With the big news about Grassroots Carbon, we have gotten quite a few questions on what this means for PastureMap and what our ranchers need to do in order to qualify for our new programs. First Things First: In case you missed our big news, PastureMap merged with Soil Value Exchange to form a new company: Grassroots Carbon.  The new company instantly provides scalable, measured, and certified soil carbon storage solutions to companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint. The new company combines access to regenerative landowners, value generating rotational grazing software, a soi ..read more

Calling young farmers and ranchers! Apply for The Herd Fellows Scholarship for Grassfed Exchange 2019. This year’s theme is Regeneration Rising, for new farmers and ranchers. Scholarship Details Scholarship: Herd Fellows get a full ride to the Grassfed Exchange conference, which also includes full travel and lodging. We spotlight Herd Fellows and connect them with mentors. In addition, join an alumni network of 100+ Herd Fellows from The Grassfed Exchange or Quivira Coalition conferences. Herd Fellows are supported by our friends at TomKat Ranch, Paicines Ranch, Armonia, and the 11th Hour Proj ..read more

This is part one of a three-part blog series, Soil Carbon Curious, powered by our partners at Elemental Excelerator. It’s no secret that we’re soil carbon curious at PastureMap. Soil carbon represents a massive opportunity to help farmers and ranchers improve the health of their grasslands and sequester carbon. According to Project Drawdown, managed grazing and silvopasture practices have the potential to sequester over 47 gigatons of carbon by 2050. Better grazing management also makes farmers more profitable. Healthy soil improves water holding capacity, which helps your land make the most ..read more

Knowing your forage yield is vital to creating an accurate grazing plan. In these videos, Dr. Joe Brummer at Colorado State University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences demonstrates four different methods to estimate your pasture yield: the cut and weigh method, the grazing stick method, the falling plate method, and the rising plate method. 1. Cut and weigh is the most accurate method. Using a 0.25 square meter frame, trim the forage that falls within the quadrat to ground level. You should take at least 10 cut and weigh measurements across your pasture to get accurate results. Ass ..read more

We interviewed Brian Alexander about ranch recovery from wildfire. Brian Alexander manages the 7,000 acre Alexander Ranch in South Central Kansas with a managed intensive grazing system. In 2016, their operation was completely burned in the Anderson Creek Wildfires. You were hit hard by the Anderson Creek Wildfires in 2016. What happened? The fire got my whole ranch in a matter of about two hours. In places I had 3-4,000 pounds of fuel because in the two years prior I came in understocked. In the two years prior, the indicators had been for drought, so I had a drought plan stocking rate. And ..read more

Mapping pastures is the first step to making an accurate grazing plan. Heidi Terrell of Terrell Farms in Nebraska explains how they use PastureMap to map pastures and subdivisions. Heidi and Brock Terrell discuss the importance of mapping pastures accurately, with fellow Nebraska rancher Derek Schwanebeck. Getting the fence lines mapped right is important to get the correct pasture acreage for every paddock. She uses PastureMap on her phone, in the field. She plans out subdivisions according to topography. PastureMap automatically calculates acres while mapping pasture subdivisions, so she kn ..read more

Many of us in the soil health movement in agriculture like to think of ourselves as regenerative businesses. But a regenerative mindset isn’t only about land, animals, and plants. Building a regenerative business means including ourselves. What is regenerative work? Weaning yourself off extractive labor (long hours, degrading health). Leave yourself more energy than you take. Prioritizing full recovery and rest for yourself, instead of continuous stress. Know that it will pay off in long term productivity. Invest in your carrying capacity by developing personal skills and expertise. Dee ..read more

At the 2018 Grassfed Exchange, PastureMap advisor Dr. Allen Williams gave a demonstration on how producers can use cutting edge live animal ultrasound technology and software to transform their seedstock and/or stocker operations by allowing ranchers to know and improve their carcass yield and meat quality. USDA graders look at the 12th rib to determine the quality of a carcass. So we’re looking at the exact same area, but in the live animal when we can still impact our rating. These videos explain the process used during the probing and imaging stages of live animal ultrasound. Dr.Allen Willi ..read more

PastureMap is proud to announce its first release of an interactive digital grazing chart. The mission-driven company builds ranch management software for 10,000 producers in 40 countries. PastureMap built this version alongside dozens of producers who plan with a paper grazing chart. “Plans often go out the window with the first rain as the season gets busy. Adapting your plan during the season is really hard on paper. We wanted to do more than copy the paper chart. We made the hard things easy—like showing rest days between graze moves, and making it easy to re-plan moves or shift exclusion ..read more

Range Management Field Specialist Sean Kelly knew follow up was missing from the South Dakota Grassland Coalition’s annual grazing school in Chamberlain, South Dakota. “The follow up consultation has been something that’s been talked about for a lot of years; it’s been a challenge bringing together people from the university extension service, NRCS, ranchers, and private ranch consultants,” says Kelly. [divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”15″] The South Dakota Grazing School teaches the “A to Z on grazing management, including the basics of doing a pasture inventory, plant identificat ..read more