A series of years brought bad luck to Browns and changed the focus of their operation. They lost their entire crop to hail in both 1995 and 1996, and in 1997 suffered from drought conditions. In 1998, after a hail storm took out their crops for the third time, Browns decided to concentrate on their cattle and grassland by naturally enhancing soil health and water infiltration through organic soil matter.

The first step was to develop the planned grazing system and cross fence the three large pastures into cells. The system has a total of 26,500 feet of perimeter fence, cross fenced by 42,790 feet into 38 pastures ranging from 10 to 65 acres.   This system allows each pasture maximum recovery time and Gabe and Paul carefully monitor range conditions.  They rotate the cattle every three to seven days, and each pasture is grazed less than 28 days total each year. They also manage the time of year each pasture is grazed to insure plant health for both warm and cool season varieties.   Gabe reserves 80-100 acres of pasture each year in the event of future drought  conditions.

Browns wanted to contribute more to the soil’s health and searched for information on seeding legumes into tame grass.  They wanted to increase nitrogen levels and forage proteins in order to improve soil health and ultimately herd health and rate of gain. Legumes would also add more residue to the soil, increasing moisture infiltration and deeper root zones.  

In 1999, together with NRCS, they selected and seeded a different legume per pasture into the tame grass. Those legumes include Birdsfoot Trefoil, White Clover, Cicer Milkvetch, Sainfoin, Ameristand Alfalfa, Spredor 3 Alfalfa, Falcata Alfalfa, Crown Vetch and Red Clover.  The group carefully monitored the cattle’s rate of gain, quantity and quality of forage production, soil health, litter or ground cover and infiltration rates in these paddocks.

In one study, they weighed 135 head of yearlings prior to turnout and again each 44 days. At the completion of the study, the yearlings had gained 112 lbs of beef per acre. Today, these gains are approaching 200 pounds of beef gained, per acre.  This was proof to Gabe and his local research team that proper management and innovative thinking decrease the inputs into the soil, both chemically and financially, while increasing production and profitability. With his method he has also been successful in producing more money through grazing and pounds of beef. He moved his calving dates back to coincide with optimum grass production during breeding season. Now he is rebreeding his cows when the forage quality is at its peak. Open heifers that are culled from the purebred replacement pen serve as the grass yearlings. Depending on grazing conditions, this number can fluctuate from 50 to 250 head, allowing Brown to maintain his cowherd numbers. They
market these bred heifers privately.

Recently, Browns purchased 120 acres previously enrolled in CRP. Through partial EQIP funding, they added a well, 3,700’ of shallow pipeline, four water tanks and perimeter and cross fence for six tame grass pastures. Gabe feels with proper management, he can make a higher return on his investment through grazing than
if he reenrolled the land in CRP.