CATTLE FARMING

Hooves,
Heart,
and Soil

9:22 a.m. Sept. 25, 2025
DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Mission to Remake Agriculture

One dawn, a lowing herd parts over newly rested grasslands. In their wake lie pastures regenerating – grass regrowing, soil breathing – evidence not of exploitation but of revival. This is the choreography the Carbon Cowboys claim is central to the climate solution: mimic the dance of bison, shift cattle across paddocks, give land time to heal, and watch life return.

A documentary series, Carbon Cowboys, and the movement are centered on regenerative grazing, led by farmers and ranchers who use cattle in ways that restore soil health, sequester carbon, and revive landscapes.

They are part of a larger non-profit storytelling, education, and research initiative called Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc., doing business as Carbon Nation.

The Carbon Cowboys pursue not just better ranching, but a vision: that livestock, when appropriately managed, can regenerate ecosystems, sequester carbon, and revitalize rural communities. Their work centers on Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing, a method born from biomimicry: “the carbon cowboys replicate … the bison ate, pooped and left – and the plants then went into photosynthetic hyper-drive.”

Voices from the Land

Each short film in the Carbon Cowboys catalog offers a distinct glimpse into a farmer’s journey, a turning point, a terrain revived. Below are some of the stories – and their words – that illuminate the movement.

Soil Carbon Cowboys

Farmers Gabe Brown, Allen Williams, and Neil Dennis once teetered on the edge of ruin under conventional grazing regimes. Forced by economics and necessity, they embraced regenerative methods – and found renewal. As one puts it, “It’s extremely low stress, because we are working with nature, instead of against her.”

100,000 Beating Hearts

Will Harris, a fourth-generation cattleman turned regenerative pioneer, argues with critics who doubt the scalability of his methods. His response is simple and grounded: “My response is, I don’t know that I’m supposed to feed the world, I think I’m supposed to feed my community.”

A Fence and an Owner

At the arid Ranney Ranch in Corona, New Mexico, AMP grazing was once dismissed as risky. Ranch manager Melvin Johnson recalls hesitance: “I was almost not willing to try … I almost didn’t want to admit I was seeing the difference.”

During the Drought

In Kansas, Michael Thompson combined no-till, cover crops, and AMP grazing to withstand the brutal droughts of 2011–12. Reflecting on his transformation, he states: “I personally am debt-free, and a lot of it’s because of the grazing.”

The Luckiest Places on Earth

Across Canada, four pioneering ranches adopted regenerative models early. Ecologist Steve Apfelbaum frames the promise broadly: “If we can restore health to landscapes, we can probably remove huge quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide. … There is this huge opportunity to rebuild soils, and rebuild ecosystems.”

I Sell Water and Sunshine

Doug Peterson, a USDA grazing specialist, crisscrosses farm country preaching the importance of soil health. His commitment is continuous: “I’m going to get up in the morning … talk about soil health to people … And if I can reach somebody every day, then we’ll eventually get there.”

Givers and Takers

Don Jackson’s first season transitioning from continuous grazing to AMP yielded surprising results. He says: “That’s my goal, to build this top soil for my grandkids. … There’s givers and takers. … I want to be a giver. I’d like to give back what I have taken.”

Herd Impact

Emry Birdwell and Deborah Clark manage a 14,000-acre ranch in North Texas, running more cattle per acre than neighbors. Clark asserts: “On average, we’re producing between 100 and 120 pounds of beef per acre. Our neighbors … average is somewhere between 40 and 50. That’s a telling number.”

Time Will Tell

In England, dairy farmer Ben Mead and beef producer Martin Howard reject chemical dependence in favor of resilient systems. Mead notes, “You kind of need a degree of failure to actually kick you up the ass to get a degree of success.” Howard adds, “Instead of being down that conventional road … life is more interesting … you’ve actually got to be a farmer.”

This Farm Is Medicine

For Murray Provine, the shift to AMP grazing was as much a personal as a professional decision. After a cancer diagnosis, he rewrote his life and his land. He admits: “This farm is a big part of that. This farm is medicine to me.”

Mission, Method, and Meaning

The Carbon Cowboys aren’t simply chroniclers – they’re part of a mission to shift narratives and practices. Their films are grounded in lived experience. As director Peter Byck explained, he saw soil as “a spectacular way to draw down carbon from the air, where it’s become a problem, and get it back into our soils, where it is sorely needed.”

He notes the name “AMP” was coined collectively: “We word-smithed Adaptive Multi-Paddock grazing … all but one really liked it. The one who didn’t? Neil Dennis. He really liked Mob Grazing.” The 10-part film series is structured around stories of hardship, experimentation, failure, and renewal.

Beyond storytelling, the Carbon Cowboys anchor their work in scientific inquiry – primarily through their AMP Research Project, which rigorously tests the ecological and carbon impacts of regenerative grazing. They believe coupling narrative and data is essential to persuading farmers, policymakers, and consumers that this approach is more than romantic idealism – it’s practical, scalable, and urgent.

Why It Matters –
and What’s Next

In the face of climate uncertainty, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and rural decline, the Carbon Cowboys’ mission offers a countervailing narrative: that regenerative grazing is not a fringe curiosity, but a bridge between agriculture and ecology.

Through film, science, and community, they stake a claim: the health of soils is the true North Star. Their stories are not sanitized testimonials but messy, aspirational, human journeys. They show farmers struggling, adjusting, sometimes failing, but – in many instances – seeing the land heal.

If we listen, we hear this refrain: that life, when managed with empathy and insight, can regenerate. That what we take from the land we must also give back. That the soil is not just dirt – it is the story we write with our hooves, our hands, and our choices.

• Slop program puts spotlight on grazing, costs
• Brown-Forman winding down stillage program

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20, Will Thomas from the Moore County Extension Office will host a panel discussion for farmers, focusing on transitioning to new feed sources. Please encourage them to join the discussion to help find the best solution for their operation.