Six Problems with Anti-Slaughter Grazing Management

Is it possible to graze animals and never have to slaughter and turn them into food? If so, how would that work?

If not, why?

It’s a valid question worth asking. Neither is it a reason to justify slaughter, nor to approve the obligation that “animals should be left alone to live their lives.” Instead, it’s a means to hypothesize how and why one would be successful with such a practice.

My bias is that if you support the grazing of any kind, you also support eating animals. If you don’t support eating animals, then you have no right to support grazing.

“I do like the concept of grazing for the landscape, I just don’t like the fact that animals are going to be killed for people’s taste buds in the end.”

A vegan on Facebook (paraphrased)

Then again, maybe my bias is wrong.

However, the biggest flaw I see is ignorance about life from birth to death. Animals don’t live forever. Animals have a “natural lifespan,” and don’t stay healthy forever. Animals not only get health issues, but they also get old, and old age always comes with its fair share of health issues.

Are you willing to commit to the care of a senior animal? Or, multiple senior animals who will have a range of maladies? Are you prepared for such cases? What if you’re not? What do you do then?

This is why I’m not in favour of grazing without any slaughtering at any point.

But, let’s say someone approached me with advice on how to manage a herd or flock of grazing animals without involving any killing whatsoever. Putting aside my personal bias and putting my independent grazing consultant hat on, here’s what I’d recommend.

How to Graze Livestock With No Slaughtering or Culling

Starting a grazing plan starts with knowing your numbers. In other words, you must know what your local carrying capacity is.

Carrying capacity is the sustainable number of animals a pasture or piece of land can hold year after year without causing damage to the forage resource. Your stocking rate is the baseline from carrying capacity that changes with forage yield availability. Generally (though I discourage this train of thought), the more forage you have, the higher the stocking rate can be.

If maintaining pasture stand integrity is important to you, then this carrying capacity must never be exceeded. This is crucial for what I’m about to discuss next.

“Take Care” of the Breeding Stock

No doubt when you’re keeping animals you will be keeping a mix of males and females. It’s very important to make sure none will be producing offspring. This will mean ensuring all males are castrated, and that you never carry any intact males.

If you are against castration, then do not graze a mixed herd. Separate them into female-only and male-only groups, planning the grazing of them so they never have the ability to break free to mate.

I would highly recommend castrating, though. Most “farms” that prohibit any slaughtering are too small to allow for managing two separate groups who will not breed. Intact males can smell a female in heat at least a mile away and will break through a fence to get to her. They will fight too, especially if two males of the same size and stature see each other as competition for breeding rights. Castrating will put a stop to this.

Another option is to accept nothing but females, or nothing but males. But, this might not sit well with you.

The Rare New Arrivals

Unless you have lost one or more animals due to illness or old age, do not accept more animals in the herd. You must maintain a closed herd for as long as the oldest and sickest animal is alive.

The reason is as I mentioned above: do not exceed the recommended carrying capacity for the entire year.

Break this recommendation and you may need to do one of two things: 1) give away or sell excess stock, or 2) buy more feed.

Grazing Recommendations

To do regenerative grazing, you will need to manage your herd as a mob. Stock densities can be whatever you want them to be, but don’t be scared to take stock densities to well over 500,000 lb per acre. Do so only in areas that need it.

Make your moves as often as you can, but don’t keep things predictable. Plan to move every few days to every few hours, depending on what part of the land needs the most hoof action (“animal impact”). Keep everything mobile: water, fences (except perimeter), and shelter if needed.

Water is most important. You can run the H-PVC waterline (2″ for less resistance and more volume) along the fencelines so that you can move water along with the animals.

Keep minerals and salt out at all times, and place them on the opposite end of the paddock from the water source.

Try to not permit animals to go back and take that second bite, but also don’t be afraid to push them hard on areas that need it. These animals are doing a job that they’re meant to do, so let them do it! If you have to mow because the grass is getting ahead of you, then mow. Don’t mow just because someone said that your pastures look too ugly.

Come back when plants are ready; usually when you see every single grass has a sharp tip instead of a blunt (bitten) one. This could be anywhere from 30 days to 450 days.

