Straight from La Junquera farm, in Murcia, Spain, a Walking the Land episode with Alfonso Chico de Guzmán, a regenerative livestock farmer. This is a story about the reintroduction of animals as a tool, with all the animal welfare worked out, on a farm that has been transitioning to perennials, transitioning away from annual crops, and seems to have found the puzzle pieces to actually make it thrive. And now the question is: how to get more cows? How to get sturdier cows? How to get stronger cows that can survive outside and thrive outside? And that is surprisingly difficult. Getting cows from too far away almost guarantees that they won’t adapt quickly and won’t thrive.

And yes, there’s work to do. Are the numbers large enough to see the impact on the land? Not yet. Can we see that the land is not suffering with the animals on top? Absolutely. What is the maximum carrying capacity? Nobody knows. They’re grazing in a landscape where cows have disappeared or they’re inside in factory farms and where sheep are disappearing. How are you going to manage these landscapes at scale? How are you going to support against fires and really impact the landscape?

Beyond cows, this is a blueprint for dryland regeneration. Ponds slow stormwater, aromatics stabilize slopes, and planned grasslands increase infiltration and biodiversity. We talk nutrient density, flavor, and how management changes meat quality; we talk permits, grazing rights, and the talent it takes to ride 70 kilometers in two days. Most of all, Alfonso make the case for patient capital and watershed thinking: if funding timelines matched ecological timelines, more farms could switch from extractive annuals to living systems that pay their way.