Regen ag or re wilding.

[CopperBeech]

So I’ve been reading a fair bit about upland regenerative ag projects recently. Some of which seem to involve some famous faces and consultants. But it seems to me that a lot of what they are calling regen ag is really just rebranded rewilding with a small amount of livestock thrown in.

Sort of made me wonder if it’s a case of same plan but just different branding to stay on trend.

Big swathes of land with a few native cattle wandering around isn’t really regen ag to me. It is somewhat regenerative and it is slightly agricultural so I’m probably wrong.

 

[Cowcalf]

with gobal warming and more fires likely the lack of beast grazing the upland areas will provide a recipe for much burning but the usual clowns seem to have the ideas, see the lack of salmon is down to intensive farming, nothing to do with hundreds of seals lying at the mouth of rivers and estruary.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

My take on the regen ag thing, in the hills and uplands is, more cattle and sheep, rotational grazing, possible mob grazing instead of technograzing. Re wilding is not regenerative, I would agree Knebb Estate, seems to be combining both, but, it is an experiment and example, not a blueprint (unless we want to starve about 65 million people!). I can see a good argument for more native breeds and pasture fed (but I love the quality of my suckled calves with either a Charolais or Blonde bull, so a bit of cognitive dissonance going on there!). I agree, reducing grazing pressure (which ecologists seem to love) is idiocy on so many levels (fire risk, scrub increase which causes the soil to lose carbon).

 

[som farmer]

regen is very different to rewilding, it's useful, for a start. We are lowland dairy, cow/ac, and lean towards regen, there are no hard and fast rules, you can go as far as you want to, we concentrate more on the soil, or what's underground, and by doing so, grass yields are increasing, and costs decreasing, it isn't often you can say that. And we stock cow/acre, so it's definitely not extensive. It's actually very rewarding to see how you can positively alter your farm, quite quickly, with very small cost, which is rapidly repaid. A big shock for us, to find you don't have to pile tons of fert on, to get good response, upland farming, is probably a prime candidate, for trying it out, lifes tough enough without rapidly climbing imput costs.