Montana Ranching Family Connects Regenerative Agriculture from Pasture to Plate
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Article Content:
For nearly 150 years, the Mannix family has ranched in Montana's Blackfoot Valley. Today, multiple generations still help manage the operation, but the family's focus extends beyond raising cattle.
By Evan Charney, MTN News
The Ranch and Its Philosophy
"It's a reflection of a culture of care in this place, and I want to serve that," said Cole Mannix, co-founder and CEO of Old Salt Co-op.
Mannix describes regenerative ranching as a long-term commitment to understanding the land and adapting livestock management to fit each landscape's unique needs.
"Instead of depleting the resource over time in order to produce, it's sustaining or even enhancing that resource over time as it produces," Mannix said. "In order to do that, you have to learn how the land worked before you got there, and learn to be a partner with it, to work with nature instead of against it."
A Long-Term Commitment
That process doesn't happen overnight.
"For that to happen, it takes time. We're relative newcomers to this landscape," Mannix said.
According to Mannix, successful regenerative grazing requires constantly adjusting management practices to conditions on the ground.
Battling Invasive Species
One of the most visible examples of that philosophy can be found in the family's effort to control spotted knapweed, an invasive plant that had been spreading across thousands of acres of native rangeland since the late 20th century. By the early 2000s, the plant had become a serious concern for both livestock production and overall ecosystem health. Spotted knapweed was increasingly outcompeting native vegetation, threatening wildlife habitat, water retention, and the land's long-term productivity.