PHILOMATH, Ore. — A small herd of cattle grazed lazily on a bright and sunny November afternoon in the tall grass at Dan Barnhart’s ranch along the Luckiamute River.

It is a scene evoking the environmental ethos of Country Natural Beef, a rancher-owned cooperative that prides itself on sustainable practices and animal welfare.

The co-op is now working to reinforce that ideology with science. Earlier this year, members began collecting baseline data about their operations for a new program, called Grazewell, that will measure the overall health of the land and suggest methods for improvement.

Grazewell is supported by a five-year, $10 million USDA grant in partnership with Sustainable Northwest, a Portland-based nonprofit focused on natural resource stewardship. Advocates say the program will be the largest climate-smart ranching initiative in the U.S., sequestering up to 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over 6.5 million acres managed by Country Natural Beef in 11 states across the West.

That’s equivalent to removing 1.3 billon cars from the road for one year.

“We know ranchers can be part of the climate solution while also supporting clean water and wildlife habitat,” said Dan Probert, marketing director for Country Natural Beef. “We’ve seen it, and we’ve done it. Now we’re going to measure it, track it and prove it.”

The first step, Probert said, is to gather baseline data from each individual ranch, with help from Sustainable Northwest.

Dallas Hall Defrees, regenerative ranching program director for the nonprofit, said that work involves assessing bare ground, composition of grasses, soil organic matter and water infiltration, among other metrics for healthy ecosystems.

Once the initial data is in hand, Defrees said they can then prescribe specific management practices for ranches to improve — things like rotating cows to avoid overgrazing pastures, and adding cover crops to avoid erosion and water runoff.

After five years, Defrees said they will revisit each ranch to quantify the benefits.

“I think a lot of times, ranchers are focused on the task at hand,” she said. “So, I think it’s really beneficial to look at the science over a five-year period to see, was this thing I was doing working? Was it working as well as I was hoping?”

About 40 ranches will be enrolled in Grazewell each year, starting with members of Country Natural Beef and several tribe-owned ranches. The USDA grant also covers educational programs, training and peer-to-peer working groups for producers.

For Barnhart, he said his ranch will likely be enrolled in 2023. He raises about 60 yearling cows each year for Country Natural Beef.

Barnhart already practices rotational grazing, dividing his pasture into smaller paddocks where cows graze for a few days before they are moved. This allows forage in grazed paddocks time to regrow, increasing the land’s productivity.

“The soil here is the basis of what my farm will produce,” Barnhart said. “The better care I can take of the soils, the better production I have.”

From a consumer perspective, Grazewell will allow the co-op to show how ranchers are taking care of their land, Probert said.

“All of us as ranchers are going to have to be able to tell the story of the good things we’re doing on the ground,” Probert said. “Grazewell will be just one more attribute that will set us apart from everyone else, and that gives us leverage in the meat case.”