Fallon County Family Implements Holistic Grazing Practices

Watch their story in Conservation for the Future: Hayden Ranch, Baker, MT

High resolution photos of the Hayden Ranch.

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Dave Hayden’s grandparents Roy and Hattie Johnson, parents of Joy Johnson Hayden homesteaded their land in Fallon County in 1913. The third and fourth generation Hayden’s, Dave and Chase, are taking an entirely different approach to their land management practices. “We used to farm more than raise cattle,” states Dave. “We calved early so we could start the farming and haying processes through fall. But we were taking a lot of biology out of the soil, we were actually mining it.”

“We used to raise wheat, barley, oats and a lot of hay using a variety of machinery. Now ‘that is’ our machinery,” Dave continues, referring to the cattle. “Cattle is what we use now to put the biology back into the soil.”

Dave’s wife Deanna states. “Everything was mined out so bad we wanted to make some kind of change. We started planting fields back to grass rather than farm. We like cattle a lot more than farming.”

In 1988 the family implemented change. “We started rotational grazing and the first thing we ran into was a water problem, that’s what always seems to happen,” continues Dave.

NRCS Supervisory District Conservationist Ann Fischer began working with the Haydens twenty years ago on various grazing systems, the first of which was a twice-over system. “When we started it was a mosaic of some farmland and some hay land, they were doing some cross fencing. We were trying to find ways that would help them increase their grass production by improving soil health.”

Dave’s head explodes with ideas.

The biggest changes came when Dave attended a holistic management seminar. Upon completion, he was eager to implement grazing systems that would improve their land. “We had a hay field we planned to break up with machinery,” Dave explains. “I came back from school and told my family, ‘I think we’re going to use livestock to improve that hay ground instead of machinery’.” The family was confused. Deanna said, “At first, we had no idea what he was talking about, but we wanted to do things different to control all the blowing dirt.” Son Chase continues, “So, we tried it on that hay field and started noticing a pretty big difference. Fields have changed a lot and no machinery is needed except for electric fence and side by sides.” “Now we’re putting biology back into the soil that we were taking out,” Dave states proudly.

The Haydens began combining herds and moving them every three to four days. “This saves time and money, uses less machinery and less fuel. We’ve been doing this for the last 10 years,” states Chase. “I don’t think we could get the kind of land we have now with machinery. The biggest challenge was water. The family began moving water with a truck but they were still limited by capacity.

Adaptive management.

In order to increase their herd size, Dave had to come up with a way to move water where we need it, which is what he has done. “He designed a 3,400 gallon portable watering system that connects via hoses to hydrants,” states NRCS’s Fischer. “The water flows from the 3,000 gallon holding tank into the 400 gallon drinking tank rather quickly which is what you need with large herds. They time the water with the cattle move so it’s almost empty before moving the portable watering system to the next pasture.”

“The water system is the most important tool we use,” states Dave. “Some pastures would be hard to utilize without it. Then there’s the electric fencing – poly wire with step-in posts; once cattle are trained to it, you can go just about any place you want. Now there is no limit to whatever grazing plan we come up with.”

With the water problem solved, Dave was eager to implement additional conservation practices. When the Baker NRCS office used local input to develop a Targeted Implementation Plan (TIP) to improve tame pasture through high density grazing, the Haydens were interested in participating. Grazing practices can have different definitions. In general, rotational grazing is the process of moving livestock through pastures to graze forage in order to meet livestock’s nutritional needs and potentially improve forage quality. High stock density grazing is more of a landscape-focused approach with the intentional application of grazing livestock in higher than normal concentrations to reach specific objectives for the system or operation as a whole – soil, plant, and livestock health and productivity.

The Haydens were the first producers in the county to apply high stock density through the Fallon County TIP. In June of 2020, they started grazing a combined herd of 290 yearlings across an old hay field, moving the cattle every hour, 12 times a day to a new 1-acre strip. “We can get a more even graze, more hoof action and we’re leaving quite a solar panel behind because they’re taking just forty percent,” states Dave. The pasture is then rested for the next year. Chase continues, “Getting litter on the ground holds moisture and with the hoof action, more grasses start growing. Under the older grazing methods, the cattle hang in the riparian areas and other areas they don’t go to as much. They end up leaving plants they don’t want to eat. With a rotation system cattle are eating more of the plants they don’t really like but they get used to it.”  The Haydens will continue this grazing system for three years, grazing one pasture for ten days.

“After the ten days, we will go back to moving every three days, 500 pair grazing 80 acres,” states Chase. “The 290 yearlings will graze about 40 acres.” The Haydens will continue 3-day rotations throughout the year. Planning to graze their north pastures 365 days a year before moving to the south pastures the next year.

“I knew we were moving cows every three or four days and that just seemed crazy to me,” states ranch hand Brooklyn Tronstad. “But looking at it now, after you’ve moved and look at the ground the cattle were just on and look at the grass that’s going to come back next year I understand why they rotate.”

Dave continues, “This high stock density grazing and the long rest afterward is what makes things work. I like to try new things and I’m liking the way it’s looking. Our stock density used to be 25 to 30 acres per cow. Now it’s 16 acres per cow and we can probably increase that.”

Commitment to improving the soil.

“We could see the damage we were doing the way we were managing it before,” states Dave. “After holistic management school, I realized we needed to get on board with some of these programs. Before there was a lot of bare ground, now with more litter we can put a shovel in the ground and see earth worms and that’s pretty exciting.”

Chase decided to plant cover crops- he looks for mixes with 7 to 10 or more different species. The Haydens have implemented additional soil health principles – soil armor, continual live plant/roots and livestock integration. Once calves are weaned, they start them on the cover crops. Calves graze this area through part of the winter, with roughly 500 calves rotating through them.

Throughout the process, NRCS helped the Haydens with educational resources, information and cost sharing for the fencing. “If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be doing this,” says Chase.

Commitment to knowledge sharing and encouraging a new generation of producers.

“Dave has always been interested in moving forward and trying to do better,” states NRCS’s Fischer. “They’ve hosted numerous tours and kitchen meetings where we’ve had people come talk about education. They have invited neighbors and have always been great about working with them and helping them out. It’s a really fun ranch to work with because they’ve always been ready to move to the next step.”

“Dave likes to teach, especially young people,” states Deanna. “It’s nice when it sticks and those young people want to try things Dave shares with them and they want to come back to the country and try some of these practices for themselves.”

Brooklyn is one of those young people the Haydens have inspired. She is not only their ranch hand; she is also their closest neighbor and one of their goddaughters. She started helping around the ranch when she was a pre-teen. “When I was about 11, a neighboring town had a program where you could buy 5 to 10 head of cattle without interest,” Brooklyn says. “Dave let me use his land to put my cows on and that started our trade-off. As long as I came over and fed his bum calves and helped out here and there, he’d let me put my 5 to 10 head on his pasture.”

Working around the ranch those years ago sparked her interest. Now twenty, Brooklyn attends Dickinson State University in Dickinson, ND studying range management and working for the Haydens during school breaks and the summer. “When I started, I didn’t really understand a whole lot of it,” she continues. “You can hear about it and read about it in books but it is nothing like being out here and seeing how everything works and getting to experience what you’re doing. Hopefully one day I will own my own place and do the same kind of things they are doing.”

The Hayden Ranch continues to move forward, implementing new practices to improve their land, sharing their knowledge, and inspiring others to join their journey. Deanna concludes, “Dave’s always been a thinker and motivator. He thinks outside the box to come up with ways to do things better or designs what we need -- things that benefit the cattle, the ground, and people.”