Farm Beat: Cattle ranchers help keep soil healthy

Who knew that beef cattle, weighing in at several hundred pounds apiece, could have a gentle touch on the soil where they graze?

A gathering this week in Del Puerto Canyon, 25 winding miles west of Patterson, explored how well-managed grazing lands can benefit the planet.

Some grass remains on the ground at all times of the year, unlike the often-tilled soil on cropland down below. Healthy rangeland soil builds up organic matter – decaying plants, manure and other fertile stuff. And it absorbs much of the rain that is virtually the only irrigation in these parts.

The good stuff in soil is a “glue” that keeps it intact, said Rebecca Klein, a rangeland management specialist for the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“When you take that D-9 (tractor) and you rip through the soil, guess what you do?” she said. “You break all those little glue particles up. And then the rain comes and there’s no glue to hold the soil particles together.”

Klein spoke at the 33rd annual Westside Ranchers Meeting, sponsored by the West Stanislaus Resource Conservation District. A few dozen people met in a room at Frank Raines Regional Park to talk as well about cattle illnesses, rural crime, wildfire and other topics.

Soil health has become a prominent topic in agriculture. Many experts say the synthetic fertilizers used since the 1940s have provided basic nutrients but not done much for organic matter. They urge farmers to leave crop residue on the ground and to maintain vegetation between the rows.

The NRCS started in the 1930s as the Soil Conservation Service, in response to the severe drought and dust storms in the Great Plains. Many of the displaced farmers ended up in the San Joaquin Valley.

Klein used a couple of disposable aluminum tubs, the kind that might hold potato salad at a potluck, to make her point about soil. In one was dirt from a site along Interstate 5 that is still grazed by cattle. In the other was nearby rangeland soil that was deep-ripped by one of those huge tractors so it could be planted in almonds.

“There’s nothing covering the soil out there,” Klein said. “It’s just trees and dirt.”

Rangeland soil also can help in the effort against climate-changing releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, said Tom Johnson, an agronomist with Kamprath Seed Inc. in Manteca. Plain old carbon is fine if it is stored in the soil, but not so much if it is tilled up and turns into the gas.

Rain-watered rangeland is the main use of the hills on the west and east flanks of the Valley. Cattle typically eat the fresh green grass for a few months, then continue as it turns brown in late spring. They then go to market or are moved to irrigated pasture or national forest grazing allotments.

Patterson-area rancher Doug Murdock said some rangeland grass is left behind to provide a base for the next grazing season. He agreed that this land use has less erosion potential than cropland.

Drought has interfered with the grazing cycle, but this past winter brought several storms and at least partial relief.

“It’s probably the first year in eight or 10 years that I’ve actually seen the grass tall enough to wave in the wind,” Murdock said. “The cattle have their faces down most of the day.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Farm Beat: Cattle ranchers help keep soil healthy."