Over billions of years, Earth has build soil ecosystems. Historically, grazing animals have been key to the development and maintenance of these soil ecosystems. Grazing and browsing animals moving together as a large herd eating, trampling and defecating have fed the soil ecosystem and have produced soils to an incredible age and depth. However, many of these grazers such as the Tarpan and the Aurochs are no longer with us, in there place we have domestic animals such as cows and sheep.
Cows, when used to graze and browse in a way that mimics the historical grazers, are equally as beneficial to soil ecosystems, rebuilding depleted soils, feeding the soil biology and producing a health ecosystem which many species thrive on.
Cows have been blamed extensively in recent years for their impact on the environment and the emission of methane. While cows do emit methane, this is cyclic and breaks down in the atmosphere in around 12 years, however, in an ecosystem cows have immeasurable benefits, which outweigh the temporary emission of the methane.
This is where the problem stems from, it’s not the cow, it’s how the cow is kept.
Northern Native 