
Neil Dennis - more cattle and better soils
I spent an exciting if chilly day on an arable and beef farm in Hertfordshire yesterday, where Nuffield Scholar Tom Chapman is implementing novel grazing practices seen on his travels in Canada.
High density stock grazing – aka mob-grazing – where large numbers of cattle graze small areas of grass for a short time, encourages healthy trampling (ie not poaching). This ensures that any uneaten grass left when the animals vacate the paddock is in contact with the soil. This makes it easier for earthworms to drag plant material down below the surface, and soil microbes to start breaking it down into useful organic matter.
At around 50%, utilisation in terms of eaten grass won’t be as high as the target for a New Zealand based dairy system. However, the big difference is that the 50% left on the ground is not wasted – it is used to feed the soil.

Cow pats on Tom’s farm have been absorbed into the soil by microbes and earthworms.
Canadian rancher Neil Dennis stressed the importance of giving the pasture enough time to recover after grazing like this – up to 100 days or more. The plants then have enough time to get over the short, sharp shock of being grazed hard, and the soil microbes have enough time to do their work.
On Neil’s ranch, 1025 yearling cattle graze shoulder to shoulder in small grazing cells for two hours. After an hour and a half they lie and wait for him to move the electric fence (which takes him seconds off the back of his quad bike). When they hear him coming they stand up, dung, then move on to the next meal.
Animals harvest and manure the pasture
This produces a consistent and constant pattern of grazing, and the animals are harvesting and manuring the grass themselves – the two principles of any low cost grazing system.
Neil now runs three times as many animals as before on the same area. This is because grass production is so much higher due to the increased health and fertility of the soil. No additional fertiliser is applied and no extra feed given. Mineral consumption has dropped 90% as the cattle receive all their requirements from the mixed species forage.
Extra benefits include warmer soils in the spring after the long, cold, snowy winters due to heat from the microbial activity. This allows him to turn out much earlier than his neighbours. And deep roots, down to 8ft, confer much greater drought tolerance, while the thick swards at the surface hold more of the rain that falls.
Preparing for change
Tom Chapman is only just starting out on his high density stock grazing adventure – but has already made significant changes to the cattle enterprise. The heavy Simmental and Limousin suckler cows are making way for Hereford and Red Sussex breeds that are smaller and renowned as good foragers. Calving is being switched from autumn to the spring so that production is more in synch with grass growth, and paddocks were set up and grazed last year with electric fencing and water troughs.
Already earthworm activity is significantly more in these paddocks than previously, and cow pats are completely broken down. So certainly a good start.
Series of meetings
Neil Dennis and fellow Canadian Gregg Simonds are speaking at a series of meetings in the UK supported by EBLEX and Earth Analytics Group over the next two weeks. Visit www.eblex.org.uk/events for details.