IMPORTANCE OF LIVESTOCK
Cows and other livestock need healthy lands full of grass and water sources… and so does biodiversity including wildlife, plants and pollinators.
Historically, the prairies once contained the large roaming herds of buffalo that would graze and move on, and calve at times where plants provided the most nutrition for their newborns. This was the ecosystem’s core functionality for centuries. Grazing, mass herd movement and nutrients from the herds all helped shape the Northern Great Plains, including the resiliency of deep root structures of native plants fortifying the soil and providing habitat that helped other Prairie wildlife thrive.
Nowadays, things have changed. But the simple fact is, we have a great story to tell. If you care about biodiversity, nature and healthy lands across the Prairies, you should be aware of the positive and necessary role of beef producers and the value of the grasslands, wetlands and pastures they use to raise their herds to numerous other species including grassland birds, pollinators and other wildlife. And, you should also understand that the grasslands of the Northern Great Plains are facing unprecedented challenges.
Report after report stipulates the continuous decline of these ecosystems and with that, the dwindling amount of species – such as grassland birds – and the increased severity of weather-based events such as flood and drought on rural and urban communities that lose these grasslands along the way as an important natural buffer in reducing impacts of these events through water-infiltration and retention benefits of healthy soils, vegetation and wetlands.
Through BIODIVERSITY BEEF we offer you a chance to support our producer networks that are mimicking nature and helping biodiversity and nature flourish beside their grazing herds.