Husker Researchers Find A Diversity of Values Motivating Regenerative Ranching

Early results of a USDA-FSA funded project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln finds a diversity of values, with a bias towards better financial outcomes, motivating regenerative ranching practices in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

 

These early research findings come from a research project which is a cooperative funding agreement between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the USDA-FSA to study ranchers’ economic and non-economic motivations for regenerative agriculture implementation and conservation program participation. One major purpose of this project is to examine how existing regenerative agricultural practices in ranching operations can be implemented into the USDA-FSA’s new Grasslands Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Grasslands CRP is intended to use certain regenerative practices to increase the conservation potential of lands which are not fully removed from food production (as opposed to traditional CRP). Hence, if the USDA-FSA is to play a role in helping to maintain grasslands in their native state and prevent transitions to cropland, it is critical to understand the environmental impacts of regenerative agricultural practice adoption on ranching operations, the economic viability of these practices for ranch operators, and the drivers for regenerative practice adoption and continual implementation.

 

Led by a team of researchers including Simanti Banerjee and Gwendŵr Meredith the project’s first stage involved interfacing with ranchers (some of whom now refer to themselves as “land managers”) about what practices they consider to be regenerative and what motivates these strategies. Some practices that were frequently stated as constituting regenerative ranching according to the respondents were: rotational grazing (aided by temporary fencing, new water infrastructure, and grazing plans), winter grazing, bale grazing, residue grazing (from cropland), and minimizing chemicals on the land and in herds.

 

The research team found that a diversity of values, with a bias towards better financial outcomes, motivated regenerative ranching practices in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota (the study region for the project). Some ranch operators articulated valuations which were tied to their relationships with the landscape, their community, their herds, and other non-human species as motivating their regenerative practices. Many ranchers articulated both instrumental (i.e., how nature can be means to ends) and relational (i.e., human-nature relationships) valuations tied to their regenerative practices. A few ranch operators did not seem overly concerned with the prospect of better financial gains tied to their regenerative practices, which the researchers found to be notable.