Neil Dennis – August 2011

In this months training with talk with Neil Dennis, Rancher and Public Speaker. Mr. Dennis is having so much fun and seeing such incredible improvements in his land and the cattle he grazes that he has to share with others. As a 3rd generation rancher on land that has been in his family for 111 years, Mr. Dennis is not managing his land anything like he did when he was younger or like his father or grandfather did. Mr. Dennis has found a better way to manage both his land and his cattle through high stock density grazing. This is training and information that will change your thinking when it comes to grazing and the benefits to both the cattle and more importantly the land.

In the eighties he says he was having a really hard time, he simply could not make a profit out of his grazing land. He was finding the expenses of keeping the stock and servicing the bank loans becoming difficult to sustain. He knew he had to change something or he had to get out of the cattle business.

In 1989 he started to look at Rotational grazing. After a few years he was convinced that this style of management didn't work. Then in 1998 his wife forced him to a Holistic Management meeting. Before this he would graze his pastures conventionally and there was no talk of allowing it to recover from grazing pressure during the season.

His strategy is too move his animals around his paddocks frequently. Sometimes within hours. He will have up to 1025 cattle on an acre of land sometimes and leave them grazing 3-4 foot tall pasture for just a matter of hours. He says as a result of this Planned Rotational Grazing system his stock carrying capacity is 300% higher. He is excited about the prospect of his stocking rates going higher yet. Neil also likes to graze what he calls cocktails. As much variety of crop types as he can – this gives him a range of advantages. Flexibility, better rooting, better water retention and infiltration. It is also better for fattening his animals as the protein levels and sugar levels are higher. Mr. Dennis says his land is now at a porosity of 10" of rain per hour; where is your land?

The environment can sustain this level of stocking rate without overgrazing because overgrazing is a result of length of time, not of stocking rates. This is the best example he has to gave.

“Imagine you and a servant lived on top of a mountain and every day you sent the servant down the hill in the same direction to fetch a bucket of water to wash in. And then after a year the servant would have made that trip up and back 365 times – there would surely be quite a pronounced track in the direction the servant walked. Now imagine that 365 of you lived on the hill and you all decided to make the trip down and up the mountain one day. Would there be a track? – Almost certainly not.”

His management focus is to own as little machinery as possible, and he uses virtually no chemicals and fertilizers. With just grazing management and manipulation he has managed to transform previously unproductive pastures into animal fattening swards. He says he likes to see a hoof print on every square inch of soil after grazing. Mr. Dennis has been a study in improving your land and improving your cattle and to add one more twist to his accomplishments, he has done this with custom grazed cattle, not just his own cattle. You don't want to miss this training with Neil Dennis, it will change some of the ways you think for the better both for your thinking and for your profits!

Enjoy this months training! Neil Dennis gives you specific steps to take to make an everlasting change in your land. If you want your land to sustain generations of your family for years to come, you need to hear this training.

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One thought on “Neil Dennis – August 2011

  1. michaelparish

    Joey, ask Neil about his watering system, when moving cattle several times a day. Also what is his definition of “fully recovered grass”. Some folks say, 3 to 4 leaf stage. Others say 2 to 3 ft tall (matured grass). I realize there are many variables, temp.,rainfall,day length,etc. But that affects recovery time, not totally recovered. Also Neil stated that his cattle now get the bulk of their mineral from the grass, but Im curious if years prior he had them on a full mineral regiment, which he is now reeping the rewards from the cattle depositing residual thru manure and urine. Please feel free to correct me on any of my assumptions. Thanks for your help and thank Mr. Dennis for his willingness to share. I’ve put lots of miles on my truck and spent lots of cow money going to schools, seminars,meetings, etc. “I think I’m getting close to understanding the grazing science, I just hope I master the art, before I need a new pick-up” !!!! Thanks again, Mike Parish

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