KindHarvest summary: Terms such as regenerative grazing, rotational grazing and management-intensive grazing can obscure the practical goal: managing animals, plants and recovery so the whole farm system becomes healthier and more productive. NCAT specialist and farmer Nina Prater assembled resources to make those principles easier to understand.
Focus on function rather than labels
Prater describes regenerative management as restoring health across the farm rather than following one branded method. The useful questions concern pasture recovery, soil cover, plant diversity, animal impact, water movement and whether management improves the farm’s productivity and profitability over time.
Resources for producers and advisers
The project produced a recorded workshop covering soil health, regenerative grazing and farmer support, including presentations by Arkansas graziers Jeremy Prater and Rick Crunkleton. A separate presentation by NCAT grazing specialist Justin Morris focused specifically on regenerative grazing.
Learning is part of the system
The work was funded through Southern SARE and designed for farmers, ranchers, extension staff, NRCS personnel and other agricultural professionals. It treats observation, peer examples and technical support as necessary parts of changing grazing practice, especially where terminology has become a barrier.
Source and credit
This KindHarvest Team resource brief is based on an article by Nina Prater of the National Center for Appropriate Technology, published 24 May 2022. The former ATTRA address now redirects elsewhere; an intact copy remains on NCAT’s Soil for Water site. Read the full Soil for Water article.