Grow More Grass with Siobhan Griffin
During the second day of our Regenerative Agriculture ‘Not Workshop’, grazing coach Siobhan Griffin from Next Level Grazing will be speaking with us about holistic planned grazing, or in other words – “how to grow more grass per unit of input through increasing biological diversity”.
“In the beginning things were predictable. I studied Biology and Animal Science at Cornell University in central New York State, married a Dairy Farmer, and had two amazing kids. We started our own dairy farm business. Then I asked questions like “does it make sense to grow food with poisons?” and I began my education.”
After being certified organic in 1997, by 2007 Siobhan was wondering if diverse pasture could make their milk and cheese taste better, so they tried it with holistic planned grazing. It did.
“I hadn’t expected mob grazing to sequester so much soil carbon, but our soil organic matter lifted a half a percent per year over ten years.”
“I didn’t know at the time how powerful that was until I figured that if half the farmers in New Zealand did the same, they would offset the entire countries greenhouse gas emissions, including methane.”
Ultimately, it’s using animal impact to control pasture quality that gives better animal health and performance, instead of being focused on pasture utilisation.
It’s also about keeping the pasture green and growing faster as this means that carbon is being pumped into the ground to feed your below-ground livestock (biology) and be sequestered, and allows for significantly greater pasture regrowth in the same time period than if grazed shorter.
Siobhan asserts that correctly implementing holistic planned grazing increases pasture growth per mm of rainfall each year, and can reduce the need for feeding out and/or supplementary feed throughout the seasons. Holistic planned grazing when successfully implemented can also improve pasture quality and consequently, greater livestock weight gain.
After falling in love with Aotearoa New Zealand on a surf trip in 2016, Siobhan has joined farmers on their journeys to learn how to heal our planet better.
Siobhan has the perspective that “Kiwi livestock farmers can be climate heroes by learning how to heal soil, ecosystems, and water cycles using livestock as a tool.”
Siobhan now lives with her new partner Rick on a 400ha sheep farm in Milton, and has organised two tours to bring Ian Mitchell-Inness, a holistic management educator from South Africa.
Siobhan consults with farmers throughout the North and South Island of New Zealand, as well as in the US and Europe.
At our upcoming Regenerative Agriculture ‘Not Workshop’, Siobhan will be sharing her vast knowledge on holistic planned grazing and have you leave knowing how you can start to implement this on your own farm and reap the benefits!
We have limited tickets so be sure to grab yours below!