Taking care of his land is a matter of the heart for Sean McGrath.
But it works for his pocketbook, too.
“It’s a non-debatable, non-negotiable issue,” said the Vermilion rancher. “We’ve learned that if we work with nature, our costs go down and our margins go up. But also our productivity goes up so we can produce more on the same acres at a bigger margin.”
The McGrath family — Sean, wife Tanya, their three children, and his parents, Fred and Anne — was recently given the 2014 Environmental Stewardship Award by Alberta Beef Producers.
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Round Rock Ranching is a fifth-generation cow-calf operation breeding 180 head on 80 per cent native rangeland. The McGraths background calves, sell F1 replacement heifers, feeder calves, and grass-finished beef on 3,000 acres of rented, crop-shared, leased and owned land.
McGrath credits his parents for emphasizing environmental sustainability on the ranch and describes the process as a “positive feedback loop.” Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the cows that drive the revenue on an operation, he said.
“What actually generates revenue on the ranch is sunlight hitting blades of grass,” he said. “If that’s your focus, your cattle can be managed to fit your grass. But you have to have grass before you can grow cows.
“I always raised that way. The first thing you look at when you look at any place is the grass and the water. Then you look at the cows.”
The McGraths winter graze, which is rare in northeastern Alberta.
“Lots of guys are bringing their cows in from grass and we’re taking ours out,” he said.
Rake bunching, which the McGraths have practised for three years, helps them make good use of their grass.
“We might graze a paddock through once or twice in the summer, and then we come through with an old steel dump rake and pull the hay up into big piles and then the cows can graze on it through the wintertime. They can get at it through more snow than a typical swath.”
Keeping the cows on pasture, keeps their nutrients there, too. The McGraths also bale graze their backgrounded calves and herd their cattle the old-fashioned way, using horses rather than quads.
Through Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS), a pilot project operating in several areas in Canada, the McGraths generate revenue from their environmental goods and services.
“It’s basically a pilot project that is a way to sell or market the fact that we produce clean water, wildlife habitat and sequester carbon,” he said. “We provide scenery and biodiversity preservation, all those intangibles that benefit society.”
The McGraths were the first operation in Alberta to sign an ALUS agreement and have been in the program for five years. The family has also partnered with Cows and Fish to do rangeland assessment and yearly monitoring of riparian zones on the ranch.
“This way, we can measure and document if we’re changing and in which direction we’re changing,” said McGrath.
McGrath also works with Land EKG Canada to monitor changes in the landscape over time. Working with these groups and using environmentally friendly practices has not only boosted pasture productivity and slashed his fuel bill, but also made him a better manager, he said.
