Incorporating technology into grazing a game changer 

“Context is so important in day-to-day observations, and a high degree of flexibility is key. So that’s why our grazing plan is in pencil, and it can change daily. We’re always deferring to nature. The more we control, the less control we have.” 

Meredith Ellis of G Bar C Ranch, Rosston, Texas, told attendees at the virtual Stockmanship and Stewardship event Nov. 7, that those are concepts her family considers on the ranch when it comes to grazing.  

Joining Ellis for the panel discussion was Justin Hossfeld of Envu and grazing consultant Steve Saunders. 

Ellis considers the ranch in Texas a living laboratory open to research and experimentation. The ranchers have benefited from technologies that can look at their environment in a different way, and they share the data to help others.  

“When it comes to technology, collaboration is key,” she said. “(Technology) has greatly benefited us.” 

She’s testing out a technology called Enriched Ag, and while she’s not being compensated for using it, she likes what she’s seen. Working with others and their companies and products has been beneficial for her operation. 

“Many of what ended up being the most beneficial collaborations started out as having no perceived benefit to me, really, yet ended up helping us manage in unexpected ways,” she said. 

Her interest in above-ground biodiversity surveys started several years ago when comparing results from historical management practices and eco-regions and soil types.  

“We’ve also studied below-ground soil samples in hundreds of locations with several different research partners, but then (we) went back and correlated those results with above ground biodiversity measurements,” she said. “So (we’re) really trying to understand the grazing impact as it relates to soil type and specific plant communities.” 

To help understand what is perceived as major technological advancements to aid ranching operations, Ellis said it’s important to understand how they will work on your specific operation.  

G Bar C Ranch stresses soil health principles over practices, she said. By keeping it in context and observation-based—rather than prescriptive—it helps the operation to remain highly flexible. 

Optimizing soil disturbance one year might mean occasionally using no-till, she said. It might mean extended periods of rest or maybe “just cleaning house.” 

This also applies to the ranch’s forested land, where the absence of cattle causes the canopies of stunted trees to be dead, compared to properly grazed understory that is full of life and fire-resistant, she said. 

Maintaining a living root is important to G Bar C, and the benefits that come from it can be seen in drought and flood resiliency and water quality in the ranch’s native pastures.  

“And keeping the ground covered can mean maybe unrolling a bale of hay to repair a temporary road, or building upon a thinner soil type,” she said. “Biodiversity can mean cover crops, or it can mean maintaining an assortment of below-ground root structures and native pastures.” 

While flexibility is important, it is also important to be aware that the “best laid plans often go awry,” Ellis said. 

“For example, what if hogs wipe out 30% of it in four days? Or army worms,” she said. “Or what if it doesn’t rain in three months after that, or what if there’s a tornado?” 

Ellis stressed that when thinking in terms of technology to aid ranchers, it has to happen in real time. A monthly or even weekly basis won’t work because of how fast things can change on the range.  

The technology from Enriched Ag is a mounted camera on her “buggy,” and it takes photos every 10 seconds as she goes about daily activities. 

“It records biodiversity and biomass and couples that on the ground data to real, real-time satellite imagery,” she said. “You can look at their raw data on their platform based on your drives, right? So you can see the actual photos.” 

The ground cover is shown in varying shades of colors, representing the density of it. With artificial intelligence, the system can help forecast forage production and that led to better management decisions, she said, and can assist with questions. 

“Will I need to buy supplemental feed? Will I have an abundance of grass? Will I likely need to cull, etc.?” she said. 

Those considerations are important to the ranch’s bottom line and health of the cattle in the various landscapes. 

The data comes in on a pasture-level basis, and Ellis really likes it because it’s hands off and requires basically none of her time. 

“It shares accurate and timely data. It allows me to see patterns over time,” she said. “That’s the one that I’m most excited about, is looking retrospectively over previous years, and then it also has increasing potential to help monitor other things, such as body condition score in my cattle.” 

Water monitoring is important to her, too, and she likes how the technology is informative rather than just prescriptive.  

“It lends itself to a high degree of flexibility and accounts for those daily adjustments that so often need to be made in the best interest of my operation,” she said. “But bottom line, I think right now, any progress that we make as an industry in harnessing the power of AI in real-time imagery to help a rancher better visualize what’s going on would be just an utter game changer, and I applaud all of these wonderful advancements that I’m seeing.” 

Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].