Finally, you need to get in the mindset that these animals are basically your employees or volunteers with a job to do. They cannot manage themselves without you; they need you to tell them where to go and when to move because you are the keen observer who better understands what happens when good (and bad) grazing happens. They don’t have those observation skills. They only know to eat, what’s best to eat according to their own needs.

Making the poor excuse that “animals should never be dictated where to go and what to do” is a recipe for poor pasture management. In no way is this being “regenerative.” It’s degenerative, irresponsible, and disrespectful to the land. Might as well have no pasture and focus on getting 365 days’ worth of feed for the animals you have.

That all said, I see a lot of “unforeseen” caveats to never culling or slaughtering any animals. It’s time to discuss that next.

How Prohibiting Slaughter makes for Poor Grazing Management

I find, with such operations, that most animals are “rescues” that come from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). Extremely rarely will animals be fully adapted to do nothing but “eat grass.” But that’s just one concern I’ll expand on. Others include:

1. Extra feed costs
2. Unadapted animals (as mentioned)
3. Training required
4. Nothing and nobody lives forever
5. Source for new animals?
6. Long-term management of pastures.

Extra Feed Costs & Unadapted Animals

Unadapted animals make life a little more challenging. Hate to say it but they tend to, “cull themselves out.” In other words, you can really tell which animals are which. Unadapted animals look thinner and rougher, whereas the adapted ones look sleek and fat.

Let me back up: What I mean about “unadapted” or “forage-adapted” animals, is the ability (or not) of animals to easily maintain themselves on nothing but forage. By “forage” I mean pasture (grasses, alfalfa, clovers, broad-leaf plants, etc.) and hay. Forage-adapted animals generally, under normal conditions, truly don’t need grain because the forage they eat meets their daily nutritional requirements. Unadapted animals are sort of the opposite. Usually “unadapted” animals require supplementation with a high-energy and/or high-protein supplement to meet daily nutritional needs.

If you’re an animal sanctuary with rescues like that, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, if you want forage-adapted animals, you’ll need to find a source and buy–sorry, not “rescue”–from them.

Otherwise, if you’re trying really hard to manage your pastures right but have animals that are struggling to keep their weight up, you will need to take some action to help them out.

These are “high-maintenance” animals. They need grain, grain by-products, or any sort of extra energy and protein source you can get a hold of. You may find you will need to regularly feed them these supplements throughout the year, not just at particular times of the season.

We’re discussing ruminants here; cows, sheep, and goats that are *supposed* to never need grain, but due to the way they’ve been raised… you have no other choice but to continue care in this way! And, denying them this “essential” feedstuff is just a show of blatant irresponsibility (and lack of consideration for animal health, welfare, and nutrition)…

It doesn’t matter if it’s beef or dairy cattle. Dairy cattle are most popular because most farm animal sanctuaries see dairy production as “cruel and inhumane,” and are most likely to rescue them. Most dairies start their calves on grain almost immediately after birth. This sets these animals up to be dependent on grain as their “main” source of energy and protein. If and when their mothers are fed the same way, it translates also to the calf.

It’s no different with beef cattle; while “more grassy,” when they’re fed grains while still suckling, they’re basically being set up to “need” grain (along with forage and feed like hay) for life. And, if Momma Cow needs grain supplementation for any part of her life, including pregnancy, so will her offspring.

This is pretty much what “epigenetics” is all about. How “forage-adapted” an animal is is 90% environmental (from what they eat and their dam [mother] eats) and 10% hereditary (both from dam and sire).

Sadly, I have personally seen what happens to dairy cows when pastured and not supplemented with grain. It’s not pretty. By that I mean those cows severely declined in condition, to the point where a few were too weak to stand and either died, and others needed to be humanely euthanized. These were cull cows. But, in my opinion, just because they’re called doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be raised as well as the herd they were culled from!

If you’re a farm sanctuary with old cows or rescued dairy cows, don’t treat them like they’re forage-adapted animals. Please, for their sake, supplement them with grain. Otherwise, you will end up with severely malnourished, emaciated animals that might need to be euthanized if they’re too weak to stand and eat anymore.

We’ve already established that breeding is out of the question. I hope you understand and agree with this. Unless you have other people or friends in your realm that have animal sanctuaries themselves who can take in those other excess animals, you have no choice but to work with the animals you have.

