Managing Grass, Small Grains, and Cattle (1992) ⋆ Savory Institute

Case Study

Managing Grass, Small Grains, and Cattle (1992)

Kramer, J., J. Printz, J. Richardson, G. Goven (1992) Managing Grass, Small Grains, and Cattle. Rangelands 14(4) 214-216.

Key Takeaways

The Goven Ranch is an 1800 acre cattle and small grain operation located in McLean county, North Dakota. From 1967 to 1986, Gene Goven practiced different grazing management systems. In 1986, he made the shift to Holistic Management and Holistic Planned Grazing (referred in the article as Holistic Management’s former name, Holistic Resource Management or HRM).
One of the first observed changes in land health occurred in cool season plants; the use of grazing planning allowed the grazing of cool season plants early in the season and extended recovery periods, which improved the vigor and growth of these plants. Additionally, a “leap frog” approach to paddock movements eliminated the need for fly control, as the distance between “cow pies” self-limited fly populations.
Weaning weights increased from 480 pounds prior to 1982 to 545 in 1989. At an assumed, constant price of $0.65 (for charting purposes), Gene has more than tripled his income from his herd over the last eight years.
When the area received a quarter-inch of rain in a short period of time, Gene noticed the neighboring dugouts filled immediately from surface runoff, whereas his dugouts, which had been dry, filled at a slower rate from the bottom 11 days after the rain. His ponds filled to a higher level and maintained their levels while the water level in neighboring ponds decreased.
The croplands which were grazed by the herd in the fall of 1989 yielded twice as much spring wheat in 1990 as they should have, based on soil fertility tests. Protein of the wheat was 3-4% higher than wheat from surrounding croplands that were not grazed. The grazed croplands have soil organic matter levels comparable to ungrazed croplands which have clover in the rotation.

Summary

"Instead of managing grass, small grains, and cattle for their own sake, I try to manage so they complement one another. That's a challenge." So says Gene Goven, an innovative thinker and manager who does a remarkable job of resource management with much assistance from other resource people on his 1,800- acre central North Dakota cattle and small grain ranch north of Turtle Lake in McLean county, North Dakota. The first recorded use of a portion of his rangeland was by a horse rancher many years ago. During this time of prolonged, heavy grazing, the mixed grass rangeland community had shifted to approximately 70 to 80 percent Kentucky bluegrass, blue grama and fringed sagewort. When Goven purchased the unit in 1967, he began running 60 cow-calf pairs, moving them from one rangeland pasture in late June or early July to a larger pasture until the end of the growing season, usually into early November. The only water in the large summer pasture was in Crooked Lake, which caused a livestock distribution problem; the cattle were spending 2/3 of their time along the lake and 1/3 of the time on the rest of the unit. His remedy to this problem was to install two livestock watering dugouts and use salt blocks to equalize the distribution of his herd. "What I was doing wasn't working the way it should, but I was told it should work."