Note: This article is adapted from our previously published Sustainability Report. Content has been edited and reformatted for a blog audience, with minor updates for clarity and readability where appropriate. Customer-provided photos, used with permission.
A combination of cutting-edge technology and centuries-old growing practices puts Daniel Mushrush at the forefront of a ranching revolution. His story also shows that collaborating with the right partners can scale innovation for a more resilient future.
Key takeaways
GPS-enabled virtual fencing is helping Mushrush Ranches dramatically improve grazing efficiency and productivity.
Sustainability investments on the ranch are driven by practical business needs, from improving forage production to lowering long-term input costs.
Strategic partnerships with conservation and government organizations have helped Daniel Mushrush adopt innovative practices that benefit both the operation and the environment.
For Mushrush, sustainability is about long-term resilience—building healthier soil, stronger finances, and a more viable ranch for future generations.
High-tech ranching
No matter where in the world Daniel Mushrush finds himself, he is just a click away from his ranch in Chase City, Kansas. A smartphone app allows him to locate his cows and adjust their pasture access to an area as small as two acres.
The combination of virtual fencing and solar-powered collars has the potential to be one of his most profitable ranch investments.
“If you just let cattle free-graze a pasture, you probably have about a 15% harvest efficiency,” he says. “If you add a hot fence and control where they go, you might hit 45%. With collars and really intensive grazing, I figure we’re around 75% harvest efficiency.”
"It’s like that piece of ground gets bigger—we essentially expand our acres.
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In 2022, Mushrush and his family joined a five-year pilot project with The Nature Conservancy focused on virtual fencing and grazing. As part of the project, cattle wear geofencing collars that keep them out of breeding and nesting areas during the critical seasons for the lesser prairie chicken, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The project appealed to Mushrush because it would help protect the unique wildlife on his farm and allow him to be an early adopter of the technology. He can now move cattle two to three times a day without having to drive across the operation’s 15,000 rented and owned acres that hold around 3,000 head of cattle.
“Part of sustainability is not just completely burning out all the human capital, meaning you and your family,” he says.
"We get a lot of hours back by controlling our cows with a phone, then going to that middle school basketball game or Thanksgiving dinner. It gives you some of your life back, and you’re doing a better job.
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A new frontier for ranching
When Daniel Mushrush was a college student at Kansas State University in the early 2000s, he was jealous of his crop farmer friends. They were diving into variable rate planting, GPS-driven tractors, and more. “But we were basically still doing everything that was done 100 years ago on the ranch,” he says. Now, Mushrush says, virtual fencing and grazing collars are revolutionizing cattle ranching. “Virtual fence is as big as the internal combustion engine and barbed wire in terms of quantum leaps for the cattle business. It’s going to be that big of a change and a lot of fun for us ranchers.”
Solving the feed puzzle
For Mushrush, adopting new management strategies typically begins by addressing a problem on the ranch. For example, they needed more winter feed for their registered Red Angus herd.
Because Mushrush Ranches is 95% virgin prairie, the family understands diverse perennial mixes, how to control weeds with fire rather than chemicals, and the benefits of rotational grazing on plant health and soil quality. To create more of this high-quality pasture, they converted their river-bottom crop acres to perennial grassland.
“That made everybody’s heads explode,” Mushrush says. “But you can’t worry about your neighbors. You have to know what the holes are on your operation, and our hole was cool-season grazing.”
Mushrush knows when it comes to crop ground, “the pencil says I should never, as a rancher in Chase County, Kansas, buy a native piece of ground again for cattle grazing,” he says. “I should only buy crop ground. It’s twice as expensive, but it’s five times as productive.”
"The Flint Hills are an expensive place to have a cow. We wanted to transition from all this grain production for feed to the cattle feeding themselves on a piece of ground with grass.
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Win-win partnerships
To achieve their sustainability goals for the ranch, Daniel Mushrush works with many partners. These range from federal agencies, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to environmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy. These partnerships have provided funding as well as access to the latest science and strategies for production practices.
When considering partnership opportunities, Mushrush looks for common ground. “If there’s a special interest—whether it’s a prairie chicken or a grassland conversion issue—you want to become part of the solution,” he says. “That’s an important narrative we need to take as an industry.”
Always know your goals and look for mutual benefit and alignment. Once you find the right partner, Mushrush says it becomes simple.
“It’s just honest communication,” he says. “Be a good neighbor and do what you say you’re going to do.”
Carbon credit market
Regenerative ranching practices have been part of Mushrush’s operation for nearly a decade. Yet, he never seriously considered entering the carbon credit market until his management platform, PastureMap, merged with Grassroots Carbon, a grasslands soil carbon company.
Since he was already implementing several regenerative measures and documenting them, why not get paid for it? Mushrush entered a Grassroots Carbon contract, which he says hasn’t changed how he operates the ranch. It could limit some management decisions in the future, but he says the returns make it worthwhile.
“We’re selling carbon, and it’s pretty lucrative,” he says. “I know some people like to put on their red hat and call that a scam. But the market doesn’t ask any of us our opinions. It’s what you do with the market that you’re presented.”
The long view
As a fifth-generation rancher, Mushrush is reflective about the past and excited about the future. “I very much see myself as just a placeholder in a set amount of time on this ranch,” he says.
Mushrush views sustainability practices as a savings account. For example, he says, increasing the organic matter in your soil increases drought resilience. Increasing dry matter production in your pasture lowers your input costs. Similarly, converting crop ground to perennial pasture lets you offload your large machinery and reduces your depreciation.
“Those are all financial gains, and they may be hard to see,” he says, “But they provide a buffer. Sustainability is that long-term viability.”
