Walt Davis

Albany, Oklahoma | Cattleman, Author, Educator

Mr. Davis was a cattleman who operated a family ranch in the Red River valley north of Paris for many years. He came to believe that the kind of industrial agriculture that is widely taught today in land-grant colleges has been ecological damaging and financially risky. He practiced a more conservative, low-input operation that used rotational grazing, high stock densities, late calving seasons, as options to the more traditional methods of continuous grazing, chemical weed control, parasiticide use, and ammonia nitrogen fertilization. He found that both the soil microbes and the cattle have benefited, as well as his own pocketbook, from this alternative approach, and was active in spreading the word through on-site consultation, Holistic Resource Management seminars and via writing in such publications as Stockman Grass Farmer.