For the purposes of this paper, regenerative grazing is an agricultural practice that uses soil health and adaptive livestock management principles to improve farm profitability, human and ecosystem health, and food system resiliency. Applicable in both annual and perennial forage systems, such grazing builds on ecological principles and the relationship between grasslands and ruminants (Knapp et al. 1999). It is based on long-standing Indigenous land stewardship of native prairie and savanna. Regenerative grazing typically maintains rest-rotation cycles: short periods of dense grazing followed by long forage rest periods to support vegetative recovery. Regenerative grazing is a component of regenerative agriculture (Lal 2020), which emphasizes reduction or elimination of synthetic inputs and tillage; increased diversity of plant, animal, and microbial life; and generation of sufficient revenue to build viable farm businesses and fairly compensate farm labor.

This paper provides an overview of opportunities to increase regenerative grazing in the Upper Midwest of the United States, specifically in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Agriculture in the UMRB is dominated by conventional corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) production, much of which is used for animal feed. The region’s emphasis on productivity has been hard on both soils and farms. Decades of intensive tillage and synthetic inputs have resulted in nutrient-laden sediment washing or blowing away, impairing aquatic ecosystems and threatening the livelihoods of interconnected Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico communities (Jacobson et al. 2011; Alexander et al. 2008). Declining soil health and increasing dependence on synthetic inputs are also economic threats to UMRB farms (Eswaran et al. 2001). These trends reduce the resiliency of farms to withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather.

However, movements to reverse the negative environmental and economic trends on UMRB farms, often farmer-led, have made progress over the past decades. Adoption of conservation paradigms such as no-till and cover cropping and organic certification have helped many producers advance toward regenerative practices. These shifts—toward lower impact, diversified production—have created opportunities for reintegrating livestock grazing as a viable tool for farms while building soil health and its accompanying environmental and societal benefits. This paper presents a shared context of such efforts and offers recommendations on expanding regenerative grazing in the Upper Midwest.