What We Do

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Reinhabiting our role as a keystone species...

We work with like minded cattle producers to bring on organic grass-fed cattle during our “growing season,” fluctuating our stocking rate and arrival/departure dates based on the wide variation in seasonal precipitation we receive. This flexibility ensures that we do not overgraze our pastures and that we have enough grass to keep the cattle fat and happy.

We move our cattle in one large herd through a series of paddocks using low-stress stockmanship, and temporary electric fencing to provide the grass sufficient recovery time between grazes. Within three short years of management we have seen tremendously encouraging results in the diversity, abundance, and resilience of our grasslands.

Benefits of Regenerative

Grazing

Adaptive Rotational Grazing regenerates and nourishes our grasslands and savannas; nutrient dense beef is the byproduct of that management:

Grass turns sunlight into carbon, day in and day out. As soon as a bite is taken out of the grass, it sends a surge of carbon out through its roots and into the mycorrhizal fungi that live in the soil. In exchange, the fungi provide the grasses with the essential nutrients they need to grow new blades. By this mechanism, carbon is pulled out of the atmosphere via photosynthesis and is stored in the soil, directly combating climate change. As long as the grass has a sufficient amount of time to recover before the cattle return, it will grow healthier and stronger roots, feed the diverse and essential soil microbes, and stay vegetative and photosynthetically active for a longer portion of the year.

One teaspoon of healthy soil contains more than a billion microorganisms. When pastures are overgrazed because of set-stocking (ie. no rotation of cattle) and overstocking (ie. too many cattle for a given pasture), grasses die off or remain stunted, leading to increasing amounts of bare uncovered soil. In our Mediterranean climate, where we often receive no precipitation for over half the year, these soils are exposed to the blistering sun for months on end, killing many of the fungi and bacteria that live there. However, when pastures are given a chance to recover under Adaptive Rotational Grazing, the grass produces exponentially more biomass, meaning we are able to keep a layer of grass mulch to protect the soils over the long summer. These covered soils can be up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than bare soils, allowing the microbes in the soil to survive year round. (The photo on the right shows the contrast between our pasture and the neighboring ranch.)

Adaptive Rotational Grazing builds soil from the bottom up and from the top down. Carbon rich root exudates produced by properly grazed grasses are stabilized and stored in the soil by the fungi and bacteria that live there. Tightly grouped herds of cattle trample down tall, overgrown, indigestible grasses into a mulch that protects and feeds the soil from above, as the microbes slowly decompose this “leaf litter” into stable soil carbon. For every 1% increase in soil organic matter, an acre of soil can hold up to 20,000 gallons of water. Multiplied across the over 2,600 acres where Keystone is practicing rotational grazing, this represents fifty-two million gallons of water storage capacity. Some of this water infiltrates back into underground aquifers, recharging ground water in the surrounding area and keeping creeks running and ponds fuller for more of the year. It also keeps the grass growing and photosynthetically active for a larger portion of the growing season; allowing us to grow more grass and store more carbon in a virtuous and ecologically beneficial cycle.

500 years ago, California grasslands were dominated by deep-rooted and long-lived perennial bunch grasses. Invasive European annual grasses were brought in with the introduction of domesticated livestock. These prolific, shallow-rooted and short-lived grasses, which were better able to tolerate the continuous overgrazing of domesticated livestock, took over California's grasslands. Today perennial bunch grasses represent less than 1% of California's grasslands. Perennials can be overgrazed by livestock that are allowed access to them year round, biting their tender new shoots repeatedly until the plants die. They can also be undergrazed if grazing animals are excluded entirely; their old growth from previous years, shading out and suppressing new growth until the plant is unable to produce new blades of grass at all. Adaptive Rotational Grazing strikes an ideal balance between under and over-grazing. Animals remove dead material, freeing the plant to produce new growth, and move on, allowing the perennial grass to recover before being grazed again. Furthermore, the hoof impact of our cattle breaks up the surface of the soil, creating a perfect seedbed for new perennial grass seeds to germinate. The result is an increase in native perennial bunch grasses that green-up sooner, stay green longer, and support soil life for a much greater portion of the year than invasive annual grasses.

Diversity of grazing impact leads to biodiversity. Keystone has divided the land we manage into up to 10 different pastures, which are often further subdivided with temporary electric fences. At any given time these pastures are in ten different stages of recovery- Some have just been grazed and are short and lawn-like, others haven’t been grazed for several months and are tall and shaggy. This provides a wide diversity of “ecological niches”that satisfy a multitude of different habitat needs at any given time. Different grassland plants, be they grasses, forbes, or wildflowers, require different levels of ground cover at different times of year. Having such a variety of cover at any given time ensures a great deal of biodiversity across the ranch. Moreover, because we never rotate our cattle through pastures in the same order, at the same density, for the same amount of time, year over year, each pasture develops and maintains a diverse seed bank which expresses itself differently every year.

