Name
Steven Rapp
Operation
–
Location
Chillicothe, Texas
Carbon Sequestration Practices
Fertilization & Adding Biodiversity/Seeding
Steve Rapp grew up in Northern Texas on the Oklahoma border. His family recently celebrated a big milestone: 100 years of a family member running their family farm that his grandfather bought in 1922. Back then they used mules to plow the cotton fields. We “plowed the land to death and watched the sand blow” Steve says.
Steve attended Texas A&M and earned a masters in meat science and a doctorate of veterinary medicine. His vet background helps him manage his cattle today. For nearly 50 years he was a mixed animal practitioner where he worked on all species or “any animals that fit through the door.” That was until he sold his practice to dedicate his full time to the family ranch.
When Steve was going through the process of joining the Agoro Carbon program he naturally had a lot of questions about the capturing of carbon and carbon credits; he was well armed with a lot of research. After a 3+ hour meeting with grower success agronomist, Shawntel Ervin, talking about the carbon market, our ranch carbon program, level of involvement, what can we do, and what we do not do, Steve knew how he wanted to proceed. He has been enrolled with the Agoro Carbon program since late 2021 and has implemented a number of pasture management practices that will sequester carbon.
I read and read and read everything I could, thinking this could be another source of revenue, and so I pretty much did a lot of homework. But I certainly had lots of questions about what the carbon alliance companies were going to require of us and how."
When Steve first took over the family land, he partially transitioned to no till, added cattle, and sowed native grasses. He began taking steps toward more of a conservation style of management. With that mind set and desire the new revenue stream or “financial transfusion” that our carbon program offers gave him the momentum to try tactics like cross fencing and experimenting with new ideas. Last year Steve rotated his cows every three weeks over spring and summer. This immensely helps with the drought risk in Texas. One of the beauties of rotational grazing is that it can mean a lot of different things. And most relevant to Texas operation, it can decrease risk during a drought by allowing the grass to recover before you put more cattle on the land which Steve is a big advocate for.
Hear from Steve directly on this Ag Carbon Podcast episode.
