Cow_ContinuousGrazing_Beck_Malcolm_SanAntonioTX_18April2002_Reel2200.wav

Malcolm Beck [00:00:00] Back two hundred and fifty years ago, there were more buffalo in this country than there are farm animals all put together now.

Malcolm Beck [00:00:08] The buffalo roamed in tight herds because of the predators: that gave them protection from the mountain lions and the wolves.

Malcolm Beck [00:00:14] Well, when the buffalo went along in tight herds, they ate the grass down. They urinated all over it. They manured all over it and they tromped it up into the soil.

Malcolm Beck [00:00:25] But then the buffalo didn't come back to that spot for maybe 18 months or two years, maybe a long time, so that grass could completely recover.

Malcolm Beck [00:00:35] Now, when I grew up on a farm, my grandpa and my dad both, if they saw a patch of grass that wasn't being harvested by cows or hayed off, that was a sin. You know, they had to be grazing it.

Malcolm Beck [00:00:45] Well, with our constant way of grazing, what happens? Let's just use, at one time we had big bluestem, little bluestem and numerous other grasses that cattle love. Well probably the best and easiest to eat was the big bluestem. Let's just use that for an example. So continuous grazing a cow eat off this leaf today, ate off that leaf tomorrow, ate off the next leaf. Every time that bluestem or that grass tried to put up another leaf surface, another leaf, so it could collect the energy from the sun, manufacture carbohydrates so it could build a big root, the cow never allowed it to do that.

Malcolm Beck [00:01:18] Pretty soon, that grass was just whipped and it expired, never got a chance to make a seed. The root died.

Malcolm Beck [00:01:26] Then the cow went after the next grass, then the cow went after the next grass. Well, nature never wants bare soil. So, nature said, "All right, you're going to take that grass off, I'll give you a lesser one. You take that plant off, I'll give you a lesser one."

Malcolm Beck [00:01:39] Pretty soon, all we're left with is prickly pear stickers, poisonous plants, junipers and mesquites.

Malcolm Beck [00:01:44] You see, we did it.