This severely handicaps you if you’d like to have forage-adapted animals. Could you eventually change the animals you have to be more forage-adapted? Not with old or mature animals. But you might have better chances with young ones, with no guarantee.

It takes two generations for a herd of animals to become adapted to almost any new management scheme and environment.

Without this necessary shift in generational adaptation, you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot with extra feed costs. As necessary as it is, it’s also unnecessary because of having to shell out extra money to keep those animals alive. This sounds crude in theory, but this is reality. It’s neither cheap nor free to keep any animal. Even when you’re doing almost nothing but grazing them.

Training and Adjustments are Required

New animals that arrive–if and when they do–must be trained on how you manage your pastures. They will have no idea what it means to stay inside a temporary electric fence, or what it means when you come out to move the herd to a new paddock.

Existing animals can teach the new ones what to do, but only to an extent. You still carry the responsibility to teach those animals what they need to know to do well for your pastures and prevent any future injuries or deaths.

Not every animal is as intelligent as you think. Some are pretty stupid; others are too smart for their own good.

The other issue is the manager. If you don’t know what you’re doing, the animals will quickly show you why and how. Pay attention to what they’re telling you!

Animals also need time to adjust, not only to their new home but to their new feeding regime. Adjustments can take anywhere from one to two weeks.

Animals That Live Will Die and Get Old… or Sick, Whichever Comes First.

Senior animals require different care than adult animals that are in their prime. The old stock will get worn-down teeth, changed biota in their rumens that change how they can absorb nutrients, arthritis, cancer, and other chronic ailments that require regular check-ups by a licensed veterinarian. How do you manage them? Can you manage and handle them? Are you prepared to do so, and face the ultimate decision when their lives need to be humanely ended?

This plays right back to the issue of extra feed costs and dealing with “unadapted” animals. Chances are these old animals won’t be able to keep up with the younger stock in the herd, or compete in the same manner as they did when they were younger. Older, weaker animals may get pushed down the herd hierarchy where they can’t get the better quality forage they truly need. Soon they start looking pretty rough and thin, moreso if nothing is done to help them out.

There’s nothing wrong with looking after senior animals if it’s in your context to do so. But as I said before, animals aren’t cheap or free to raise. When they get older, it costs more to keep them alive.

What About Sick Animals?

I almost forgot about sick animals. It’s one thing to think you can fix any illness and make any animal healthy again, but we should all know that’s untrue.

As a no-kill farm animal sanctuary that more than likely rescues any manner of animals, you carry a significant risk of bringing in animals with some unforeseen, unpredicted chronic illness that cannot be treated, and can infect other animals in your herd.

Johne’s Disease is a big concern, especially with dairy cattle. This is an untreatable, contagious disease that affects the digestive system, causing diarrhea and weight loss despite a healthy appetite. There are other contagious diseases that are of equally serious concern. Some are treatable; others are not.

The untreatable cases are very, very likely ones where the animal is suffering. Any effort to keep that animal alive only means more suffering.

How do you deal with those cases? The answer is painfully obvious.

They must be killed, as humanely and painlessly as possible. There is no other solution.

The next question is where do you go to replace those animals? The answer may be obvious, but it’s worth investigating according to you context.

Source of New Animals?

I know I started this with the premise that this is a farm animal sanctuary of sorts, but I need to ask you: is it that? Or do you consider yourself a legitimate farm/ranch that simply does not slaughter or cull any animals?

Realistically, the latter is extremely difficult to manage for reasons already mentioned above. The latter is also very difficult to not come off as a farm animal sanctuary.

These terms are important because it helps solidify the decision as to where new animals should come from. Such a decision is based on two crucial questions:

1. Do you care about having more forage-adapted animals or,
2. Do you care more about contributing to the disturbing fanatical ultimatum of veganism that dictates all domesticated animals will gradually cease to exist?

In other words, do you actually care about where the new arrivals come from?

If you do care about getting more forage-adapted animals, you’re obligated to find a farm that raises the kind of animals that matches your management. This isn’t easy especially if you consider yourself as a legit farmer and not an animal rescuer.

But, if you don’t care… then it’s all too easy to know what those sources are.

