SHARESTOCK

Across many of the world's communal rangelands, livestock ownership and land management are fundamentally at odds. While land is shared, livestock is typically owned and managed individually, creating competition for grazing, encouraging overstocking and making it difficult to manage land as a connected ecological system. The challenge is to find a way of aligning individual livelihoods with the collective interests of the land and the communities who depend on it.

Over the past several years, True Range has been working alongside a group of collaborators to develop a different approach: one that brings livestock ownership, grazing management and economic opportunity together within a single, member-owned enterprise. The resulting ShareStock model is built on a simple principle: where land is held in common, herds should be managed collectively too. By bringing families together around one shared herd and one agreed grazing plan, ShareStock aims to turn livestock from a source of competition into an engine for land regeneration, shared prosperity and long-term community wealth.

How it works

The ShareStock model forms community-owned cooperative herds. Families pool their cattle into one herd that they own together. Herders from member families run it under a single grazing plan, and every member shares equitably in what the herd produces.

Why it matters

We believe that where land is owned communally, livestock ownership has to be collectivised and management centralised. Without that, good ecological, social and economic outcomes can’t be achieved.

Holistic decision-making, ultra-high-density grazing, planned recovery periods, adaptive stocking rates as well as planning for wildlife and tourism can only be fully realised when every animal on the land works under one central plan that everyone has bought into. When individuals graze their own stock on shared land, each herd chases the last blade of grass before someone else gets it. That race drives overgrazing, conflict, desertification and land degradation.

When animals are grouped under one enterprise that the members own, everyone gets equitable access to the grass and water that the herd itself creates and regenerates. Better grazing only becomes possible when there is one agreed plan.

What changes when the herd is shared

Adaptive stocking makes sense. Cattle are kept in good condition with grass in front of them, so calving rates rise. Higher calving means regular offtake is possible, and destocking becomes logical and wanted rather than resisted.
Everyone benefits equitably. When the herd sells cattle, every member gains in proportion to their shares. When the herd grows, the same applies. No one is overstocking or overgrazing in competition with a neighbour.
Risk is shared. The membership carries predation, stock theft, disease and the low calving rates of drought together, so no family faces these risks alone.

The herd becomes the tool for shared prosperity and wealth creation. Today, competing herds and owners bring degradation with them.

How we form a ShareStock herd

Engage the community. We spend time with families, clan leaders and the landowner or conservancy to explain the model and build agreement on one plan for the land.
One cow in, one share out. Families loan breeding cattle to the common herd, and each cow loaned earns one share in the enterprise. The family still owns that cow as individuals, and an agreed exit mechanism lets members leave the herd if they choose.
Create a member-owned entity. The herd is held in a legal structure owned only by its members: a SACCO, a livestock marketing cooperative or a company. True Range holds no equity.
Agree the grazing plan. Members, the landowner and True Range agree on one holistic grazing plan covering where the herd moves, recovery periods, stocking rates and wildlife needs.
Manage as one herd. The cooperative or company employs its own herders and supervisors to run the herd. They always come from member families, are hired on merit and paid properly, and True Range trains them to become professional herders. True Range makes the strategic management decisions, using planned ultra-high-density grazing to regenerate the land the herd depends on.
Share the returns. Calves born into the herd belong to the cooperative or company, not to individual members. Members benefit through their shares, so the profits from sales and the growth of the herd are shared equitably according to shareholding.

Built to outgrow us

ShareStock is a model, not a True Range product. Each herd belongs to its members, and True Range is contracted to manage it. True Range holds no equity, so the cooperative or company is free to change how it is managed as it matures.

Our aim is to build herds that can stand on their own. We train herders and supervisors from member families to a professional standard, and we develop the governance and planning skills that members need to run their enterprise. A herd may eventually take over its own strategic management or appoint another manager. In either case the herd, the plan and the benefits stay with the members.

We also want the model to spread beyond the herds we manage. Other managers, communities and organisations are welcome to form ShareStock herds on the same principles: one herd, one plan, member ownership and equitable sharing of the herd’s returns. Wherever land is communally owned, the idea should be able to scale without us.