Setting yourself up for regenerative grazing success

We asked our 13 farmers what resources, behaviours and/or infrastructure they considered essential for success - these are presented below as ‘enabling factors’ and ‘key behaviours’.

We also captured some general wisdom that emerged from the conversations which you can find at the end.

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Enabling factors for success

If any of the ‘enabling factors’ below are not in present in/on your farm, consider the impact that this might have on your ability to achieving your grazing outcomes? What actions could you take to create them?

Mindset

• A clear and shared understanding of your farming context (WHY), including purpose/goals/value.

• A willingness to try and learn from failures, without fear of judgement.

• Inspired by what is possible, open minded, curious & enthusiastic.

• Committed and dedicated to get through inevitable hard times.

• Focused on productivity (output per unit of input, e.g. land, time, feed, energy, money) rather than production.

• A holistic, long term perspective.

• An understanding of the relationships between soil health, pasture quality/quantity and animal health and performance.

People

• Purpose-driven people (farming for reasons beyond money and success).

• The whole farm team (owners through to staff) all keen and willing to be on the journey.

• A strong and active support network of peers, coaches and advisors.

Infrastructure

• Adequate water and fencing (permanent or portable).

• Gates and yards well located.

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Key behaviours that support regenerative grazing

Our farmers were asked “What are the essential behaviours that support a regenerative grazing system?”. Their summarised responses are below - download and print them and stick them on your office wall!

1. Actively and regularly communicate your WHY to the whole farm team.

2. Benchmark your starting point (soil, pasture, animal, financial etc) and have a few measurables to track your progress.

3. Visit lots of other farmers to learn and gain confidence.

4. Use safe-to-fail trials to test new ideas & make changes gradually.

5. Plan, implement, observe, re-plan…

6. Be an objective observer - don’t get trapped by seeing what you want to see.

7. Observe with all of your senses - interpret your observations and adapt your management.

8. Carefully monitor stock performance and behaviour when introducing new management - allow them time to adapt.

9. Trust your gut - if it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t.

10. Keep learning.

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Some wisdom from farmers who've 'been there'

• It’s a journey not a destination - you’ll never ‘make it’.

• There’s no recipe - do what’s right for YOUR farm context.

• Don’t compare yourself with the neighbours.

• Manage your own expectations - go easy on yourself.

• Regen principles are a guide, not a recipe.

• Remove ‘right’ & ‘wrong’ from your vocabulary.

• Be wary of misleading beliefs (like you must have diverse cover crops or long grass to be regen).

• Start small and build your understanding.

• It may take 3-5 years before you start to see consistent results.

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