Winter calving left an indelible mark on a young Russ
Sundstrom. He would wake to calves warming in the
bathtub. He arrived home from school to calves in
the kitchen.
“Calving was rough. I don’t know if it was a hate or a
dislike, but that was part of my search for sustainability, of
making things easier,” Sundstrom said. “I just felt that we
were working against things instead of with the weather
and nature.”
Sundstrom operates Broken Box Ranch in the Loess
Canyons of western Nebraska, where wildlife is abundant,
the land highly erodible and invasive cedars a constant foe.
Sundstrom, a 2019 Leopold Award winner, has built
a career centered on restorative ranching practices,
including intensive rotational and mob grazing. He also
works with conservation groups and government agencies
to support wildlife, protect water and increase plant
diversity on his land.
“Some of the different types of stuff we’ve been involved
in, we might be the first one, even to the point where they
are still writing the script, per se,” Sundstrom said. “Even if
something doesn’t work, the information gained from it is
very valuable.”
Developing a Network of Mentors
Sundstrom is always seeking information. His father
understood the importance of eliminating cedars in their
area, and, while still in high school, Sundstrom started
a tree-removal service that he still operates with his
younger brother. Each time the brothers stepped onto
an operation, they took note of what was working, asked
a lot of questions and, over time, developed a network
of mentors.
“I had someone tell me a lot of years ago that instead
of trying to negatively critique someone’s operation, try
to pick the positives or the best things they are doing,”
Sundstrom said. “A lot of our thoughts and ideas are things
we watched other people do, then just tweaked to fit
our operation.”
The tree-clearing business has provided the Sundstroms
a unique view into the impact of their work. Many clients
clear ground over multiple years, allowing the brothers to
observe change over time.
“We could see their stocking rates change from where
we left off the year before, or a division fence go in,”
Sundstrom said. “I’d get to look at what I did five, four
and three years ago and see the process change. That is
very rewarding.”
On his own ranch, Sundstrom uses wildlife as one
measurement of progress. “Wildlife will tell you how you’re
doing. We have watched as our rotational grazing went to
mob grazing. The wildlife is ahead for a while, then they
graze behind our livestock because that’s where the best
grazing is.
“I like seeing that we’re creating an environment where
the wildlife not only survive but also thrive. I feel if you’re
managing for sustainability, it should all go hand in hand.”
Embracing Prescribed Burns
This includes embracing fire for land management. About
20 years ago, in the midst of drought, a wildfire broke out
in the area. Afterward, as he rebuilt fences, he watched the
return of wildlife and, a year later, the grasses.
“It might have set things back a little bit in the short
term,” Sundstrom said, “but in the intermediate and long
term, I witnessed a lot of benefits and stored those in
my memory.”
Today, Sundstrom considers prescribed burns instrumental
to the sustainability of his ranch. Like anything, he said,
prescribed burns can be overdone. But if practiced and
timed correctly, they eliminate cedars, fertilize the ground
and support the growth of certain grasses.
Almost every acre of his ranch has been treated with
prescribed burns. The result is a holistic approach to
grazing and fencing. The family adopted rotational grazing
in the mid-2000s, more intense rotational grazing around
2010 and mob grazing about six years later. Sundstrom
has reviewed records spanning 20 years, going back to
the late 1990s, to calculate the impact of his crossfencing
practices.
“We figured that we increased our stocking rate by
approximately 40% from where we started. That is huge.”
But in multiple years, he noted, the area enjoyed aboveaverage
rainfall. (“If it’s raining, whatever you do with
livestock, you look like a genius.”) Accounting for the
inherent benefit of rain, he said, that number likely is
inflated. “Take that 40% and maybe scale that down to 25%
if we hadn’t had the rain.”
Measuring Impact
Sundstrom relies on his record keeping for business
decisions. It also has been instrumental to his
collaborations. Sundstrom estimates he has worked with
25 to 30 different government agencies and outside
organizations. One of those relationships, with the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, led to tours of
his ranch.
“On these tours, I feel like I need to point out that it’s
not me educating them,” Sundstom said. “A lot of times,
it’s them educating me. Once we started opening up to
questions or maybe even some criticism, that’s when we
started to grow the most. You have to have your facts
together and know what you are doing and its impact. It’s
been quite a journey.”
At the end of a given year, Sundstrom looks at standard
measurement to assess how he performed – costs,
livestock sales, the amount of livestock he ran. Just as
important, he said, is what he observes around him.
“It’s also as I drive out across a piece of property and see
gophers going crazy, the water infiltration rate improving
and the health of the grass. You just have to see and feel it.
When the gophers are pushing up and the cow trails are
grassing over, you know healing is taking place.”