Operaters of animal sanctuaries understand they will continue to operate until the last domesticated animal they’ve rescued has die off which, according to them, could be for many decades from now. (If you ask me, they’ll be around for much longer than that, and be as outnumbered as they are today by actual farming or ranching operations.) Animals to “rescue” are certainly not in short supply.

I understand that such places get their animals as “rescues,” coming from farms, auction marts, or even (though rarely) slaughter facilities.

However, such an easy answer reveals a lack of ability to answer the next question about long-term management plans for the land in your care. You might disagree, but let me show you why, and then see if you still disagree.

I’ll give you a hint: it’s not in the simplistic solution of, “plant more trees.”

Plans for the Long-Term Management of the Land?

Do you have plans for how the land will be managed 30, 50 or even 100 years from now? Have you laid out a succession plan in what you would like to carry forward to the next generation, and have a vision as to who the next land stewards will be?

If you haven’t, you need to. If you don’t intend to because of certain views that all domesticated animals will eventually go extinct, and any sort of livestock grazing is bad for the land, then we’ve got a big, big problem, and you need a hell of a talking to. Sorry, but you’re not part of the solution when it comes to finding ways to manage the land better than when we left it. You’re part of the problem.

(I know how a lot of vegans feel about regenerative [grazing/agriculture]. Most don’t support it, especially since it still involves slaughtering animals for food.)

When it comes to our responsibility to manage a very fragmented resource (the land), it means having to deliberately *use* livestock as the best proxy we have to maintain its ecological integrity. Thinking that we don’t need them (or, worse, wild herbivores can fill in the gap) is utterly foolish thinking.

This is where the anti-slaughter argument falls flat on its face. Rangelands and pastures need large grazing animals for many generations to come. Wildlife species depend on it, the plants depend on it. Cattle, sheep, goats, and horses are a lot easier and safer (and less costly) to manage than either bison or elk. I’m not saying bison and elk don’t belong, but they have their place and should only be managed by those who know what they’re doing and how to work with them.

This requires long-term planning strategies. Short-term management does not work in this context!

Long-term planning recognizes what happens when the land gets rested for far too long or doesn’t have enough animals on it. Overgrowth of plants and accumulation of dead plant material snuffs out new plants trying to come in (applicable to both grasslands and forests). In arid regions, oxidizing plant residue doesn’t decompose. Instead, it contributes to more plant death and more soil erosion.

Short-term planning doesn’t. In the sanctuary context, it only recognizes how to manage those free-loaders on your “farm.” In no way does it recognize the land integrity context. I’d like to be proven wrong, but those are my thoughts.

Continuing to keep unadapted, untrained animals that need supplementary feed may also be disastrous in the long term. Feed isn’t cheap, and unless you work an off-farm job and/or operate with plenty of donations can you make things work.

However, if you’re not allowing breeding as suggested above, you’re still shooting yourself in the foot. You’re deliberately denying yourself the opportunity to breed for animals that are better adapted to your operation. It’s nice to believe that you’re saving animals from destitute conditions, but you have to look at your context too, and what you are capable of handling. There are a lot of such animals where slaughter is a more humane solution over keeping them alive, like with the case of Dudley from the Gentle Barn.

Most, if not all, animal sanctuaries I’ve seen don’t do a good job in proper management of their pastures, especially since they believe that animals shouldn’t be treated like slaves or not be left to live their lives as they see fit. This is a recipe for disaster; for a noticeable decline in biodiversity, ecological integrity, soil carbon capture, and soil health. You’re basically encouraging them to select their favourite plants and grazing spots, thereby exacerbating weed issues, compaction, soil erosion, soil degradation, shrub encroachment and multiple other issues.

Planting more trees isn’t a sound solution either. Sure they provide shade and wind protection, but young saplings need lots of care, and herbivores love to eat and kill young trees. If there’s not a plan in place to keep them healthy and free from disease for the long term, don’t bother planting them, nor believing they’re better than any well-managed biodiverse, wildlife-welcoming pasture.

Being anti-slaughter doesn’t make you a good land manager, for all the reasons we’ve discussed already. However, I’d love to be proven wrong. But for now, I have not seen any evidence that counters any of my thoughts on this discussion.