Workshop Wrap: Regenerating Land With Grazing Livestock with Dr Judi Earl- 2026 Update
Grazing livestock are the most powerful tool we have available to regenerate land. The way grazing animals are moved across the landscape influences soil health, pasture species diversity, plant growth and production. Different species graze differently and livestock have different nutritional requirements throughout the year. Planned grazing is an approach that allows you to build soil health optimise pasture health and production while accounting for these changing needs of livestock.
This post is a presentation summary (guides inlcuded) of a recent workshop held by the Lower Blackwood LCDC in which presenter and Holistic Grazing expert Dr Judi Earl describes the range of approaches to grazing management and the impact of the different strategies on pasture dynamics, growth and production. This post has replaced a 2023 post on the same topic.
Key Takeaways:
- Well-managed grazing livestock can regenerate land rather than degrade it.
- Plan grazing around pasture recovery, not fixed calendar rotations.
- Use higher stock density for shorter grazing periods where appropriate.
- Increase the number of paddocks per mob to improve grazing control.
- Maintain adequate residual pasture to protect plant health and soil.
- Measure pasture regularly and use feed budgets to match stocking rates with carrying capacity.
- Increase pasture diversity to improve resilience, productivity and ecosystem function.
- Follow the guiding principle: “Grow more – Leave more – Use more.
For more on this topic go to our content hub: Managing Grazing
This event formed part of the Lower Blackwood LCDC’s Regenerative Agriculture in Practice Program (RAPP) 2026. RAPP is supported through funding from the Shire of Augusta Margaret River’s Environmental Management Fund. This event also forms part of a collaborative project with RegenWA called ‘Make Your Hectare Count’, which is supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program. Additional support has been provided through RegenWA’s Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture Adoption Project, and the WA Landcare Network, which is funded by State NRM, Lotterywest and the National Landcare Network.
