Choosing to Ranch Differently: Holistic Grazing and Cattle Management

This week, Shaye Wanner interviews Shane Maddock of Mattock Ranches about holistic/regenerative management, shaped by his father’s practices since 1992. Shane describes their North Dakota commercial cow-calf operation with backgrounding, yearlings, heifer development, and some row crops and small grains near Maddock. He explains rebuilding degraded soils by reducing reliance on outside inputs through frequent moves, adequate rest and full grass recovery, and adaptive grazing based on pasture conditions.

Shane shares unconventional infrastructure like permanent fencing and water tanks placed in the middle of cropland to enable winter grazing, bale grazing, and flexible feeding. After initially seeding diverse cover crops, he shifted to perennials and now plans a sod-based crop rotation with renewed cover cropping. He is composting feedlot manure and experimenting with compost tea to boost soil biology. Key challenges include labor, infrastructure setup, and profitability, and he urges ranchers to question tradition and find mentors.

Learn more about Performance Livestock Analytics here: https://bit.ly/47PxY3W

Learn more about Ambrook here: ambrook.com/casualcattle

Learn more about Elanco here: https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef

Learn more about Corteva here: RangeAndPasture.com/CattleConversations

00:47 Meet Shane Maddock

01:22 Why Regenerative Matters

02:28 Operation Overview

04:10 Growing Up Holistic

05:21 Grazing Principles Basics

06:25 Cover Crops to Perennials