Will Harris Makes a Strong Case for Regenerative Ranching – and We’re On Board

Will Harris doesn’t just talk the talk — he wrangles it, grazes it, and regenerates the soil beneath its hooves. A fourth-generation cattleman, Will tends the same land in Bluffton, Georgia, where his great-grandfather settled in 1866. But while his roots and farming legacy run deep, his approach to ranching has taken some unexpected turns since he took over the White Oak Pastures property. Over the years, he has made a radical shift from industrial farming to regenerative ranching.

Today, Will is a global leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability, recently authoring a book called A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food. We sat down with Will to learn more about his take on cattle, crops, and the cowboy lifestyle.

First, can you explain a little bit about regenerative ranching?

When my dad’s generation (post-World War II) industrialized, commoditized, and centralized food production and agriculture, they changed a lot of things. 

They moved it away from being a system that is in accordance with the cycles of nature. You know, the cycles of nature are the energy cycle from the sun, the water cycle from rain, the carbon cycle, the microbial cycle, the grazing cycle, and no telling how many cycles we don’t even recognize now. 

When food is produced in accordance with the cycles of nature, it’s in abundance. All that coal, oil, and natural gas in the ground that we’ve been living on for the last 100 years is the abundance of nature from the era of the dinosaurs when the cycles of nature were operating optimally.

Post-World War II, when we industrialized, commoditized, and centralized, we broke those cycles of nature. We are governed to raise mono-crops — nothing but corn in the cornfield, cotton in the cotton field, and soybeans in the soybean field. And when we did that, we gave up all symbiosis — all the one plus one equals three that we had going for us before we embraced that very non-regenerative model.

What is the story of White Oak Pastures?

I’m the fourth generation on this same piece of land. My great-grandfather came here in 1866 and worked the land, followed by his son (my granddad), followed by his son (my dad), followed by me. I have two adult daughters and their spouses who are working on the farm. And I’ve got seven grandchildren that haven’t done a darn thing yet because they’re babies.

What motivated you to shift from industrial farming methods to regenerative agriculture?

When my dad took over the farm, he industrialized. So, I grew up with that — I was born in 1954. And I loved it. I never wanted to do anything except be an industrial cattle farmer like my dad. My dad was very good at it. He was very successful. 

I went to the University of Georgia and majored in animal science; it ceased to be animal husbandry and became animal science. I graduated, came home and ran the farm very industrially for about 20 years. Then, I became disillusioned with it and started changing to the model we have today.

Can you tell us a little bit about the property and the livestock that you have?

The farm is about 5,000 acres. I raise cows, hogs, sheep, goats, rabbits, and poultry. We have a small organic vegetable operation and a small honey operation. And we’re vertically integrated — we have a USDA-inspected red meat slaughterhouse and a USDA-inspected poultry slaughterhouse. There’s a store, a restaurant, and an online business. We have about 170 employees.

How have your practices changed over the years?

When I was purely a cattleman, I went to my pastures every day looking for something to kill — I was looking for a plant or microbe or animal that I felt was disruptive to my monoculture of cattle and Bermuda grass, and I used a pesticide to kill it. Now, when I go to my pasture, it’s all about keeping things alive — keeping all the cycles of nature operating optimally.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It has changed a lot over the years. I used to make every decision that was made on the farm, and when we grew the farm, I couldn’t do that anymore. I had a very difficult transition time, finding my way and hiring management. But eventually, I got past it.

I’m on the property every day, seven days a week. I spend about a third of my time in the field. In the past, I was making decisions and gathering data to make decisions. I spend about a third of my time in the office, and about a third of my time with people who come here — other farmers who visit, academics, business people, whoever.

I work a lot of hours, but I love my job. I love what I do. I don’t feel like I work at all, but I manage a lot of hours per week.

What do you think people would be most surprised to learn about being a regenerative rancher?

People would be most surprised to learn about the financial side of it. We’ve been doing it a long time, and we’re pretty good at it. But despite that, it does not make a lot of money. It’s profitable, but a professional CEO would be horribly disappointed with the return on investment. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s very different from a stock company or other industries.

It’s passion-driven, but other careers can be passion-driven, too. The difference is that the assets I have here are land and livestock, and they are non-depreciating assets.

What aspects of regenerative ranching bring you the most joy?

The good that it’s done for my family. I have three daughters, and two of them and their spouses came back. None of my children would have come back if I was still operating industrially. I’m the fourth generation of my family to run the farm, but the fifth generation would not have come back. They would not have had an interest in it. 

Another is the improvement we made in the land. We can talk about that all day, but to put a fine cap on it, our land has gone from 1% organic matter to 5.5% organic matter. Organic matter is not all that matters, but it’s important. It is a way of quantifying the improvements we made to the land, and it continues to improve.

The third one would be its impact on the community. Bluffton, Georgia, is a community that happens to be right in the middle of my farm. It’s an incorporated city formed in 1815, and it had declined to the point that it was literally a ghost town. The only thing you could buy in Bluffton was a stamp. The post office was on a half day, five days a week. 

Today, Bluffton is a delightful place to live or visit. There are nice people, and everybody who comes here has good things to say about the town. I’m proud of that.

What role do different livestock species play in the regenerative system, and how do they benefit each other?

That’s a great question with a long answer. I used to run it with only cattle. I thought that was what you were supposed to do. That’s what my dad did. That’s what the University of Georgia said to do, and on and on. 

When I gave up the tools — the chemical fertilizer, the pesticides, the hormone implants, the synthetic antibiotics — it started falling apart. I don’t believe you can come up with an ecosystem anywhere in nature that’s just one species of animal and one species of plant. 

All ecosystems are many species of plants, animals, and microbes in symbiotic relationships with each other. So, I had to add sheep and goats and poultry and do a lot of things different to regain the symbiosis so the system could again spin-off in abundance.

How do you ensure that the livestock can express their natural behaviors? 

Cattle are meant to roam and graze. When I had a feedlot, I shut them up in a very tight, confined area, and they couldn’t roam and graze. So, we opened the farm up to give them more land, and we control where they are. This farm is divided up into 150-something paddocks, and we move them every day. So, it’s about 60 days before they get back to where they were, and the grass is growing back. 

The same is true with the hogs. Hogs are meant to root and wallow, but when you put them on concrete, they can’t do that. And chickens are meant to scratch and pick. When you put them in a tight little chicken house or cages, they can’t do that. 

A child is meant to get out and move around. If you were to shut them in a closet, even if it’s a nice closet — 72 degrees with a cot and the lights on — they wouldn’t be able to express their instinctive behavior.

Visit the White Oak Pastures website to learn more about regenerative ranching as well as shop, plan a visit and more.