The same is true for wildlife. In collaboration with Point Blue Conservation Science and Audubon’s Conservation Ranching Program, we have identified 39 species of birds that call our ranch their home. Some species like ground nesting birds require plenty of grass cover to keep their eggs safe, while others such as hawks and falcons fare better with shorter grasses that allow them to hunt for prey effectively. The diversity of growth stage in our pastures ensures that there is always habitat for all of these birds not to mention many other species that call our ranch home

California’s oak woodlands and savannas are a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for over 350 vertebrate species; more than any other terrestrial ecosystem in the state. These landscapes are also severely threatened by housing development, intensive agriculture, and poor grazing practices. Oak regeneration, which is the germination and growth of new saplings to replace old and dying trees, is in sharp decline, especially among blue oaks– the dominant oak species in the Buttes. Research indicates that invasive annual grasses often outcompete these young saplings, stealing both sunlight and moisture until the saplings perish. When faced with insufficient grass feed, cattle will graze young oak saplings for the nutrients they need, and browse them repeatedly until the young trees die. In our grazing system, cattle graze down the competing annual grasses, but move on to their next pasture before getting hungry enough to permanently damage the oaks. Keystone, in partnership with Red Boots Ecology, is involved in a study of how grazing impacts oak regeneration to better understand this relationship.

The beef that comes from our ranch, is a bi-product of the abundant ecosystem that the cattle support. Embodied in their flesh is the health, diversity, and fertility of the grasslands we manage. Grass-fed and finished beef is high in beta-carotene, vitamin E, essential Omega 3 fatty acids, Trans Vaccenic Acid (TVA), Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA),) and many other essential nutrients. Stocker cattle raised on our ranch gain an average of 1.8 pounds per day. When combined with the calves born on the ranch every year, we turn our grass into over 140,000 pounds of meat during any given growing season. By the time that beef gets to someone's plate, that’s enough to feed 850 people for a full year. If you’re interested in seeing what regeneratively grazed grass-fed beef tastes like and experience the myriad health benefits, consider buying a beef share directly from us.

Why it Works....

At Keystone Land and Livestock, we mimic natural cycles of grazing that benefit our grasslands and savannas.

Mimicking Evolution

Grasses and grazers co-evolved over millions of years. Ruminants, such as cattle, bison, and sheep, have the incredible ability to utilize their four powerful stomachs to turn these coarse, minimally nutritious blades into nutrient dense meat. However, the grass also needs the grazers in order to thrive. Grazing animals remove old dead leaves to make room for new plant growth, fertilize the pasture by spreading little piles of compost across the land, lightly break up soil crusts with their hooves and create micro-variations in the topography, which allows grass to germinate. Their saliva even contains microbes that stimulate grass growth. So if cattle are so good for grasslands, why does grazing get such a bad rap? The key to creating a positive ecological impact with cattle is how those cattle are managed.

Rest & Recovery

Grasslands co-evolved with herds of migrating grazers. Thousands of ruminants would travel in migratory cycles, at times grazing in dense groups to protect themselves from predation, eating, trampling, and defecating on the grass, before moving on to greener pastures, often not returning for months or even years. This provided time for the critical factor in healthy grasslands and good grazing management: Recovery. The grasses must have sufficient time to regrow the leaves and roots that are defoliated during a grazing event. So long as they are provided adequate rest, they will recover with deeper roots, more blades, and stronger connections to the microbes in the soil. Without this critical component of recovery, the virtuous cycle of grazing becomes a destructive one.

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Breaking the Cycle

Wild herds of ruminants were largely exterminated in the United States, replaced by private property and domesticated ruminants. Predators were eliminated, and cattle were allowed to roam freely across large areas of open rangeland. With no incentive to migrate or stay in a herd they simply find the most palatable forages, and graze them continuously, taking a new bite every time the grass starts to regrow, until its energy reserves are depleted and it dies. The diversity and abundance of grasses drop precipitously, with some grasses overgrazed to death, with others under grazed until their old growth chokes out new growth and prevents germination of new seeds. Over decades this leads to ranches that are low in diversity and productivity, with eroding gullies, degraded riparian areas, and unhealthy soils.

Humans as Keystone Species

In the absence of predators, larger herds of native ruminants, or vast contiguous grasslands, we assume the role of the Keystone Species; facilitating the conditions to restore this ancient relationship between grass and grazer.

We control three factors in order to do this:

Timing - when the herd is put into a paddock
Density - how many cattle relative to the size of the paddock
Duration - how long they are in the paddock

We are constantly planning for and monitoring the recovery of the pastures we have already grazed. Cattle don't return to a paddock until the grass is fully recovered and ready to be grazed again. This varies according to the time of year, as grass grows slowly during the cold winter months but quickly in the spring. Furthermore, we fluctuate both our stocking rate (ie. how many animals are on the ground) and our grazing season (ie. how long they are there for) based on the wide variation in seasonal precipitation we receive in California. This flexibility mimics the natural variation in ruminant numbers and migration timing that would naturally have existed in pre-colonial California.