a degree) for instance by building ponds to catch the spring rains, so there will be water locally and _on the surface_ (as opposed to being funneled into the groundwater, which is also valuabe) that is available for the animals, and the grazers can put the fodder to good use even during the dry season.
There will be often dew after clear nights and that can be enough to have some ground cover from a little growth after grazing - until the next rain starts the cycle again. A human can know that even better than the animals where a short / light rain has triggered the growth of some new grass. Enough for one day.
Cows got a bad wrap... until subway came out with chipotle steak wraps
Где найти перевод на русский?
9:03
I think he meant sunbeam's ubiquitous not esoteric....I think anyway
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